tvbe november 2011 digital issue

To learn more, please visit www.broadcast.harris.com/Selenio.

Global Award Winner

By David FoxArri has delivered production prototypes of its modular Alexa M camera to theCameron–Pace Group. The compact Mwas developed with CPG for use in a newsmaller 3D rig that minimises cabling andoffers an optimised, streamlined 3D system.

“The Arri team has been amazinglyresponsive to the needs of the 3D marketby creating the Alexa M,” said CPGCo-Chairman, James Cameron at the recentIBC. CPG will be the exclusive distributorof the Alexa M in its Phase 1 rollout.

“The success of 3D will be based ondesigning technology that supports thecreative process of the filmmaker; we areexcited about the Alexa M towards thatgoal. The team at Arri has brought to the industry a great step forward towardquality 3D,” added co-chairman and CEO,Vince Pace.

The front-end of the Alexa M transmitsuncompressed raw sensor data at around18Gbps to a back-end image processor/recorder using a hybrid fibre-optic cablethat can also power the head. Weighingwell under 3kg, the Alexa M head has multiple mounting points and will also beuseful for Steadicam or remote use.

The camera body provides the sameimage processing and recording options asthe standard Alexa: images, sound andmetadata can be recorded onto SxS Procards or external recorders, includinguncompressed Arriraw.

The fibre means the head can be up to1km from the body, which “allows forsome unique and extremely innovative 3Dcamera applications. We hope CPG willtake full advantage of them in the monthsahead,” said Franz Kraus, managing direc-tor of Arri Munich.

The feedback Arri receives from CPGwill help develop the final production ver-sion expected early 2012. Arri will alsointegrate elements of CPG’s 3D rig auto -mation technology into the Alexa M.

There is also a new flagship AlexaStudio camera, which has a quiet,adjustable mirror shutter and opticalviewfinder. It also has a 4:3 sensor, makingit the only digital camera (besides theArriflex D-21) to boast true anamorphiccapability. Many cinematographers preferthe anamorphic look, which cannot be created in post.

Arri also has a new High Speed modeallowing Alexa and Alexa Plus cameras torun from 60 to 120fps, using newlyreleased Sony 64GB SxS Pro cards, whichare about four times faster than current32GB cards.

The 120fps feature is part of the newAlexa Software Update Packet 5.0, and hasto be separately licensed. Licenses can be dis-

As this Baltic state gears up for high definition television broadcast transmission, Philip Stevens talks to a broadcaster and thewinner of a competitive tender for new cameras

Set up in 1995, LNK TV — Laisvas irNepriklausomas Kanalas (‘Free and Inde -pendent Channel’) — is one of the majorbroadcasters in Lithuania. Operating fromstudios in the capital, Vilnius, the companyruns four channels — LNK, TV1, LIUX!,and Info TV. Since 2006, the broadcaster hascovered 95% of the country using DVB-T,with the LNK channel also available as ananalogue transmission for 93% of the popu-lation. Cable is also used for all four channels.

“Our main channel, LNK, focuses on trans-mitting in-house and locally produced produc-tions,” explains Ricardas Kazlauskas, technicaldirector and a board member of the broadcaster.“LNK has three studios — news, a small pro-duction facility and a main production studio.”

Over the past several years, the companyhas carried out a number of major refur-bishment projects. The first involved theinstallation of a new playout and produc-tion system for all the channels. “This wasbased on Grass Valley products such asMaestro, K2 Classic, Concerto, Jupiter,LDK400 cameras, Kayak 2.5 and 1.5 MESD/HD vision mixers. We also installed

Continued on page 11

TVBEUROPEEurope’s television technology business magazine www.tvbeurope.com £5.00/€8.00/$10.00

Inside: IBC2011 Wrap-Up, MAM Focus, AP High-Def Rollout

This issue we’re very pleased to bring you an in-depth and we believe comprehensive wrap-upof key trends and themes from IBC2011. Whatwere the lessons we can learn from the IBCexperience, and what pointers for the future?IBC analysis is provided by our writing team ofChris Forrester, David Fox, Carolyn Giardina,Dick Hobbs, George Jarrett, David Kirk andAdrian Pennington. Our 28-page IBC Wrap-Upsection begins on page 14. — Fergal Ringrose

IBC Wrap-Up

HD Build-Out

Broadcast 3D TV

LNK Gallery: The gallery serving LNK’s refurbished news studio

Head and body in concert: Arri’s Alexa M on a Cameron–Pace Group S3D rig

Lithuania gears up forhigh def transmissions

First Alexa M for CPG

NOVEMBER 2011


LNK’s new LDK 3000 cameras have been installed in the refurbished news studio. Here they are in use with presenter Lina Kairyte

TVBE_Nov P1, 11, 12 news_TVBE_Aug_P_news 09/11/2011 10:57

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By Adrian PenningtonFrancis Tellier, the CEO ofHBS, has urged patience fromthose calling for football matcheslike those at the World Cup to be simultaneously producedin 2D and 3D. “This is notHollywood, this is a live sportsproduction,” he stated. “Therewill be progress in 2014, but wehave to be patient.”

Although FIFA won’t green-light a 3D production of the 2014World Cup until next year, it isunlikely to roll back the break-through it made in 2010. Cost,however, remains a considerableconcern; and if it goes ahead,“3D in 2014 will be a grandexperiment,” said Tellier.

While 25 matches were coveredin 3D in 2010, the production wasentirely separate to that of themain 2D host feed, althoughboth were provided by HBS.

Using that model to shoot all64 matches in a country the size

of Brazil would require eitherdedicated roving outside broad-cast trucks or a dedicated 3D unit at each of the 12 stadia. The former is risky in the extreme andboth are financially impracticalunless FIFA media rights holdersand their distributors are pre-pared to pay.

The Cameron–Pace Group(among others) are lobbyingHBS to use its technology in2014 and arguing that it canbring the cost down by mirror-ing the 2D cameras and havingessentially one production.

Tellier has a track record ofconsistent innovation and is certainly not resistant to change,but feels 2014 is too soon tomake that leap. “The produc-tions of 2D and 3D will becomeever more closely integrated oversuccessive tournaments in 2014,2018 and 2022,” he said.

“If we had two separate pro-ductions in 2010 then maybe we

are 1.8 productions in 2014 and1.5 in 2018. The costs certainlyhave to come down, but maybe itwill never be 100% integrated.”

He points to one of the keymoments in his career: his deci-sion in 2003 to produce a singlehigh definition and standard definition production for the 2006World Cup in Germany.

“We are at a similar junctionnow. I had been pushing the idea of a single standard def -inition and high definition since 1998, but running upagainst a brick wall. People saidthat editorially the 4x3 and 16x9 aspect ratios were too dif-ferent. Maybe they had a point— but from where we stand now it doesn’t matter. My argu-ment was also that you cannotfinance a double production forever. So certainly the produc-tions will become closer andcloser,” he said.www.hbs.tv

www.tvbeurope.com NOVEMBER 201 1 3

News & AnalysisLithuania gears upfor high definitionPhilip Stevens talks to LNKTV about the channel’srefurbished news studio andthe winner of a competitivetender for new cameras

IBC2011 Wrap-UpThe business ofbroadcastingAn analysis of key IBCacquisition, display, studioand archiving highlights by David KirkIBC and the digital rippleGeorge Jarrett reports on newsfrom the world of standardsand workflows at IBCIBC flesh forproduction workflowsAdrian Pennington reflectson the latest developmentsin high-end acquisition,cinematography and 3D productionPost tackles need for more contentFile-based workflows andcloud computing were hottopics at IBC2011. CarolynGiardina examines trends andinnovations in the post sectorPanasonic route to 4K and 1080pPanasonic unveiled new 3Dcameras, a switcher, new LCDmonitors and announced itsentry into the European studiocamera market at IBC. DavidFox reports

Media AssetManagementSharing accessacross RTVEAvid’s Simon Haywardoutlines the MAM solution itprovided for RTVE’s full-scalenewsroom digitisationJCA digitises for KidsCoJCA developed a five-stagedigitisation programme to re-version and reformatKidsCo’s existing content,written by JCA MD Simon Kay

The WorkflowAP global HD strategyMelanie Dayasena-Lowetakes a tour of theAssociated Press’ newMaster Control Room at itsCamden office – part of thenews agency’s global HDrollout strategyA delivery you can rely onMelanie Dayasena-Lowetalks to Loft London Co-founder Davide Maglio andSigniant’s EMEA MD DavidNortier about a smooth pathfor digital file exchange

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TVBEUROPE NEWS & ANALYSIS

HBS grapples with 3D planfor World Cup 2014 coverage

By Melanie Dayasena-LoweAt IBC MeteoGroup’s dedicat-ed broadcast division, Meteo -Graphics, presented its newestdevelopments in the field of real-time weather and news broad-casts. The company’s realtimesoftware packages, Weather -Presenter and MeteoEarth, allowusers to interact with the weathercontent, add geo-referencedweather symbols or other graph -ical elements, sweep the timelineback and forth or pan and zoominside the maps.

Featuring an integrated play-out system, WeatherPresenterblends content from its sisterapplication MeteoEarth, a 3Dnowcasting tool that demon-strates the progression of global

weather events and howthey might affect the fore-cast for the coming days.

MeteoEarth displayssatellite animations, pre-cipitation fields, radarimages and other meteoro-logical elements which canbe overlaid and animatedto show how the weather is unfolding. The systemcan even be used for illustrating non weather-related news stories byuploading images, symbolsor videos and positioning themaround the MeteoEarth globe.

With the ability to incorporatelive video as well as user-generated videos and still imagery,WeatherPresenter and MeteoEarth

offer an increased degree of flexi-bility and independence to weath-er presenters, allowing them toreact quickly to last-minutechanges or wea ther developments.www.meteogroup.de

Weather timeline changes

Francis Tellier: “The next step, for2018, will be a move to 1080p.Super Hi-Vision is another stepbeyond that of course”

WeatherPresenter and MeteoEarth can offer an increased degree of flexibility andindependence to weather presenters

Letter to the editorDear Sir,

It was good to see FOR-Areceiving a Best of IBC 2011Editors’ Award for our VFC-7000camera in the October issue ofTVBEurope. Unfortunately theparagraph title incorrectly givesthe name of the product as theFC-7000 — sounds like a footballclub! More interestingly, mycolleague David Ackroyd is re-christened ‘Dan’ in the photoaccompanying the piece. Heswears he’s never been calledthat before and can’t think howthe error occurred.

Best wishes,

Peter JonesFOR-A (UK) Ltd

TVBE_Nov P3 news_TVBE_Aug_P_news 09/11/2011 10:59

By Melanie Dayasena-LoweIndustry veteran Dave Sampsonhas joined AJA Video Systems asOEM sales manager. He comesfrom Autodesk’s Media andEntertainment Division.

Tamas Vass has joinedAmberFin as the company's newEMEA sales and partner direc-tor. Vass was most recentlyEuropean sales director forImage Systems (formerly DigitalVision). Ben Davenport has alsorecently joined AmberFin as soft-ware product manager. Beforejoining AmberFin, Davenportwas Harmonic's solutions mar-keting manager.

ANNOVA Systems has wel-comed Daniel Klein as a newproject engineer to its team.Previously, he worked as broad-cast engineer/software developerat ZDF.

John Sears has joined Argosyas senior field sales engineer,reporting to newly-appointedDirector Chris Smeeton. Searscomes to Argosy with over 20years of experience in broadcast,most recently with PAG.

Roger Beck has been promotedto CTO at Bright Technologies fromhis position as worldwide managerof the company’s Technical ServicesGroup (TSG). “Roger is a true

visionary, a strategic thinker and astrong collaborative leader,” statedEd Rodriguez, Bright’s chief archi-tect and president.

Camera Corps has appointedDavid Sisson to its senior technicalsupport team. His freelance activity for Camera Corps hasincluded technical support roles atWorld Cup and Winter Olympicsas well as reality shows such as Big Brother, Fame Academy andI’m a Celebrity.

Clear-Com has promotedSimon Browne to director ofWorldwide Product Management.“With more than 22 years of expe-rience in our company, Simonbrings deep knowledge of ourproducts and customers,” saidMatt Danilowicz, president andmanaging director.

dB Broadcast has announcedan expansion to both its engineer-ing and wiring teams. MitchHoney arrives as a trainee wire-man, Jack Mitchell will be assist-ing in the design and implementa-tion of embedded software, whileEdward Waife joins as a systemsdesign engineer.

The European BroadcastingUnion (EBU) has appointedAnnika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser asits first media director, starting inFebruary 2012. She will lead thenewly-formed media department,which consolidates the activities ofthe television and radio depart-ments as well as news services.

Following the recent departureof Managing Director and CEOPierre L’Hoest, from EVS, theBoard of Directors has modifiedthe composition of the ExecutiveCommittee, now composed ofMichel Counson, Jacques Galloyand Luc Doneux. Under the leader-ship of Pierre Rion, president of the

Board, the Executive Committeewill manage the technical, commer-cial, operational, corporate andfinancial functions of EVS, pendingthe announcement of a new man-agement structure in early 2012.

FOR-A has named KatsuakiKiyohara, former vice president, as its new president. He assumeshis new role as chairman of theBoard of Directors of FOR-ACompany and continues as theCEO of FOR-A Group.

Front Porch Digital hasannounced appointments in threekey positions: Damien Bommart asproduct and marketing managerfor the DIVASolutions Managecategory; Fabien Donato as solu-tion architect for the EMEAregion; and Ronald Khoo as solu-tion architect for the Asia-Pacificregion (APAC).

Halo Post Production has hiredRoger Beck and David Turner tothe roles of chief operating officerand director of film post produc-tion respectively. The appoint-ments follow Halo’s recent expan-sion into film audio.

Harris Broadcast Communi ca -tions has hired Marcel Tölkemeier,Mathias Kunert and MarkusKartulik. Tölkemeier joins as asolution architect for video head-end systems while Kunert andKartulik join its Nordic and centralEuropean customer support team.

Conrad Blackledge has joinedHHB Communications’ technicaldepartment as technical sales sup-port engineer reporting to GroupSales Director Steve Angel.

Dr Terry Harmer will head upthe operation at MediasmithsForge, a new Belfast-based soft-ware research and developmentfacility established by Media -smiths, as general manager.

Following the appointment of DrHarmer, a further six technicalexperts will join the team withinthe first year to facilitate growthand innovation.

Prime Focus has announced amanagement restructure withinthe London business. BroadcastFacilities Director Rowan Braysteps up to become managingdirector, Broadcast and Inde -pendent Film in the UK, allowingSimon Briggs to fully assume hisrole as group managing director inthe UK. Another new recruit isAnne Marie Phelan, the formerstudio sales manager at TheHospital Club, who takes up a senior sales role.

Signiant’s board of directorshas chosen Margaret Craig toserve as CEO. She recently servedas COO of Network Services forAscent Media Group.

Dave Payette has joined Snellas global sales director. Payettewill be based in Reading andreports to Simon Derry, SnellCEO. Prior to joining Snell,Payette was managing directorand head of sales at NEC UK.

Telestream has created newsales management roles for SteveEllis as vice president of EmergingMarkets and Kevin McCartney asvice president of Sales forTelestream’s enterprise products.“We’ve established our businessworldwide, and now we’re poisedfor more aggressive growth,” saidDan Castles, CEO of Telestream.

Wohler Technologies hasrecruited John Terrey as the com-pany’s vice president of inside salesand channel management. Hemost recently held senior sales andmanagement roles with DKTechnologies, Norterra Technolo -gies and Eyeheight.

Complex and Chaotic, or Simply Elegant?For the past ten years, Front Porch Digital has been helping the world�s top media companies organize and distribute their video content; we remove the complexity and chaos of systems, processes, formats and devices to deliver a truly elegant solution.

DIVApublish mpx automates the delivery of content from the industry leading DIVArchive to your online communities, and its advertising and analytic solutions are unparalleled in the industry. Our experienced video specialists are dedicated to supporting you 24x7 in the design, delivery and implementation of this modular, scalable solution, ensuring your success.

Solutions that work the way you do. It�s that simple.visit [email protected]

4 See the latest jobs at www.tvbeurope.com/jobs www.tvbeurope.com NOVEMBER 201 1

Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, EBU Steve Ellis, Telestream

Markus Kartulik, Harris Broadcast Communications

Ronald Khoo, Front Porch Digital Katsuaki Kiyohara, FOR-A Company

Rowan Bray, Prime Focus

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By Adrian PenningtonIt is not just the London Olympics whichcould make 2012 a record-breaking year in UK outside broadcasting. A number ofother events including the Diamond Jubileeare expected to make 2012 a businessbonanza for the half dozen major OB firms.

The London Games in late July ofcourse dominates the OB agenda next yearwith Arena and SIS Live among those con-tracted to the host broadcast operation ofOlympic Broadcast Services.

The UEFA European FootballChampionship in Ukraine and Poland(from 8 June 2012) will absorb furthercapacity from at least two UK OB comp -anies (Arena and Telegenic).

Then there is the Diamond Jubilee withcelebrations spread over a number of daysexpected to make the total OB requirement(led by the BBC) three or four times biggerthan for the Royal Wedding for which

the BBC, ITNand Sky field-ed more than150 outsideb r o a d c a s tcameras. Theofficial Jubileeweekend isplanned forthe first week-end in June.

Accordingto one source:“We are led tobelieve somecompetitors arecharging rate

card plus a premium for these events, (ratherthan rate card less a discount).” On top of allthat, there is the usual bread and butter workwhich means OB crews will be workingaround the clock especially in the summer.

Barry Johnstone, MD of CTV andCOO of Euro Media Group, said: “2012 isan opportunity for everybody. Althoughwe are not working directly for OBS all ofour facilities are committed in the busysummer period. On the opening weekendof the 2012 Olympics, for example, we willbe up to our eyeballs covering three golftournaments for European Tour Golf, thenlater in the year we will be producing thehost feed of around 35-40 cameras for ETPof the Ryder Cup.” Ed Note: This articlefirst appeared on our Sports BroadcastEurope enewsletter. To subscribe to SBE orany of our other enewsletters, just click onNewsletters at the top of our homepage,www.tvbeurope.com.www.arena-tv.comwww.ctvob.co.uk www.euromediagroup.com www.sislive.tvwww.telegenic.co.uk

EDITORIALEditorial Director Fergal [email protected] House, South County Business Park,Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland+3531 294 7783 Fax: +3531 294 7799

Deputy Editor Melanie [email protected] Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England +44 207 226 7246

Editorial Consultant Adrian Pennington

Associate & Web Editor David Fox

USA Correspondent Carolyn Giardina

Contributors Mike Clark, Richard Dean, Chris Forrester, Jonathan Higgins, Mark Hill, Dick Hobbs, John Ive, George Jarrett, Heather McLean, Bob Pank, Nick Radlo, Neal Romanek, Philip Stevens, Reinhard E Wagner

Digital Delivery David Davies, Paul Watson

Digital Content Manager Tim Frost

Managing Director Stuart Dinsey

ART & PRODUCTIONHead of Production Adam ButlerEditorial Production Manager Dawn BoultwoodSenior Production Executive Alistair Taylor

SALESPublisher Steve [email protected]+44 207 354 6000 Fax:+44 207 354 6049Sales Manager Ben [email protected]+44 207 354 6000 Fax:+44 207 354 6049

US SALESMichael MitchellBroadcast Media International, PO Box 44,Greenlawn, New York, NY [email protected]+1 (631) 673 3199 Fax: +1 (631) 673 0072

JAPAN AND KOREA SALESSho HariharaSales & Project, Yukari Media [email protected]+81 6 4790 2222 Fax: +81 6 4793 0800

CIRCULATIONIntent Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 9EF, UKFree subscriptions:www.subscription.co.uk/cc/tvbe/mag1Subscriptions Tel +44 1858 438786

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TVBEurope is published 12 times a year by Intent Media London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England

Intent Media is a member of thePeriodical Publishes Association

© Intent Media 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without theprior permission of the copyright owner. TVB Europe is mailed to qualifiedpersons residing on the European continent. Subscription rates £64/€96/$120.Allow 8 weeks for new subscriptions and change of address delivery. Send subscription inquiries to: Subscription Dept, Intent Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 7BR, England. ISSN 1461-4197


6 www.tvbeurope.com NOVEMBER 201 1

TVBEurope has announced a new event, Fast Turnaround TV, for13 March — and confirmed 2012 dates of 13 June for 3D Mastersand 3 July for The IT Broadcast Workflow — in a three-event line-up for next year.

While both 3D Masters and The IT Broadcast Workflow arealready well established in the European broadcast TV technologymarketplace, Fast Turnaround TV is a brand new idea and we arevery pleased to introduce this event in Spring 2012.

Fast Turnaround TV will be held at The Soho Hotel on Tuesday13 March. What’s its raison d’etre? Quite simply, the new technolo-gies and workflows behind big live/as-live broadcast TV productions.

Live event-driven TV programming has become the cornerstoneof a broadcaster’s schedule. Despite the threat to traditional view-ing from VoD and online catch-up, audiences have been sustainedand even grown by major live and as-live ‘watercooler’ events,which deliver audience mass that no other media can yet match.

All of these events require rigorous planning, preparation andtesting often to extremely exacting deadlines. They are all under-pinned by innovation in technology and they all require the rightcraft expertise that will make — or break — the show.

Fast Turnaround TV uniquely exposes the constraints andcomplexities of these multi-faceted productions. It breaks downthe new and upcoming technologies broadcasters and producersneed in order to deliver innovative forms of presentation. Ituncovers the specialist skills necessary to deliver a failsafe trans-mission and unearths the behind-the-scenes accounts of the mosthigh profile recent live/as-live productions.

What are the keys to success? How do market leaders plan,implement, communicate and execute successful large-scale productions whether in sports, music events, topical comedy, inter-national events or shiny-floor light entertainment? With hugepressure to raise the bar every time, what are the latest technologyinnovations out there that boost coverage and retain eyeballs?

Fast Turnaround TV looks at the technical deploymentsinvolved, whether for HD or 3D delivery — or both. How do youcombine teams, so that main show production, news teams anddigital media can share assets — across principal broadcast, inci-dentals, lead-ins and lead-outs and web content?

How do you set up and connect camera positions, contribu-tion, links, storage, sound, ingest, I/O, graphics, editing, crewingand new delivery methods? Is there still a role for videotape?What’s the optimum mix of hardware-based and software-basedsystems? What are the biggest delivery problems — path delays,compression limitations, profanity loops, and delivery via non-RFbased technologies?

We believe Fast Turnaround TV will be a unique opportunityfor peers and colleagues from around Europe to come together forone day to experience case studies that detail how events were

produced, how technology and logistics were deployed, and whattechnical innovations were introduced to enhance the coverage.

Meanwhile, 3D Masters will return to BAFTA on 13 June2012. We are very pleased to confirm that two of the premier soci-eties supporting the broadcasting industry, BKSTS and SMPTE,will be key industry partners for the 2012 event. In return,TVBEurope will become a media partner for The Forum onEmerging Media Technologies, to be hosted by SMPTE and theEBU and held in Geneva next May.

Ahead of the London 2012 Games next summer, 3D TV willcome into sharp industry focus as the marketplace looks to estab-lish which technologies, productions, partnerships and commer-cial strategies hold the key to breakthrough success. 3D Masterswill be a central part of this dialogue in 2012.

The venue for the 3 July IT Broadcast Workflow conferencewill be the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington — moved to the westof London and closer to Heathrow Airport, the BBC and the UKvendor community by request, following its last outing at AmericaSquare in the City of London earlier this year.

Here’s what 2012 SMPTE David Sarnoff Award Winner BruceDevlin, CTO of AmberFin, said about this year’s ITBW event: “TheITBW conference was excellent (again) and I thank you for the oppor-tunity we had to present. The presentations were of high quality and much of the post-presentation discussion was excellent. JeremyBancroft did a great job (as always) of pulling the whole thing together.One suggestion for next year might be to have a panel on topics sug-gested from the audience. There were enough vendors, users andindustry heavyweights in the room to cope with most ITBW topics”.

We’re listening, Bruce, we’re listening! At TVBEurope we lookforward to working with the community of broadcasters, produc-tion companies, equipment vendors and dealers, SIs, consultants,and key industry bodies across our three-conference programmefor 2012.

TVBEUROPEEurope’s television technology business magazine

Conference Preview 2012

Three key events for 2012

2012 to be record year for OBs

Introducing the programme: Editorial Director Fergal Ringrose welcomes delegates to The IT Broadcast Workflow event in July

Barry Johnstone: “2012 is anopportunity for everybody”

TVBE_Nov P6 news_TVBE_Oct_P_news 09/11/2011 11:00

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That about wraps it up for stiff thumbs


Broadcast pioneers across Europeare staying true to the 3D conceptand are now creating 3D pro-gramming — despite a degree ofhighly vocal naysayers who sug-gest that perhaps 3D TV is just aflash in the broadcasting pan andnot for mainstream viewing.

“Not so,” stressed BSkyB’sJohn Cassy. BSkyB will this year have transmitted around 150live 3D OBs, mostly sport in theshape of soccer, rugby, tennis,champ ionship golf and evenspeedway racing. “There’s absol -utely an appetite for 3D outthere,” said Cassy. One of Sky’svery first non-sport 3D commis-sions (Flying Monsters narratedby Sir David Attenborough) wasthe first-ever 3D programme towin a BAFTA. Sky has transmit-ted live concerts, including a spec-tacular from Kylie Minogue, andis buying more.

Flying Monsters is being fol-lowed up with anotherAttenborough special, BachelorKing, tracking life in a penguincolony. Moreover, Cassy is keep-ing Sir David on its payroll withanother breathtaking 3D seriesset at the Royal Botanical Gardensin Kew, which will air next spring.They are also backing a Meerkatsseries in 3D.

Cassy says that while sport andmovies take up the bulk of Sky’s3D output, the natural history/travelogue segments are also beingfocused upon. “They run a closethird for us, and we have struckmajor deals with Discovery fortheir 3D output which is a prime-time slot for us on Saturday andSunday evenings. We will continueto invest in this genre ourselves, andbrands like Discovery as well asNational Geographic are naturalpartners for us.”

Asked what is needed to push3D TV towards a wider audience,

Cassy said it is all about chickenand eggs! “People need 3D sets,and the prices for good TV setsare now tumbling down. Thoseviewers then need to be persuadedto sit down and tune into goodprogramming. And if there’sgood programming, surprise sur-prise, they’ll watch it. It hasalways been this way in TV. ”

Eyeing dramaThe BBC is also ramping up its 3Doutput. It has announced thatStrictly Come Dancing will have a3D final from Blackpool, and has

also bought music concerts fromthe likes of Britney Spears andAlice Cooper. BBC Worldwide’s(BBCW) Director of content strategy Jo Sermon said that while natural history, some scienceand music form the main thrustsof 3D activity at BBC Worldwide,“we are looking for drama proj-ects, and we are exploring our top franchises”.

Her comment might havereferred to Doctor Who star MattSmith’s very public wish, made in August that he’d love his top-rated show to be made in 3D.

Doctor Who, in his assorted TVre-incarnations, celebrates its 50thbirthday in 2013 and the showremains one of Worldwide’s ‘Top5’ best ‘export’ properties.

Indeed, another top export isthe BBC’s perennial AntiquesRoadshow, and in SeptemberGraham Howe, one of the UK’smost experienced 3D cameramen,took test footage of the show with Sony’s brand new TD300model. The exercise was a greatsuccess, and the regular ‘Roadshow’crew quickly won over with thecamera’s versatility.

Sermon said BBCW recognisedthat drama was something the BBC itself would have to tackle aspart of its overall learning curve.“The real curve for us is that there’sgood 3D and bad 3D. Some of ourEarthflight 3D has prompted theaudience to reach out to touchwhat’s in front of them, it is thatgood. BBCW is working withJames Cameron on the Walkingwith Dinosaurs 3D movie, and hespeaks very eloquently on the good3D vs bad 3D debate. It is goodthat standards are high, and thateveryone is really passionate aboutmaking everything look superb.”

3D TV is also encouragingBBC Worldwide to think creativelyas to how best to exploit the newtechnology. “3D is expensive,everyone knows that. But ourstrategy is to look at three or six-part shows and make a one-hour3D special from them. This seemsto us to be an interesting way ofgetting the 3D element off theground. We take the best bits —which particularly lend them-selves to 3D. It seems to be a busi-ness model that works.”

Crazy world of rodeo3Net is a 24-hour 3D TV channelin the US, which launched only inFebruary 2011, and is commis-sioning or acquiring about 100hours of original 3D material thisyear, and the same in 2012. 3net is also tapping into sport, butbecause most existing big-ticketevents already have their TVrights sewn up they are lookingfurther afield.

For example, Bullproof isfocused on the crazy world of therodeo ring (and is described as a‘sportumentary’) and extrememan-vs-beast encounters, all shotin native 3D and which, said CEOTom Cosgrove, “gives a sense ofimmersion in the action that’ssimply not possible with any oth-er video medium.”

Sony’s Professional Solutionsdivision is helping create special3DTV event-led experiences intocinemas and theatres. “But it is a steep learning curve,” admitsSony’s David McIntosh (SVP,Digital Cinema). Sony, with helpfrom RealD, has helped put onlive 3D telecasts of Carmen in 3D (in conjunction with the Royal Opera House), KylieMinogue, and many others. “It isa new industry, almost a cottageindustry at the moment,”McIntosh adds. “We take it veryseriously at Sony because thereare some really good opportuni-ties for widening access to theseevents, and increasing the numberof events available.”

Few expect 3D TV to matchthe wholesale success of HDTVchannels. However, broadcastersand the TV set-makers insist that3D will be far more than justniche services.



3D TV making real progress

Market Analysis

Steadicam operator Dom Jackson on stage at the Royal Opera House filmingCarmen in 3D, produced by Phil Streather and directed by Julian Napier

One of Sky’s very first non-sport 3D commissions (Flying Monsters withSir David Attenborough) was the first-ever 3D programme to win a BAFTA

Chris Forrester reports from the recent MIPCOM market in Cannes on the rudehealth of 3D TV — according to BSkyB, ESPN, BBC, Sky Italia, 3Net and more

By Melanie Dayasena-LoweThe Lebanese arm of AlsumariaTV has purchased a Quantel iQ 2Kmulti-resolution finishing systemfor its creative department. The iQwill be the lynchpin of AlsumariaTV’s intensive promotions produc-tion operation, and will also helpdrive the broadcaster’s channelidentity design, commercials creation, post production and pro-gramme graphic design.

“We produce more than 35 dif-ferent promos every week, 15 ormore 3D jingles and 20 2D anima-tions each month as well,” saidWalid Melki, Antenna Manage -ment director of Alsumaria. “Whenyou’re under that kind of pressure,you need a system which is reallyfast and efficient, and nothing beatsQuantel in these areas. The iQ alsofully integrates all the editing andgraphics tools we need in a singlesystem, which will further helpspeed work through the creativesuite. And when Alsumaria TVmoves into HD broadcasting, beinga 2K capable system, the iQ willmake the transition.

“As regards selecting the iQ, Iknew what we wanted right fromthe beginning. I’ve worked onQuantel systems for many years,”Melki continued. “I started at TF1in France on Paintbox, then Harry,Hal, Henry and Editbox. When Imoved to Lebanon in 2004 I beganworking on Final Cut, After Effectsetc, but I missed the speed and effi-ciency of Quantel systems.”www.quantel.com

iQ scores withAlsumaria TV


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Aveco automation equipment,”says Kazlauskas.

This Aveco system is made upof mirrored ASTRA servers, whichrun under a realtime operating sys-tem (QNX). It controls the associ-ated Grass Valley K2 videoservers,enabling a clean switch-over in the event of the failure of a serverchannel. In addition, it managesother Grass Valley devices, such asthe Maestro master control switch-ers and Concerto router underJupiter control system.

This automation controls themain programme playout as an AB roll configuration, with two K2ports playing the output. However,backup is achieved using just oneK2 port and playing the same con-tent ‘back-to-back’. This enables1+1 redundancy for each TV chan-nel, while preserving K2 server output ports and the requiredequipment for backup transmis-sion chain. The ASTRA ContentMan agement System also carriesout media asset management forLNK by managing videoserverstorage and Diva archive.

One of the unique featuresdesigned for LNK is the ability toattach new audio tracks to exist-ing clips. The audio files comefrom the dubbing studio, ASTRApicks the files, uploads to K2 and through the native protocol,attaches them to the relevant clip.The workflow is also integratedwith the archive, which allowsASTRA to retrieve a file fromDiva, attach the audio and thenre-archive the material.

Another development speciallydesigned for LNK is the ability tohandle sub second events. Thisallows LNK to air an event lastingjust a few frames between two clips.

A second major reconstructionhas involved the 200sqm news studio. Again, much of the equip-ment has been centred on GrassValley technology — including a 2 M/E Kayak SD/HD mixer andConcerto router expansion modu-lars. “We selected K2 Classic forNews playout controlled by AuroraPlay, along with Front PorchDigital LTO Tape Library.”Kazlauskas continues, “We use 18Edius NLEs for news editing byjournalists. They complete a roughcut using this system, althoughcomplex stories are finished in threeFinal Cut Pro edit suites. LNK hasoperated a completely tapelessworkflow since 2008, with the only‘tape’ to be found in the archives.”

Beating the competitionThe provision of new equipmentfor the refurbished news studio wasput out to intensive tender. Despitestiff competition from other sys-tems integrators — including thoseoffering low-priced entry-level equip -ment — Grass Valley, through its

local distributor Hannu Pro, wonthe contract to supply its LDK3000 high definition cameras.These were delivered in August.

“In the end there were onlytwo manufacturers who appearedto meet our criteria,” revealsKazlauskas. “The image quality, atfirst sight, was similar on both sys-tems. But after deeper analysisusing various test charts for objec-tive parameters, several studio set-ups, and comparisons of differentcamera controls, interfaces andconnections, we found the LDK3000 was better. Its picture lookedmore natural, was very clear andchromakeyed images had a moredetailed image.”

Looking after the project fromthe Grass Valley side was PascalDemême, sales area manager,Baltics-Eastern Europe. Why did hethink his bid was successful? “Thecustomer is, of course, doing aproper job by checking the marketand comparing available solutionsfrom all approved manufacturerswithin the budget granted by theinvestment board. Apart from thefact the LDK 3000 is an ideal camera for the LNK operation, itcertainly helped to have developed agood relationship with the customerover so many years.”

The LDK 3000 cameras weresupplied with an integrated HDWideband Triax transmissionadapter. Also included were abase-station supporting HD andSD HQ outputs, 7-inch HD LCDviewfinders, and control panels forall five cameras.

“The OCP 400 with its multicoloured buttons and the LCD dis-play allow for a very flexible andoperator-friendly control of anyfunction available on the camerasystem,” explains Demême. “The

camera control system C2IP usesstandard Ethernet hardware withTCP/IP protocols. This allows inte-gration into any existing Ethernetcontrol system and allows the useof commercially available Ethernethardware such as wireless LANsystems. All in all, this makes thiscamera control system extremelyflexible in operation.”

Each camera is equipped withthree 2/3-inch Xensium imagers.This is the first fully digital cameraimager developed for broadcastapplications. It provides native HD

resolution with 2,400,000 pixels,and uses state-of-the-art CMOSimaging technology. Also includedin the camera deal is Grass Valley’sSuperXpander. This allows a com - pact handheld LDK 3000 camerato be converted into a studio con -figuration for the use of large box lenses. The cameras will be mountedon Vinten Radamec tripods.

Working alongside the new cameras, and mounted on a stu-dio crane, will be a Grass ValleyDMC 1000 multi-format tape-less camera.

Hannu Pro also supplied LNK’s ENG department with twoPanasonic AG HPX371EJ and twoAG-HPX171EJ P2 series tapelesscameras, equipped with Fujinonlenses — including an additionalFujinon ZA17x7.6BRM-M Quick -Zoom technology HD lens.

“With these acquisitions, LNKhas been able to launch its newbroad casting season with one of themost sophisticated camera set-ups in the Baltic States,” confirmsKalvis Baumanis, general managerat Hannu Pro.

LNK is using a Yamaha 02R96audio mixer and an Inscriber G1graphics system in the upgradednews studio. To date, there has beenno upconverting of SD material, butwhen the need arises, LNK will prob-ably be using its K2 playout servers.

Moving forwardLike other parts of the broadcastingworld, Kazlauskas states thatLithuania has been affected by theglobal financial situation. “Our lastmajor refurbishment was in 2008,and we have had to wait until 2011to upgrade our news and small pro-duction studio cameras to HD fromthe existing 13-year-old 4x3 Ikegamicameras. We are excited about usingstudio cameras with one Infinitycamera and controlling all of themthrough IP using one MCP. This is amajor development for us.”

Although the news studio is nowHD ready, it will be 2012 before highdefinition transmissions will begin.“During next year there will be ten-ders for Free To Air HD broadcast-ing licences and we will be ready forthat growth,” concludes Kazlauskas.www.lnk.ltwww.grassvalley.comwww.hannu-pro.comwww.aveco.com



For effective media production and delivery, you need a powerful vehicle that allows you to speed up media exchange in workfl ows or between remote facilities. The standardized “metadata-enabled” MXF format is clearly the way to go, but you have to master the means. EVS-OpenCube offers a full range of MXF fi le management devices – from the codec-Agnostic MXF ingest server (XDCamHD®, Jpeg2k, DNxHD®, etc.) to fi le conversion and monitoring tools - which put you in driver’s seat and give you full control, smoothing the way and making the road to effi cient production and tapeless archive management safe, fast and easy to travel.

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Complementing the LDK 3000s is a crane-mounted DMC 1000

Following fierce competition, LNK selected LDK 3000 cameras for its refurbished news studio


abled, giving rental facilities con-trol over which cameras have HighSpeed mode (4:2:2 only). The64GB cards also allow ProRes4444 filming at up to 60fps.

Get the lookFollowing its Software UpdatePacket 4.0, Alexas can now apply

user-defined looks to customisethe rendering of video images fordifferent applications and indi-vidual preferences, enabling DoPsto preview images as they wantthem to appear in post and toembed the metadata that definethe look in the media.

Look files are different fromlook-up tables, which changeone colour space to another (eg from Log C to video), inbeing a purely creative toolused within the camera. Theycan be created by the colouristor the DoP, and allow monitorson set to give a better idea ofthe final look for each scene.

To create Alexa look filesbased on film lab thinking, withprinter light settings, Arri hasdeveloped Look Creator, forMac OS X, a new free applica-tion. Look Files can also be createdusing Pomfort’s Silverstack SET,

with other developers planningsimilar applications. Creating looksbased on Arriraw will be possible ina future software upgrade.

Alura lightweight zoomsArri and Fujinon have doubledtheir range of Alura zooms withtwo new lightweight models: theAlura LWZ 15.5-45 and AluraLWZ 30-80, T2.8 zooms. They aredesigned to match the Alexa cam-era, and are ideal for handheld andSteadicam work, while the twooriginal Alura Zooms, with theirmuch wider focal ranges, are bettersuited to tripod and dolly setups.

“We sold twice as many asplanned of the original ones, sothe next obvious step is to buildlightweight zooms,” said MarcShipman-Müller, Arri productmanager for cameras and lenses.

“They are optimised for digital cameras, with resolution

beyond 4K, and will also workwith film cameras with a rotatingshutter (as used on the new Alexa Studio too).” They have a31.5mm image circle, so will coverall the digital cameras, includingthose with larger sensors, and willcost €16,800 each when they ship

in February.“We are the only comp -

any with a complete set ofmatching modern zoom andprime lenses,” he claimed.

The four Alura lenses arealso compatible with the ArriLens Data System. The opti-cal design should ensure anevenly illuminated image onthe sensor or film plane,while flares, ghosting andveiling glare are greatlyreduced by Fujinon’s multi-layer Electron Beam Coating.

Breathing has been minimised, ashas colour fringing.

Lightweight zooms arebecoming popular for 3D, as theyallow easy adjustment of focallength without lens changes, rigreadjustments and calibration.

Light to the MaxThe new Arri M40/AS40 daylightfixture fills the gap between the1800W M18 and the 18kWArriMax. The M40 is a lenslesssystem combining the advantagesof a Fresnel and a PAR fixture. Itis open face, very bright, andfocusable from 19-60°, producinga crisp, clear shadow. By elimi -nating the need for spread lenses,it should speed up workflows on set and reduce the risk of lost production time because ofglass breakage.

The same lamp head equippedwith a PAR reflector becomes the AS40, replacing the currentArriSun 40/25. It is lighter thanits predecessors, but has the sameaccessory diameter so that exist-ing lenses, barn doors and scrimscan be reused. The M40 andAS40 fixtures can be operatedwith 4kW and 2.5kW metalhalide lamps.

Both implement Arri’s TrueBlue features, with disc brakeskeeping the lamp head in placeeven if heavy accessories are used,while the electronics housing isspaced apart from the lamp hous-ing to reduce temperatures andprolong component lifetimes. Theunits are ruggedised and IP23certified to withstand rough han-dling and weather.

Other recently launched lightsinclude the L-Series collection offocusable, LED-based lampheads, with a true Fresnel lightfield for film and TV applications,and the ArriSun 18 Event light. www.arri.comwww.cameronpace.com



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“The success of 3D will be based on designingtechnology that supports the creative process ofthe filmmaker; we are excited about the Alexa Mtowards that goal” — Vince Pace, CPG Dance Studio: Arri’s new Alexa Studio

True Blue: The new Arri M40 open face, focusable light

A-Stor for tapeArkivum has selected IBM to providethe tape technology required to growits business. The archiving specialistwill use IBM’s tape library and drivetechnology as an integral part of itsultra-dependable A-Stor solution.According to global marketintelligence firm IDC, the demand forstorage worldwide is expected togrow by 49.8% a year until 2014. A-Stor is a highly cost-effectiveservice that uses LTO/LTFS data tapetechnology and open standards todeliver fast and efficient onlineaccess. “Tape is still by far the bestmedium for cost-effective, long-termstorage and it’s exactly this thatenables us to offer our 100% dataintegrity guarantee,” said ArkivumCEO, Jim Cook.www.arkivum.com

eStudio graphicseStudio 3D, the rendering engine fromBrainstorm Multimedia, will provide thetechnology for the new Avid MotionGraphics platform, giving it next-generation 3D graphics creationcapabilities. Launched at IBC2011, AvidMotion Graphics lets media enterprisescreate graphics and imagery whilejournalists and others integrate thosegraphics into their stories. BrainstormeStudio 3D technology has beenembedded into the Avid MotionGraphics platform, which supports bothAvid and other high-demand third-partytools and plug-ins. It will enableexisting Avid on-air graphics users toeasily transfer existing assets fromtheir legacy Avid Deko on-air graphicssystems to the new platform.www.brainstorm.es

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While the IBC organisers — andstar guests like James Cameron— continued to push the 3Dagenda, there was little doubtabout the issue on the minds ofmost delegates. Entirely withoutany drive from broadcast tech-nologists, audiences have enthu-siastically embraced a newbehaviour: multi-screening.

“Eighty-percent of under 24-year-olds watch television withanother screen in their hands,”explained Claire Tavernier, seniorexecutive vice president ofFremantle Media, the companyresponsible for inflicting The XFactor upon us. I hate to disagreewith such an industry luminary butI have to say it is not just the under24s. My iPad may not be perma-nently in my hand but it is alwaysnearby, and I miss the age group bymore than a factor of two.

“Social TV is not just a buzz-word: it is the future of TV andpeople’s desire to have a deeperengagement with their favouritecontent,” said Alex Blum of KitDigital, which was majoring on itssocial television solution on theshow floor.

“The key to success lies indeveloping a second screen stra -tegy that provides control whilecomplementing and enhancingthe viewer experience,” he added.

Joanna Shields of Facebookgave the convention keynote, andshe was enthusiastic about theway that comments quicklyspread. The American animatedseries Family Guy has more than37 million Facebook friends.John Smith of BBC Worldwidesaid that more than a third of visits to topgear.com are directedthere from the programme’sFacebook page.

The message was that commenton social media drives engagementwith and discovery of content. “Weare shifting from the wisdom ofcrowds to the wisdom of friends,”according to Shields. Which meanswe as the media providers have toplan for a multi-screen future.

For a few years now we havebeen talking about the concept ofproviding the content the consumerwants, when they want it, wherethey want it, on the device theywant it. Now the realisation that theambition brings with it huge chal-lenges is also looming over themajor debating areas like IBC.

According to GabrielleGauthey of Alcatel Lucent, in fiveyears “70% of mobile devices willbe internet-enabled, and 80% ofthe traffic on wireless broadbandnetworks will be video.” Shecalled for a new spectrum modelbased on innovative sharing tech-nologies to support what lookslike a 30-fold growth in demandfor data bandwidth.

Roberto Viola of the RadioSpectrum Policy Group said that

broadcasters have to understandthere is a need to change to accom-modate IP traffic in a much moreefficient way. “The internet willnot replace traditional broadcast-ing tomorrow,” he said, “but trans-formation is necessary. Whetherwe like it or not, IP transport willbe the standard, and the questionis whether to have a network thatis flexible enough to allow for dif-ferent priorities of traffic.”

The big projectsBut if that is likely to dominatethe debate at future IBCs, cross-platform workflows werehigh on the news agenda atIBC2011. The big sales storieswere noticeable for their multi-screen abilities.

One of the biggest projectscurrently underway is the new Sky Sports Arabia channel, with systems integration by TSL andservers from EVS. As well as sup-porting multi-platform deliverythis also integrates incoming con-tributions from the internet aswell as broadcast lines and feeds,for instance, to allow the use ofSkype video calling on air.

Harris announced two projectsat IBC. The recently completed BidShopping in the UK gave the com-pany an asset management systemto support both on air and onlinechannels. The massive Turkmen -istan TV project — including 13 television studios and 50 radio stu-dios as well as all the supportinginfrastructure — also includes

multi-platform broadcasting and aclever use of digital signage technol-ogy to provide the internal ring mainviewing and communication system.The technical systems are beingimplemented by Turkish companyPolicom, with Harris the largest indi-vidual supplier holding orders worthtens of millions of dollars.

An ex-Harris stalwart, YannickDefrenne, has now set up his ownventure, Soft Vallée, to develop abusiness oriented asset managementinfrastructure. He describes Tea -mium as offering “a holistic overviewto track multiple business processes,from management of broadcastoperations to the optimisation ofexisting assets and personnel.

“We start from a managementapproach rather than a technical

point of view,” he said. “We offer aview of the entire chain from thecontent you create to how you mon-etise it and where you put the files.”

Some broadcasters are devel-oping their own solutions. InBelgium VRT is tackling secondscreen applications through itsR&D Medialab. It already has anHTML5 web app running along-side a popular television pro-gramme in realtime, allowingviewers to interact with the con-tent as well as with fellow viewersthrough a social media element.

TV2 in Norway chose to base itsdedicated second screen service onthe Interactivity Suite product fromnever.no. It was first rolled out forcoverage of the Tour de Francecycle race, pushing up to date

statistics and other realtime infor-mation to iOS and Android devicesalongside the live pictures. It alsoallowed the producers to collectfeedback via polls and chat areas.

Managing Editor of TV2 SportMorten Jørs seems to have quicklyseen great benefits. “We now have atool that allows us to add value andengage our viewers as the actionunfolds,” he said. “It opens up awhole new world in terms of gain-ing and retaining audience share.”

Eyeheight launched what itcalls the TVTweetCaster, and thatpretty much sums up what it does.It is a package to access and filterTwitter content, then insert it intoa SDi stream to appear as a tickeron live content.

IBC Keynote Joanna Shields of Facebook on social media: “We are shifting from the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends”

IBC organisers and star guestscontinued to push the 3D agenda —but there was little doubt about theissue on the minds of most delegates

Infrastructure Analysis

“The internet will not replace traditional broadcasting tomorrow, but transformation is necessary. Whether we like it or not, IP transport will be the standard” —Roberto Viola, Radio Spectrum Policy Group

Crossing the line at IBCTVBEUROPE IBC2011 WRAP-UP

So what really happened at IBC2011? What were the key ‘take-away’ themes and trends, in hindsight? Dick Hobbs leads off our Wrap-Up analysis, with the realisation that the desire to provide content to consumerswherever, whenever and however brings with it huge challenges for all European media organisations


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AmberFin was promoting theintegration of its iCR file-basedcontent ingest and transcodingdevice into the Sony MediaBackbone Conductor. The Sonysystem is described as a “workfloworchestration and integration plat-form”, and is essentially the basesfor developing a service orientedarchitecture in a broadcast centre.In this application the AmberFiniCR sits on the service bus to pro-vide the buffer between the broad-caster and the outside world withits multitude of file formats.

Chyron and AP alsoannounced a strategic alliance atIBC. The cloud-based graphicsservice developed by Chyron isnow embedded into the ENPSnewsroom automation system,allowing users to drag-and-dropgraphics into scripts and run-downs, automatically reformat-ting them to meet the needs ofonline and mobile platforms.“Customers can reduce costs andmaximise productivity by using acommon set of editorial andmedia tools, staff and workflowfor all the content they publishand broadcast,” said Chyron’sBill Hendler.

One of the traditional issuesof delivering content to multipleplatforms is the difficulty ofstreaming content live. Viewcastoffered a new solution, theNiagara 7559 which is describedas a plug-and-play SDI to live IPstreaming device. It can output tomultiple file formats and bitrates,

and is controlled from a touch-screen interface.

Digital Rapids was showingthe latest version of its streamingencoder, the StreamZ Live. It fea-tures the capability of deliveringadaptive bitrate streaming forAdobe, Apple and Microsoft, aswell as streaming to mobiles,tablets, computers, games con-soles and more.

Grass Valley added livestreaming to its establishedMediaFuse content re-purposingsystem. Again described as ‘plug-and-play’, it offers dynamic livestreaming in Flash, HLS-5 andWindows Media, meeting, it isclaimed, 95% of the multimediaconsumption devices in use today,which is a clear indication of the

complexity faced in delivering tomultiple platforms.

Another challenge lies in man-aging the rights issue of cross platform delivery. Sintec Media added a new module to its OnAirbroadcast management system.OnRights is specifically designed totrack license conditions across mul-tiple dimensions such as territories,platforms, formats and languages.

The software platform is asapplicable to content owners as itis to broadcasters and networkoperators. Its rules base, for exam-ple, will ensure for the contentowner that exclusive rights canonly be offered to one licensee ina territory, while for the broadcaster

it will prevent the scheduling ofcontent on a platform for which itdoes not have permission.

Digital watermarking is nowcommonly used to track content.Axon Digital Design has nowimplemented watermarking tech-nology from Civolution for itsSynapse modular system, meaningthat it can easily be used to trackusage and audience measurementacross multiple platforms from astandard broadcast infrastructure.

Audio additionsSo far I have regularly referred tomulti-platform delivery as ‘sec-ond screen’, but DTS was keen toremind IBC visitors that sound

matters — that good audio makesthe pictures look better. It showeda complete enhanced audio envi-ronment, with everything frompseudo-surround sound on aniPod to real immersive soundfields delivered online, with thesystem adapting its capabilities tothe bandwidth available.

Murraypro showed two newaudio monitoring units, includingone with built-in speakers. Theyhave the capability to monitor upto 16 channels, with phase andpeak error indicators.

This is a product area whereTSL has been active for some time.At IBC the company introduced aclever new unit, the Touchmixwhich, while sharing the 2U formfactor of TSL monitoring units(and the same high quality speak-ers), includes a dual level 19 inputdigitally assignable mixer. Theapplications for this will continueto grow — it was developed inresponse to a user request from a

big UK installation which is tak-ing 80 of them — and it is as like-ly to be seen in creative areas likeedit suites as it is in machine roomsand master control.

Audio loudness continues tobe a major issue, with manufac-turers producing practical solu-tions now that are clearly definedand internationally recognisedstandards have been established.According to Marc Judor ofJunger Audio, “this move is goodfor the industry. Viewers’ qualityexpectations are not beingmatched, leading to viewersswitching channels in search of abetter listening experience.”

Young company EmotionSystems tackled loudness as oneof its first software implementa-tions. EFF (Emotion File Finish)analyses content files, modelsboth analogue PPMs and the lat-est loudness specifications, andprovides a seamless and satisfyingcorrection to any audio levelerrors automatically.

Harris claims that its capabili-ties uniquely allow it to analyse,correct and verify loudness issues.It uses DTS Neural LoudnessControl, which is now imple-mented in both Harris modularunits and in its Selenio conver-gence platform. It works withVideotek measurement, also partof the Harris stable, to identifyproblems and to report toautomation systems to recordcorrections in the as-run log.

Linear Acoustic says that itsapproach turns the problem on itshead, from being a complianceissue to a driver for audio quality.Further, its loudness managementproduct Aero Calm controls thelevel and dynamic range withoutaffecting the original content, soindividual consumers can reversethe correction and hear the origi-nal balance if they choose.

What caught my eyeFinally, the usual quick round-upof interesting products whichcaught my eye but do not fit intothe general exhibition narrative.Top of the list is the Presto 16 inputswitcher from Wohler. This is asimple use of new technology tomake the world a better place. The1U device has a row of 16 buttonson it, each of which is an Oledscreen showing the video that isunder the button. It makes select-ing a source more or less foolproof.

Snell also has a new take onthe router, the Vega. This is a 96channel device, but it is up to theuser whether to make it a 48 in by48 out or any other combination,up to 95 in and one out. Further,for each pair of ports you caninsert either fibre connectors or aminiature BNC, so it is very flex-ible on cable types too.

Talking of fibre, Argosy Cablehas a really neat solution to keeping fibre connectors clean,when the temptation just to blowthe dust away is really strong. The tool contains a dry cleaning

TVBEUROPE IBC201 1 WRAP-UP


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Crossing theline at IBC



Audio loudness continues to be a major issue,with manufacturers producing practical solutionsnow that clearly defined and internationallyrecognised standards have been established

Fremantle Media Senior Executive VP Claire Tavernier: “80% of under 24-year-olds watch television with another screen in their hands”


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material that removes any dustwithout the need for solvents sowithout the risk of leaving a residue.The same tool has adaptors formale and female connectors, and asingle tool has enough of the self-advancing material to clean 525

contacts. Why would an engineernot have one in the toolbag?

CNN won an IBC InnovationAward for the system it has devel-oped to handle the masses of con-tent that pours into its newsrooms— 20,000 new clips a week typi-cally. One of the companies work-ing behind the scenes on this proj-ect is IPV, which developed for it,and is now offering to otherbroadcasters a neat way of han-dling content that allows AdobePremiere Pro to be fully integrat-ed into the broadcast newsroom.

The first part of the systemputs a cut down version of the edi-tor onto the newsroom desktop,which means the journalist hasmore tools than the typical andvery elementary desktop editorbut not so much as to be a distraction. Thanks to the IPVplug-in this can start editing on agrowing file, so there is no needfor the journalist to wait for ingestto be completed and a browse resolution file generated, whichsaves a lot of time.

Once the story is ready to bepublished it is passed to the IPVConform Engine, which runs on aprocessor farm so completes theedit and delivers it to the playoutserver much faster than realtime,again greatly increasing thechances of getting the story on airin the next bulletin.

In a broadcast installation thenewsroom computer can be justone of many cluttering up theworking area. A number of ven-dors now offer KVM extenders —a means to get the keyboard, video

and mouse signal to a remote loca-tion (the desktop) while keepingthe computer and its fans in themachine room. Most offer someswitching so one keyboard, mouseand display can be routed to a cou-ple of different computers.

What makes the Infinity fromAdder different is that the KVMsignals are packetised for IP socan be sent around an ethernet.That means that potentially hugenumbers of workstations can beconnected to an equally vast num-ber of processors. The Infinityunits are designed for perform-ance, so latency is virtually zero,and certainly imperceptible.

Most important, the systemuses lossless run-length encodingto ensure that the video display isa pixel perfect match to the orig-inal with full 24-bit DVI resolu-tion. Coupled with the lack oflatency it means the system isfine for critical viewing applica-tions like editing and graphics. A new version, the AdderLinkInfinity Dual, supports eitherdual monitor set-ups or verylarge screens such as the AppleCinema Display.

Early in this review I talkedabout a technology area we will be forced to tackle at a future IBC. To finish, here is another.OpenNI is an industry body thatexists to promote the inter -operability of natural interactions.

Think gesture-based control, avatarsand augmented reality.

Iris Finklestein-Sagi of Prime-Sense is one of the movers behindthe OpenNI Arena, which is arepository for applications usingthe emerging concepts. “Developersare playing with the technology,experimenting to see what it is capable of. NI allows you to locate

yourself in a different environment,to add more things to that environ-ment, and to appear as an avatar —it has massive possibilities.”

In her keynote, Shields ofFacebook predicted that “all TVwill be social”. Not just social but interacting socially throughnatural interactions — the futurecould be exciting.



Finally, the usual quick round-up of interestingproducts which caught my eye. Top of the list isthe Presto 16 input switcher from Wohler. Thisis a simple use of new technology to make theworld a better place

Gabrielle Gauthey: In five years “70% of mobile devices will be internet-enabled, and 80% of traffic on wireless broadband networks will be video”

Crossing theline at IBC



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By David KirkThe key message emerging fromIBC2011 came loud and clear: Ifyou can’t beat it, eat it. Thus con-cludes the long and uncomfortablerelationship between the monopo-listic business of broadcasting andthe free-entry but chaotic world ofthe web. Proof of this convergencewas evident in the conference pro-gramme which faithfully embracedthe buzzwords that currently exer-cise the minds of the multimediacommunity: hybrid broadcastbroadband, multiple platform out-reach, social media, cloud comput-ing, gaming, tablet-TV, and so on.

This was no sudden change.The conference programmes bothof IBC and the NAB SpringConvention have reflected the convergence of on-air and on-linebroadcasting for years. Worldwideinvestment in telecommunicationsinfrastructure meanwhile contin-ues, even if not yet literally opticalfibre from door to door, bothenabling and to some extent powered by the continuing rise ininternet-based television viewing.

IBC felt more than usually likean action-replay of NAB this year,with Sony, Panasonic and JVCcampaigning hard to raise theindustry’s sights above 1920x1080pixel ‘high definition’. The futurethey anticipate is 3820x2160 (4K),followed sooner or later by 7680x4320 (8K) Super Hi-Vision. Sonyand JVC displayed prototype 4Kand 8K cameras at both conven-tions. Panasonic has meanwhilejoined the increasing number ofcompanies with prototype 8K display screens. In D-SLR-speak,8K equates to 33 megapixels, whichtranslates in turn to a huge displayscreen or extremely high resolution.

Improving image displaysThe IABM bestowed its 2011Peter Wayne Award on Sony’sBVM-E250 24.5-inch organic

LED screen, which is the largestof its kind yet offered to thebroadcast market. OLED tech-nology is gaining increasingrecognition for applications suchas broadcast playout monitoringand in master control rooms.Each pixel in an OLED generatesits own light rather than merelyacting as a filter.

This allows deeper black levels to be achieved than with LCDs, delivering highercontrast ratio when viewed in thelow ambient light common tomost master control rooms.Other virtues include very com-pact construction, the OLEDarray being wafer-thin, andexceptionally consistent per-formance from one display toanother. The small size of cur-rently available OLED screensappears to be a production-yieldissue, as in the early years of

LCDs. LG and Samsung are bothdeveloping 55-inch consumerOLED displays.

3D remains alive and wellthough less ‘in-your-face’ thanwhen Philips’ autostereoscopicwall display greeted each newlyarriving visitor. The various elements of the 3D production,post production and deliveryworkflow continue to cometogether. Most important of all isthe increasing awareness thatupgrading from standard defini-tion to a 1080p infrastructuremakes the transition from 2D to3D a relatively easy one.

Attention is now focused ondisplay manufacturers to producescreens that can be viewed in full 3D without need for specialheadware. Every direct-view tele-vision demonstration I have seen (dating back to an InterBEE show about 16 years ago) has suffered from ‘sweet-spot/sour-spot’ lateral directionality. Designersof direct-view 3D displays have achoice of two left/right isolationtechnologies to exploit: parallax-

barrier and lenticular filters. Ifneither proves up to the task, then3D television could remain aminority-interest activity until amore effective viewing system is developed.

Sony has been exploring analternative 3D display option inthe shape of its HMZ-T1 ‘per-sonal 3D viewer’, which incorpo-rates two 0.7-inch 1280x720 pixelOLEDs in a head-mountedarrangement feeding imagesindependently to left and righteyes. Horizontal viewing angle is

The business of broadcasting and chaotic world of the web

Designers of direct-view 3D displays have achoice of two left/right isolation technologies toexploit: parallax-barrier and lenticular filters. Ifneither proves up to the task, then 3D televisioncould remain a minority-interest activity

The IABM bestowed its 2011 Peter Wayne Award on Sony’s BVM-E25024.5-inch organic LED screen. Pictured: Sony’s Senior ProductSpecialist Daniel Dubreuil with the award at the Amsterdam Show

Photon Beard’s Peter Daffarn (left) and Simon Larn with the Nova 270

Analysis of key IBC acquisition, display, studio and archiving highlights


45˚, simulating a 750-inch cinemascreen seen at 20m distance. Priceof the HMZ-T1 when it is intro-duced in Japan this month isexpected to be around £480. Thisdevice didn’t get to IBC butshows a potential direction for2K, 4K and even 8K displaydevelopment — particularly ifApple wakes up to it.

Improving efficiencyAs well as ensuring that theirproducts deliver high signal qual-ity, IBC exhibitors recognise theimportance of offering customersgreater efficiency in the acquisi-tion, post production, playoutand repurposing of content. Acentral theme in the acquisitioncategory was the implementationof new-generation camera sys-tems allowing wired or wirelessremote control within a studio orsports OB environment, or via IP over practically any distance in situations where latency is notan issue.

Danmon Systems Groupintroduced a complete packagedIP-based television studio controlsystem optimised for regionalpresenter-to-camera operation.Based on integrated pan-tilt-zoom HD/SD cameras, the studiocan be operated using a standardinternet browser from a networkheadquarters. All control data iscarried securely via intranet orvirtual private network. Videofrom regional site to HQ can becarried on black fibre or asJPEG2000 via IP. A reporter orguest interviewee entering theregional studio has only one user-adjustable element to contendwith: the earpiece volume level.

Telco-based ENG devices arenot inherently new but Aviwest’sIBIS digital mobile newsgather-ing unit includes an interestingworkaround for locations whereno wireless link can be main-tained: an integral recorderallows content to be captured toSecure-Digital card for later file-forwarding. The IBIS can beclipped onto a camera and usedto stream HD/SD-SDI withembedded audio via multiplebonded 3G or 4G networks to a receiver (the one-rack-unit IBIS Studio).

An unusual approach to stu-dio lighting was announced byPhoton Beard whose PhotonSpotNova 270 uses a light-emittingplasma source to achieve theclaimed equivalent of a 2kw tungsten Fresnel from a powerinput of 273 watts. On theportable-power side, the newPAGLink from PAG allows up to eight 96 watt-hour V-MountLi-Ion battery packs to bestacked for long-duration opera-tion. Three linked batteries createa single power source of nearly288 watt-hours, handling a cur-rent-draw of up to 12 amps.Combined weight is under 2.2kg.

Power efficiency continues tobe uppermost in the minds oftransmitter manufacturers, not -ably Rohde & Schwarz whose

new THU9 high-power solid-state tele vision transmitter isclaimed to offer the highest effi-ciency in its class: up to 28% forCOFDM standards and up to30% for ATSC standards, includ-ing the cooling system. ThomsonBroadcast’s Futhura Plus wide-band UHF television transmitterhas claimed 35% maximum trans-mitter efficiency.

ArchivingIncreasing use of file-based videoand audio content capture devices,whether to disc or solid-statemedia, is forcing even the most traditionally-minded productioncompanies and broadcasters toingest their programme librariesinto more easily shared digital



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Blackmagic Design’s £1,565 ATEM production switcher Continued on page 22



data. Then comes the question ofhow best to archive this data forquickest possible access and max-imum security?

Staying with baseband video-tape is not a serious option giventhe rapidly declining populationof up-to-spec vintage VTRs. Oneoption, perversely, is to continueusing magnetic tape but in a for-mat designed specifically for dataarchiving and therefore more likelyto receive long-term manufactur-ing support. That was For-A’s reason for launching the LTR-

120HS archiving recorder intoEurope at IBC. This uses theLTO-5 version of the Linear TapeOpen format, storing 1.5TB to asingle tape cartridge.

If you are twitchy about thelifetime of magnetically storeddata, Sony announced at IBCthe development of a file-basedvideo archive storage systembased on a cartridge housing 12optical discs. Scheduled forintroduction next year, this willbe available in write-once and arewriteable formats with variouscapacity options. And there isalways The Cloud: remote content archiving is already anintegral part of the broadcastplayout business.

In the purely storage arena,Thunderbolt-compatible discdrives and RAIDs emerged atIBC in increasing numbers tomeet the demand from video editors using the latest generationof Apple computers. AJA VideoSystems introduced its Io XTvideo interface and up/down/cross converter, which allowsdaisy-chaining to other Thunder -bolt peripherals like high band-width storage and high-resolu-tion displays via a single interface.

Value for moneySome spectacular value-for-mon-ey deals were evident on manystands, from front-end gripequipment right through the pro-duction, post, presentation andplayout chain. And it certainlyisn’t all software. Examples areBlackmagic’s £1,565 ATEM pro-duction switcher; JVC’s £1,890GY-HM150E 3x1/4-inch CCDcamcorder; Matrox’s US$495MC-100 dual SDI to HDMI converter; NewTek’s £16,000Tricaster 450 four-input virtualstudio; Polecam’s £6,000 StarterPack portable camera crane;Rode’s £450 NTG-3 shotguncapacitor microphone; andRoland’s £350 R-26 6-channelaudio recorder.

For an encore, IBC exhibitorEditshare was promoting thecompatibility of its networkedservers with the essentially freeLightworks Open Source non -linear video editor. And yes, theApple community did coincideits Amsterdam Final Cut ProUser Group Network meetingwith IBC, open to all comers atthe Krasnapolsky from 7pm to11pm on the Sunday.

Do trade conventions likeIBC still have a role in anincreasingly internet-connectedworld? The show’s healthy attendance figures strongly sug-gest that they do. Search engineshave their advantages when you are hunting for new broad-cast products and new techno -logy. But it takes an IBC or anNAB show to put the whole lotinto focus. IBC returns to theAmsterdam RAI Centre 6-11September 2012. Rehearsal will be held at the Las VegasConvention Center, Nevada, 14-19 April 2012.

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The businessof broadcasting

Roland’s £350 R-26 6-channel audio recorder




Condensing IBC2011 into a few shortsummaries, broadcasters mustswallow the tablets; contentstorage has a cloudy future; thespectrum shuffle is pure poker;public service broadcasters are anendangered species; streaming andquality broadband are the hot bets;3D is struggling to hit consistentquality; standards bodies areplaying a blinder; and, 4K andfaster frame rates sit in the wings.Analysis by George Jarrett

An IBC attendance of 50,000media professionals saw lightsshone on mobile interactive socialconnected media, and on awe-some prospects like 4K 3Dmovies shot at 60fps, but it wasclear that demanding quantumtechnology jumps in every sectorof the industry is a different gameto identifying how they willimpact exactly.

This is where tracking whatSMPTE, the EBU, the DVB andkey industry players gave to theevent brings a bubbling — underperspective to match with themajor product launches, likeSony’s 4K camera. The time has

come for the industry to drop outand see what condition it’s in,something SMPTE and the EBUplan to achieve through the scientifically inspired Forum onEmerging Media Technologies,set for 13-15 May in Geneva [forwhich TVBEurope will be an offi-cial Media Partner].

According to SMPTE Presi -dent Peter Lude, “We will look atmotion picture technology due tocome out of the labs in the nextfive years. We are collaboratingwith the EBU because interoper-ability is the way forward. Expectnewer standards after the revela-tions and debates. Leveraging ITtechnology may be the biggesttrend out there.”

One of the key questions washow the forum might challengeIBC editorially.

“We do not intend to competewith the IBC Conference. Theforum offers a positive and value-added event, and it also offers a

different yet complementary per-spective: a longer-term, futuristview across the digital mediaecosystem to help facilitate shorter-term strategic business decision-making,” explained SMPTEExecutive Director Barbara Lange.

“We believe no other organisa-tion has targeted this perspective,and that the forum will uniquelybe able to assist business and tech-nology leaders endeavouring toassess near-term investments forlonger-term growth,” she added.

Taking the right partnersThe EBU and SMPTE, in tandemwith AMWA, and the EBU inpartnership with AMWA wereresponsible for two of the biggeststories to break at IBC. The first— the trio agreeing formally to co-operate on future media rel -ated software standards, and on

establishing closer end user linksto speed up ratification — hap-pened at an IBC meeting chairedby Hans Hoffmann, the EBU’s

head of media fundamentals andproduction technology, and alsoSMPTE VP of Engineering.

“Our aim is to identify com-mon points where we have issuesto resolve. Digital workflows arehigh on the agenda, as are theevolution of media, new innova-tive technologies, identifying thebest user input, software life cyclemanagement, and moving thestandards process to meet thedemands of the market,” he said.

“We need to get better andfaster here,” Hoffmann added. “Itis important to understand thatnon standards setting organisa-tions can do good work in a rapidmanner in terms of providing aspec and also an implementation.However, normally due to the rap-id implementation and workwhich is done it never does under-go a very detailed technical

review. This is what you need inorder to maintain and guaranteeinteroperability, and it is the highadded value that a standards body(SMPTE) brings to the game.”

Speaking for the AdvancedMedia Workflow Association(AMWA), Executive DirectorBrad Gilmer said: “As a tradeassociation we very much benefitfrom our partnership with theEBU because it gives us verystrong user representation. Interms of SMPTE, we highly valuethe pier review process it provides.

“There are clear benefits thateach organisation brings to thetable, and when people hearabout the agreement they willask why didn’t we do it before,”he added.

The AMWA, EBU, andSMPTE management teamsalready have several meetingsscheduled. Asked if membershipresponses to the partnership hadbeen positive, Hoffmann said:“Generally speaking, the indus-try approves when like-mindedgroups agree to work together tocreate solutions that benefit theuser community. We’re nowworking to facilitate means bywhich members of the user com-munity can contribute to thisvital effort.”

Essential to workflowsIBC saw the introduction of V1.0of FIMS — an SOA with the full name of Framework forInteroperable Media Services —and it was industry veteran AlKovalick, now a strategist withAvid, who described it as “totallyessential for our industry to suc-ceed in terms of making flexible,agile workflows.

“I can see FIMS growing tohundreds of services because it isreally a framework of plumbingto get things started,” he added.

At present FIMS only supportsingest, transform, and transfer,and Gilmer hinted at its beta statusand the inspiration for theSMPTE/EBU/AMWA partner-ship when he said: “The industrywill not wait in this area for somehuge standard that takes threeyears to write. There is a lot ofdemand for a framework and forsome common service definitionsright now, so the approach we aretaking is putting a stake in theground,” he added. “We are goingto establish some fundamentals,and we have also released a secondrequest for technology.”

The result of this will drive phasetwo of FIMS. “We are going to turnthe crank,” said Gilmer. “My wholepoint is that rather than taking sev-eral years to write some huge mono-lithic standard, we are going to pub-lish and iterate, increasing the rich-ness as we go along.”

Asked if adopting the Autodeskmodel of multiple software releasesover years will work, Kovalick pro-vided reassurance. “I cannot seeany other solution on the drawingboard that even comes close towhat FIMS promises,” he said.“The fact that it is vendor neutral isgreat for the whole industry.”

The DVB’s Lite VersionThe DVB had a great IBC withSony agreeing to manufacture aDVB-C2 modulator and Russiaannouncing that it will adoptDVB-T2 nationally. Biggest inter-est focused on T2 Lite, publishedon 7 July as a subset of the 1.3version of the DVB-T2 standard.

“It is basically a very youngchild,” said DVB Executive DirectorPeter Siebert. “It offers all the ele-ments relevant for a mobile/portable

Peter Siebert on T2 Lite: “It isbasically a very young child”

IBC and the digital rippleStandards & Workflows

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First formal meeting of the EBU, SMPTE and AMWA: (L-R) Lieven Vermaele, Barbara Lange, Brad Gilmer and Hans Hoffmann


“The digital dividend is good, but even if youused the whole broadcasting spectrum you wouldnot match the need and demand we will have in10 years” — Ingrid Deltenre, EBU


environment, and it also puts arestriction on the bit rate. The result-ing consequences are that the chipsetfor implementing T2 Lite can be significantly smaller than the chip set for the base standard.”

T2 Lite is kind to mobile bat-tery life. Best of all — or worst ofall according to some people wor-ried about the bitrate implications— it is easy to integrate with exist-ing broadcast networks.

“Together with the downselection and restriction of T2Lite it makes it very easy and costefficient to build up a mobile net-work based on an existing infra-structure, said Siebert. “As withT2, Lite is a very spectrum effi-cient transmission scheme.”

The subset has two additionalcode rates required for forwarderror correction management.

T2 Lite was the subject of anexcellent BBC R&D demonstra-tion fronted by Lead EngineerJustin Mitchell, who explainedthat the BBC had begun testtransmission and reception trialson 7 July from White City. Nopublished results are expectedthough until March.

“There are lots of ways of con-figuring T2 Lite. The normal UKmode is about 40Mbps and wereduced that down to 33Mbps forthe R&D base, which probably costsyou one HD service,” Mitchell said.“We then use those 7Mbps to get 1Mbps of mobile service. The reasonit is 7:1 is that the mobile serviceneeds to be much more robust.

“We use QPSK and code ratehalf whereas the base T2 serviceuses 256 QAM rate two 2/3,” headded. “T2 Lite might enable youto start transmissions of a mobile

service without having to buildout an entire new network.”

The part of the trial that drewmost questions was the BBC’sassessment of how many fill-intransmitters would be needed toclose gaps. “You would not coverthe whole country with a mobileservice with our existing broadcastnetwork,” agreed Mitchell. “Oneof our main aims is to identify howmany fill-in transmitters we wouldneed, and the cost implications.”

Phase 2a 3DTV promisedOn the last day of IBC, the DVBcommercial module group look-ing into a Phase 2 3DTV standardmet to consider ideas it has beenconsidering, starting with sharperpictures through full L/R HDquality. The other main new ele-ment was Depth Range Control— an adjustment that consumerswould select from their remotecontrol device. This would requirethe transmission of two depthmaps, which raises bit rate issues.

The commercial module,chaired by EBU Deputy DirectorDavid Wood, also looked at pre-ferred picture quality based on Blu-ray technology (for service compat-ibility) as well as the MVC elementof Blu-ray. It also considered theuse of top up signals by broadcast-ers with a Phase 1 system in place.

Wood reported: “On 13September we agreed the draftrequirements for a Phase 2a 3DTVbroadcast system, which will be service compatible. This meansthat although a new receiver or set-top box will be needed for Phase 2,existing HDTV receivers will see anormal 2D picture. We are askingfor this specification to be availableby June 2012. In the meeting, we understood that at least one

broadcaster will use it as soon as it isavailable. We continue work on aPhase 2b system, which will add a topup signal to a Phase 1 signal to givefull bandwidth L and R images.”

Don’t mention the spectrum warIt was Gary Shapiro, president andCEO of the Consumer ElectronicsAssociation, who identified that,“The biggest issue without questionis the availability of spectrum.”

Interviews in the IBC DailyExecutive Summary cover a number of vested interest view-points on spectrum management,and the potential uses of whitespace, but during IBC it was EBU Director General IngridDeltenre who cut to the chaseand called for 3GPP to work

closely with broadcasters, andrethink its shunning of the DVBback in March.

“We have to talk and we have tofind solutions together to solve thedemand for linear and nonlinearmedia usage in the future. Stake -holders must work together ontechnical solutions, innovation and

integration,” Deltenre said. “Weneed a quantum leap.”

“The digital dividend is good,but even if you used the wholebroadcasting spectrum you wouldnot match the need and demandwe will have in 10 years. Thegrowth is there for tablets andsmart phones, and it will grow rap-idly. Broadcasting and mobilebroadband networks have a futuretogether,” she added. “It is notabout fighting against each otherand trying to weaken one to theadvantage of the other one. That’snot going to happen.”

The digital rippleKey contributors to and IBC inretrospect discussion were SMPTEPresident Peter Lude, HowardLukk, VP of digital production at

Walt Disney Studios, and ChrisJohns, chief engineer, Sky.

Lukk chose the choice betweenshooting 3D natively and convert-ing from 2D. “I think it is a lameargument to compare the two anymore. It is like the old argument ofdo we shoot on film or digital. It istwo different tool sets and looks,and people should start to look atthem as separate options,” he said.

“You do one or the other, andactually look at a combination. Ithink conversion is fine if you spendthe money and time properly, to thesame level as shooting with twocameras. It is something we shouldstop arguing about,” he added.

Asked what he sees across theindustry, he said: “A massive par-adigm shift to the whole digitalworld. There is a digital ripple allthe way through the whole film-making process.”

Johns went for context. “If youlook just over three years ago 3Dwas not a twinkle in anybody’s eyes,and where was the iPad? Nowadays,if you don’t have an entertainmentsystem that supports iPad, tele -phony, broadband and 3D you arebehind the times,” he said.

“A quantum leap is required,and the digital age is going tomean that things happen so fastthat there will probably be otherhuge great steps that suddenlyhappen that we cannot even startto envisage now,” he added.

Lude also went for context.“Look back 10 years and manu-facturers were pretty clearlydefined. Now we are movingtowards commodity tools. Thequestion comes down to where in


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By David StewartDuring the IBC2009 show inAmsterdam, Oli Hentschel fromDraka and Mark Richards fromFischer Connectors in the UKdecided over a beer and chat toimprove the transmission distancesfor triax cables in the predominant‘HD-Ready’ environment at thetime. The concept: an optimisedcable, not much thicker than a triax 11 cable, that is still easy totransport and doesn’t take up anyadditional space on the cable reel.With it an adapted triax plug thatmatches the current Fischer 1051A004-9, without the extra expenseof developing a new housing.

With fibre as the promise forthe advancing HD roll, Triax’sweakness until a couple of yearsago was that of transmission dis-tances. Back in 2009, triax cablewith an HD camera (such as theGV LDK8000) was only capableof transmitting up to a maximumdistance of 800m without arepeater. On the other hand, evenat that time a SMPTE cable

could easily do 5km with virtuallyno loss.

Draka and Fischer decided tolevel the playing field. From aninformal exchange of ideas, and areview to treat the issue from a‘total connectivity viewpoint’ thefirst cable and plug drawings wereprepared in cooperation betweenDraka and Fischer in February2010. In April the two companiesput together a test setup with acable length of 1,500m. The calcu-lated damping values promised atheoretical performance sufficientfor 30% more cable length. Butwould this work in the field?Gregor Mucha of Magic Media inLeipzig organised a special broad-cast vehicle test. The results werewell within the initial target range— and in some ways even better.

Enter Grass Valley. Draka andFischer first introduced the newTriax HD Pro+ solution to thiscamera manufacturer. With itscamera, a model LDK8000, theyalso achieved the outstanding performance values over lengths

of 1,500m. In fact, an optimumimage quality could even beachieved over a distance of 2,000mwith the help of a triax repeater.

In August at Sony UK, therange was even 50% greater withthe company’s triax camera. After

these successes, Draka and Fischersensed that the triax market wouldexperience a mid-life kicker (notbad after 70 years or more), andthat this old mainstay of sportsTV and OB connectivity had thechance to become a competitor tofibre in HD broadcast environ-ments. (Incidentally, in a previouslife, Grass Valley was one of theearly inventors of Triax cables asfar back as the 1940s).

Last year at IBC2010, theTRIAX HD Pro+ connectivitysolution brought Draka andFischer a ‘TVBEurope’s Best ofIBC2010 Editors’ Awards’ awardfor innovation and cost-effective-ness. As well as Grass Valley,Sony, Hitachi and Ikegami werealso upbeat about the new solu-tion. In April this year GrassValley, with its new 3G digital tri-ax camera, the LDK 8000 3G,was able to demonstrate thatsuperb transmission over dis-tances of 1,500m is achievable.

During the summer of 2011,Grass Valley, Draka and Fischerhit the road together to showbroadcast pro’s that triax will con-tinue to play its part in 1080i, 720p,1080p 50/60, and keep camera crewin their comfort zone with good,reliable triax cabling that does thejob up to 1,700m. They are con-vinced that far greater transmissionlengths can still be achieved and thepartners are comfortable aboutbeating the 2,000m benchmark.

Triax goes the distance

our systems can we take advantageof high power GPUs,” he said.

A lot of opinion pointed to 4Kbeing the next impact technology,and Lude was the most gung ho.“4K is already on the surface incinema and I think it is headingthat way for consumers. There areno standards in place for making3D in 4K, and I think how quicklythat happens depends on marketacceptance,” he said. “There is adebate right now about should wedo 3D in higher frame rates, shouldwe do 3D in 4K, or should we doboth? There is going to be a veryinteresting decision over the nextsix months.”

An account of extra functionality in transmission distances being achieved by Draka, Fischer Connectors and Grass Valley

Gary Shapiro: “The biggest issue without question is theavailability of spectrum”

Oli Hentschel from Draka (pictured)agreed with Mark Richards fromFischer Connectors to improve the transmission distances for triax cables in the predominant ‘HD-Ready’ environment




Since vendors tend to gear theirbig releases for the US marketevery April, IBC organisers wise-ly decided to take its conferenceline-up more centre stage. That’scertainly true for IBC2011 wherethe headlines were generated bykeynote acts with few technologysurprises on the showfloor. IBCremains, though, the pre-eminentplace for Europeans to get a firstchance to see kit trailed at NAB.

“We view NAB and IBC ascomplimentary in that weannounced many new develop-ments in April but at IBC you areseeing them fleshed out with afuller spec, pricing and imminentshipping dates,” spelled outOlivier Bovis, general managerfor content creation, SonyProfessional Europe. “Our devel-opments in OLED, digital 35mm,3D and 4K are all about extend-ing the ‘beyond HD’ story and wearen’t just talking about it — theyare all ready to go from here.”

Sony’s F65 CineAlta, whichsamples data from its 20Megapixel sensor to 4K, is pricedat a competitive €38,000 with 70pre-orders worth nearly €7 mil-lion taken at the show. Band ProMunich acquired 50 (to go withthe 70 its US operation ordered)while Top Teks and CVP Groupwill bank 10 each.

Top Teks has since addedanother 10 selling onto hire companies Movietech, Ice Film,

Films@59 and Cineworks, whichhave TV clients. “The initialrequirements are in feature filmand commercials but due to theF65’s pricing and feature I wouldsee that coming down to tele -vision,” observed Top Teks MDMike Thomas.

Sony was able to flesh out theF65’s workflow. The 16-bit linearRAW is recorded to the dockableSR-R4 deck which accepts256GB-1TB SRMemory cardswhich in turn can write thetremendous amount of data

generated by the camera at speedsof 5.5GB a second. Those cardscan then be plugged into an SR-PC4 transfer unit from whicha laptop or tablet can be used to select material for speedyingest into a dailies system orpost house for finishing. Sonyhas released an SDK which anumber of third parties have tak-en advantage of including AJA,Apple, Avid, Filmlight, Fotokem,Assimilate and Pixel Farm totake files from the SR-PC4 intopost applications.

“It means production teamsand post houses can incorporateF65 directly into the workflowsthey are accustomed to,” saidPeter Sykes, Sony’s strategic mar-keting manager for digital cine-matography who notes that thecamera can also be switched toshoot HD.

While a RAW 4K acquisitionwill get delivered as 1080p onHDCAMSR to broadcasters andwill be further crushed on trans-mission, interestingly Thomassees a future of such high endimagery in TV on-demand.

“More programming will bedelivered to home media centresas downloads where it is notrestricted by transmission anddata rates,” he said. “This is whywe see 4K being effectively thenew HD and that requests forhigher and higher image qualitywill grow.”

The F65 launches in Januaryinto a digital film market domi-nated by Red and Arri, both cam-eras strongly favoured in 2D and3D features and, increasingly,broadcast drama. Films@59, forexample, has supplied a dozenAlexas to the sets of Doctor Whoand Casualty. Roger Deakinsselected the camera to shoot thein-production Sam Mendes-directed Bond movie.

The latest in the range, ship-ping December, is the AlexaStudio which features an opticalviewfinder for higher resolution,higher contrast image and a 4:3 sensor, which Arri ProductManager, Cameras and Lenses,Marc Shipman-Mueller saidmakes it the only digital camera

to boast anamorphic capability.Anamorphic lenses create aunique look, and cannot be creat-ed in post. Orders from 24-7Drama (part of Visual Impact)and Take 2 are among the first forthe unit.

The Cameron–Pace Group(CPG) has taken exclusive delivery of multiple prototypes ofthe Alexa M, dubbed ‘MarieAntoinette’ by the Arri teambecause the ‘M’ is an Alexa,which has had its optical headdivorced from its body to facili-tate greater mobility for 3D work.

“The ‘M’ has been developedby Arri with heavy input fromCPG while CPG has devised a rigwith heavy input from Arri,” saidShipman-Mueller pointing to aCPG rig mounted with Alexa’s onthe stand and possibly the onlyCPG kit in IBC. CPG is workingto integrate the Fusion 3D systemwith the camera and, while notconfirmed, it would seem to beearmarked for shooting theAvatar sequels.

Show debutsTwo genuine IBC debuts aredesigned to offer high-end digitalfilm capture and hi-speed record-ing in the same unit. They bothseem to have emerged from thesame brainstorming session atP+S Technik/Weisscam, but withthe participants disagreeing onfinal execution. P+S Technik’sPS-Cam X35 can record Super-35mm quality synced with soundas well as frame rates from 1-450fpsfor shooting motion effects suchas time-lapse or slow motion.“We’re used to shooting the bulk

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IBC Production Village: At the top of the scale boasting 16 times the ‘K’ of HD is Super Hi-Vision, still pushed as a broadcast format by NHK

IBC flesh for production workflowsAdrian Pennington reflects on the latest developments in high-end acquisition, cinematography and 3D production from Amsterdam




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of any project on a main camera(Alexa, Epic or F3 for example)and then bringing out the highspeed cameras for those few spe-cial shots that we know we justcan’t get any other way,”explained filmmaker Joel Bergvallwho has tested the product. “Theidea with the X35 is that this willbe your A-camera, capable ofshooting your entire project at24fps (or 23.98, 25, 30, 60 orwhatever standard you like) aswell as all your high speed shots.If your A-camera can do 450fpsyou probably won’t need to bringan extra camera out for the highspeed stuff.”

It is the first camera that is a100% P+S Technik product andcosts €59,900 for 9GB memory or€76,900 for a 36GB version. Itpreviously co-developed highspeed cameras with Weisscamwhich had a prototype of aremarkably similar concept dis-played on the Band Pro booth.The T-1, due this winter, has a 2/3-inch CCD with a B-mount forsports and broadcast and canrecord 1-350fps. A 4K version withPL mount is also being readied.

“It is much smaller than the P+S model, more suitable for crane, steadicam and 3Dwork,” said Seth Emmons, mar-keting manager for Band Pro.Apparently Vince Pace of CPGfame had stopped by and showedinterest in the broadcast product.

At NAB Sony had put greatstress on the amount of special‘K’ its new camera’s sensors couldrecord. In contrast the Alexa isnominally 3K-3.5K and the PS-Cam X35 ‘just’ HD 1080p.However image capture at thisrange is about far more than sam-pling raw resolution and oftencomes down to the subjective‘look’ of the pictures in the eyesof a cinematographer.

“In the run up to the Alexa’sdevelopment we asked manyrespected cinematographers what

is more important for them: moreKs or better latitude (dynamicrange) and more sensitivity andtheir answers were unquestion-ably: more latitude, wider colourgamut, more sensitivity,” saidMilan Krsljanin, Arri’s directorof group business development.“Some manufacturers are drivingtheir offerings in that direction(greater K) perhaps believing thatthe higher resolution capture willimprove their competitiveness.”

It’s a point that Sony is alsonow keen to de-emphasise.

“There is a lot of discussionabout resolution but what wefound when we showed F65 pic-tures to cinematographers is thatthey look at the overall quality oflatitude, detail, highlights andlow light, colour rendition andnoise performance,” said Sykes.“It is not just about resolution butoverall performance.”

At the top of the scale boast-ing 16 times the ‘K’ of HD isSuper Hi-Vision that continues tobe pushed as a broadcast formatby NHK. Live transmissions

from Broadcasting House wereshown alongside an 8-channelswitcher and slow-motion replaysystem making a live productionof sports events such as theOlympics 2012 a possibility.

3D broadcastingThanks to the presence of James Cameron who, with VincePace, made at least six publicappearances, 3DTV broadcast-ing was arguably the main themeat the show. The central message was that if 3D is to go mass

market then a hardboiled busi-ness model needs cementing.The emphasis at IBC was on theproduction aspect of that modelin acknowledgement that with-out practical and inexpensivetechnology and workflows thecontent gap needed for 3D chan-nels will not be filled.

“The current phase of 3Dbegan with the clunky, cabled andcomplex approach,” noted Sony’ssenior VP of engineering andSMPTE President PeterLude in a con-ference ses-sion examin-ing 3D’s future.“We are now intophase two whichis about greaterautomation andcomputer analy-sis with the aimof making it eas-ier to use rigs,correct errors andreduce manual convergence.”

He continued: “It should bepossible for a computer system tonetwork together multiple cam-eras arrayed around a stadia andto toe-in those cameras at thesame time to keep the object atthe same convergence point sothat when cutting there is no dis-comfort for the viewer.”

That is something that CPG,3ality Technica and others are working toward in the outside

broadcast environment althoughthe substitution of all convergenceops and stereographers by machines,which appears to be CPG’s line inthe interests of economic efficiency,is one bone of contention.

“Just as you wouldn’t replacethe creative skill of a camera oper-ator who is framing a scene inaccordance with the context of theaction in front of them, so a con-vergence puller’s critical judge-ment can’t be easily replaced,”

insisted Stereo grapherRichard Hingley. “The

skill of a


“More programming will be delivered to homemedia centres as downloads, where it is notrestricted by transmission and data rates. Thisis why we see 4K being effectively the new HD”— Mike Thomas, Top Teks

Sony’s F65 CineAlta, whichsamples data from its 20megapixel sensor to 4K, received70 pre-orders worth nearly€7 million taken at the show




convergence puller comes fromusing their own eyes to judgewhether the vision is comfortable.”

Evolutionary ladderGreater automation and moreagile kit is needed and inevitableand there is an argument,acknowledged even by their man-ufacturers, that stereo rigs are arung on an evolutionary ladder.“Rigs are large, cumbersome andheavy and a greater degree of elec-tronics will help streamline thesystems but quality stereo workcan only be achieved using top ofthe range imagers and mirror sys-tems which give a wide range ofinteraxial distance and control,”observed Florian Schaefer, prod-uct specialist at P+S Technik.

The counter argument can beheard from companies like MeduzaSales, which has begun takingorders for its dual lens 4K-capableimager although cinematographershave yet to provide public feedback.

“It’s clear that rigs have a limitedlifespan,” claimed CEO Chris Cary.“Today’s S3D rigs are great cousinsof the ones invented in 1905. Theindustry needs to move on and find

the next generation, which in ourview is portable, high resolution, truly flexible systems. The cameracan be configured according to theelectronics in the head,” he explain ed.“So we can configure a 1080, 180fpsversion, for example, with output viaHDSDI or fibre just as easily as ahead that can shoot 4K.”

Panasonic says it has no interestin allying with a rig developer and is also strategising for a day whenrigs become obsolete. “Our startingpoint is to make 3D acquisition easyand mobile,” European ProductManager Rob Tarrant stated.“That’s what we are doing with ourfirst generation of integrated 3D

cameras. With our range you get eas-ier operation, mobile operation andtruer 3D because the interaxial dis-tance mirrors what we naturally see.”

Panasonic now has three inte-grated camcorders on the market,the latest of which the HDC-Z10000 prosumer unit includes a‘black box’ technology which makesit seem like the interaxial distancebetween the fixed lenses are adjust-ed during the shoot.

“One of the issues with twin lenscameras is the fixed interaxial whichthis macro convergence functionhelps overcome,” Tarrant added.“With it we can shoot objects asclose as 45cm from the lens.”

Sony’s first professional inte-grated camcorder, the shouldermounted PMW-TD300 is alsoshipping priced around €25,000and with an optional wireless linkpermitting remote control byMPE-200 processor. Devised byBroadcast RF, the link will makepitchside steadicam action morefeasible, and is something thatPanasonic does not yet offer.

Presteigne Charter made the firstpurchase in Europe of this unit andwill put the RF functionality to test.According to Sony’s 3D sports expert

Mark Grinyer: “By using the link, thecamcorder effectively looks to a con-vergence operator in a OB truck as ifit were a 3D rig. This is somethingthat live 3D sports productions inparticular have been crying out for.”

Rig designRig manufacturers continue to tinkerwith design to aid ease of use. P+STechnik was showing an adjustableriser as an accessory, which enablesFreestyle rigs to be tilted up anddown. For live OBs the rig can now

be integrated with Sony’s MPE-200and HDFA-200 fibre multiplexer sothat all the rig parameters includingpower, sync and genlock can be man-aged by a single cable.

Fellow European rig vendorswere also showing expanded rangesusually with lightweight versions forsteadicam and sturdier ones formounting heavier camera configura-tions. As one IBC visitor put it theEU manufacturers “are finally start-ing to pull themselves out of the hob-by market, to build a few rigs and rentthem into a proper business world.”

For example, the ProductionRig from Germany’s Screen Planeis now being manufactured andsold by Austrian lens control spe-cialists Cmotion with a compactStead-Flex rig available from yearend. Similar to the P+S riser, thetilt angle of the Production Rigcan be adjusted from the rig’s centre of gravity in increments of2.5˚. It can also be side-mountedon an accessory devised by Italianfirm Cartoni for even greater tilt range.

“By using the link, the camcorder effectivelylooks to a convergence operator in a OB truck asif it were a 3D rig. This is something that live3D sports productions in particular have beencrying out for” — Mark Grinyer, Sony


IBC flesh forworkflows

Marc Shipman-Mueller pictured with Alura lenses: “The ‘M’ has been developed by Arri with heavy input from CPG while CPG has devised a rig with heavy input from Arri”


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Binocle’s Brigger I and its bigger brotherBrigger II are well respected but still largelyconfined to the French feature and TV mar-ket. They are being put to use on an ambi-tious semi-fictional feature in the Amazon.

After two years R&D, Bournemouth’sTeletest launched the Binorig, at €10,000claimed to be the world’s most affordable.“We designed a complete package con-tained in two flight cases for stereographersor cameramen with little experience shoot-ing S3D,” said MD Nick Rose. “It producesimages which are as good as those producedby rigs costing 10 times the price.”

The star wattage of Cameron–Pace’sIBC presence masked the fact that CPG

wasn’t actually exhibiting. It inadvertentlymasked a little of what could have beenIBC’s biggest 3D news, which was themerger of 3Ality Digital with ElementTechnica announced just a week before.

The benefits of the marriage, whichunites ET machining with 3Ality softwareengineering, was demonstrated with SonyF3s mounted on a ET Pulsar connected toa SIP and showing a wide range of data.“It’s great for our customers who havebeen mixing the two technologies anyway,but they had to integrate them themselves.Now we can offer them fully integratedtechnology,” said 3ality Technica CEOSteve Schklair.



By Adrian PenningtonIn the show’s biggest news impactingOutside Broadcasters (signed literally aday before IBC), CPG flagged a part-nership with Grass Valley which will seethem jointly develop equipment andequip new scanners. CPG runs threededicated mobile units and has a stockof 100 3D camera systems in the US butits GV pairing will enable it to export itsShadow systems and business modelinto Europe. [Ed Note: See also DavidFox’s GVG story, page 31.]

“Our message is that you can use ourequipment for 3D just the same as for2D — there are no special bolt-ons,” saidGrass Valley 3D specialist Lyle VanHorn. “For example, we have internalflipping of the image, standard on ourLDK 8000 series cameras, so there is noexternal processing needed to flip theimage and put another kink in the chainwhen mounting on a beam splitter rig.

“The Kayanne and Karrera switchersprocess each eye as two separate 2Dstreams paired, so an operator is usingthe same standard set of buttons forboth 2D and 3D. 3D is complex enoughwithout adding a separate set of equip-ment to do the same job which is why wehave the only Super Slo-Motion system,which again handles both 3D and 2Dsources with the same hardware (a com-bination of the Summit server and Dynoreplay control system),” said Van Horn.

The view that 3D rigs have a limitedlifespan for non-live projects at least wasgiven heavyweight support by WaltDisney Studios’ VP production technol-ogy Howard Lukk. “There are enoughthings for the DoP, director and cameraoperators to try to track on the set as itis, without having to track interaxial and

convergence,” he argued. “We are mak-ing it more complicated on the set, whereI think it needs to be less complicated.”

Lukk suggested a hybrid approachthat would supplement a 2D camerawith smaller ‘witness’ cameras to pick upthe 3D volumes, then apply algorithmsat a VFX or a conversion house to cre-ate the 3D and free the filmmaker fromcumbersome on-set equipment. It issomething that Disney is researching.

Related developments include picturestitching in which images from multiple HDcameras are ‘sewn’ together to generate apanoramic view of a field of play that canthen be ‘zoomed’ into by an operator, orpotentially by individual viewers.Fraunhofer HII, Sony and Belgium start-up Carmargus were all demonstrating vari-ants, with Sony’s the most advanced andnow integrated with data tracking software.

The enriching of live feeds with real-time data over IP will be an increasinglyregular feature of televised sports.Viewers will also soon be able to interactwith the action directly via tablet byselecting to watch views and replaysfrom half a dozen point of view camerasringed around stadia.

The technology is already possible, asEVS demonstrated of an AustralianRules football match it produced forChannel Nine and arguably onlyrequires a solid business model for it tospread. HBS, the host broadcaster forFIFA, is examining the concept.

These initiatives could break the pat-tern of sports broadcasts established andunbroken for 60 years by providing gen-uinely immersive viewer involvement. Inthat context the new wave of 3D looks alittle prosaic since it still hinges on abroadcaster calling the shots.

3D: Cameron, Pace, Lukk, EVS, Fraunhofer and picturestitching

Howard Lukk: “There are enough things for the DoP, director and camera operators to track on the set as it is, without having to track interaxial and convergence”




Following its acquisition byFrancisco Partners on 1 January,2011 has seen a resurgent GrassValley focus on expansion throughinvestment in R&D and its ownacquisitions, most recently of playoutspecialist PubliTronic. David Foxanalyses the varied and ambitiousIBC-time moves from GVG

Grass Valley has a new CEO anda new confidence after recentyears of uncertainty as it waitedfor someone to buy it fromTechnicolor. While it will remain amainstream broadcast business, ithas identified key growth areas andstrategies that have already result-ed in new offerings.

GVG saw a huge opportunity in integrated playout, as 90% offacilities that could use such systems

have yet to buy them, and AlainAndreoli, president and CEO,believes such systems will become the norm within the next five years.So, in October, Grass Valley boughtPubliTronic, the privately heldDutch-based provider of multichan-nel automated playout systems.

“When we decided to expandour playout offerings to include an integrated approach, we had a choice: do it on our own orinvest through an acquisition,”said Andreoli.

He had evaluated several com-panies as possible takeover targets,but concluded that PubliTronicoffered the most modern approachand had core technology thatcould be used in other products.

“As we learned more aboutPubliTronic’s technology and

people, it became very clear that acombination of our talents andresources could allow us to offerinnovative and compelling prod-ucts to our customers quickly,” hesaid. Its first product, the K2Edge server, “is a sophisticatedand very powerful multichannel,integrated, automated playoutsystem that delivers benefits toour customers from day one.”

While admitting that there arebenefits for some facilities invest-ed in traditional playout auto -mation to continue with thatapproach, Grass Valley arguesthat it is too expensive and un -necessarily complex for many. A fully integrated system not onlyoffers a lower initial capital cost,but total cost of ownership isreduced by streamlining the play-

out workflow as each tool (server,graphics, master control, and theautomation system) is integratedand built to work together.However, this is more than just asimple channel-in-a-box, as it cancope with even the biggest multi-channel operations.

PubliTronic started in 1997developing some of the earliestintegrated playout systems, prima-rily for the European market, andsaw its revenues double in each ofthe last several years. Its systemsnow range from small disasterrecovery solutions to addressingthe needs of large multichannelservice providers. It has aninstalled base of more than 800 on-air channels, with customerssuch as Red Bee Media, Encompass,Nickelodeon, the BBC, andTurner. It sees its main competitorsas Miranda’s iTX and Snell’sMorpheus ICE for larger facilities,and PlayBox for smaller installa-tions. All of its 32 employees havejoined Grass Valley.

Leading Edge The new K2 Edge will be the centrepiece of Grass Valley’s inte-grated playout systems. The 1RUdevice costs from $25,000 and is a Linux-based system with a purpose-built, high-availabilityarchitecture for 24/7 playout.

It will be available in three ver-sions: K2 Edge Express, for entrylevel channels with minimalgraphics needs; K2 Edge Pro, formain-line channels with moresophisticated graphics such aspicture-in-picture; and K2 EdgeElite, offering switching for up tofour HD sources and multichan-nel 2D and 3D graphics completewith DVE moves including creditsqueeze. Customers can migratevia a software license to any levelof capability.

Each K2 Edge system includestwo features developed byPubliTronic: the K2 TX/MAM

asset management system, with acentral database, and Cobaltplayout automation software.The MAM server uses a web-based GUI to control all assetsincluding video clips, audio clips,captioning, metadata, and graph-ic elements. Cobalt manages allon-air events and, for increasedreliability, runs independently ofthe database.

To help create the on-air look ofa channel, Grass Valley ChannelComposer (formerly PubliTronicChannel Director) is optional soft-ware that manages the import andanimation of 2D and 3D graphics,creates animations, and linksgraphics templates to data sourcesfor realtime on-air presentation. Itis a fully-integrated channel graph-ics composition and managementtool, running on Windows or Mac,and is integrated with the K2TX/MAM server where templatedgraphics and a data stream can be defined and then referencedtogether as live elements in the on-air playlist.

“The K2 Edge server givesGrass Valley an immediate mar-ket-leading position in the inte-grated playout segment,” saidPubliTronic’s Founder, HaroldVermeulen, now Grass Valley’s VPMedia Playout Solutions. “Withits purpose-built and mission-crit-ical architecture, service providersand broadcasters of all sizes willimmediately be able to benefitfrom the cost savings and opera-tions benefits of the K2 Edge mul-tichannel, integrated, automatedplayout solution.”

“The integrated playout marketis not just about adding a PC to anexisting automation system for clipplayout,” added Charlie Dunn,executive VP, Products and gener-al manager, Editing, Servers &Storage Product Group for GrassValley. “To address our customer’sneeds, we wanted to take a moreintegrated approach, especially inthe area of on-air channel designwith the management of all on-screen elements. That’s what weliked about PubliTronic — theirsystem was integrated and builtfrom the ground up, not some ‘lite’version cut out of a high-end play-out system.”

Grass grows through acquisition, investment

Alain Andreoli is focused on mainstream live production and playout

Plus points: Marcel Koutstaal withthe new LDK 3000+ camera




Evolution not revolutionGrass Valley may be best knownfor hardware, but its future lies as much in software andservices. “We are not movingfrom hardware to software, but to blended solutions,” inareas like media asset manage-ment and multi-channel playout,said Andreoli.

“It looks very much like an ITwave taking the industry by storm.That means the same ingredients:software and services.” Whichmeans that Grass Valley is nolonger selling products but solu-tions, primarily targeting livesports, live entertainment, studioproductions, news and playout.

Although it will continue tomake flagship systems, “we alsoneed the volume product forevery customer. All the technolo-gies have improved. You don’tneed more performance, but needa product that is good enough ata price,” said Andreoli.

“The critical part is to have theright products for the emergingmarkets,” where there are morelikely to be greenfield projectsthat are more open to moving tonew ways of working, but wherecost is an even bigger factor.

One way it is addressing this isthrough Evolution, the touch-screen specialist it acquired earli-er in the year. It created thetouchscreen interfaces for theKayenne and the new Karrera,and Grass Valley will use thetechnology for other products,enabling it to hit lower pricepoints, with further announce-ments at NAB.

It has shown the first iterationof a backup switcher on a touch-screen, “after years of telling peo-ple you need the buttons, so youcan watch the action and intu-itively know where to put yourhands. But there may be applica-tions for simpler interfaces usinga GUI,” he said.

“I believe the switcher is thecritical piece of hardware in live production. As the leader inthis market, we want to staythere, so we have to think later-ally as to where switchers will go— such as touchscreens. Wewant to cover completely theswitcher space, because that isthe hook for everything else forlive production.”

Karrera advancementThe new Karrera live productionswitcher is the long-term replace-ment for the mid-market Kayak,and will come in 4RU or 8RUframes with 1M/E to 4.5M/Es.Either can be combined with achoice of 2- or 3M/E control panelsas well as a 1M/E soft-panel GUI.

It includes features fromKayenne, such as source rules,RGB buttons, key chaining, buslinking, DoubleTake andFlexiKey. “We’re bringing high-end functionality to a mid-rangeprice point,” said Scott Murray,Grass Valley’s senior VP, LiveProduction Solutions.

Its multicolour buttons allowusers to assign different colours tocameras, replay or VTR sources, forease of use, while source rules wouldpermit a remote camera, for exam-ple, to be linked to a key signal, andboth come up at once. “This idea ofmultiple events together in one button push has been only availableon Kayenne so far.”

With pressure to reduce costs,especially in mid market, Murrayclaims that Karrera will allowpeople to operate more efficiently.For example, with multi-languageproduction, the Karrera allowsusers to do two versions with onetruck, where everything is the

same but the graphics, whileDoubleTake lets the M/E chan-nels be split. It can also be inte-grated with other Grass Valleyequipment, and be used to con-trol aspects of its LDK cameras,or work with K2 servers for mul-tiple Clip Store channels.

Workflow managementBeyond switchers, Andreoli’s nextpriority is workflow manage-ment. “Everything is digital files,so how do you manage them?How do you distribute them?How do you automate this so itcosts very little?” He sees Stratus,its media workflow management

system (part of the K2 platform),as the key to this and is focusinga lot of energy on developing itfurther in the coming months.

Today, systems at many of itscustomers operate like islands,and he wants to link them all,particularly with Stratus, whichhas application programminginterfaces to open it up to Avid,Final Cut Pro and other applica-tions, to allow it to exchangefiles easily with all areas of aproduction chain, from editingto playout. “This is what we aredoing already with several cus-

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By David FoxThe Cameron–Pace Group(CPG) bestowed its star poweron several companies at IBC,such as Arri and Calrec, butprobably its most importantannouncement was the forma-tion of an alliance with GrassValley to accelerate the broad-cast industry’s move to 3Dstereoscopic production and toend the need for separate 2Dand 3D crews to cover an event.

CPG and Grass Valley willbe “working together to bringbetter 3D workflows to broad-cast, developing new productsfor the market, and to advanceand promote more efficient andeffective production solutionsin the live 3D sports and enter-tainment broadcasting arena,which is going to benefit all pro-duction and content creationcompanies involved in 3D,”explained Grass ValleyExecutive VP Jeff Rosica.

“The future of 3D is inbroadcast and it’s really goingto explode over the next coupleof years, so we’re scrambling tostay ahead of the rising curve ofdemand,” said James Cameron,CPG’s co-chairman.

“It’s a little bit daunting stay-ing ahead of the rapid rate oftechnology change, so we haveto have powerful alliances withpeople who are major players inbroadcast in order to really beable to fulfil this future and sup-ply the kind of quality 3D enter-

tainment that people are goingto demand,” he added.

CPG has already beeninvolved in about 140 sportsproductions in 3D and 27 fea-ture films, and “we’re on arelentless path to grow the 3Dbusiness. It’s very exciting whatwe’re going to be able to dotogether, in terms of creatingnew products and integratingthem into the workflows. We’vebeen working together for along time and this just formal -ises the relationship.”

The big question for CPG’sother Co-Chairman and CEO,Vince Pace, is: “How are we goingto get all the way through thischallenge of making 3D more

cost-effective and making it moresimilar to the 2D approach?” Oneway is through alliances like thisand CPG’s work with its 5Dtruck, which shoots 2D and 3D atthe same time using a Shadow rigwith 2D and 3D cameras con-trolled by a single 2D operator.“The similarity is the point ofinterest. We all want to see thesame story.” The Shadow rig

reads the 2D telemetry (the focusand the subject distance) andincorporates it in the 3D result.“This is a very cost-effective solu-tion,” and makes it easier to tellthe whole story, with all the cam-eras, in 3D as it would be in 2D.It was used on the US OpenTennis, where the production forCBS used 14 camera systems,nine of which were Shadow rigs.

“We’re not going to increaseyour crew size, we’re not goingto increase your dependency onadditional personnel, and we’regoing to manage those costs sothat when you compare them to the revenue delta, they makesense to you, and that is goodbusiness for us,” he added.

CPG is incorporating GrassValley technologies, includingthe Kayenne switcher, K2servers and K2 Dyno replaycontrollers into its 3D produc-tion truck.

“Our customers want to beready for 3D, but to do it withthe equipment and the peoplethey already have. That is theonly way 3D is going to workand make sense in the televisionbusiness,” said Rosica, whopromised that Grass Valley’scurrent products will support3D with just a simple upgrade.www.cameronpace.com

CPG and GV form 3D alliance

The Shadow alliance: James Cameron and Vince Pace announce the new Cameron–Pace Group deal with Grass Valley at IBC

“It’s a little bit daunting staying ahead of therapid rate of technology change, so we have tohave powerful alliances with people who aremajor players in broadcast in order to really beable to fulfil this future” — James Cameron, CPG


tomers,” but it will take time forthe industry to move. It has justlaunched version 2.0 of Stratus“and will keep upgrading it untilit becomes the one tool to con-nect you.”

Sky Racing, Australia,already uses it to help managemore than 70,000 horse andgreyhound races each year, inte-grating K2, Dyno and Stratusfor clip highlights, rough cutedits and playback in an opensystem integrated with its exist-ing MAM.

Because there is just oneapplication to install, learn, andmaintain, Stratus can reducecosts of entry and enable users

to do more. It allows simple configuration, reduces hardwarerequirements and shortens train-ing cycles.

Media clips can be scheduledfor ingest and stored in differentlocations, and then played back inrealtime from anywhere on theStratus network, from a singlesoftware interface. It can also bescaled down to accommodate asingle user, with a single PC and aK2 Summit server.

It is also tightly integrated withsuch applications as the EdiusNLE, to allow realtime edit-in-place and rendering of effects, aswell as automated playback.

For news production, GrassValley is introducing new Stratusplug-ins for AP’s ENPS andAvid’s iNews systems that allowusers to access Stratus throughthe newsroom computer.

“Stratus builds gatewaysbetween different worlds that wereonce a room or a building apart,”said Dunn. “Now they can all bebrought together at the same userlevel very easily. This allows onestaff member to handle multipletasks, which is becomingmore appealing to mediacompanies, large and small,in all markets.”

Its Service Oriented Archi -tecture should allow Grass Valleyto develop and install new toolsand capabilities quickly and cost-effectively — often a simple soft-ware download. This will alsoenable third-party developers towrite new applications for theStratus framework.

Added functionalityAdding more to existing equip-ment was a big part of Grass

Valley’s offering at IBC. Itsdecade-old Trinix NXT routerscan now be fitted with a high-quality,fully integ -rated

m u l t i -viewer sup -p orting up to3Gbps. This pro-vides up to eightSDI multiviewer monitor out -puts per card — including the ability to monitor audio for each source.

It “is the perfect solution forfacilities and outside broadcastvans with limited rack space,”said Karl Schubert, GrassValley’s senior VP & CTO.“With a fully integrated solu-tion, no addi tional rack spaceand cabling are needed, makingthe Trinix Multi viewer a veryelegant solution.”

Power consumption for eight outputs should be under 75W, and it features: twoMADI inputs for discrete AESaudio monitoring in addition toembedded audio monitoringfrom any source; sophisticatedgraphics, tally (TSL and ImageVideo), and UMD support; signal monitoring, status, and alarming functions; andsupport for Grass Valley control systems. By using the card’s cascade capability, the systemcan support up to 128 images ona single output without rescal-ing the cascaded signals. Userscan also set up a single image tospan multiple monitors.

LDK 3000+ adds CLASSGVG’s camera business hasgrown by 20% this year. “We areprobably the fastest growing cam-era company at the moment,”claimed Andreoli at IBC.

The new LDK 3000+ camerais based on its successful LDK3000, with additional features,but at the same price. It adds secondary colour correction and CLASS (Chromatic LensAberration and SharpnessSolution) for improved imagequality. “It delivers about 40%uplift in sharpness, especially inthe corners,” explained MarcelKoutstaal, SVP and GM CameraProduct Group.

A typical LDK3000+ con -figuration lists at €60,309,including camera head, triaxcamera adapter, 2-inch view -finder, base station, OCP400and tripod adapter. ExistingLDK 3000 owners can add allthe plus points for about €3,000as a field upgrade.

There is also a new €14,499 9-inch LCD colour viewfinder(LDK 5309/10) for its LDK cameras. For fine focus it canzoom to pixel-for-pixel size. Italso has three rotary controlsand four buttons (assignable fordifferent camera controls), plusmore flexible mounting options.www.grassvalley.com

By David FoxDutchView, the Netherlands’leading broadcast and facilitiescompany, is building two new3D-ready, 3Gbps outsidebroadcast trucks designed withthe environment in mind.

The 12m 12-camera trucks,with dual expanding sides, willeach cost €2.3 million (excludingcameras), with the first due to enterservice this month — the other willbe delivered next summer.

It has also signed a five-yearexclusive vendor contract withGrass Valley for cameras, switch-ers, routers, and servers, whichincludes up to 70 cameras, with24 LDK 8000 Elite camerasalready delivered for the trucks,which will also use the new 3GTransmission system. “We’vebeen a Grass Valley customer formany years,” said DutchViewCTO, Dave Nijmeijers. “We have been working for manyyears with Grass Valley switchersand routers, and still think theyare the best for different types of programmes.”

The trucks will be fitted withthe new Karrera 3Gbps produc-tion switcher, chosen partlybecause it is 3D ready, plus aMultiviewer-equipped Trinix

NXT router, which he said is “sta-ble and easy to set up.” They willalso have 62-channel Studer Vista9 audio consoles, plus Riedelwireless and wired intercom sys-tems, which he called “the bestintercoms at the moment.”

It is also using a RiedelMediorNet, chosen becausemany of its productions have to be set up and rigged quicklyand the single fibre design of the MediorNet makes itsimple to get video, audio and

intercom from a stage to thetruck. “It’s very handy andsmart to use it. It’s very stable,fast and easy to set up,” he said.

DutchView took delivery ofthe MediorNet in August andused it for the first time at a hugemusic festival, with four OBtrucks and three audio truckscovering five stages. “It was agood experience,” he added.

For its monitor wall, it isinstalling Penta monitors andSony OLED displays for reference

and grading, bought partly fortheir low-energy use.

The trucks will have low-emission engines using a blend ofLPG and gasoil, to reduce emis-sions by about 30%. It will gain afurther 30% saving on air con -ditioning, using separate circuitsfor equipment and productionstaff (with heavy, sustainable,insulation between them). Itscoachbuilder, D&MS, is makingall furniture from sustainablematerials. It is also moving to afully tapeless workflow, record-ing to EVS or Avid servers.

They will also be 3D ready.“We didn’t decide which equip-ment we use for stereography”(such as Sony’s MPE-200), but will wait for demand for 3D production to build before making a final decision.“There is no requirement for3D in the Netherlands at themoment, and we can alwaysrent the equipment if there is,”explained Nijmeijers.

“We make our [OB trucks]as general as possible, for alltypes of TV programme. Theyare big enough for sports andbig entertainment produc-tions,” he added.www.dutchview.nl

Going green: Dave Nijmeijers is working to make DutchView more sustainable




Grass grows

Green choices drive DutchView OBs

Mid-market mixer:Grass Valley’s new

Karrera switcher


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As IBC attendees explored thefuture of the multi-platform elec-tronic media business, they simulta-neously addressed various post pro-duction topics. As the lines betweenproduction and post continue toblur, such themes included file-basedworkflows and cloud computing.Summed up Avid Technology’sCEO Gary Greenfield: “It’s reallyabout the tremendous need to createmore and more content.”

Announcements from the IBCexhibition floor flooded in, but asAJA Video Systems President NickRashby observed: “There were multiple technology trend themesdiscussed at IBC, but they allrevolved around solving the samecomplex problems that face videoprofessionals: workflow, speed,flexibility and space management.

“One noticeable trend is agreater demand for providingvideo editors with flexible options— for example with an upcoming

firmware update, all of our Ki ProMini customers will have theoption of using the device torecord to various flavours of eitherApple ProRes or Avid’s DNxHDcodecs depending on the demandsof a given project or workflow.”

Related, Atomos said its newly launched HD-SDI Samurai10-bit Apple ProRes fieldrecorder, monitor and play-back/playout device would gainoptional DNxHD support. Avid’sDNxHD is an existing feature forCodex, which at IBC placedemphasis on its ability to support60fps ArriRaw capture on itsonboard recorder.

Editing and finishingAs IBC opened, word was travel-ling that Adobe bought Iridas,maker of the SpeedGrade finish-ing system, for an undisclosedsum. “The ability to deal withHDR workflows and also theirstereoscopic pipeline — those aretwo areas where we wanted toaccelerate our efforts… Iridas

fit,” said Bill Roberts, Adobe’sdirector of video product man-agement. “We also saw a very bigshift in colour grading. It seemedlike a good time to bring the twoorganisations together to help usto go faster and meet the needs ofthe pros.”

Adobe said its Adobe CreativeSuite Production Premium andAdobe Creative Suite MasterCollection “are expected to gain acomprehensive set of tools sovideo editors can manipulatecolour and light for any type ofcontent, including professionalfilm and television.” But Robertsoffered: “We think that the tasksof audio, effects, finishing, edit-ing should all have dedicatedinterfaces and the workflowshould be simple and seamlessand lossless between the applica-tions. Historically that is what wehave done and there should be nochange going forward as we startto integrate this technology.”

Commenting on Adobe’s news,Avid’s Greenfield said: “I think itsgreat that they have some interest— having good competition keepsthe market honest. I think there isa long reach between products thatwork well in a corporate environ-ment and work well to producemajor motion pictures.”

Avid hosted a technicaldemonstration of future tools forMedia Composer. This includesDNxHD 4:4:4, AVC HD supportthrough Avid Media Access(AMA), support for Epic, new 3Dcapabilities and integration withProTools. Avid also introduced itsnew Motion Graphics system.

EditShare is looking to shakeuptheprofessionalpostproduction

space with its Lightworks opensource initiative. At IBC, the proj-ect added codec licensing througha new membership programme, aswell as editing features, 3D capa-bilities, and expanded third-partysupport. In the coming months, itwill introduce the Lightworks edi-tor for Windows, Linux and MacOS X platforms.

On the finishing side, manymajor finishing systems showedupgraded features in terms of 3Dtools, workflow efficiencies, and/or support for the latest digital cinematography cameras. SGO’sMistika — whose version 6.5 wasdemoed at IBC — also generatednews at the IBC Awards for itscontributions to Atlantic Pro -ductions’ and Sky3D’s FlyingMonsters 3D with Sir DavidAttenborough, which was short -listed in the content creation cate-gory for its post production andwon a Special Award for the over-all production.

For Resolve, Blackmagic Designis planning support for ACES(Academy Colour Encoding Spec),initiated by the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences’committee to create a way to main-tain colour consistency throughoutpost production. “The end result of ACES is to get accurate colour

from any camera and easily passthose colour changes down througha post workflow for a universal and open interchange and pro -cessing of colour,” said Dan May,president of Blackmagic.

“Resolve is a huge part of thecolour process for all levels offilm and video makers, so supportof ACES opens up our customersto use the format seamlessly intheir workflow. This gives a seam-less colour workflow from camerato Resolve.”

International Cinema to graphersGuild President Steven Poster,ASC, addressed this issue in the IBCDaily Executive Summary. Postersaid: “There has been a need toaddress the idea of an end-to-end,

Steven Poster: “There has been aneed to address the idea of an end to end, device-independentcolour management system…”

The IBC Special Award went to Atlantic Productions (CEO Anthony Geffen holding Award) with Sky 3D, Onsight and SGO Mistika for the overall production of Flying Monsters 3D with Sir David Attenborough

Post production tacklesneed for more content

Post production

File-based workflows and cloud computing were hot topics at IBC2011. Carolyn Giardina examines trends and innovations in the post sector

“There were multiple technology themes discussedat IBC, but they all revolved around solving the same complex problems that face video professionals: workflow, speed, flexibility andspace management” — Nick Rashby, AJA



device independent colour man-agement system that will allowartists and technicians to indicatefrom the point of exposure… whatthe intent of any ‘look’ is for thestory, and how to get there.”

Key news from The Foundryincludes a new Nuke applicationcalled Hiero, which is a shot man-agement, conform, and reviewtool. “Nuke is already a powerfulcompositing tool,” said CTO/Founder Bruno Nicoletti. “Hieroprovides the missing link func-tionality currently dealt witheither by expensive tools, in-house scripting or a cumbersomemanual process.”

Face on The CloudIn looking at ways to improve areas such as workflow, speed andflexibility, cloud computing was afrequent topic — though it remainsa term that means different thingsto different people. Said MikeNann, Digital Rapids’ director ofmarketing and communications:“For premium media organisations— whether the studios, post pro-duction facilities, media servicesproviders, broadcasters — we seethe value of the cloud model as an elastic extension of their on-premises capabilities.

“It isn’t about a wholesale moveof their media processing operationsto external infrastructure as a service or platform,” he continued.“Instead, the cloud provides a meansof rapidly and dynamically expand-ing and managing their media pro-cessing capacity, allowing them tohandle peaks in demand — biggerprojects, or more simultaneous projects — without making signifi-cant capital investments that may besubsequently underutilised.”

Underscoring that vision,Digital Rapids’ new TranscodeManager 2.0 was featured at IBCwith new software features, built onthe Kayak application platform,with integration between on-premises and cloud-based mediaprocessing. “This hybrid on-premisesand cloud approach lets (customers)leverage external cloud serviceswhere they make sense, expand theircapacity as-needed with better costpredictability, and manage the cloudresources seamlessly alongside theiron-premises media processing infra-structures,” said Nann.

Underscoring the interest incloud-based workflows, Canada-based broadcaster Rogers Mediaand its Quantel’s QTube work-flow was an IBC InnovationAwards finalist. Rogers transmitsnews, sports and entertainmentchannels both nationally andregionally across Canada, withmajor production bases in fivecities and reporters generatingcontent across the country.

With QTube, journalists in thefield can review and edit proxyfiles, with the full HD edit con-formed and rendered at the trans-mission site. At IBC, Quantelshowed added functionality, giv-ing QTube the ability to integratefiles that sit on generic storage, aswell as to access and combine

material from multiple sites.“Multi-sites was one (feature)that we asked for because wealready have multiple sites acrossCanada,” said Frank Bruno, VPengineering for Rogers Media.

Chyron revealed that SkySports News would be the firstbroadcaster in Europe to im -plement its Axis World Graphicscloud-based graphics creation

platform. At Sky Studios, BSkyB’snew West London headquarters,Axis World Graphics has been add - ed to a production infrastructure


(Right) Hiero ‘provides missing linkfunctionality currently dealt with eitherby expensive tools, in-house scriptingor cumbersome manual process’


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that includes Chyron’s CAMIOgraphics management servers, iSQ remote monitoring and playout application, HyperX sys-tems that support streamlinedgraphics creation and playout foron-air graphics.

Said Darren Long, director ofoperations at Sky Sports News:“Our operators have foundChyron systems to be very user-friendly, and features such as inte-grated order management havemade it very easy for our staff toorder graphics from the desktop,view the graphics, and request ormake any necessary changes.”

Avid put a focus on the cloudwith a demo and the release of awhite paper. The company alsoannounced that it was near com-pletion of a €4.5 million installa-tion of a tapeless workflow atregional German broadcaster,Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).The four-year project is basedaround Interplay production assetmanagement, ISIS shared storageand Media Composer finishing.

The goal is to enable journal-ists in WDR’s regional studios to centrally access, edit and play out its news and current affairs

programming. Said Greenfield: “Itis going to be working from 13 dif-ferent locations and will be usingtheir media, distributed in aremote environment that is inessence a private cloud.”

Concluded Greenfield: “Thefirst (cloud application fromAvid) is in news broadcasting. Inthe next 12 months you will startto see applications that willimpact post production.”

Prime Focus Technologies usedIBC as an opportunity to highlightwhat it refers to as its ‘DomainCentric Cloud’ (DCC) infrastruc-ture, which it offers to connectbroadcasters, content suppliers andplayout origination centres. High-speed file transfer business Aspera is showing Aspera Orchestrator, a

web-based application and SDKplatform for creating and managingautomated Aspera file transferworkflows including third-partymedia applications and services(both on-premise or cloud-based)such as transcoding, quality controland digital marking.

Tracking ThunderboltA number of post production technology manufacturers featuredThunderbolt-enabled devices at IBC. Said Blackmagic’s May:“Thunderbolt is a technology thatsupports high resolution displays andhigh performance data devices in asingle port, and that is going to beused on set, in the field, in mobiletrucks. Being able to support that tech -nology with capture and playback

devices, such as our UltraStudio 3Dand Intensity Extreme, is anabsolute must in order to support alllevels of our customer base.”

Matrox and Promise Tech -nology showed how Thunderbolttechnology could be used in postproduction with a demonstrationof multi-layer realtime editing of uncompressed HD projects,using the Thunderbolt interface.Matrox’s MXO2 LE MAX videoI/O and Promise Pegasus RAIDstorage were connected to anApple iMac as part of the demo.

Meanwhile Sonnet Techno logiesshowed Thunderbolt-enabled RAIDstorage and its Echo Express PCIe

2.0 expansion chassis. Sonnet’sEcho Express PCIe 2.0 enables usersto plug in PCI Express 2.0 adaptercards — such as full-sized video capture cards, 8Gb Fibre Channelcards, 10Gb Ethernet cards — toany computer with a Thunderboltport. Sonnet’s Fusion D800TBR5eight-drive RAID 5 desktop storagesystem featuring Thunderbolt technology includes an internalRAID controller that supportsRAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and JBOD. Bothproducts offer two Thunder boltports to support daisy chaining.AJA introduced Io XT, an I/Odevice that also has two Thunder -bolt ports to support daisy chaining.



The need formore content


By Carolyn GiardinaWhile tackling content cre-ation, the industry is also looking at the challenges ofmastering for different plat-forms. SMPTE’s IMF WorkingGroup believes the Inter -operable Master Format, orIMF, could simplify that issue.

“IMF is intended for world-wide, professional applications,and originally was loosely based upon Digital Cinemastandards. You can think of it asa DCP (Digital Cinema Pack -age) for home video/televisionmasters,” said Disney’s Annie

Chang, who chairs SMPTE’sIMF Working Group.

“The purpose of IMF is tocreate a high-quality, standardisedand interoperable file frameworkfor finished content. IMF allowsfor flexible versioning so thatmultiple language versions andedits can be put together withoutthe need to create full linear versions of each language/edit.”

Chang encourages post pro-duction hardware and softwaremanufacturers to get involved.Reflecting that message, at IBCDVS demoed IMF support for itsClipster post production system.

The purpose of IMF

Chyron revealed that Sky Sports News would be the first broadcaster in Europe to implement its Axis cloud-based graphics creation platform


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By Chris ForresterIBC is always full of surprises, and whilevisitors will always head for their favouriteHalls to seek out the latest re-invention of this or that piece of kit, for me the two most fascinating exhibits concernedscreens. On the one hand there was NHK’s‘milestone’ screen in the shape of a Sharp85-inch prototype LCD designed to handle8K transmissions of its spectacular SuperHi-Vision/Ultra HDTV technology.

The other equally impressive ‘screen’ wasNDS’ magnificent video wall which stretchedacross a 3x2 mosaic of six NEC X551UN 55-inch edgeless flat-panels (each delivering1920x1080, and with just a 5.7mm contentgap), of which more in a moment.

In many respects NHK’s spectaculardemo wasn’t simply the 85-inch LCD, orthe even more impressive 275-inch projec-tion screen, or even their never-less-thanamazing test footage, which this yearshowed the final launch of the SpaceShuttle Endeavor captured in May, andwhich rumbled right into your body helpedby the 22.2-channel surround sound system.

Their other key test footage was takenfrom the colourful Copa America soccerfinals in Argentina in July, and managed tototally capture the infectious enthusiasm offans — and the on-pitch action. Live action

came from the BBC’s Television Centreand the most mundane of images, that ofWood Lane, and London’s red buses andtube trains trundling to and from WoodLane station! The image quality was likethat of an open window, such was thedepth of realism achieved.

All this was truly extraordinary. But forme the even more important message was inthe progress made by the Japanese over thepast year. Dr Keiichi Kubota, head of NHK’sscience, technology and research labora -tories, talking at the show said significant

technical progress has been made in theyear, especially in image displays. “Up untilnow almost everything that we have donehas been projected onto screens and in dark-ened theatres. For broadcasting we need direct-view displays such as Plasma or LCD units.We now have an LCD working at 85-inch,

developed jointly by ourselves and Sharp.Our goal now is to move onto a second-generation set, probably at 70-inch but withfiner, reduced-size pixels.”

Dr Kubota said the Super-HD camera’slens had also been dramatically reduced inweight, and size, from 80kgs in its first-generation to today’s third-generation lens at“just” 20kgs. Images from London came intothe theatre at 250Mbps having been com-pressed using H.264 algorithms. Dr Kubotaadded that while development work contin-ued on all of the key elements in the videochain, the next major thrust is further com-pression with a target of around 100Mbpsusing the emerging High Efficiency VideoCoding, (HEVC) which is expecting to be anMPEG standard within the next year or so.

HEVC is truly a vital component in theNHK system. Although the BBC’s DiracProfessional system was used in early workby NHK, they are now waiting for the jointISO/IEC Motion Picture Experts Groupand the ITU’s Video Coding Experts Groupto resolve and fix the standard, with a firstdraft scheduled for February 2012 and aDraft International Standard likely toemerge by about July 2012.

It is this work which, on the currenttimetable, should see a ratified standard inplace by January 2013.

In other words, the joint NHK and BBCefforts to capture images from next year’s2012 London Olympic Games might be‘pre-standardisation’ in terms of video comp -ression. But Dr Kubota was enthusiastic

about the opening and closing ceremoniesbeing filmed, and that NHK’s cameras(they have only two UHV cameras at themoment) would be working hard in andaround the London Games, and beamingtheir signals to crowds of viewers in someUK city centre locations by the BBC.

To date, NHK has been working to avery structured timetable with scheduledtest transmissions to start in 2020. DrKubota says the official target “has notbeen changed — yet. But our managementis pushing very strongly to start the exper-iments in 2015. It is a possibility, but manyelements have still to come together.”

For broadcasters this is an incredibly shorttimescale. There were plenty of senior broad-cast engineers and studio equipment vendorsat September’s IBC who are already respond-ing to RFP’s that extend well beyond a four-year timescale. Even allowing for the ‘experi-mental’ aspect of NHK’s commitment, andextending that by another four-to-six years,this suggests that perhaps in 10 years fromnow we might see the first non-Japanesedeployments of Ultra High-Definition, prob-ably by the likes of DirecTV or BSkyB.

NDS: SurfacesThe other stunning display on show was the NDS 3.5m across ‘video wall’, officiallycalled ‘Surfaces’. One commentator accu-rately said he was “blown away” by thedemo, and others used “breathtaking” and‘’amazing” in a similar vein. What truly wasstaggering was the amount of wholly con-textual information that was drawn togetherby the NDS kit, and using existing meta data.In other words, everything they showedcould be achieved today.

The NDS team, led by Simon Parnell(VP/Technology), has recognised the

IBC Big Screens carry the message forward

The image quality from NHK was like that of an open window, such was the depth of realism achieved

The broader significance of major displays from NHK and NDS

Display Technologies

In other words, the joint NHK and BBC efforts to captureimages from next year’s 2012 London Olympic Games mightbe ‘pre-standardisation’ in terms of video compression




inevitable adoption of ever-largerscreen sizes — and as they growthey end up ‘displaying’ a hugeacreage of black nothing whennot in use. There’s also the quitereal prospect of almost wall-sizeddisplays, as well as video-capableflexible screens and ‘wallpaper’perhaps within the next five yearsor so.

NDS has a solution. First, inthis particular version, theymatched the room’s wallpaper onthe screens, making the displayalmost invisible! That was neat,but there was more.

The real advantage of anygiant screen is having real estate toplay with. A Hollywood 4,000-linemovie or HDTV drama might wellfill all six screens, but for day-to-day use the NDS team see dif-ferent elements coming into playon the screen, with social media’sspeech ‘bubbles’ popping up, ornews/weather reports and con-nected home applications eachpotentially playing their part.

Indeed, it is those existingApps that make ‘Surfaces’ sointuitive and desirable. Using alightweight wireless tablet as thecontrol device, NDS has ‘Mum’switching on the radio, but wherethe video wall then draws downthe radio station’s ID and playlist,a clock, and upcoming audiotemptations as well as the latestnews headlines. The on-screendata says that a celebrity is aboutto be interviewed on a breakfastTV show, and ’Mum’ decides shewants to watch it.

The ‘radio’ shrinks away to bereplaced by the network’s videofeed. NDS has engineered what itdescribes as an Immersive Bar on

the tablet, similar to a volumecontrol, and this permits theviewer to decide how immersivethey want the video experience tobe. Slide it ‘up’ and the screenimage gets bigger. Slide it ‘down’and the screen can shrink back toany desired size. And what’s morethe whole concept takes about anano-second to ‘learn’, it is com-pletely intuitive.

With this demo NDS has takenthe TV experience beyond video,exploiting the immense variety ofApps out there, along with text andimage-based news feeds and data —as well as supplementary mediasources and programme-specificadditional information. The assem-bled result depends on NDS’ ServiceDelivery Platform for functionality,plus a bit of extra computing.

What is spectacular is that thistreatment could be supplied today.Nigel Smith, NDS’ VP/CMO whileadmitting that this might be a costly investment, said that in a fewyears this could easily cost less than today’s higher-end displays.“Surfaces means there’s no TV setfilling up the lounge,” he added.

My view is that whatever thecost of today’s Surfaces concept

there are plenty of well-heeledbuyers out there who wouldimmediately buy into the tech-nology. In my viewing group just about everyone said if theyhad the cash they’d write thecheque there and then! Fiveyears from now Surfaces mightbe well past the early-adopterphase and be near mainstream.It’s that good.

� 85-inch LCD Ultra High-Res (7680x43209 pixels)

� 250Mbps signal compressedusing H.264

� BBC-IBC Fibre links used NTT’s Academic Network

� 8-channel video switcher/ slow-motion unit

The NHK spec

Hardware:� Quad core CPU PC� ATI Eyefinity 6 Graphics card� 6 x NEC X551UN 55-inch

panels (1920 x 1080, 5.7mm content-content gap)

� iPadsSoftware� Large Surface: HTML5

application running in Google Chrome Web Browser

� Companion: HTML5 application running in Apple Safari Web Browser

� Large Surface & Companionapplication synchronised using WebSockets

� Contextual metadata from NDS SDP Web Service API

The NDS spec




Panasonic unveiled new 3D cameras,a switcher, new LCD monitors, andannounced its entry into theEuropean studio camera market at IBC. It also discussed plans forhow it will enhance its AVC codecfor future file-based products.David Fox examines its IBC moves

With its new AVC Ultra codec,Panasonic plans to extend itsH.264-based AVC Intra compres-sion scheme to cover 1080precording and visually-losslessmaster quality 12-bit 4:4:4 and4K resolution, and also to reachinto the low bitrate segment.“This is really a big differentiatorand a big milestone for the indus-try. With AVC Ultra, we can offercustomers the choice to recordfrom 25Mbps 4:2:2 10-bit up to400Mbps,” said Christian Sokcevic,Panasonic’s director of Prof -essional AV, Europe.

It will launch AVC Ultra prod-ucts in 2013 (probably starting witha mid-range model), but showed acomparison of different versions at IBC, notably uncompressed vsAVC-Ultra 200 Class, and MPEG-250Mbps vs AVC Ultra 25, whichshows no difference in quality, buttwice the efficiency from the newcodec, representing cost savings onstorage and bandwidth. The EBUhas already tested the AVC Ultra 200Class, which records at up to400Mbps for 4K or 4:4:4. The bitrate depends on the resolution andsampling rate, but should allow visu-ally lossless, file-based mastering.

“We believe that the intra-based codecs are the most suitablefor quality-conscious produc-tions,” said Sokcevic.

3D camcordersThe new HDC-Z10000 is the first integrated twin-lens 2D/3Dcamcorder that is officially com-patible with the new AVCHD3D/Progressive standard. It hastwo sets of 3xCMOS sensorsrecording 1920x1080 50p 2D and3D images, manual operation,and is aimed at bridging the gapbetween amateur and professionalin both quality and cost.

“It provides a macro function at45cm distance, which is the closestof any integrated 3D camcorderyet,” said Sokcevic. The F1.5 lensesgo as wide as 32mm for 3D or29.8mm for 2D (where it can shootas close as 3.5cm), with a 10x zoomfor 3D and 12x for 2D. It recordsDolby Digital 5.1 surround soundor stereo and has two XLR audioinputs with 48v phantom power.

Also new is the AG-3DP1 HDshoulder-mount camcorder with

10 bit, 4:2:2 1920x1080 AVC-Intrarecording at 50 or 100Mbps to P2cards, twin 17x zoom lenses, twosets of three 1/3-inch CMOS sen-sors and a 20-bit Digital SignalProcessor. It has variable framerate recording, with 20 variableframe steps between 12 and 60fpsin 720p mode.

The camcorder has dual HD-SDI outputs, 3D-compatibleHDMI output, and two XLRconnectors, plus genlock andtimecode inputs for multi-cameraoperation. It also has a remoteterminal for focus iris, zoom,REC start/stop and convergencepoint, 3.2-inch LCD tht can dis-play Left, Right or overlay imagefor reviewing depth information.It will ship in December, with alist price of €27,000.

The 3DP1, plus the AG-3DA1,will be used to produce about 10hours per day of 3D content forOlympic Broadcasting Services forthe 2012 Games in London. It will

include the opening and closing ceremonies, and selections from ath-letics, gymnastics, diving and swim-ming, plus some sports that havenever been covered in 3D before.

Studio tooPanasonic will enter the studiocamera market in Europe for thefirst time with the introduction ofthe AK-HC3500 early next year,with further studio-type cameraspromised later in 2012.

The AK-HC3500 is a one-body 1080i camera, with three 2/3-inch 2.2-megapixal IT-CCDs,14-bit A/D converter, 38-bit digi-tal signal processor and spatialoffset processing for greater sensi-tivity. The DSP includes dynamicrange stretch for detailed, highquality images when shooting in ahigh contrast environment.

It also has fibre output.Although many broadcastershave a triax infrastructure,Sokcevic believes that triax is

showing its limitations in an eraof 1080p and 3D. “Fibre-optic issurely the future proof system.We understand that customershave an existing infrastructure,but I’m confident we will findsome sort of solution to integrateour cameras with them.”

The AK-HC3500 has two HD SDI connections, plus tele -prompter and AUX outputs, andmicrophone, intercom and genlockinputs. The 4.7kg camera also hasa shoulder pad for stable EFPshooting, and an SD memory cardslot for storage and retrieval ofvarious camera settings.

Panasonic has been sellingstudio cameras in other marketsfor years, but the EuropeanUnion’s former anti-dumpinglevy made it uneconomic to sup-ply such cameras here, and intro-ducing the €36,000 AK-HC3500will allow it to gain a foothold

that it hopes to expand on. “Forus, as a European organisation,we need to get closer to our cus-tomers and understand theirrequirements so we can imple-ment their requests in our futureproducts,” he added.

Panasonic showed two newLCD displays at IBC: the 21.5-inchBT-L2150 (1920x1080, €1,600)and the 15.4-inch BT-L1500(1280x800, €1,400). Both havetwo HD-SDI inputs and LEDbacklighting, and are aimed atlower-budget users than its previ-ous BT-LH models.

They also have HDMI, ana-logue component (Y/PB/PR,BNC×3), PC (D-SUB 15P) andanalogue composite (BNC×1)inputs are provided, plus a single 2-channel analogue audio (pinjacks×2) input and embeddedaudio via the SDI and HDMIinputs. Other features include: tally lamps; markers; blue-only display; colour adjustments (colourtemp., sharpness, RGB white bal-ance); and GPI remote control.

Live switchingThe new AV-HS410 all-in-one1ME switcher will include stereo3D support in a rack size(48.26cm) model. Its standardconfiguration takes nine multi-format signal inputs (eight SDI

inputs and one DVI-D), expand-able to 13 (HD/SD switchable). Itcan also have up to 10 outputs.All input channels feature a built-in frame synchroniser, there areup-converters for four channelsand video processing circuits foreight channels. Five HD-SDIoutputs and one DVI-D outputare provided in the standard con-figuration, plus four Aux busses(Aux 1 comes with a mix transi-tion function).

Support is planned for switch-ing stereo 3D, with four 3D inputs(expandable to five). Primattechroma keyer compositing will bealso supported. The AV-HS410will cost less than €11,000, andthe optional support for 3D isscheduled for spring 2012 (req -uiring installation of the AV-HS04M7D board and an upgradeof the AV-HS410).www.panasonic-broadcast.com

Focused on the studio: Sokcevic with Panasonic’s AK-HC3500 camera

3D potential: The AV-HS410 all-in-one 1ME switcher

AVC Ultra is Panasonicroute to 4K and 1080p

Eye popping: A visitor checks out Panasonic’s new HDC-Z10000 twin-lens 2D/3D camcorder

The 3DP1, plus the AG-3DA1, will be used to produce about 10 hours per day of 3D contentfor Olympic Broadcasting Services during the2012 Games in London


By Michael Burns Rohde & Schwarz launched theR&S THU9 high-power trans -mitter at IBC this year, boastingthe best energy efficiency valuesfor solid-state TV transmitters,according to the company. Thetransmitter can handle all com-mon digital and analogue TVstandards, reducing energy costsby offering efficiencies of up to28% for COFDM standards andup to 30% for ATSC standardsincluding the cooling system.

With the THU9, Rohde &Schwarz has significantly reducedattenuation throughout the wholeRF chain, while the amplifier inte-grates advanced efficient power tran-sistors in 50V LDMOS technology.The liquid cooling system alsoboosts efficiency, while speciallydeveloped power supplies allow thetransmitter control unit to optimisethe transistor supply voltage, whichresults in further design efficiencies.

With 15kW total output pow-er for COFDM standards in a sin-gle rack, the R&S THU9 providessignificant power density. Themaximum output power per rackis 18.5kW for ATSC and ATSCMobile DTV, and 30kW for analogue TV.

If necessary, they can be com-bined into an N+1 system. Whenconfigured as a single transmitter,the pump unit and the bandpassfilter are integrated in the rack. Thenew R&S TCE900 transmittercontrol exciter can be configured asa transmitter control unit or as anexciter using plug-in boards, andcan be software-switched fromanalogue to digital TV standards.

The ergonomic operating ter-minal is easy to access, featuring adisplay unit with touchscreen thatcan accommodate a wide varietyof viewing angles. Intuitive menusalso add to the ease of use.

“This is a real milestone for us,”said Axel Menke, Rohde & Schwarzproduct manager for TerrestrialTrans mitter Systems. “It’s a verymodular design — a bit like a toolbox,really — you can pick out whatever

you like. The graphic interface oper-ating concept is also new and easyto navigate; although other manu-facturers do use touchscreen, ours isa unique and intuitive design.”www.rohde-schwarz.com


Find out how. Visit www.avid.com/mmm/interplay

Your media is your lifeblood. From it flows the two most essentialelements of your business: creativity and profit.

Avid® Interplay® is the media management foundation of today’s competitivemedia organization, providing you with the most innovative MAM and PAMtechnology available. Whether you produce or manage news, sports, reality, drama, documentaries, or any other type of content, Interplay enables you to:

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© 2010 Avid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. Product features, specifications, system requirements, and availability are subject to change without notice. Avid, the Avid logo, and Interplay are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. The Interplay name is used with the permission of the Interplay

Transmitter offers energy efficiencyAxel Menke: The R&S THU9 offersreduced energy consumption

By Paul WatsonAt IBC Genelec announced ithad sold the first batch of its new 1238CF monitors to Germanpublic broadcasting stationSWR, which purchased morethan 40 of Genelec’s 1238CFs atthe back end of 2010 for its newfacility that’s currently beingbuilt in Stuttgart.

SWR has a longstanding rel -ationship with Genelec and was involved in the developmentof the 1238CF, which newlyappointed Managing DirectorSiamak Naghian says has beenparticularly beneficial.

“SWR worked with us on thelistening tests when we weredeveloping the product,” heexplained. “It’s kind of designedfor them, really. We have a verystrong working relationship withSWR; they were able to come tous and propose certain require-ments, and we were able to givethem what they wanted.”www.genelec.com

SWR purchasesfirst 1238CFs



By Russell Grute Working as an independent consult-ant, specialising in media manage-ment and workflow development, Iwas recently asked by the CEO of agrowing broadcaster “if we couldstart from scratch next year howshould we improve our MAM strategy?” An apparently reasonablequestion I thought. Yet despite hav-ing worked through successfulMAM-based projects over the last10 years with clients including ESPNStar Sports, NRK, Channel 4, MTVNorthern Europe, HBO Asia, AlJazeera and SBS Networks, I admitI struggled for an easy answer.

At IBC in September around400 technology vendors, partnersand integrators offered a MAMcapability as part of their valueproposition. Improved content cre-ation, repurposing and distributionworkflows to increase broadcastand new media revenue were prom-ised by all.

With such wide choice hasMAM now matured and are clearchoices are easier? Perhaps ourCTO’s ‘reasonable question’ can beanswered by sharing what hasworked for others so far. And bylooking at better solutions architec-ture and integration, and the skillsand motivations required to deliverimproved media asset management.

Solutions architecture There is a wider range of solutionsarchitectures than ever before toimprove any scale of media management. Today’s island sub -systems in production, post pro-duction, graphics and playout arepotentially now so performant thatfor some cases I question if a sepa-rate MAM system is necessary.

The interoperability of content,its metadata, projects and libraries,while still a delicate area, is nowmainstream. Ironically, many man-ufacturers champion their compat-ibility and interoperability withpartners (and competitors) as muchas their own core value proposition.Avid, EVS and Grass Valley, asexamples, regularly vie with eachother to be the most compatiblewith Apple’s Final Cut. Recent ‘X’rated news has clouded this some-what but I hope it makes the point;keep an eye on Adobe too.

Other technologies manage highvolume incompatibilities through-out the content lifecycle. Harmonicor Telestream for example, cantransform any legacy file and sendit anywhere; often unnecessarily ina poorly designed workflow. As aresult thousands of duplicate filecopies going nowhere now infectmany broadcasters’ storage sys-tems. End-to-end media lifecyclemanagement is just one reason toconsider better enterprise MAM.

Other reasons include: helpingstaff across the business to searchand access material to collaboratemore efficiently and, sharing andmonitoring both content and infra-structure. Where multivendor tech-nology needs to be integrated toimprove workflow many MAM ven-dors have progressed, or been forced,toward software systems integration.

This is evident in multichannelplayout systems where often onlythe MAM vendor can properlyintegrate channel management systems such as ad sales, traffic,and scheduling and increasinglynew media distribution. Only bydurable long term integrationbetween MAM and channel man-agement systems can media distri-bution businesses now succeed.

Whether islands and/or enterpriseare required, a technological eco -nomy of scale can now only be gainedby having the right software inte -gration capabilities and partnerships.

These skills are now the key enablersin achieving secure solutions arch -itectures, which comprise genericintegration platforms, virtualisationand distributed cloud-based services.

Quiet beautiful integrationWhile investment over the next three-to-five years could be dra-matically lower on technologycosts there will be increased invest-ment in specialist services. Today’sflexible software driven systemsbased on IT offer higher perform-ance, more flexibility and resiliencebut require careful handling. Those key individuals that understandproperly the use cases and poten-tial workflow improvements, whocan also liaise with technologists,are currently still a rare breed. Soft -ware integration, ongoing workflowdevelopment and flexible opera-tional support are the key new disciplines required to maintain astrong MAM ecosystem.

A clear danger sign early in aMAM project is when a few smart

people on the client’s IT side, oftenfocused on in-house IT access or thescheduling system, start talking ‘incode’ with supply-side developers. A short-term boost of well-inten-tioned technical problem solving isoften followed by a Frankenstein in -te gration with too many hidden andpoorly documented technical work -arounds. Structuring wider reviewof these early decisions and risks byinvolving key users, the project man-ager and the support team can avoidproblems with ongoing work flowimprovement, scalability in addingnew services and operational support.

Many clients admit they aresometimes slower in delivering theirin-house project commitments thanspecialist technology suppliers, dueto limited in-house expertise andcapacity. This is a key reason toengage an SI and specialist third-partyintegration partners.

Motivation for successBy 2012 MAM is not new. Broad -casters continue to look at reorgan-ising their talent, operations andtechnology using MAM and betterworkflows. Some broadcasters arelooking for a second or even thirdtime at MAM to drive enterpriseefficiency. Carefully balancing newjob roles with high volume mediaprocessing is a key success factorwhen delivering improved mediaasset management.

To achieve this balance and tohelp heads of operations work effec-tively with their CTO’s team andtechnology suppliers it’s helpful touse a vision statement. For example:‘What will we do when the businessasks us to deliver increased program-ming, or launch twice as many newchannels, with no increase in staff?’

So which MAM strategy would Irecommend for 2012 to help our CEOstreamline content creation, repur-posing and distribution? Regret t ablythis short story doesn’t offer a ‘hap-pily ever after’. The improved ROIusing MAM, which has eluded manyso far, was caused in part by a weakvision, inaccurate scope and poorintegration. Some how if we stitchedenough IT and broadcast parts toge -ther and added enough volts manyhoped the vision would come to life.In 2012 perhaps we’ll create lessclunky misunderstood monsters andinstead take the opportunity for somerestful beautiful integrated efficiency.

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Frankenstein or sleeping beauty?TVBEUROPE MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

What to look for in a broadcast MAM solution for 2012 and beyond

At TVBEurope we regularly return to the ever-evolving topic of Media AssetManagement. Why? Because new technologies and file-based workflows areconstantly moving the goalposts in terms of broadcast operations, ROI, functionality and plain ease of use. Our MAM columnist Russell Grute hits thenail right on the head in his first paragraph: ‘I was recently asked by the CEOof a growing broadcaster “if we could start from scratch next year howshould we improve our MAM strategy?” An apparently reasonable question Ithought…’ Indeed: but not so easy to answer! In the following pages, pleasefind further MAM opinion and two case studies from France, one from Spain,one from the UK and another from further afield. — Fergal Ringrose

Issue Focus on Broadcast MAMMAM Opinion

TVBE_Nov P42-47 MAM 2_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 11:18


By Simon Hayward, regional sales director of Northern and Southern Europe, AvidWith its seven television chan-nels and six radio stations spreadacross Spain, news representsone of Spanish Radio andTelevision (RTVE) Corpora -tion’s main pillars. The com -pany’s Canal 24 Horas (24/7news channel), its Teledeporte(sports channel) and telediarios(daily news bulletins) have gener-ated leading audience marketshares over the last few years.

Because of this growing consumer thirst for quality pro-gramming, RTVE has seen sub-stantial increases in the volumeof content created by its chan-nels. And this was the catalyst to exploratory investigations toinvest in an enterprise-widemedia asset management system.No mean feat as it had to meetRTVE’s stringent requirementsof storing hundreds of thou-sands of hours of footage butalso be sufficiently flexible andreliable to provide media accessfrom multiple locations.

A challenging briefAs Spain’s largest and most influ-ential multimedia group, RTVEneeded an expert in media assetmanagement to advise, imple-ment, transition and train staffon the mammoth task that is full-scale newsroom digitisation.RTVE’s overall objective wasclear: to implement a file-basedworkflow capable of increasingthe flexibility, speed, productivityand quality of their entire newsproduction system.

After evaluating a wide rangeof offerings on the market,RTVE decided the answer totheir challenging brief was an

end-to-end Avid workflow. Withthe concepts and designs for thedigital workflow in place, workbegan. The plan: to eliminate thedaily use of videotape, bring the group fully into the world of file-based workflow, speed up and improve the quality of production, and generally make it a slicker, more profes-sional operation.

To meet the tough challengeof implementing a media assetmanagement solution acrossdiverse environments and loca-tions, while at the same timeincorporating remote access,media sharing and transfer facilities, a close working part-nership was essential. We rec -ommended Avid’s asset man -agement solution, Interplay, tosit at the heart of the integra -ted news workflow. The otherkey com ponents making up theend-to-end news solution com-prised of ISIS 7000 shared storage, AirSpeed Multi Streamservers, Interplay Assist, News -Cutter, iNews Instinct andiNews Command.

The rolloutAs with any large-scale project, weapproached it one step at a time. Themaster control centre at Torrespañawas the first site to go entirely file-based, and after that success,RTVE asked us to follow up withsimilar projects in its Mérida, LasPalmas and Sant Cugat Del Vallés(Barcelona) facilities. Each of thesesites included an ISIS 7000 sharedstorage system and Interplay production asset management sys-tem for ingest, archiving, coding,transcoding and transfer.

The creation of news bulletins isa fundamental function in RTVE,and we helped to advise them on the

best tools to get bulletins to airquickly and efficiently. Avid iNewsInstinct was picked as the journal-ist’s tool primarily because it allowsthem to work with text, video andaudio in one application. To helpcontributors find the right clips andaccelerate the editorial process, AvidInterplay Assist was chosen to allowthem to add locators, comments,annotations and personalised notes.To support the key journalist iNews Instinct editing stations, AvidNewsCutter craft-editing systemswere installed to ensure the visualquality of stories before playout.

For master ingest and playout,RTVE contributors put in AirSpeed

MultiStream servers. And forregional centres, playout of dailynews programmes is handled byiNews Command with its dynamicplaylist management.

Accessing content With the end-to-end Avid work-flow in place, RTVE can now con-nect its seven regional productioncentres. And it has allowed themto optimise access to legacyassets, data stock audiovisualarchive, and all the recentlyacquired material used in newsand post production.

The new production infrastruc-ture has enabled staff across all

areas of the news production chainto access content. This brings manybenefits. It enables contributors toedit the most recently acquiredvideo at their own workstationswhile the same material is madeavailable across the rest of theorganisation. It allows locallystored content to be accessed fromany production centre. It makesonline media at Torrespaña, theheart of the RTVE network inMadrid, available to regional cen-tres. And it establishes a protocol toaccess legacy content (deep histori-cal archive), which currently standsat about 250,000 hours.

Currently, the number ofworkstations with simultaneousaccess to online material at theTorrespaña centre exceeds 300licenses. The spectrum of solu-tions installed as part of the digi-tisation project now allows anyprofessional to access a wealth ofmedia from a single workstation— using advanced browsing and editing tools in a shared envi-ronment. This has truly revolu-tionised the way RTVE employ-ees access, manage and sharetheir content, and the companyis now beginning to reap therewards of a full-scale file-basednews operation.

Sharing access across RTVE

The plan: to eliminate the daily use of videotape,bring the group fully into the world of file-basedworkflow, speed up and improve the quality of production, and make it a slicker, more professional operation

Transmit-Route-Receive

TVBEUROPE MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

iNews Instinct was picked as the journalist’s tool primarily because it allows RTVE to work with text, video and audio in one application

Ingest and playout is handled by AirSpeed MultiStream servers


By David StewartAll-news outlet CANAL+i>TÉLÉ is omnipresent, availablefree on the terrestrial TNT tele -vision channel satellite and cable,the web and mobile devices.Having delivered more than adecade of reliable TV news pro-gramming, the Paris-based chan-nel was due for a major upgrade ofits aging technical infrastructure.

The technology-savvy channelhad added new media services asthey became available, but the teamsgenerating content for the extendedplatforms tended to be ‘add-ons’ tothe main newsroom rather than fully integrated into the workflow.With an upgrade on the drawingboard, management saw an oppor-tunity to create a truly collaborative,multimedia ‘news factory’.

“We envisioned this modernisa-tion project as something muchbigger than an equipment pur-chase. We wanted to rethink every-thing in order to improve pro -ductivity and to create a model for multiplatform news produc-tion that would last well into the future,” explains PierreFraidenraich, CEO of i>TÉLÉ.

“We planned a significantrevamping of the editorial roles,responsibilities and workflows.That kind of major change is diffi-cult to implement in practical andin human terms.” As part of theirinternal process, i>TÉLÉ per-formed an extensive analysis andidentified many redundant tasksand roles. They developed anextensive RFP that included

detailed requirements for newhardware and for a software solu-tion that would deliver a unifiedsystem with state-of-the art pro-duction and distribution tools.

Xavier Bodin Hullin, director ofOperations for i>TÉLÉ, says theproject scope required an integratorwho could expertly address thetechnical issues as well as thechange management considera-tions. “We wanted to minimiseinvestment and maximise results. Inchoosing an integrator we sought apartner who could work well withour team and other vendors. Wewould need to train our 200-strongstaff and an additional 150 part-time contributors, so training wasalso very important as we wantedthe staff to feel confident and fullyengaged to achieve a successfultransition,” says Bodin Hullin.

All from one desktopCANAL+ i>TÉLÉ selected DaletNews Suite to provide a unified andfluid workflow for its multimedianewsroom. News Suite is built onthe Dalet’s Media Asset Manage -ment platform and includes a com-plete set of NRCS tools within asingle user interface, allowing jour-nalists to perform all their essentialtasks from one desktop.

“This was a major improvementfor the journalists,” says FabriceAngotti, chief editor of i>TÉLÉ.“In our old workflow, journalistswould work on two computers —one with office tools, internet and email; and another with aNRCS (wires, scripting, rundown

management) and a separate sys-tem for clip-editing. It was discor-dant. We generated three differentrundowns depending on your role— producer, presenter, director —and they were not linked together.”

Now everyone is on the samesystem and uses the same tools.Everyone sees the same rundownand version of the show. “All thenecessary information is cen-tralised and visible on the rundownwhether its video, VOs, packages,scripts, or graphics”, explainsAngotti. “There’s much betterorganisation and fewer errors.”Dalet News Suite also met therequirement for integration withother broadcast and storage sys-tems including Omneon Spectrumvideo servers, production storagefrom Quantum Stornext and DataDirect Networks, Apple Final CutPro NLE’s, VizRT graphics, the in-house archive and publishingsystems. Dalet Professional Serviceswas chosen as lead integrator forthe modernisation project.

Control toweri>TÉLÉ leveraged the capabilities ofthe Dalet MAM and integratednewsroom production tools to trans-form its workflow making it far moreproductive and collaborative. TheMAM capabilities of News Suiteprovided an important foundationfor the change.

Luc Michel manages the newlycreated Media Coordination Team,which he compares to a controltower. “We receive and review allincoming media, whether from

agencies or camera crew right atthe point of ingest. We enter all theessential metadata using Dalet’sasset management forms. We alsoselect the best and most relevantshots,” he explains.

With the MAM, everything is inone place and all the metadata islinked directly to the video andimmediately available to the journal-ists. The consistency of metadataentry greatly improves the workflowand also adds tremendous value tothe archive, making it far easier tosearch, find and retrieve content.

“We are at least 50% more effi-cient when compared to our oldmethod which depended on papernotes handed from person to per-son and media stored in differentplaces,” says Michel. “Duringbreaking news, we use chat win-dows and send links to best clips tospeed production. The systemgives us great flexibility.”

In addition to managing meta-data schemes, the Dalet MAMalso controls user workflows

throughout the production processfrom planning through playoutand new media publication includ-ing notifications, chats, editorialstatuses, approvals and task assign-ments. “We want to be as fast aspossible, but also accurate. The val-idation process is very important,”says Angotti.

More than 150 workstations aredeployed at i>TÉLÉ. In additionto the traditional NRCS function-ality, Dalet News Suite includes an integrated editor that allows

journalists to drag high resolutionclips directly to the timeline for fast editing, simple effects such asblurring, voice-over creation andCG placement.

There’s no need for a CG oper-ator in the control room as Daletautomatically triggers CGs duringplayout which allows an unburnedversion of the story to be saved forthe archive. Simultaneously, anadditional timeline track can beused to apply burned graphics.Playout is also controlled by Dalet.

All of the news packages are created with Dalet Media Cutter.Final Cut Pro systems are princi-pally used for post production. Thenew workflow also allows graphicartists to focus on sophisticated ani-mations and complex designs ratherthan simple graphics. In the studio,Dalet controls teleprompters,VizRT graphic engine and playoutvideo servers.

Dalet allowed i>TÉLÉ to dras-tically simplify the processes to edita story and distribute it on anyplatform. Angotti credits Dalet forthe workflow improvement. “Therewere questions about how to adaptgraphics that can be played out onair, but not on a mobile phone, forinstance. Dalet answered thoseneeds with automatic repackagingand burning of graphics,” heexplains. “Overall, there are fewermanipulations and the new mediapeople are more involved as they areworking with the asset right fromthe start — they can search, drag-and-drop the video file into a cate-gory and the system manages thedistribution to iPads, internet, mobileand so on, it’s very automatic.”

Training teamAll the i>TÉLÉstaff agree that thenew system significantly improvedproductivity with streamlinedwork - flows and greater collaboration thatembraced new media productionas an integralpartof i>TÉLÉnews -room. “Dalet allows journalists towork faster and better. It wasremarkable how fast users graspedthetools,andwethankthetrainingteam,” says Angotti. “There was atraining plan and several dry runs,andwhenwewentlivethere were-nomistakes.” The underlying MAMplatform in News Suite also pro-vides metadataandmedia manage -mentfromingest through to archiv -ingand multiplatform publishing.

MaintenanceManagerBenjaminGhez likes the fact that that the tech -nicalaspectsof thesystemare trans-parent to users. “There are severalbricks involved with many complexintegrations,” he explains. “As leadintegrator Dalet managed all this,andasaresultallthesepartsworkasone.” He also appreciates the open,IT-basednatureof theDaletsystemwhich makes it more cost effective,easier to maintain and more adapt-able for future innovations.

Bodin Hullin says the moderni-sation project achieved its goals.“On D-Day all the i>TÉLÉ staffagreed that the new system sign -ificantly improved productivitywith streamlined workflows andgreater collaboration.”



14-16 FEBRUARY 2012

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PRIORITY CODE

ETVBN

Dalet News Suite includes an integrated editor that allows journalists to drag high resolution clips directly to the timeline for fast editing, simple effects such as blurring, voiceover creation and CG placement

Paris-based TV channel CANAL+ i>TÉLÉ has undergone a major MAM upgrade

With the MAM, everything is in one place and all the metadata is linked directly to the video and immediately available to the journalists

A news factory in Paris


By David StewartSI Media was recently selected by ABTelevision, one of the main privatetelevision operators in France, as thesupplier of a system consisting oftwo HD channels. The system man a ges the emission on-air of twothematic channels: AB Golf Channeland AB Lucky Jack Channel.

This involves a distributed sys-tem, with the main playout carriedout in a datacentre in Luxemburg,while the disaster recovery system,capturing and the preparation ofthe playlists are carried out inParis in the main branch of ABTelevision Company.

The playout occurs in 1080i HDand the chosen containers for clipmanagement are MXF and GXF.Indeed, the choice of GXF formatis necessary due to the enormousexisting archive, all in SD and GXF.

The adopted video server isbased on a custom solution thatforesees a local cache in Raid-5 and a Matrox board. Another twovideo servers with the same con -figuration operate in Paris. These

intervene in case of a fault at themain video server, but are also usedas the ingest channels from livesources and/or tapes both operat-ing in XDCAM-HD format.

The MAM supplied by SIMedia distributes the clips plannedby the playlists in the three video

servers; archives new clips in thecentral archive; and recovers, if needbe, clips into the video servers.

Other than the ingestion fromexternal sources (lives and tapes), it is also possible to import clipsfrom watch folders, take advantageof the MAM capacity, to recognise

the new clips and recover the nec-essary metadata.

The playlists are created withtraffic Karina developed entirelyby AB Television. This large inter-facing project from both parts hasallowed Karina to connect to theSI Media database thanks to agateway (MediaLinker) developedby SI Media.

Aside from the three video serversand numerous clients, the systeminvolves two Hitachi Central Arch -ives (one of 40TB in Luxem burgand one of 120TB in Paris), 4 CastGenie CG and logo generators sup-plied by Anywhere Video (two mainand two backup), and Harris routers.

The SI Traffic, Automation,MAM and Newsroom systems areavailable for deployment either asstand-alone solutions, or integratedin a harmonic and homogeneousworkflow. The solutions will easilyinterface with popular archivingsystems, video servers, CGs, subtitleinserters as well as other traffic andautomation systems.

All solutions developed by SIMedia are field-proven, based on the.NET platform using MS SQL data-base engine in high availability clus-tering environment.

With experience gained fromthe deployment of 180 medium to large sized broadcasters (238channels on-air 24/7) the SI MediaAutomation solution interfaceswith almost any broadcast deviceand video server.



WHATS’On allows me to plan multimedia content on all

channels and platformsfrom within one single system. The

LONG-TERMSCHEDULER

MediaGeniXwww.mediagenix.tv

AB Television taps SI Mediafor golf and poker channels

By Fergal RingroseAs a result of continuous devel-opment, Stryme launched thenext generation of its IT-basedGenesix playout solution at IBC.Genesix V2 offers new featuresand improvements like client/server architecture, enhancedscheduling, character generator,fully automated workflows andtraffic management on newredundant server hardware.

Through the improved calendar-style scheduling user interface,programme planning becomes aseasy as creating appointments inOutlook. Beside the improvedinterface, scheduling now offersprogramme planning on dailyand weekly bases.

The new automation featureprovides functions like automatedgap-filling, GPI- and CG-trigger-ing or logo insertion. The trafficmanagement service keeps thelocal video storage of the playoutserver up-to-date and fetches therequired content files from centralstorage automatically. With theintegrated character generator it isnow much easier to put title, ban-ner, news line, stocks and weatherinformation into the video stream.www.stryme.com

New Genesixfor playout

SI Media’s MAM system is capable of distributing the clips planned by the playlists in the three video servers; archiving new clips in the central archive; and recovery, if need be, of clips into the video servers

Distributed system links Luxembourg and Paris playlists




By Christophe Carniel, Chief Executive Officer, Netia The shift from tape-based mediaoperations to digital file-basedworkflows has opened up newopportunities for media distribu-tion and monetisation. For broad-casters and telecom operators, italso has introduced greater compe-tition and a variety of new techni-cal and operational challenges.

Digital workflows have facilitat-ed a significant rise in the number ofdistribution platforms and outletsthrough which broadcasters andtelecom operators, as well as contentowners, can deliver and monetisetheir digital assets with the promiseof offering content anywhere at anytime. In today’s media marketplace,relative newcomers such as over-the-top (OTT) portals are workingclosely with content owners andproviding the IT-based technologiesrequired to sell and deliver contentdirectly to consumers cost-effectively.As a result, the premium program-ming once available only from

terrestrial broadcasters and cableand satellite operators now is beingoffered to consumers via OTT serv-ices and internet-connected TV sets.

Effective media managementCoincident with the convergence of the traditional broadcast andtelecommunications sectors, alongwith the advance of IP-based videotransmission technologies, the entryof new players into the marketplace isdriving the growth of multiplatformmedia delivery. Of the new technicaldemands facing broadcast and telcosseeking to launch multiplatform serv-ices, efficient media management isamong the most important.

Rather than establish multiple

parallel content preparation anddelivery workflows, media com -panies must create streamlinedcontent management (CM) modelsthat support their multiplatformpublishing activity. Within suchmodels, MAM systems are provingessential to managing productionand delivery of content for IPTV,the internet, VoD, and mobile plat-forms. Creation of a single com-prehensive workflow and elimina-tion of duplicate processes andstorage saves media companiesboth time and money while simp -lifying overall operations.

Sophisticated MAM solutionstoday support workflows incorpo-rating all key processes. Offeringusers control through a single inter-face and customisable task-orientedGUI, such MAM solutions simplifythe handling of multiformat mediaand provide powerful tools for leveraging metadata associated withcontent. Consequently, broadcastersand telcos can more easily managetheir stored images, audio, video, and

text throughout their operations.CM begins as media enters a

facility, where the MAM systeminterfaces with ingest, production,automation, and storage applica-tions to automate acquisition ofhigh-resolution media and associat-ed metadata from sources rangingfrom post houses and productionfacilities to traditional TV and radiobroadcasters. During this process,the MAM system enriches mediawith metadata that later will helpstaff to employ search engine capa-bilities to locate and access specificcontent with speed and ease.

AutomationEquipped with partial-restore func-tionality, the MAM system enablesusers to access and restore just thehigh-resolution media they need.Easy-to-use click, mark in/mark out,and drag-and-drop functions givesthose users, regardless of their tech-nical know-how, the ability to enterprecise search queries and to findand retrieve a particular piece of

content. Automation of other keyfunctions, such as speech-to-textprocessing, transcoding, and qualitycontrol, aids in cutting productiontimes while improving the accuracyof media handling.

As content is prepared fordelivery, the MAM system guidesand performs key tasks includingtrans coding, quality checking,image processing, and subtitlemanagement. Tapping into theMAM system’s desktop interface,users can access tools for contentpackaging, metadata tagging, andrights management.

The MAM system ensures theconsistency of metadata and organ-ises this information in categoriesdeveloped to support the company’sbusiness model and workflow. Thepreservation of metadata related todigital rights enables the operator toensure that programming can bedelivered to particular outlets.

A series of configurable rulesdirects the delivery of content to theappropriate service provider andensures that it meets the require-ments of the target platform andapplication, whether it be VoD to aset-top box, catch-up TV, or aninternet portal.

By implementing comprehensiveyet straightforward MAM systems,these media companies can expandtheir business models and maintaintheir competitive edge in an increas-ingly crowded marketplace.

Supporting digital workflowand multiplatform operation




By Simon Kay, managing director, JCA As UK-based broadcasters continueto expand into new markets andterritories around the world, thedemand for an effective, simpleand streamlined solution for col-lecting content in varying formatsand transforming it for marketing,distribution and international andbroadcast delivery has becomeincreasingly prevalent. The way weshare and distribute content hasalso changed dramatically over thepast decade and highlighted theimportance of investment in digi-tal, tapeless workflow solutionsand an effective media asset man-agement system.

Nowadays we shoot digitally,post digitally for both film and TVand broadcast digitally, so why don’twe distribute digitally? Rights/content owners have long been reluc-tant to move from using tape to digital files, but now more and moredistrib utors are embarking on mass

digitisation projects in a way we’venot seen before. This, combined withincreasing levels of competition andtechnological advancements, hasresulted in new business opportuni-ties emerging, as well as new distri-bution channels, for broadcasters toexploit and use to enhance interna-tional growth strategies.

Digital deliveryThe easiest way for broadcastersand distributors to navigate theseparameters is to ensure that alltheir content exists in digitalform. This not only reduces dis-tribution costs, it also makes thedelivery process quicker, simplerand more accurate. That said theappropriate support mechanismof a MAM system is key to thisbecause it provides broadcastersand suppliers with complete con-trol of their content — so theycan easily manage and accesstheir library 24/7 and track thematerial flow; to transmission,VoD population, an online playeror simple digital file delivery.

These bespoke systems canhold vast amounts of metadatarelating to each item, includingtimecode capture for trans -mission, clip management andancillary data about specific pro-grammes. This metadata can then

be tracked and referenced inter-nally and externally via a webbrowser providing end-to-endmanagement for all client content.

The other added benefit of aneffective MAM is that it helpsspeed up the sales process forbroadcasters. By giving prospec-tive platforms access from their

computers to pre-prepared contentsuch as complete programmes,promos, images and scripts, broad-casters can eradicate the need torely on couriers or mail deliveries,meaning deals can be negotiatedfaster and more efficiently.

While it can be argued thesesystems do provide content/rightsowners and broadcasters withgreater control of their content,there are some, that find it limitingand time-consuming because fileshave to be re-versioned to suit thedesired platform. Previously con-tent owners would have simplysent the tapes and not worriedabout it. However, while this maybe seen as a negative by some, itdoes allow content to be deliveredsafely and presented in the way itwas supposed to be viewed.

Digitisation programmeFor the international children’s television channel, KidsCo, which isavailable in nearly 100 territoriesacross Europe, Asia and Africa,media asset management is a bigissue. KidsCo required a system thatcould distribute its schedule of orig-inal productions, classic content andinterstitials to different broadcasterswith the right languages, in the rightformat, and overcome geographicaland time zone barriers.

To solve this problem, the JCAteam developed a five-stage

digitisation programme to re-versionand re-format KidsCo’s existingcontent and deliver it for broad-cast through a bespoke MAMsystem which could manageregional playouts and enhance theirinternational expansion plans intonew and emerging territories.

The first stage in this processfocused on the re-formatting andstandardisation of KidsCo’s con-tent to fit its master file specifica-tions. During this stage all of thedigitised content was also madeavailable to the client for generalviewing but also to facilitate thesecond stage process of complianceviewing. The compliance view sys-tem within the MAM system alsoallowed details of changes to becirculated among the complianceteam and KidsCo so that speedydecisions about content amend-ments could be made.

The third stage in this processwas concerned with the establish-ment of multiple language feeds tosatisfy KidsCo’s different territories.The MAM system would controlthe distribution and receipt of lan-guage files such that multi languagecontent could be distributed priorto transmission. Once these threepreparation stages had been com-pleted the pre-delivery process wasundertaken to ensure that video andrelevant multiple audio elementswere compliant and in sync.

On demandOnce ready this was flagged within the MAM system and allthe content was then delivered toplayout centres electronically and formatted according to thetransmission schedule for the designated regional markets. Thefinal stage in the project was toimplement a system to fully usethe digital content library forvideo-on-demand platforms withthe appropriate language dub.These material assets were thentagged to various promos, sports,scripts and marketing materialsto allow the programme assets to be fully monetised in order to improve upon the on-going sales process.

Paul Robinson, Global CEO,KidsCo says: “We are delightedwith the work JCA have done for us in developing a bespokesystem through which we canmanage all our programming,marketing, and promotionalmaterial. As KidsCo continuesto grow and move into new mar-kets and territories all aroundthe world it is becoming increas-ingly important for us to be ableto deliver content to platforms,in varying formats with differentlanguage tracks instantly. Ourmedia asset management systemstreamlines this process and provides us with the ability todevelop and negotiate new busi-ness opportunities both simplyand effectively.”

Although the benefits of a dig-ital MAM system are clear, thereare still some distributors whoremain resilient and unconvincedby a fully digitised distributionmodel. The key to this is mat -urity. Digital distribution is stillrelatively new and at present anuntapped opportunity. It alsodepends upon broadcasters andcontent/rights owners’ distribu-tion models, content libraries andoverall requirements.

For some a digital solution atpresent is not suitable or a worth-while investment. However, forbroadcasters who deal with inter-national partners it’s an essentialbusinesses requirement which canultimately reduce costs, deliverytimes and streamline the contentmanagement process for all par-ties. For distributors who wish toparticipate in exploiting theircontent in the VoD world it is anabsolute must.

JCA digitises for KidsCo

The compliance view system within the MAM allowed details of changes to be circulated among the compliance team and KidsCo

Media asset management overcomes format, language, geographical and time zone barriers

International children’s television channel KidsCo needed a system that could distribute its schedule of content to different broadcasters with the right languages, in the right format

By Melanie Dayasena-LoweMyers Information Systems, adeveloper of broadcast traffic,business and content manage-ment software, has implementeda metadata delivery platform thatwill enable the airing of PBS content to audiences in the UK.The platform was developed forPBS Distribution (PBSd), a joint venture of PBS and WGBH,Boston’s public television outlet,

with international rights to a significant library of public tele-vision titles. Myers has suppliedmetadata for the programmesidentified by PBSd, enabling thenew British PBS service — whichlaunched this month on Skychannel 166 — to populate itstraffic and scheduling system.

“Myers’ long-standing comm -itment to PBS, coupled with an in-depth understanding of our

operations, made the company anideal partner for this unique out-reach project,” said Tom Koch,vice president of PBS Distribution.“We look forward to a successfulcollaboration with the Myers teamas we extend our programming tonew audiences overseas.”

“As this project demonstrates,the ‘information systems’ part ofour company name grows increas-ingly relevant — we’re engaged

in much more than traffic andbilling solutions,” said Crist Myers, company CEO and president.“PBS presented us with an excep-tional opportunity to contributeour expertise to this project andhelp them extend the reach of PBSprogramming into the UK multi-channel market. I strongly believein the mission and values that PBS promotes and it brings megreat pleasure to know that

Myers Information Systems isplaying a small, albeit important,role in helping to launch this excit-ing new venture.”

Myers’ flagship suite, ProTrack,is available in both radio and tele-vision editions. It offers schedulingand business management for indi-vidual, multichannel and multi-station facilities. Actively used by more than 226 media outlets,supporting more than 1,300 chan-nels, ProTrack provides a high-level of structure and scalability,without sacrificing flexibility, for today’s rapidly evolving media environments.

New British PBS service launched


Melanie Dayasena-Lowe takes atour of the Associated Press’ newMaster Control Room (MCR) at itsLondon office in Camden — part ofthe news agency’s global HD rollout strategy

The Associated Press has put anaggressive HD rollout strategyinto action, starting with itsLondon hub. This year the globalnews agency will complete its HDrollout at nine international loca-tions and 25 in 2012.

In a multi-million dollarupgrade, the AP is transformingits video business by switching itsentire newsgathering, produc-tion and distribution systems toHD, forming the largest rolloutof HD by any news agency glob-ally. This investment will provideAP customers with a wider rangeof options in how they receivevideo content, both in the tradi-tional broadcast market and ondigital platforms.

The AP began rolling out HDin phases, beginning with enter-tainment news on 11 November2011, to be followed by sports newsvia its joint venture with SportsNews Television (SNTV) in January2012. The completion date for themain breaking news service will beJune next year. “2012 was the tip-ping point for HD because of theOlympics and the US presidentialelections,” explains AP’s NigelBaker, VP, Business Operations,EMEA and Asia. AP took thedecision to go HD to “keep aheadof the competition,” he adds.

Baker believes there is anappetite out there for HD: “Themost recent research we’ve donewith our entertainment customerswould indicate a third of them are

going to be HD within the next 12months. It’s actually keeping faithwith the major customers and alsoensuring that we take the lead in themarketplace. It doesn’t mean thatcustomers who are still SD are dis-advantaged as we’ll be providingthe files in both HD and SD.”

Upgrading technologyThe move to HD will see the APchange the way it gathers, pro-duces and distributes news to itscustomers, involving a series ofupgrades, including the introduc-tion of over 200 HD cameras,upgraded mobile satellites andenhanced backhaul capabilities tohandle the HD signal. Video newsbureaus around the globe havealso been upgraded to the latestgeneration of video editing, compression and transmissiontechnologies and state-of-the-artHD Master Control Rooms(MCR) are being constructed inmore than 20 locations inclu -ding London, New York, andWashington. The AP’s extensivevideo archive will also be trans-

formed to accommodate HD with customers able to downloadbroadcast quality and HDfootage from its website.

Also part of AP’s HD strategyinvolves the upgrade of SNGmobile trucks and flyway units to HD, the introduction of a new production system and theupgrade of its internal connectiv-ity for moving HD video around.

AP Director of Global VideoTechnology David Hoad says:“The magnitude of this project issuch that we are upgrading all our infrastructure right from thecamera lens to the distributiontechnologies and everything inbetween. We recognise in today’sinformation driven world it’s allabout choice and getting theinformation you want, when,

where and how you want it. Assuch, we’re upgrading our tech-nology to make it simpler thanever for customers to receive anduse our video footage.”

AP’s London hub has a brandnew HD MCR, which movedfrom the third to the first floor toaccommodate more space foradditional operational positions.The physical control room is threetimes the size of the old MCRand the technical infrastructure istwice the size.

The news agency selectedATG as its systems integrator forthe new MCR, which featuresfurniture from Custom Consoles.The six workstations in the MCRhave been designed to be iden -tical. “The new MCR is part ofour HD infrastructure upgrade,providing a state-of-the-art videoinfrastructure for AP’s videooperations” explains AP SeniorTechnical Lead Peter Watson.

“The control room providesenhanced video monitoring andergonomic workstations for theoperational team. ATG Broadcast

was a logical choice for the projectgiven its successful track record indesigning and installing compara-ble systems for major broadcastersin many countries.”

“With organisations of thecalibre of Associated Press making the transition to high-definition, 1080-line is now clearlythe benchmark resolution forbroadcasting,” comments ATGBroadcast Managing DirectorGraham Day. “We designed acomplete multi-seat MCR andtransmission facility that canaccommodate five operators plusa supervisor. It is fully equippedfor 1.5Gbps operation but with acore that can easily be upgradedto 3Gbps as or when required.The project includes connectionto existing architecture and

migration of live services to thenew area.”

Hoad explains the challengeAP encountered at its Camden site during the construction: “TheInterchange is a Grade II listedbuilding so there was a lot of work with English Heritage andCamden local authority to get theappropriate approval. It washelped by the complete 2007 refur-bishment of the building that wecarried out so they got to know us.They quite like the contrast ofvery new against very old; it showsup the heritage of the building bythat complete contrast.

“As we continue our HD jour-ney, then more and more feeds inhere will be originated in HD andwe’ll phase out the old SD infra-structure,” he adds. The rollout ofHD does mean some of AP’s work-flows will need to be changed oradapted. “One of the bigger chal-lenges around HD workflow is thespeed of content gathering and someretraining for the camera people to understand the differences ofshooting for HD as opposed to SD.It is a good opportunity for us toreflect and challenge existing work-flows. HD is a great catalyst toopen up the can to look at how wedo it. There must now be a betterway of doing things.”

Getting close to the newsThe newsroom at AP’s Londonbureau is excited about the move toHD, says Derl McCrudden, head ofnewsgathering for AP. “If you lookat some of the key stories we’vedone this year, clearly it’s been dominated by the Arab Spring andwe were exclusively inside theGaddafi compound. In the futurethe prospect of having those kindsof images in HD I think is a verytantalising prospect because if newsis stories about individuals and peo-ple, the sense of taking people to thestory is really great.”

He explains that there has beenan investment on the technologyside, matched by an investment onthe editorial side reflected by therecruitment of new video journalistsin Asia, south and central Europeand the Nordics. “We’ve also put inplace some new kit, LiveU units,which help with our live delivery ofcontent. These are small mobileunits using the GSM data networkand allow us to be live in places that previously you would haveneeded a lot of kit and expensivepeople to do that. So it gives us a lot of flexibility and the new unitsare also HD capable. It’s all in thestep of HD,” McCrudden explains.The new HD strategy also builds on the success of AP’s GlobalMedia Services (GMS), which hasbeen providing HD transmission tointernational broadcasters frommajor news events for several years,most recently including the UKRoyal Wedding.

TVBEUROPE THE WORKFLOW


AP rolls out global HD strategy

“The most recent research we’ve done with our entertainment customers would indicate athird of them are going to be HD within the next12 months” — Nigel Baker

The news agency selected ATG as its SI for the new MCR in London

Derl McCrudden: “We’ve also put in place some new kit, LiveUunits, which help with our livedelivery of content”

David Hoad: “As we continue ourHD journey, more feeds in here willbe originated in HD and we’ll phaseout the old SD infrastructure”

TVBE_Nov P48-50 Workflow_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 15:18

The talk of broadcast.From local radio to large-scale live television productions, we provide powerful andintuitive digital mixing solutions that help to create the memorable events in broadcasting.

www.studer.ch

More InfoScan with your smartphonefor full details of Studerbroadcast consoles

IBC Page Template 21/7/11 12:31 Page 1

TVBEUROPE THE WORKFLOW


Melanie Dayasena-Lowe talks toLoft London Co-founder DavideMaglio and Signiant’s EMEA MDDavid Nortier about a smooth pathfor digital file exchange providedby Signiant software

Hailing from a small start up in a loft space in SE11 in 2007, privately owned Loft London hasgrown into a well respected mediafacility for the broadcast indus-try. It counts Sky, Channel Four,Red Bee Media and On DemandGroup among its client base.

At the start, the firm workedexclusively for Red Bee Mediasupplying services to its clientssuch as Virgin Media andChannel 4. Co-founder of LoftLondon Davide Maglio says:“Channel 4 had a large and aginglibrary where a lot of the formatswere becoming extinct such asD2’s, D3’s, D5’s, Beta SP’s and 1-inch C’s. We were asked to cre-ate digitised masters for Channel4 to repurpose on their 4oD plat-form. We grew from there.”

Over the years, Loft Londonhas developed a close workingrelationship with a US-basedinternational broadcaster andthey have seen the level ofengagement grow from channelmigrations to content prepara-tion for broadcast and VoD plat-forms in the UK, Europe, Nordicterritories and the Middle East.

Loft London has grown itsfacilities in the UK by moving toa 6,500sqft premises in Chiswicklast year. The original office inSE11 has been kept as a DR facil-ity for business continuity. Thereis also an office in Los Angeles,an operational hub being built inLisbon and ongoing plans toopen up in Singapore. The com-pany now boasts 25 staff in the UK.

The Chiswick location is perfect-ly situated to service its large UKclient base. Due to its high speedand uncontended connectivity, LoftLondon can distribute and providea complete file-based workflow for

customers. This is where softwarespecialist Signiant comes in.

The media services companyhas expanded its Signiant port folioof products. Signiant connectsboth internal and external partnersites to facilitate simple collabora-

tion and content exchange. Whendeployed, a managed B2B contentnetwork is created with simpleautomated movement, ensuring alltransfers are centrally managed,monitored, and reported. Signiantis ideally suited for use during theproduction, capture, or creation ofcontent where multiple sites needto exchange data quickly, securely,and reliably with tight transmis-sion deadlines.

“I became familiar with theSigniant solution when the com-pany’s products first becameavailable in Europe five or so

years ago, and I had beenimpressed with its capabilities fordigital file ex changes ever since,”says Maglio.

“Our largest media client hasbeen using Signiant as its contentexchange backbone for at least sixyears, and many of its playoutproviders are also Signiant users, sothere is a great deal of momentumin the industry for the solution.

“Until companies such asSigniant opened in Europe, mov-ing content involved laying it totape or you’d FTP it. But runningan HD FTP workflow is fraughtwith risk. With packet loss andsession time outs, you’d have toemploy a team to manage theFTP distribution and serversalone.” By comparison, Maglioreveals that the beauty ofSigniant is the ease of use andreliability: “Whereas with[Signiant] your Media Managerscan set it all up in the morning,trigger a sequence of tasks andSigniant makes sure the contentgets to its destination.”

Maglio explains that everytime a process touches a piece ofcontent an expense is incurred,

which is why it is essential to speedup the process to air. “Timelinessto air is essential. With Signiantwe can provide an accurate pictureto the client of when materialreached its intended distributionpoints and with that data, all par-ties can target areas where effi-ciencies can be improved.”

All of our clients have trans-mission service level agreementsthat make it imperative for themto receive their content on time.With Signiant, we have completevisibility into the entire transac-tion, and the system generates adelivery confirmation receipt thatensures that the media hasarrived at its destination in goodworking condition. That’s justnot possible using FTP or moretraditional WAN acceleration-only tools,” he adds.

“The software is aimed directlyat enterprises such as LoftLondon, companies with up to 15delivery locations that need thecentral management of contenttransfers,” says David Nortier,Signiant’s managing director,EMEA. “With features such asthe Signiant Acceleration Proto -col for fast, reliable, and securemovement of files over a WAN,as well as centralised networkmanagement to ensure that all

processes and transfers are con-trolled, monitored, tracked, andreported, Signiant is becoming acontent exchange standard formulti-site media operations.”

The components of Signiant’sContent Distribution Manage -ment software includes a Managerthat performs administration, con-trol and reporting of all systemactivity; Media Agents installed onremote computers and responsiblefor jobs such as file movement; andRelay Agents for firewall transver-sal and isolation of content froman external network.

Secure transferNortier explains how the work-flow operates: “You can have aphysical agent installed at theclient and one installed at LoftLondon. Historically the clientwould send a long form movie byputting a tape on a plane from LAto London with someone pickingit up from the airport at the otherend. Now with Signiant softwarethat is all done using the internet.

“Some of the benefits of thatover the long distance from LA toLondon is that the internet hasinherent problems of call latency,which makes it impossible totransmit that size of data in atimely fashion. But with Signiantsoftware it takes away that laten-cy, therefore accelerating thetransfer and securely so it can’t bepirated at the same time while intransit. Then it lands at Loft.”

The Central Manager can beused to locate where the packageis at any point in time throughoutthe process. “When it lands atLoft it doesn’t necessarily have tostay in an inbox. The workflowthat sits side-by-side with themanager logs that the file hascome in, alerts the relevant peo-ple, performs a quality check andtranscodes it to a mobile device,for instance.” This also meansmore automation for processesthat were manual in the past.

AJA

Autoscript

Avid

Blackmagic Design

Bridge Technologies

Broadcast Video

Forum

Clear-Com

Dalet

Datavideo

Digital Rapids

DVS

Egripment

Ensemble

Evertz

EVS

Front Porch Digital

Fujinon

Glensound

Grass Valley

Guntermann &

Druck

Harmonic

Harris

Matrox

Mediagenix

Merging

Technologies

Meteo Group

Multidyne

Murraypro

Nevion

NewTek

NMR

Oxygen

PlayBox

PlayBox

PlayBox

Rohde & Schwarz

Sennheiser

Servizi

SGT

Sisvel

Snell

Sony

SSL

Studer

Studiotech

TV Logic

TV One

Twofour54

AD INDEX17

18

41

5

3

44

12

35

25

IFC

34

24,

46

IBC

11

4

7

26

22

29

39

FC

13

45

8

42

43

30

36

9

14

21

32

48

OBC

19

37

27

23

16

33

15

31

49

28

38

20

10

A delivery you can rely on

Davide Maglio: “Channel 4’s aginglibrary had a lot of formats becomingextinct such as D2’s, D3’s, D5’s,Beta SP’s and 1-inch C’s”

Signiant is suited for use during the production, capture or creation of content where multiple sites need to exchange data quickly

Content Exchange

Signiant software with distri-bution points in Amsterdam,London, Los Angeles &Warsaw. Scheduled points inIstanbul, Lisbon & Moscow � 2 x 1 GB uncontendedfibres for distribution � Automated ingest facilities � On-site storage facility for30,000 tape assets � 15-20 Final Cut Pro stations� 250TB Edit Store plusaccess to 3.5PB archive � Plans to build twoProTools suites and twoSmoke suites in 2012

Loft Londonat a glance:

“Until companies such as Signiant opened inEurope, moving content involved laying it to tapeor you’d FTP it. But running an HD FTP workflowis fraught with risk. With packet loss and sessiontime outs, you’d have to employ a team to manage the FTP distribution and servers alone”

TVBE_Nov P48-50 Workflow_TVBE_SEPT_P21_37_sports 09/11/2011 15:23

tvbe november 2011 digital issue

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