CONTENT DELIVERY MediaHub Provides

CONTENT DELIVERY Terrestrial, Mobile, Broadband CONTENT DELIVERY

www.content-technology.com/transmission

MediaHub Australia Provides Key Playout Services for PacificAus TV

PACIFICAUS TV IS A PROGRAM of the Australian Government that complements a range of initiatives to enhance Australia’s engagement in the Pacific. Free TV Australia was selected to work with Australian commercial free-to-air television networks and Pacific Partner Broadcasters to supply premium Australian content across the Pacific. The initiative enables additional Australian content to be provided to existing Pacific broadcasters for them to broadcast within their programme schedules. After a comprehensive RFP the winner of the end to end managed services and playout tender for PacificAus TV was MediaHub Australia. The objective of the PacificAus TV initiative is to make the broadcast rights to a variety of Australian television programmes available to Pacific broadcast partners in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru. This includes 1,000 hours of content per year for three years including lifestyle programmes, factual programmes, children’s programmes, drama, reality TV and sport. MediaHub CEO Alan Sweeney explained, “Free TV released an RFP to the greater broadcast industry and MediaHub Australia won the tender process. This means we now supply content acquisition, aggregation, playout and distribution services in order to deliver the 1000 hours of content per year to nine Pacific island nations at a Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 99.99%. The core requirement is to provide the functionality to receive content from the commercial metropolitan networks, various production companies and sporting organisations such as the AFL and NRL. We also aggregate this content to playout 5 to 7 hours per day and uplink that content to the Intelsat 19 satellite. All of the content is transcoded and uploaded to the MediaHub ExchangeHub portal for the Pacific Island broadcasters to download the programs as VOD assets.” OPTUS HAS ANNOUNCED what it describes as “a giant leap in its satellite business” with the confirmation of a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for a new, OneSat software-defined satellite, Optus 11, to be deployed for Australia and New Zealand in 2023 at the current Optus D1 orbital location of 160°East. Optus has also entered into a revised agreement with Sky New Zealand which will be the cornerstone customer leveraging the new satellite. Optus will be the first satellite operator in Asia Pacific to launch a softwaredefined satellite that can provide both flexible concurrent broadcast and broadband services via a very high throughput satellite (VHTS) design. The satellite is fully configurable in space, meaning its location, coverage, bandwidth and capacity can be changed in orbit as customer demands evolve – where traditional satellites are limited by on-ground configurations that cannot be altered after launch. Optus Managing Director, Wholesale, Satellite and Strategy, Ben White said: “Optus 11’s software-defined technology marks a paradigm shift in how satellite communication will be delivered across Australia and New Zealand and it will offer unparalleled flexibility for our satellite customers. The ability to re-configure payloads in-orbit is a game-changer. It allows us to adapt to shifting business landscapes and tailor the delivery of services and capacity through dynamic beam-forming technologies. “Optus 11 will add capacity and resilience to our satellite fleet and its unique capabilities will give our broadcast customers the option to tailor their

The PacificAus TV website portal.

Once the RFP and contract stages were completed, the timeline for on-air was very tight. That said, by using their significant expertise and knowledgebase in the areas of channel management and playout, MediaHub was able to have the PacificAus TV service operational in just six weeks. Free TV’s Shane Wood said, “It was impressive to see the MediaHub team deliver this project so quickly and with such a great degree of flexibility and agility whilst working collaboratively with Free TV, STS, the Australian commercial FTA broadcasters and the partner Pacific broadcasters.” MediaHub’s suite of end to end Managed Services fulfill all of the PacificAus TV broadcast requirements including content aggregation, programme preparation and media management, presentation playout, satellite delivery, transcoding, compliance recording and even the creation of a web portal service for the Pacific Island Broadcasters to download content from. Sweeney added, “We furthered our partnership with Sydney Teleport Services (STS) to provide the satellite delivery of PacificAus TV to the Pacific Island Broadcasters. By using MediaHub’s patented, fully redundant, low latency-high capacity video and data services network, FibreHub, we connect the MediaHub playout centre to the STS uplink earth station which then manages the encoding, satellite uplink, encryption and transponder space.” Since the PacificAus TV initiative went live MediaHub has ingested, added metadata to and QCd over 1500 programmes and over 1000 hours of content from multiple providers into the MediaHub MAM system in under four weeks.

Optus to Launch “Game-Changing” Satellite, Signs Sky NZ

Visit www.pacificaustv.com and www.mediahubaustralia.com.au dynamic video delivery via IP streaming, and our broadband customers can benefit from better performance and higher individual throughputs.” Sitting 36,000km above Earth, Optus 11 will also able to host a satellitebased augmentation system (SBAS) payload – which has the ability to greatly enhance the accuracy and precision of existing GPS and positioning systems across the ANZ region and pinpoint a location to within a decimetre, without the need for mobile or internet coverage. Optus 11 will join five other Optus satellites in orbit and expands Optus’ geo-stationary satellite fleet to become the largest in the company’s and Australia’s history. Optus will also be the first operator in the world to utilise the Ku band (11-14GHz) spectrum for the software defined VHTS in both broadcast and broadband services. Optus 11 will also provide greater coverage than its previous satellites, with a reach from Antarctica to the Cocos Islands and covering a vast majority of the Pacific region. Sky NZ has agreed to a revised contract with Optus that delivers satellite capability for the next ten years, with the ability to flex the transponder capacity taken by Sky over the term of the arrangement with corresponding cost savings, and new functionality. The revised contract maintains the benefits of the existing arrangement including the ability to sub-licence capacity, particularly to free-to-air channels, and to access the D3 satellite to provide redundancy during the remainder of its service life. Visit www.optus.com.au and www.sky.co.nz

PACKET BURSTS

ENENSYS TECHNOLOGIES has delivered more than 50 of its ASIIPGuard switch products to BAI Communications for use within its DTT distribution network in Australia. The products have been supplied through Magna Systems & Engineering, after testing by BAI Communications’ project team. The ASIIGuard switches will be used for switching between main and backup links in the transmitter distribution network. ASIIPGuard is an autonomous switch, offering 2:1 and 3:1 switching with options for seamless TS switching as well as IP input and output. Visit www.magnasys.tv

THE AUSTRALIAN Federal Government will provide Melbourne and Adelaide community television stations, C31 and C44, with a final 12-month extension of their television licences to assist them in finalising the transition to digital delivery of their services. Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said the Government agreed to the extension following receipt of written undertakings from C31 and C44 that they will make the transition by 30 June 2021, and in C31’s case, with financial support secured from the Victorian Government.

SEVEN WEST MEDIA has enhanced its audience intelligence offering for advertisers thanks to a new partnership with Australian mobile location intelligence platform, LANDMARKS ID. LANDMARKS ID enables SWM to integrate its technology directly into the 7plus app to understand users’ ‘real world’ behaviours, brand affinities and more importantly, where they spend their time. SWM has created a ‘point of interest’ (POI) network which includes all key advertisers’ locations or points of distribution via use of a ‘geo-fence’ network. These also include significant landmarks like sports stadiums, train stations, airports, shopping centres, and more. Visit www.sevenwestmedia.com.au and www.landmarksid.com

AUSTRALIAN STARTUP Oovvuu has been selected as the global video technology partner of WordPress VIP. Major publishers on the platform include The New York Post and Wall Street Journal, Quartz, TechCrunch, USA Today Sports Media, Medias News Group, Penske (publisher of Rolling Stone, Variety and The Robb Report), TV network Nexstar. With Oovvuu’s proprietary AI video matching technology, they will now be able to match video to their articles and increase their revenue from online adverts by an estimated 13 times what they could do with article adverts alone. Visit https://oovvuu.com

AUSTRALIAN TELCO TELSTRA is planning to expand its network infrastructure in the U.S. by increasing bandwidth capacity on its transPacific subsea cables; opening two new pointsof-presence (PoPs) in the region; and upgrading many of its in-country circuits to enhance network resiliency and diversity. The company will: Increase bandwidth by more than 1.5 terabytes in the next six months; Open PoPs in in Hillsboro, Oregon and Los Angeles, California; and Upgrade in-country circuits, from bundles of 10G transit services to 100G. The addition of 1.5 terabytes of capacity on multiple subsea cables from U.S. West Coast to Asia-Pacific is a response to demand from Telstra’s U.S.-based customers and partners needing to carry data, content, and IP to and from Asia. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Telstra has seen up to a 35 percent increase in traffic on its international network as well as a shift from 10G to 100G services on its trans-Pacific subsea cables. This is driven mostly by content providers, content delivery networks, and growing requirements from a range of businesses to support video, gaming, productivity, and enterprise apps. Visit www.telstra.com

AUSTRALIA-BASED SATELLITE services provider, Av-Comm, is acquiring STEP Electronics from Hills Industries (ASX:HIL). STEP Electronics is a provider of a wide range of satellite communications systems, equipment and services within the Australian and South Pacific regions. STEP Electronics will become a division of Av-Comm. The acquisition will complement and extend Av-Comm’s current business by expanding key strategic verticals in Government and Defence business. Visit www.avcomm.com.au

AMC NETWORKS’ SHUDDER has announced that its premium subscription streaming service for horror, thriller, and the supernatural is now available in Australia and New Zealand, expanding a global footprint that already encompasses North America and Europe Shudder is available in ANZ on the web, iOS, Apple TV, Android and Android TV, and also FireTV in Australia. Plans start at AUD$5.83 and NZD$6.67.

Your media infrastructure specialists

The transition from traditional baseband video infrastructure to an all IP media infrastructure brings many challenges to media companies. It’s important to partner with a company that prides itself on representing the best-of-breed media entertainment technology manufacturers and thoroughly understands the workflow requirements for the efficient creation and distribution of rich content.

CONTENT DELIVERY sales@magnasys.tv www.magnasys.tv secure innovation Australia | Hong Kong | Indonesia | New Zealand | 45 Singapore

Embrionix and the Riedel Connection C+T Talks to I/O pioneer Renaud Lavoie, founder of Embrionix, now part of Riedel.

LAUNCHED JUST OVER TEN YEARS AGO, Canadian company Embrionix was formed with the goal of making the lives of manufacturers and users easier by allowing them to use different types of I/O - be it co-ax, fibre or HDMI - with the same product using the concept of SFP (small form-factor pluggable) devices from the world of datacoms. Over a ten-year period, Embrionix shipped around 700,000 SFPs in the SDI world alone, to a mix of OEM and end-user users. As the broadcast world started to embrace IP standards, the company found its use of the SFP format perfect for the world of gateways and switches. According to Embrionix Founder Renaud Lavoie, “We were really ahead of the curve for that and we wanted to really differentiate ourselves by doing a miniature, if you want, gateway. You can compare us to, instead of having a big card and frame, we created a gateway that was the size of your thumb and this thumb can fit directly in a switch so you avoid all power supplies and failure block. We were really successful.” The company was so successful, in fact, that in November 2019, it was acquired by comms and networking innovator Riedel, a longtime Embrionix OEM customer, to form a North American development hub for the company. What was the compelling reason for the acquisition? What made sense? Renaud Lavoie: “We wanted to bring more value to, let’s say, a ‘big brother’, and the big brother of the best fit, and I’m still convinced the best fit was with Riedel. They had this MediorNet, super reliable transport, and on the other end, we had this IP advance and innovation and they really enjoyed this innovation as well. It was really a perfect fit combining the two forces.” What’s the plan going forward with the integration? “Other than bringing to the Riedel identity, the SFP are now called MuoN and FusioN, they go in line with the next generation of MediorNet. We are now called the MediorNet division. We combined the strength of Montreal and Vienna and now we have a bigger R&D force to deliver, again, top of the line products and also really full features. In fact, three new products we will introduce in August will be J2K, JPEG-XS and both will do SDI to JPEG-XS or J2K or 2110. You can see that it’s an IP to IP product. “One cool thing we also did is fit a 16-image multiviewer in an SFP, so that’s 1 centimetre by 3 centimetres, and now you have a 2110 to 2110 UHD output multiviewer. You can take 16 images in a new output UHD in IP. So, you can basically create mosaic with really, really small footprint and a small power.” Given they are relatively new, what are some of the challenges in designing products to match the SMPTE IP standards, and to talk to other manufacturers’ systems? “Embrionix was the fifth member in the AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association), so for discovery and registration we were one of the first to jump in. Then we joined AIMS (Alliance for IP Media Solutions) and also 2110 and Interop. Embrionix participated until five years to all the Interops, we did not miss any one of them, and the last one was at Riedel, which was really interesting as well. “I think to stay ahead of the curve, first of all, all product is software defined, so we just need a software update and, boom, we follow the new standard, but also it was a commitment from us. “We wanted to ease the life of users and honestly, IP, even today, it’s not an easy task. It’s not a walk in the park, like taking an SDI feed or SDI signal, you take, let’s say, test equipment and you plug that in and you’re good to go. “IP, where is my signal? I cannot remove the fibre connection or active cable and just plug that in and test equipment. This is why we participated in all those Interops and today, with all the small, let’s say “roadblocks” we had to overcome, we have more diagnostics inside our parts that help us in those interrupts, help us in the lab, but also help users.” What’s your sense of 12 GB SDI versus IP and customer adoption? “It’s really everything to scale. Depending on the scale you want to achieve, of course the budget is an important point, but let’s say the scale you want to achieve, I take CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] as an example. They have thousands of signals, you don’t see huge routers of 12Gbit. They said, ‘One day we want to be UHD. We don’t want to always change the gear, reducing the cable reach and they have more and more UHD signal. So, for large installations, I will say it makes sense to go to the IP. “I will say for a small island, I can see 12Gbit, but the corona crisis for us really showed that the IP, you can work from home. I think the corona crisis also made us rethink how we want to do our job, and is it good to have remote people? I think so.” You mentioned the AIMS group, which has started to focus on the AV sector. Where do you see your products fitting into that? “At the beginning of Embrionix, when we started, we did these SFPs and some were HDMI, and we did a lot of patents around that, but we can see ourselves being an HDMI to an IP port. The complexity we had when we started that was the HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) and I’m really happy to see that the AIMS group are asking or are looking with DCP group [Digital Content Protection LLC] to see a way to transport the protected content and IP, because this will be key for all this AV over IP and there are some standards, they have a way to encrypt the data to make sure no one can listen to it, but if we figure that out, and HDCP was always a little bit of a pain, but if we figure that out, it’s really interesting, and will fit in both ends of the spectrum.” What else is on the radar? “We want to look at different types of compression. One aspect is to go more cloud

oriented, so H.264, H.265, maybe NDI, “So far, since the so that’s one aspect we are looking at. The acquisition, it’s other aspect is we did an up-down cross but seven months now, now we want to see can we scale the upit’s going really, down cross. I can see one SFP supporting, really well. The let’s say, two UHD, which will be the developments are best bandwidth optimisation where everything we’re now more and more doing is 25G, so best bandwidth with Vienna and optimisation. “I can see other Montreal and in functions such as SDR/HDR. Our boxes Wuppertal with the that you put behind monitors for 2110 HQ, so we’re seeing are HDR ready but processing, more the integration processing. I have to say the more processing, not like taking place. huge processing like bulk processing, this is probably cuts-oriented but on a more granularity we’re doing, I think doing processing in the venues, it still makes sense doing it with the SFP. “The processing, it’s certainly one aspect we’re looking and a recent part we released were without any I/Os, so it’s kind of an SFP you stick in a switch and there’s no I/O whatsoever, so it’s an IP-to-IP pure processing, and there’s no gateway in front of an SDI system. Embrionix started, really, from scratch, so there’s no legacy inside our parts, so it’s really an IP-to-IP. If we say to a customer we go IP-to-IP in Riedel, it’s a real IP-to-IP, it’s not a bridge, there’s no bridge in there. “So far, since the acquisition, it’s seven months now, it’s going really, really well. The developments are now more and more with Vienna and Montreal and in Wuppertal with the HQ, so we’re seeing the integration taking place. There’s a good motivation for us, it’s super interesting, we have more people in the field to sell the technology, to sell our products, MediorNet IP, and I used to say the coronavirus just put some oil on the fire, just accelerated this IP transition. Honestly, it’s the way I see it.” Visit www.riedel.net

BirdDog Introduces Flex Family of NDI Processors

BIRDDOG HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of BirdDog Flex, which the company says are the smallest NDI encoders and decoders on the planet. This new addition to the BirdDog range has a footprint only slightly larger than a credit card, creating the world’s smallest 4K NDI Encoders and Decoders. With three products available Flex is suitable for most workflow needs, and includes Tally, Audio, Video, PTZ control, Audio Intercom and Power along a single Ethernet cable. The Flex range consists of the 4K NDI Encoder, 4K NDI Decoder and 4K Backpack, with key features including: • Cool touch thermals for operation in the hottest environments • Halo Tally is built into the Flex family, with zero configuration required with any NDI enabled software-based production system • Adaptive bit rate • Full PTZ camera control via optional control cable for nonnative NDI cameras • Dante input and output supported • RESTful API for third party control and automation • Camera Mounts are available as an optional extra • Central Lite NDI routing software • Comms Lite audio intercom software The Flex 4K BACKPACK is designed as an upgrade for a camera top monitor recorder. Featuring an NP style battery connection, and 15w power

output, it allows the user to encode NDI, power a monitor, and record all at the same time. Visit www.ambertech.com.au

Blackmagic Announces ATEM Mini Pro ISO

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN has announced the ATEM Mini Pro ISO, a new low-cost live production switcher with a 5-stream recording engine that allows all video inputs to be recorded allowing a live production to be edited after the event. This allows users to get a clean feed of all inputs and use edit software multi-cam features for later editing. ATEM Mini Pro ISO also records all audio files, media pool graphics and a DaVinci Resolve project file, so a live production can be opened and edited with a single click! Features include four standards-converted HDMI inputs, USB webcam out, audio mixer with EQ and dynamics, 2D DVE, transitions, green screen chroma key, and 20 stills for titles. ATEM Mini Pro also includes recording to USB disks in H.264 format, a built-in hardware streaming engine for YouTube Live, Facebook, and Twitch, plus multi-view to see all cameras on a single monitor. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO’s 5-stream recording includes all inputs as clean feeds for editing, plus a DaVinci project file for fast edit turnaround and Blackmagic RAW file relinking for finishing in Ultra HD. Connections include four HDMI inputs, one HDMI output, two microphone inputs (with power available), Ethernet port, and USB-C output. HD Video Input Standards include: 720p50, 720p59.94, 720p60, 1080p23.98, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 1080p30, 1080p50, 1080p59.94, 1080p60, 1080i50, 1080i59.94, and 1080i60. HD Video Output Standards include: 1080p23.98, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 1080p30, 1080p50, 1080p59.94, and 1080p60. Video Streaming Standards include: 1080p23.98, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 1080p30, 1080p50, 1080p59.94, 1080p60 Video Sampling is 4:2:2 YUV. Colour precision is 10-bit with Rec 709 colour space. Colourspace Conversion is hardware-based and real time. HDMI Input Resolutions from Computers handled by the ATEM Mini Pro ISO include: 1280 x 720p 50Hz, 59.94Hz and 60Hz; 1920 x 1080p 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97,30, 50, 59.94; and 60Hz 1920 x1080i 50 and 59.94Hz 60Hz. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO’s 6-input x 2-channel mixing capabilities include selectable On/Off/Audio-Follow-Video per channel plus separate gain control per channel; Level and Peak metering; and Fairlight audio enhancements such as Compressor, Gate, Limiter, 6-bands of parametric

EQ; as well as Master gain control. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO supports direct live streaming over ethernet using Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). Video recorded via the 4 x HDMI ISO inputs is recorded as H.264 .mp4 files at up to 70Mb/s quality at the ATEM video standard with AAC audio. Programme output is H.264 .mp4 file at the Streaming quality setting and at the ATEM video standard with AAC audio. On the Audio Recording side, the 6 x 2-channel audio inputs are recorded as separate 24-bit 48KHz .wav files. These inputs include the 2 x analogue stereo audio inputs and 4 x HDMI 2-channel embedded audio inputs. HD Multi-View Monitoring consists of 1 x 10 Views including left right configurable Program/Preview, 4 HDMI inputs, Media Player, Streaming Status, Recording Status and Audio Meters. ATEM Software Control Panel is included free for Mac 10.14 Mojave, Mac 10.15 Catalina or later and Windows 10 64 bit only. Blackmagic Design has also announced the ATEM Streaming Bridge, a new converter that decodes the live stream from any ATEM Mini Pro model switcher and converts it back to SDI and HDMI video. The advantage of ATEM Streaming Bridge is broadcasters can use it to connect high quality video links direct from any ATEM Mini Pro studio. ATEM Mini Pro’s video stream is much higher quality than that of conferencing software, so customers get broadcast quality, clean of any streaming software vendor logo burn-in. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com