Content + Technology ANZ - November- December 2014 by Content+Technology

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VOLUME 11 ISSUE 6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

MEDIA + PRODUCTION + MANAGEMENT + DELIVERY

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Gearhouse Gives OK to 4K

16 REGULARS 02 EDITOR’S WELCOME 04 NEWS Brand New Media Making HbbTV Healthy, Plus7 on Telstra T-Box, Funding Cuts for ABC and SBS, Demmock Joins Magna, SBS Board Appointments

44 CLASSIFIEDS AND EVENTS 46 INDUSTRY FOCUS 48 TIME SHIFTER NFSA Celebrates 30th Anniversary

12 FEATURES 12 ACQUISITION Sony 4K Used in Two Aussie Productions, Ship Date for AJA CION, Steadicam Productions Picks ARRI and Fuji, Updates Aplenty from ARRI

16 SPORTSCASTING Gearhouse Broadcast

Goes Native 4K, MediaTec Harnesses the Power of Ross, Glasgow 2014 Diaries: The Final Chapter

21 NEWS OPERATIONS Behind the Scenes at the G20, Skype for Broadcast with NewTek TalkShow, Vizrt Control Room Solution

23 POST-PRODUCTION Avid Unleashes

27 MEDIA IN THE CLOUD RTHK Enlists DAMsmart to Digitise Archive, Ai-Media Deploys Mediaproxy LogServer, R&S Upping Storage Capabilities

30 AUDIO ABC TV Taps PAT fro Largest Lawo Solution, The Neumann U47 fet is Back, Dynaudio ‘AIR Control’ for Tablets

35 RADIO SRN Expands Satellite Distribution, Nautel’s New Solid-State Transmitters, Canberra and Darwin DAB+ Trials Extended

38 TRANSMISSION Out of the Red Beehive – Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services, MPEG-4 Transmission Round-Up

Creativity at Nine, Colorfront Transkoder goes 8K, NVIDIA Releases VCA and New Quadro GPUs

CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY: ISSN 1448-9554 PP:255003/06831 Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd (ABN: 34 095 653 277) PO Box 259, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 Australia www.broadcastpapers.com PUBLISHER: Phil Sandberg Tel: +61 (0)2 4368 4569 Mob: +61 (0)414 671 811 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com

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SUB-EDITOR: Keith Ford Mob: +61 (0)430 432 437 Email: papers@broadcastpapers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lucy Salmon Tel: +61 (0)2 9211 8205 production@broadcastpapers.com DESIGN & LAYOUT: Wide Open Media Tel: +61-2-9690 2835 info@wideopenmedia.com.au PRINTING: Lindsay Yates COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All material in Broadcastpapers’ Content+Technology Magazine is protected under

Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws. No material may be reproduced in part or whole in any manner without prior consent of the Publisher and/or copyright holder. DISCLAIMER: Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd accepts no responsibility for omissions or mistakes made within, claims made or information provided by advertisers.

28/11/2014 11:16 am

EDITOR’S WELCOME

ABC – for Kicks! By Phil Sandberg I RECENTLY STEPPED INTO A TAXI to be greeted by the strident tones of talkback radio host Ray Hadley of Sydney’s 2GB railing against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, labelling the government-owned broadcaster a “retirement home” and claiming that only those who worked in commercial media knew what hard work really was. The comments were made against the background of proposed budget cuts to the ABC and multicultural broadcaster SBS. I commented to the taxi driver that the ABC was really receiving a kicking that week.

Let’s not forget some of those market-creating milestones: 1932: The Australian Broadcasting Commission was launched at 8pm on 1st July, 1932. There were 12 stations initially, broadcasting live music, sport and information programs for about 11 hours each day. By mid1939 there were 26 stations broadcasting around 16 hours a day, a total of 132,158 hours over the year. 1936: A News Editor, Frank Dixon, was appointed. He championed an independent ABC news service

Building on its pioneering Internet presence, the national broadcaster spent the 2000s using emerging internet technologies. 2002: ABC launches Australia’s first Internet digital radio station. This now includes mainland capital cities, four national networks, metropolitan local radio services - as well as digital-only services. 2005: Launch of a new free-to-air digital TV channel. This followed with the launch of ABC digital channels for ABC1, ABC3 and Australia’s first free-to-air 24-hour television news channel ABC News24. 2008: Launch of the free internet TV service, ABC iview, allowing people to catch up on all ABC programming at a time of their choosing.

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While the ABC hasn’t been idle since then, DAB+ radio for example, 2008’s launch of iView really did open up consumers to the idea of web and tablet catch-up viewing. Since then, it has been joined by other players in the space, including Plus7, tenplay.com.au, 9jumpin.com.au, and Foxtel Go/Play/Anytime. 01:00

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And, so, as we go to press ABC MD Mark Scott has announced the loss of 400 jobs and other cut-backs as the organisation attempts to work within Federal Government cut-backs of some AUD$254 million.

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1991: ABC airs first Wiggles TV show – they go on to become the country’s most successful entertainers.

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He then went on to deliver more sermons from the bunker - on Islam, on young people and various other plagues that, no doubt, will trigger the apocalypse. I left the cab wondering if taxi companies shouldn’t do more to integrate drivers back into society and that, instead of clearing community TV broadcasters from the airwaves, the Government should look at auctioning off parts of the AM band.

Then there’s the recently announced, much anticipated 2015 Australia-New Zealand launch of Netflix. The U.S. Internet giant Netflix has been drawn by the mature ANZ market – after quietly benefitting from rights-infringing early adopters – but, given the number of local services now available and the content deals done by these operators, it does leave one wondering if Australia will not prove to be Netflix’s “Starbucks Moment”. We’ll see in the New Year. And, speaking of which, this is our last issue for 2014. We wish you and yours all the best for the Holiday Period. Thanks for Reading

1956: On November 5, 1956, ABC Television launched. St. Petersburg

1966: PlaySchool launched. Still going. 1975: Launch of Double J, the ABC’s first 24-hour rock music station, which evolved into triple j, on the FM band.

1995: On August 14 ABC Online goes live on the internet at www.abc.net.au

“So it should,” he replied. “It’s about time. It’s full of communists and femoNazis who want to bring on world governance.”

While this may be of some cheer to those on the right carrying a “bias” grievance or those at News Corporation who see the National Broadcaster as a “commercial” threat, it cannot be denied that, throughout its history, the ABC has pioneered new forms of content and technology, and perhaps helped create markets that would have been otherwise overlooked.

in Sydney and Melbourne. 1961: Four Corners launched, along with a new concept in the treatment of Australian news, Current Affairs.

1958: Experimental Children’s television programmes broadcast for schools

Phil Sandberg - Editor/Publisher papers@broadcastpapers.com - T: +61-(0)2-9211 8205

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NEWS + PEOPLE For the latest news visit www.content-technology.com

Brand New Media Making HbbTV Healthy By Keith Ford FOLLOWING THE LAUNCH OF HBBTV in Australia with FreeviewPlus, digital media company, Brand New Media (BNM) are planning to launch healthyMEtv as a HbbTV channel. healthyMEtv was Australia’s first IPTV health channel and is produced in partnership with Seven West Media. Users will be able to access healthyMEtv through the digital EPG from Freeview, so anyone with an HbbTV enabled television will be able to watch all of the healthyMEtv content. “It’s going to be fascinating how many individual channels will pop up here, just deliver over the top. That’s the beauty of HbbTV; you can build out. Woolworths could build out their food channel, or you know, we build out the health channel, which can be funded by the government or whatever it may be – or funded by BUPA, who knows. But ours is just about to arrive, and we will start seeing it on the EPG,” explained Simon Joyce, Managing Director of BNM Australia and New Zealand. “My early look at the EPG and how you go into the specific channels, it’s a really smooth experience. It just appears simple and clean.” BNM also has their own platform called channelPLAY, which they are using to get their channels onto HbbTV, with the help of Seven. “ChannelPLAY for us is our own architecture platform that delivers our content through either a website, or mobile social, and it’s all integrated. Our platform delivers all of those assets. So from our point of view, from HbbTV,

in direct partnership with Seven at the end of the day, what we do is we provide Seven a feed that consists of two components. One is a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) feed off of the channelPLAY solution. The other part is a matching feed off of the online video platform at the back end,” explains Scott Bradley Pearce, Digital Strategy Director for BNM. “The Seven platform ingests that feed and takes in all of the metadata that includes the show names, episode numbers, synopsis data, episode name. All that stuff comes into that feed, and it also passes through a URL for the video asset. So what happens at the other end, on the Seven side is that they ingest that feed, back-process it, and hold it locally on their environment so that when the consumer presses the red button and goes into the VOD environment - in the HbbTV environment, they could select one of our assets, click play, and the HbbTV service knows where to make that request for that video asset, and it gets it off of our content distribution network.“ Initially, the HbbTV healthyMEtv channel will be video on demand (VOD), with hopes to move to a linear channel further down the track. However, at this early stage of HbbTV in Australia all of the channels are acting as VOD.“ Visit www.brandnewmedia.com.au

Yahoo7 and Telstra Team-Up to Deliver PLUS7 on T-Box YAHOO7 AND TELSTRA HAVE ANNOUNCED a new partnership agreement that will deliver PLUS7 premium video content to Telstra T-Box customers. The agreement will see PLUS7 available directly via the T-Box Catch Up TV menu, giving T-Box owners access to some of Australia’s most popular free-to-air content on-demand via their TV. PLUS7 gives T-Box audiences access to premium on-demand content from Australia’s most-watched television network Channel 7, including “The X Factor”, “Home & Away” and “Winners and Losers”.

Telstra Director IPTV and Pay TV, Eric Kearley, said, “The arrival of PLUS7 on the T-Box is part of Telstra’s ongoing plans to bring more free to air content to our T-Box customers. Our partnership with Yahoo7 means T-Box users can watch some of their favourite Channel 7 and 7mate shows when they want, giving extra flexibility and convenience for times when it’s not possible to watch them live.” Visit http://au.yahoo.com and www.telstra.com.au

NEWS + PEOPLE

Jonathan Steel, Director – Business Development and Partnerships, Yahoo7, said, “Yahoo7 is focused on giving audiences access to our

premium content wherever and whenever they want. This new partnership will let Telstra T-Box users stream Channel 7 programs on PLUS7 easily from their TV to make sure they never miss an episode of their favourite show.”

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Talkback and Tally The Blackmagic Studio Camera features built in talkback using general aviation headsets, so you get better noise cancelling and comfort at a much lower cost! You also get built-in tally lights that illuminate automatically when your camera is live so your cast and crew can easily see which cameras are on air! Talkback and tally signals are embedded in the return video connection to the camera, so you don’t have to run separate cables! Micro Four Thirds Lens Mount The active Micro Four Thirds lens mount is compatible with an incredibly wide range of lenses and adapters. You can use your existing photo lenses for smaller setups and fixed camera use, or connect incredible broadcast ENG lenses via a B4 lens adapter. You can even use third party adapters for high end feature film PL mount lenses, so it’s easy to customize your camera to suit any sized production!

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28/11/2014 16/10/2014 11:16 10:25 am am

NEWS + PEOPLE

Funding Cuts for ABC & SBS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED in a speech by Federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull the ABC and SBS will both have their funding cut over the next five years. Over that period the ABC will receive $5.2 billion in funding, which amounts to a $254 million - or 4.6 per cent. SBS will have its operating budget reduced by $25.2 million – 1.7 per cent – over the same period, with a further $28.5 million being generated through legislative changes to advertising arrangements resulting in a total of $53.7 million being returned to the budget. Combined, these measures will save the Government $308 million over five years. Mr Turnbull believes that the cuts shouldn’t have any affect on programming, though acknowledges that where the savings are found is a matter for the Board. “The savings announced today are not of a scale that requires any particular change to programming. All of the savings can be found within operational efficiencies of the kind canvassed in the Lewis efficiency study,” he said. “There is a temptation for management to blame the Government for some of these program changes. That would be cowardly. “The ABC management know that they can meet these savings without reducing the resources available to programming - furthermore they know that the Government and their board know too.” The 146-page Lewis Efficiency Study, which is yet to be released to the public, discusses 48 operational activities across the ABC and the SBS where savings can be made. Among the recommendations are that the ABC and SBS share premises in Sydney and Melbourne, removing ABC state and territory directors in every capital city, the two broadcasters stop paying for their services to be rebroadcast on Foxtel, sell off outside broadcast vans and its Melbourne news helicopter, the ABC sell off property at Lanceley Place in Sydney. “The 5 per cent cut, which begins to apply from next year, comes on top of a 3 per cent reduction in funding through the termination of the Australia Network work contract and the efficiency cut imposed in the May budget. As the cuts ramp up, the ABC faces an 8 per cent annual cut,” said ABC Managing Director, Mark Scott, in a statement. “As I have stated previously, in its response to funding cuts the ABC will seek to serve audiences and protect content wherever possible. As we have in the past, we will look to find efficiencies in our operations and support services. I note, however, that there are clear examples in the efficiency report commissioned by the Department of Communications, which would impact on the kinds of content we can make and offer.

“I also note that in his speech, the Minister conceded that it, in the end, it is the Australian people who will judge whether they are getting value for money from the national broadcaster. That view is already clear: in the latest annual ABC Appreciation Survey, conducted by the independent company Newspoll, 84 per cent declared the ABC was performing a valuable role.” “SBS is already an extremely lean organisation and the funding cut of $53.7 million over five years announced by the Australian Government today, whilst anticipated, is sizeable and will naturally be felt by our organisation,” said SBS Managing Director, Michael Ebeid, in a statement. “Through the ABC and SBS Efficiency Study, the SBS Board and I have sought to demonstrate SBS is lean and agile, with creative employees that are, by necessity, highly-skilled at delivering on our Charter obligations, on very tight budgets,” added Ebeid. “Ordinarily, SBS is funded within a triennial model and this cut has come in the middle of that cycle which is disappointing, as our preferred outcome would have been to retain the stability the triennial model provides, given our long-term supplier agreements.” The upcoming legislative changes, which will be introduced to Parliament in early 2015, will allow SBS to generate more revenue through advertising. SBS currently has a strict limit of five minutes of ads per hour, but the proposed changes will allow SBS to show up to ten minutes in any given hour as long as they maintain an average of 5 minutes per hour across the day. “This means the existing daily limit of 120 minutes will be maintained – which is well below the 350 minutes per day commercial broadcasters can devote to advertising,” explained Mr Turnbull. “Take the fact that, the two highest television revenue results for SBS since it started to carry advertising in 2003 were $72.3 million in 2009-10 and $73.4 million in 2013-14 and those were in small part due to the FIFA World Cup. “Compare this to the 2013-14 advertising revenue earned by commercial broadcasters of $3.9 Billion: we are talking about less than 2 per cent of that commercial television advertising pie. SBS maintain that from this change they will receive $8-9 million per annum of additional revenue. Their costing model is robust, although there are some who dispute it.” “We anticipate that more than 400 people – close to 10 per cent of our ongoing workforce – face potential redundancy as we adjust our activities over coming months,” Mr Scott said. “We regard the changes as vital to securing the long-term health of the organisation, but I acknowledge that is no comfort to those who will lose their positions.” The ABC has also proposed changes to programming in ABC News, Radio and Television. A new national 7.30 program on Fridays will replace the current State edition, with extended cross-platform coverage of state and territory issues seven days a week. Lateline will be moved to a new fixed timeslot on ABC News 24. Restructuring the ABC’s foreign bureaux to create multiplatform hubs and opening a Beirut post; Changes to ABC Local programming, Radio National and ABC Classic FM and an overhaul of ABC TV’s sports coverage, with a focus on national sporting events, are also among the changes.

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With Australian Broadcasting Corporation MD Mark Scott announcing the loss of up to 400 jobs as a result of Federal Government funding cuts, Content+Technology is offering any ABC worker affected by the cuts free ‘Work Wanted’ advertising in our print magazine and weekly eNewsletter. All you have to do is post your ad as a discussion on our LinkedIn group and we will reproduce it in our publications, hopefully, helping to ease any career disruption you may be facing. Visit http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6604095

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Demmocks Joins Magna to Head Digital Solutions Sales INDUSTRY STALWART Dave Demmocks has joined Magna Systems and Engineering to head up Digital Solutions Sales as the company expands in the broadcast industry and moves into new markets. Demmocks is a senior sales manager with over thirty years experience in the IT industry for companies including Future Reality, Data Direct Networks, Isilon and Autodesk. Demmocks said, “I’ve joined an expanding team at Magna at a very exciting time. Magna’s policy to geo-diversify its offices, skills and knowledge base has paid dividends and is the main reason the company is still going strong after 45 years. My role is to offer the broadcast industry and other industries products and solutions that will complement and complete our current skill set including storage, archiving and MAM.” Demmocks’ arrival widens Magna’s ever-growing knowledge base and is further evidence of the company’s commitment to growth. Visit www.magnasys.tv

Nihal Gupta and Peeyush Gupta Appointed to SBS Board THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT HAS APPOINTED Mr Nihal Gupta as Chairman of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Board and Mr Peeyush Gupta (not related) as non-executive Director of the SBS. They have both been appointed to their positions for five years. Mr Nihal Gupta is Managing Director of Digital Electronics Corporation Australia and holds numerous community board positions, including Chairman of the NSW Multicultural Business Advisory Panel, appointee of the Judicial Commission of NSW, and Trustee of the Board of the Sydney Cricket and Sports Ground Trust, among others. Mr Peeyush Gupta is an experienced company director, and is currently the Chairman of State Super Financial Services and Charter Hall Direct Property Management Limited. He is also a Director of: a number of entities of NAB; Crowe Horwath, QuintessenceLabs; and the NSW Government’s Safety Return to Work and Support Board.

NEWS + PEOPLE

Visit www.sbs.com.au

Chris Wilson and Steve Condie Join 7 Wonder IN ITS FIRST MAJOR RECRUITMENT MOVE, 7 Wonder, the independent TV producer launched in March of this year, has appointed Chris Wilson to the newly created role of Head of Popular Factual. At 7 Wonder, Chris will be responsible for developing and managing his own slate. He will report creatively to Alex Fraser, co-founder and chief creative officer, and commercially to Liza Abbott, CEO. Chris joined Sky in September 2012 as commissioning editor for factual, where he was responsible for a wide range of projects. Chris said, “I’ve had a brilliant time at Sky, working across an incredibly broad slate of programmes, with an immensely talented and open-minded team. After two years in commissioning, I can’t wait to get back to the sharp end of production and work alongside Alex, Liza and the rest of the 7 Wonder team to build a new slate of innovative, popular and high-quality factual programmes.” 7 Wonder has also added Steve Condie to its executive team, who joins the UK-based independent this month to take up the newly created role of head of specialist factual. Steve joins 7 Wonder from indie Oxford Scientific Films, where he executive produced a number of high-profile series for the BBC and Channel 4. Visit www.7wonder.co.uk

Gencom Appoints Ganesh Gurpur to VP South East Asia GENCOM TECHNOLOGY HAS APPOINTED Ganesh Gurpur as VicePresident for South East Asia. Ganesh joined the Gencom Technology group almost one year ago in the role of Project Director based in the Gencom Singapore office and has now been promoted to VicePresident of South-East Asia for the group. Ganesh has many years of experience in the broadcast industry and has worked and managed territories such as India, Africa and SE Asia. Ganesh will be responsible for running the Gencom Singapore & Gencom Vietnam offices as well as developing business across the South East Asia region. Meg Garrido, Gencom Group COO, said, “Ganesh has been a stand-out performer in his role as Project Director and we look forward to him continuing and expanding his role as our VP for South-East Asia.” Visit www.gencom.com

Riedel Australia Appoints Espen Brynildsen

Wohler Appoints Collins as APAC Sales Director

RIEDEL COMMUNICATIONS, provider of real-time video, audio, data, and communications networks, has announced the appointment of Espen Brynildsen as technical solutions manager for Riedel Australia. In this new position, Brynildsen will play a central role in designing and managing solutions delivered to customers throughout Australia and New Zealand.

WOHLER TECHNOLOGIES HAS ANNOUNCED

Brynildsen joins Riedel Australia after most recently serving as technical director at Microhire Sydney, a leading national supplier of computer rentals, particularly for large-scale events. He earlier was technical sales manager at projectiondesign (now part of Barco), where he helped to build and maintain partner networks with specialist integrators across Australia and New Zealand.

Collins joins Wohler having most recently served as sales and marketing director at Megahertz Ltd. (previously OKNO-TV), a U.K.-based provider of integration services to leading broadcasters worldwide. He also has held sales and marketing roles with Evertz Technologies and Television Systems Limited.

Visit www.riedel.net

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the appointment of Alex Collins as sales director in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. In this role, Collins will focus on extending awareness and adoption of the company’s RadiantGrid Intelligent Media Transformation Platform and other RadiantGriddriven solutions in the region.

Collins will be based in Hong Kong and will report directly to Newbury.

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World class brands, trusted service. Professional Audio & Television has long been known for the world class products we sell, but we are also known for our local world class service and support. The customer purchase is just the start of our relationship. We understand the commercial and technical demands our customers face, and we ensure their purchase is the correct solution to satisfy both of these needs. We pride ourselves on being an integral part of the customers decision making process.

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www.proaudiotv.com.au Professional Audio & Television Pty Ltd P: 02 9476 1272 E: sales@proaudiotv.com.au

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TECHNICAL STANDARDS www.content-technology.com/standards

SMPTE Publishes AXF Standard THE SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE and Television Engineers (SMPTE), has published a standard that codifies the Archive eXchange Format (AXF). An IT-centric file container that can encapsulate any number and type of files in a fully self-contained and self-describing package, AXF supports interoperability among disparate content storage systems and ensures content’s longterm availability, no matter how storage or file system technology evolves. Designed for operational storage, transport, and long-term preservation, AXF was formulated as a wrapper, or container, capable of holding virtually unlimited collections of files and metadata related to one another in any combination. Known as “AXF Objects,” such containers can package, in different ways, all the specific information different kinds of systems would need in order to restore the content data. The format relies on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to define the information in a way that can be read and recovered by any modern computer system to which the data is downloaded. Visit www.smpte.org

Front Porch Joins DPP Programme FRONT PORCH DIGITAL, the provider of cloud-based content storage management (CSM) solutions, has joined the U.K.’s Digital Production Partnership (DPP) Compliance Programme. The DPP is the industry body that is driving the U.K.’s transition to filebased production and distribution of all television programs. As part of its effort to ensure DPP compliance for its customers, Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive CSM system will fully support the AS-11 DPP format by using adapted media-centric features at the archive level, such as inline transcoding operations, partial file restore, and constant file monitoring and checksums. Another feature under consideration is the extraction, display, and editing of DPP package metadata within Front Porch Digital’s DIVAdirector media asset management system and DISTILL metadata management system. Visit http://fpdigital.com

MPEG LA Offers HEVC Patent Portfolio License MPEG LA, LLC HAS ANNOUNCED the availability of the HEVC Patent Portfolio License. The joint license includes patents that are essential to the High Efficiency Video Coding standard (HEVC, also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2) designed to improve video coding and transmission efficiency for the benefit of Internet, television, and mobile service providers and consumers with increased speed and capacity. HEVC is also expected to deliver next generation higher resolution HDTV video by broadcast, streaming, download, and 4K Blu-ray for 4K and 8K Ultra High Definition TV. MPEG LA’s objective is to provide worldwide access to as much HEVC essential intellectual property as possible. Therefore, MPEG LA welcomes any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the HEVC standard to submit them for an evaluation of their essentiality by MPEG LA’s patent experts and inclusion in the License if determined to be essential. Visit www.mpegla.com

110th MPEG meeting to explore use cases, requirements, and potential timelines for the development of future video coding standards. Guest speakers included Roger Bolton of Ericsson, Harald Alvestrand of Google, Zhong Luo of Huawei, Anne Aaron of Netflix, Stéphane Pateux of Orange, Paul Torres of Qualcomm, and JeongHoon Park of Samsung, who each provided presentations discussing the needs of applications in their industry segments.

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Toward establishing a roadmap for future video coding standardisation, MPEG has established two ad hoc groups to conduct this study. MPEG welcomes the input of all experts to exchange views, help map the video compression needs of the industry to future standardization activities, and discuss potential technologies that could be employed in such a video coding standard. A list of the ad hoc groups, and

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instructions to subscribe to their corresponding reflectors is available on the MPEG website. Also at the recent 110th MPEG meeting, Part 13 of ISO/IEC 15938 MPEG-7, Compact Descriptors for Visual Search (CDVS) was approved. CDVS defines a compact image description that facilitates the comparison and search of pictures that include similar content, e.g. when showing the same objects in different scenes from different viewpoints. The compression of key point descriptors not only increases compactness, but also significantly speeds up, when compared to a raw representation of the same underlying features, the search and classification of images within large image databases.

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Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org

TECHNICAL STANDARDS

In the brainstorming session, several opinions were offered from the panelists, and other participants as well, who collectively represented a variety of industry, academia, and research institutions. Aside from confirming

that maximising compression efficiency remains a fundamental need, the expressed views were diverse and it is evident that the needs among applications and industry segments vary. MPEG says it has therefore recognised a need to further study future application requirements, and the availability of technology developments to fulfill these requirements.

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MPEG Tackles Visual Search and Future Video Standards MPEG, TOGETHER WITH ITU-T SG 16’S VCEG, hosted a panel discussion at its recent

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Ericsson’s AVP 3000 Voyager is its sixth generation DSNG product, building on over two decades of experience in Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) technologies. The AVP 3000 performs low latency multi-codec, multi-format and multi-channel operations and is capable of the latest IP and satellite delivery technologies making it the most flexible news gathering system on the market.

KEY FEATURES › Supports SD, HD, 3DTV and 4K UHDTV operation › Operation modes from MPEG-2 SD 4:2:0 to the highest quality MPEG-4 AVC HD 4:2:2 10-bit and 1080p50/59.94 › High order DVB-S/S2/S2X modulation on both IF and L-Band outputs

› Standard and resilient Power Supply Unit (PSU) options › 1 Msym/s to 66 Msym/s operations › Fully software upgradeable through licensing model › MPEG-2 Transport Stream generation

› Intuitive and easy to use web browser control

› SMPTE 2022 (ProMPEG) Forward Error Correction (FEC)

› Supports CE-x, CE-xA, CE-a and CE-a/J2k series encoder cards

› BISS 1/E and RAS encryption

› 1RU form factor modular chassis with up to six hot swappable option slots

The most powerful video processing engine on the market, enabling the best picture quality in the lowest bandwidth.

› Full support for Ericsson Patented Phase Aligned Audio › Exceptional modulation accuracy and spectral purity

Ease of use through a modern and powerful Graphical User Interface and a fully functional front panel.

ericsson.com/television

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ACQUISITION www.content-technology.com/acquisition

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Sony 4K Used in Two New Australian Productions During 2013, Denson Baker ACS shot the New Zealand-based independent feature film The Dark Horse with a Sony F65 4K CineAlta camera. Partly because of that experience and partly due to his collaboration and shared vision with director Jim Loach, the decision was made to use the F65 on Loach’s next movie in Australia. “I SHOT THE DARK HORSE on the F65 and had a great experience with the camera on that film,” Baker explained. “I wasn’t the only one who was really happy with the look we achieved. Park Road Post Production had also been really enthusiastic about working with the F65 images. I was fortunate on The Dark Horse to do extensive comparison tests in pre-production with three other cameras and a variety of lenses and filters. The F65 stood out above the other cameras and that, followed by 33 days of principal photography, meant I knew the camera very well and what it was capable of by the time it came to talk cameras for Jim’s picture.” Having read the script, Baker knew that the greatest challenge on this movie would be dealing with the amount of night scenes, particularly in the desert. As a result Baker and Loach chose to shoot most of these scenes with a day-for-night technique that uses the light of the sun to emulate that of the moon and then replace the skies with stars, creating a night look in broad daylight. “This worked well until we had some tough weather and a fly plague to contend with which made the shoot very challenging,” Baker added. “To achieve the day-for-night in the Flinders Ranges and in open desert plains, I needed a format that would capture a very wide latitude of exposure. I wanted to be able to control the shadow detail in the harsh Australian sun and the day-for-night was never going to work if we had blown out highlights. That’s where the F65 came in as it gave me the ability to capture a lot of detail in a wide range of exposure, darker skin tones, dark and moody interiors, hot backlit exteriors, and some big night exterior set-ups.” The shoot was fast paced and very involved, two factors that Baker not only had to deal with but to embrace if he was going to get the look and feel he wanted. Again Baker used the F65 to its full capacity to help him with the speed of the shoot.

the same name. Directed by Jon Hewitt and shot by DOP Warwick Field the movie used Sony’s F55 4K CineAlta Camera to achieve the distinctive look and feel required for such a unique project. Warwick Field explained, “Jon had envisaged quite a violent, action-packed world for this film, which would require a fair amount of VFX work given our tight shooting schedule and what we would not be able to achieve on set. We managed to capture a lot of the gun fire, bullet hits and stunts in camera on the day but also needed to create additional post-produced shoot-out fx and explosions, CGI aircraft, face replacement, green screen elements and some props and backgrounds to be rebuilt in post. Steve Cooper from The Post Lounge in Brisbane who handled all the VFX was keen to have 4K images to work with and so we decided we definitely needed a 4K camera for this production. The Sony PMW-F55 is a well-featured camera, and although early in its build-version at the time, it suited the project well as we could record onboard 4K. “Its form factor was quite compact and we were confident that it would be reliable in the field under conditions that promised to test the ruggedness of the camera. I had to work fast and I couldn’t afford downtime or cumbersome camera procedures that would slow the shoot. I had the Sony F55 fitted with the AXS-R5 RAW on-board module so we could record to AXS cards that could be quickly and easily swapped out allowing us fast turnarounds between takes.” Lemac Melbourne supplied the main camera equipment rental, where Brett Dwyer and Charlie Ward looked after the production and all their requirements. To keep within his tight budget Field had to be prudent with the camera accessories and lens packages.

The newly-released Turkey Shoot is an homage to the 1982 cult classic of

Visit http://pro.sony.com.au

ACQUISITION

“A big plus for me is the integrated ND filter wheel,” he added. “It allows for incredibly quick changes if I want to adjust for exposure between takes or want to quickly alter the depth of field of a shot. When the actors are primed and ready to shoot, the last thing you want to do is halt production while you swap out a filter. The F65 lets you do it with the tap of a button and a flick of the jog wheel. I also used the iPad app which allowed for very quick changes to camera settings and remote operation.”

He continued, “The advantage with the Sony F55 is that it’s a cheaper rental digital cinema camera than many other options and that cost saving can go towards a greater range of lenses, filters, monitors and accessories. So the price point of the F55 is a definite bonus. You get a lot of bang for your buck for a 4K camera. The smaller size of the body was a necessity too. I was going to be hanging the camera off an EziRig for a lot of the shoot, and also fit it into tight spaces, so I didn’t want a bulky, heavier camera for Turkey Shoot. The F55 still has most of the features of the larger F65 so I wasn’t going to compromise the image in any way that would affect the finished film.”

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ACQUISITION

AJA Announces Ship Date for CION AJA VIDEO SYSTEMS has started accepting orders for the new CION production camera, with an anticipated initial ship date by the end of December. CION is both ergonomic and lightweight with unparalleled connectivity, and is capable of shooting at 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD resolutions direct to Apple ProRes or AJA Raw. AJA pioneered professional ProRes support with the Io HD, the first non-Apple device to encode ProRes, introduced in 2007, and then the Ki Pro recorder, introduced in 2009. CION builds on these achievements by offering in-camera recording directly to proven AJA Pak SSD media in the Apple ProRes family of codecs - including 12-bit ProRes 444 - for pristine image capture at up to 4K/60p. CION also outputs AJA Raw at up to 4K/120p, with support already announced by industry leading companies such as Adobe and Colorfront. “We have recruited an incredible team of resellers from all over the world to help bring CION to market. Demand has been overwhelming and we’ve decided to start taking orders to preallocate the many cameras that we have already assembled in our Grass Valley manufacturing facility,” said Nick Rashby, president, AJA Video Systems. “The image quality, functionality, and reliability of this camera is absolutely incredible. We are thrilled to finally start accepting orders from our CION resellers, and our supportive customers will see that this camera was worth the wait.” Visit www.aja.com

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Steadicam Productions Chooses ARRI AMIRA and Fujinon HARRY PANAGIOTIDIS – or ‘Harry P’ as he’s often known – is one of Australia’s most experienced and highly skilled Steadicam operators and the owner of Steadicam Productions. Panagiotidis has over 40 Australian and US feature films credits as Steadicam operator and camera operator. With his ever-increasing workload and a high-end documentary series on the history of uranium in the wings, Panagiotidis recently decided to buy a new ARRI AMIRA camera and two Fujinon Cabrio lenses. Panagiotidis explained, “As co-producer in the Melbourne-based documentary company Genepool Productions, the choice of camera for our international documentary work was important. We wanted ALEXA quality but with documentary friendly design and use. When our Uranium series (3 x 1hr) was commissioned by SBS and PBS, it was time to have a rethink.” Panagiotidis discussed the AMIRA with ARRI Australia MD Stefan Sedlmeier who agreed he could get a camera and lenses in time for the start of the Uranium documentary shoot. With the camera agreed Panagiotidis decided on which lenses he would buy to accompany them, something he had a great deal of experience with. He explained, “I’ve been using Fujinon Cabrio lenses on TVCs for some time so I knew they were excellent. That said, I also compared them to their Canon and Angenieux equivalents and the Cabrios were better in terms of value for money. In the end I bought a 19-90mm and an 85-300mm as when shooting docos you need a good wide angle zoom and good long zoom.” Visit www.arri.com.au and www.fujifilm.com

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ACQUISITION

ARRI Releases New Updates and Ultra Wide Zoom Lens

ARRI HAS RELEASED ALEXA’s tenth software update, as well as updates for AMIRA, WCU-4. ARRI has also released a new Lens Data Encoder, the LDE-1, and a new ultra wide zoom lens, the UWZ 9.5-18/T2.9.

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The many features in Software Update Packet (SUP) 10.0 have been chosen based on feedback from numerous set visits and a continual dialogue with cinematographers, assistants, DITs, rental and post houses, and ARRI partners. The new Apple ProRes 4444 XQ codec is the ideal choice for productions that are shooting for premium image quality, or are looking to take their colour grading to extremes. This new 12 bit RGB codec supports HD and 2K resolutions as well as 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios. Its data rate of 500 Mb/s (at 30 fps 1920 x 1080) is higher than ProRes 4444’s 330 Mb/s, allowing a lower compression ratio that better preserves the superior tonal range of ALEXA’s Log C signal. The many movies that are already recording in the ARRIRAW Open Gate format with ALEXA XT, XT Plus and XT Studio cameras will now be able to do the same with the compact ALEXA XT M. Open Gate records the full size of the ALEXA sensor for an easy 4K up-sample or for repositioning, resizing and stabilising in post. ARRI also announced AMIRA Software Update Packet SUP 1.1, the camera’s first major software update. As well as fulfilling promises made at launch and refining existing functionality, SUP 1.1 delivers new features inspired by feedback from customers. The model of system adaptability through software updates makes AMIRA a flexible, future-proof tool. ARRI unveiled its new Lens Data Encoder LDE-1 and announced a software update for its Wireless Compact Unit WCU-4, both of which expand the lens data options available via the company’s Electronic Control System. ARRI’s Electronic Control System is a toolset for precise wireless remote control of cameras and lenses from any manufacturer. It also provides valuable metadata about exactly what a lens is doing at any given moment. All tools within the modular, future-proof system can be combined to provide scalable solutions for any application.

FOR-A Shows Off FT-ONE-OPT AT IBC, FOR-A HAS SHOWCASED a variety of its new video production solutions. A highlight was the FT-ONE-OPT – the newest version of the company’s 4K variable frame rate camera. The camera enables operators to shoot from the field with ease, allowing up to 1km distance between the unit and base station via optical cable. Capable of shooting up to 900 frames per second, the FT-ONE continuously outputs live full 4K signals and includes the ability to colour correct video output live using its 12-axis system. The camera was shown with FOR-A’s ZE-ONE 4K extraction system, which gives users the ability to frame and extract desired 4K image areas for HD replays. FOR-A has expanded its XT series of video production mixers with the introduction of the XT2000 vision mixer, which offers unique capabilities that make vision mixing more versatile than ever before. Allowing up to 40 SDI inputs and 22 outputs, the XT2000 features MELite, which gives the 2 M/E unit the power and functionality of a 6 M/E unit. MELite enables a traditional AUX bus to transform into a functional M/E with cut, mix, wipe and key control. The 4K compatible XT2000 also includes ONStage, full operator transition control, and the ability to preview a mix, wipe, or key change before it goes on air. FOR-A also introduced the FRC-9000 4K HD frame rate converter. Building on the success of the FRC-8000 unit, this new frame rate converter features FOR-A’s enhanced motion compensated frame rate conversion technologies. Visit www.for-a.co.jp

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Software Update Packet (SUP) 2.0 for the WCU-4 makes lens programming easier. Through lens programming, lens tables can be generated for any lens, from vintage anamorphics to modern PL mount zooms, allowing lens data to be collected from them via the Electronic Control System.

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The new Lens Data Encoder LDE-1 extends the functionality of the Electronic Control System. Incorporating an encoder that delivers data indicating the position of the lens ring to which it is attached, the LDE-1 can be used in parallel with a manual follow focus unit or a third-party wireless lens control system. It allows lens data to be generated in situations when an ALEXA Plus or Studio (or a UMC-4) is being used without an ARRI lens motor or an LDS lens. The UWZ is the first super wide-angle zoom lens for the professional cine market. With an unusually accommodating image circle of 34.5 mm, it has been designed for both existing and future generations of large-sensor digital cameras, incorporating patented, cutting-edge lens technologies that overcome known problems with previous wide-angle zooms. It is available in ARRI LDS PL mount or Canon EF mount. The optical performance of this new telecentric design is comparable to, or even exceeds, that of high-end wide-angle prime lenses, offering very high resolution and contrast, and virtually no image breathing. For maximum flexibility and cost efficiency on set, the UWZ can easily replace a complete range of wide-angle primes, though it is colour matched to other current ARRI/FUJINON and ARRI/ZEISS lenses.

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Codex Advances Motion Picture and Broadcast Workflows

CODEX HAS SHOWCASED the ease with which Codex Vault Platform and Codex recording systems can be integrated with the latest production, monitoring and DI post technologies – from partners including ARRI, Panasonic, Canon, Sony, RED, Dolby, FilmLight and Leica – to deliver robust, streamlined workflows for motion picture, television and commercials production, at the Codex stand during IBC 2014. The Vault Platform is a modular workflow system providing fast, reliable transfers of camera data to internal storage, plus metadata management, transcoding to a multitude of dailies formats and archiving to LTO tape. The latest Vault Review module enables the playback of HD, 2K and 4K material for review, QC and basic colour grading – making Vault a fully-featured dailies, QC and archiving system. Codex has extended support to encompass even more digital cinematography cameras, and will highlight its end-to-end RAW recording solutions for ARRI ALEXA XT and Canon C500 cameras, as well as showing how Codex workflows, powered by Codex Vault, support the latest 4K cameras from Sony and RED. Codex now delivers ProRes UHD workflows for ARRI’s AMIRA camera, via Vault and the Codex CFast 2.0 dock for ARRI AMIRA. Additionally, Codex is partnering with Leica to showcase the latest Leica Summilux-C series lenses, plus a selection of Leica’s new Summicron-C Prime lenses. Codex is now shipping Codex Action Cam. The new product can be deployed as an Action | POV camera system on commercials, TV and movie productions, as a companion camera when regular packages are too large for the situation or location, or as a Witness Cam to capture depth information for VFX compositing or stereoscopic conversion. Codex Action Cam comprises a tiny HD camera head and a Codex Camera Control Recorder that delivers full remote control of the camera, plus the proven workflow of the industry-standard Codex. Visit www.codexdigital.com

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Sony Expands XDCAM Line-Up AN ESTABLISHED PRODUCTION STANDARD for ENG, sports and reality TV, Sony’s XDCAM range is continually evolving its workflow in response to the increasing requirements of video professionals. The XDCAM series has proven its flexibility through an ability to record and play a range of formats, including MPEG-2 HD422, and its support for efficient MXF-file-based workflows. The XAVC format is becoming a worldwide industry standard, with more than 65 companies, including hardware manufacturers, already supporting the format. In 2012, Sony introduced the XAVC format, capable of handling HighFrame-Rate (HFR) HD and 4K content. In 2013, Sony added XAVC Long-GOP encoding as an alternative to the existing XAVC intra-frame codec—offering higher compression and more efficient network-based production. The new codec enables 1080/60p (up from 1080/60i) at 50 Mbps, and supports smooth migration from 25 Mbps DVCAM. Now, Sony is adding XAVC compliance across its XDCAM range, giving users more choice in selecting a format that best suits their application. Sony XDCAM models that are XAVC-compliant include: PXW-Z100, PXW-X70, PXW-X160, PXW-X180, PXW-X200, PMW-300, PMW-400, PXW-X500, PXW-FS7,PMW-RX50, PMW-1000, PDW-HD1550, and XDS-PD2000. XDCAM camcorders support wireless workflows—including wireless control from remote devices, and wireless file transfers for networked field production. Sony’s newest XDCAM models – PXW-X180, PXW-X200 and PXW–X500 – have built-in wireless capability, while other XDCAM models support wireless through the addition of an external wireless adapter (CBK-WA100). Sony plans to add live streaming capabilities to these cameras starting in early 2015.

phers and broadcasters looking for outstanding operating performance. The PXW-X200 incorporates improved 1/2 inch-type Exmor 3CMOS sensors, a new 17x zoom lens and XAVC Intra/Long GOP recording with 4:2:2 10-bit encoding as well as MPEG HD 4:2:2. The results are high quality Full HD (1920×1080) pictures, high sensitivity (F13 at 1080/50i), low noise (S/N ratio of 58dB), and a wide dynamic range – essential for professionals shooting under challenging lighting conditions. The new PXW-X500 offers superior picture quality with its new three-chip 2/3 inch-type CCD image sensors and multi-format recording capability in MPEG2 HD 4:2:2, XAVC Intra/Long GOP 4:2:2, MPEG-4 SStP 4:2:2 Lite for efficient workflows, plus further flexibility with future optional support for ProRes and DNxHD formats. The PXW-X500 is designed to be a 1080P acquisition tool for a broad range of HD production applications such as TV dramas, live productions, ENG and sports. The PMW-RX50 recorder features a compact and lightweight design, and is capable of SxS recording and playback. It supports the XAVC Intra 4:2:2 1080 50p/59.94p and XAVC long 4:2:2 1080 50p/59.94p formats, as well as traditional formats such as MPEG HD 4:2:2, 4:2:0, MPEG IMX and DVCAM. It is designed as a field deck companion for XDCAM camcorders, especially in applications like field shoots and on-site location shoots.

The new PXW-FS7 is the first XDCAM camera to feature a 4K Super35 CMOS sensor and – Mount System with support for a variety of recording formats including XAVC Intra/Long GOP recording with 4:2:2 10-bit encoding as well as MPEG HD 4:2:2. It is capable of shooting 4K Quad Full HD in XAVC 4K and super slow motion in Full HD also using XAVC.

Sony’s XDCAM workflow now links shooting with recording and editing to deliver effective on-site ingest and backup. High-speed ingest solutions are now available using SxS cards capable of up to 3.5Gbps (440 MBps) transfers (with card models SBP‑64C and -128C, and SBS-32G1B, -64G1B, and -128G1B) together with supporting card reader/writers (models SBAC-US30, SBACUT100). These solutions more than double the speed of current SxS cards and card reader/writers. The SBAC‑UT100 drive also provides two SxS card slots, and offers both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt interfaces. The unit offers excellent connectivity with editing devices and supports file transfers from up to six cascade-connected SBAC-UT100 units.

Sony is introducing the PXW-X200 XDCAM handheld camcorder for videogra-

Visit http://pro.sony.com.au

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The Lawo V__pro8 is a powerful video processor and the perfect tool for interconnecting signals of different video formats, as well as between audio and video. High quality up/down/cross format conversion, colour correction plus embedding and de-embedding makes the V__pro8 compact and powerful. Features:

Video Frame Synchronization for each of

the 8 Video channels RGB Colour Correction & Proc Amp for all video channels Up to 2 channels Up/Down/Cross Format Aspect Ratio Conversion Audio Embedding and de-embedding for 8 video channels Integrated Sample Rate Converters Two 5.1 to stereo Downmixer per Embedder

Variable audio delay of up to 320 ms for each mono channel

Variable video delay of up to 8 frames for each channel

Time Code Insertion, Test Pattern Generator and Video ID Generator per video output

QuadSplit-Monitoring Multi-Format Video Output

P +61 2 8882 7766 | sales@onair.com.au | onair.com.au

ACQUISITION

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SPORTSCASTING Sport coverage worldwide

www.content-technology.com/sportscasting

Gearhouse Broadcast Launches Native 4K Supertruck ACCORDING TO GEARHOUSE BROADCAST owner John Newton the term “4K ready” can be very misleading, especially when it comes to the world of OB super trucks. Hence the fact that Gearhouse’s newest truck, HD8 is simply referred to as a “native” 4K OB super truck. Newton explained, “In order to be a native 4K truck you have to be able to handle everything from acquisition to production in real 4K and that’s exactly what our new HD8 super truck does.” Part of the raison d’être for HD8 comes from Gearhouse’s close association with Hitachi and the launch of the company’s new broadcast 4K ultra-HDTV camera the SK-UHD4000. The SK-UHD4000 is a broadcast 4K ultra-HDTV camera system which can take the 2/3-inch B4 mount lenses used in conventional HD broadcast cameras, meaning that Gearhouse can continue to use its existing stock of Canon lenses. Equipped with newly developed 2/3-inch CMOS sensors, the camera can produce video images with high sensitivity and high resolution. It can output HD and 4K video signals separately, which means that it can be used in the current HD environment and capture archive material in 4K and be ready to transition to 4K as soon as demand arises. Newton continued, “In the past you could only use 4K cameras with prime lenses and not zoom lenses. The new Hitachi SK-UHD4000 ultraHDTV camera changes all that and enables the use of existing zoom lenses. The SK-UHD4000 is the only camera in the world that can do this and that’s why we purchased the first fifty SK-UHD4000s at IBC this year, twenty of which have come to Australia and twelve of which are used in our new HD8 4K super truck.” In addition to the new Hitachi SK-UHD4000 ultra-HDTV cameras the HD8 4K super truck also boasts a Sony MVS-7000X 4K vision mixer, Sony 4K monitoring and a 4K EVS replay system. Newton added, “HD8 is even more than that as in addition to being Australia’s first native 4K truck HD8 is also capable of 2K, HD 1080i, HD 1080p and SD. For 4K HD8 is 12 camera capable. For HD it follows along the same specs as our existing HD5, HD6 and HD7 super trucks at 30 camera (24 CCU and 6 POV) capable. There’s more continuity too as HD8 carries the same 64 fader MC56 Lawo 5.1 capable audio desk, Riedel Artist 192-port talkback system and NVISION NV8576 hybrid main vision router as our existing trucks so all our clients can be comfortable with the systems they’ve used so many times before.”

SPORTSCASTING

Standalone areas in HD8 include an audio mixing and control room, replay area, production gallery, CCU and vision control and engineering space providing Gearhouse’s clients with everything they need from signal acquisition to finished programme transmission. Gearhouse is targeting HD8 at live entertainment and cinematic productions as well as sport with the truck already booked for the upcoming AFC Asian Cup in January. John Newton concluded, “HD8 is another massive commitment by Gearhouse Broadcast to the Australian market and to our goal of being the country’s leading OB facilities provider. There are many advantages of using HD8 and its 4K capabilities. Not only is it ideal for large-scale entertainment but we can also do simulcast production outputting a 4K cut and an HD cut at the same time. We can also shoot in 4K then take the HD from the CCU. In this way our clients get to see how amazing the pictures look in 4K alongside those in HD. Our HD8 4K super truck is the best of its kind in Australia and it also follows the Gearhouse philosophy of giving our clients the latest technology and the best options for their productions.” Visit w ww.gearhousebroadcast.com

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First network based intercom application TANGO TNG-200 We are proud to introduce the world’s first network-based AES67 and AVB standard capable intercom system. An exceptionally flexible platform, Tango not only adapts to users’ specific requirements, but also accommodates current and future standards in broadcast, theater, and live-event environments.

The SMART way to communicate SMARTPANEL RSP-2318 As the world’s ﬁrst smartpanel designed to serve as a powerful multifunctional user interface, the RSP-2318 oﬀers features and capabilities that will enrich the user experience and change the way broadcasters and AV professionals communicate.

Professional A/V interface for Skype STX-200 Licensed by Microsoft, the STX-200 is a stand-alone, studiograde solution that leverages Skype to bring live content directly from reporters to the on-air production. The Riedel unit oﬀers broadcast-quality HD-SDI and balanced XLR audio I/Os and is packaged with professional Microsoft Skype TX software, available exclusively with the STX-200.

RIEDEL'S NEXT STEP www.riedel.net

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SPORTSCASTING

The Glasgow Diaries: The Final Chapter

By David Bowers 4 August, 2014: 0200hrs That’s a wrap. Last night’s Closing Ceremony of the XX Commonwealth Games Glasgow marked the end of a remarkable two-year professional and personal journey for me. Or, perhaps not the end quite yet ... THOUGH THE SMELL AND HAZE of fireworks still hangs in the humid air, our Host Broadcaster team is already hours into de-rigging Hampden Park stadium. It’s testament to their determination and energy that they are still going full tilt: yesterday they transformed the arena from track and field events venue to spectacular ‘Commonwealth Festival’ Closing Ceremony showcase in barely 18 hours. Indeed, the final stage of our project schedule is as tight and efficient as any other: just seven weeks, and we need to be clear of the venues and International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) by 24 August. Several days before the Closing Ceremony, de-rig teams had been working through the evenings to pull-down the other finished venues. The first of our sea containers of equipment is packed and ready for the return trip to Sydney. Cabins which housed the IBC complex and infrastructure are being craned onto semi trailers and returned to the depot. And the IBC itself will soon disappear, returned to its original and permanent function as the Scottish Exhibition Conference Centre (SECC) car park. Of our hectic 121-week project schedule, the Games-time period was the most intense and, of course, exhilarating. This was the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland, and the UK’s largest since the 2012 Olympic Games, with around 6,500 athletes and officials from 71 different nations and territories competing.

For two weeks, even the imminent referendum on Scottish independence took a backseat to the joyful celebration of multi-national sporting competition Being part of this complex, vibrant and fascinating event was a career high point for me, and I’m proud to have played a role in what has been described as the best Commonwealth Games ever.

POSTSCRIPT: 1 SEPTEMBER, 2014 In the weeks since leaving Glasgow I’ve been reminiscing about my personal project highlights. The technical feats we managed were numerous – to name just a few: situating the IBC in a completely temporary facility; co-ordination of the telco circuits; accommodating rights holder broadcasters’ technical requests; radio frequency challenges (all those trees on the marathon and mountain bike courses!); and overcoming lighting angle reflections in the renovated swimming complex. Each project milestone brought our team even closer together. It is such a privilege to work alongside people who are the best in the world at what they do, and whom you can trust implicitly. The Games themselves went by in a flash.

England topped the medal table for the first time since the 1986 Commonwealth Games with 174, followed by Australia (137), which will be looking to turn the tables on the Gold Coast four years from now.

We were treated to a steady influx of VIPs keen to see how we delivered the Glasgow Games magic to the world, including a visit from the Earl of Wessex, whom I had the pleasure to walk through the IBC alongside Sunset+Vine chairman Jeff Foulser.

Our Host Broadcaster team ‘medal’ tally included:

The days immediately following the Closing Ceremony also stick in my mind.

 1200+ hours of live sport, multi-camera HD coverage to a world-wide audience, through a Games first fully-produced Games Channel and six long-form multi-sport channels

Of course there was more than a little celebrating at the wrap party.

 Daily press conference coverage  Daily highlight packages and edited previews  1650+ hours of video archive material  17 sports, 16 venues, 27 televised fields of play (FOP) + The Opening and Closing Ceremonies  Design, build and operation of the IBC – the hub for all Commonwealth Games broadcasting activity

SPORTSCASTING

The XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were acclaimed for their organisation, attendance, and the friendly welcome and enthusiasm of the people of the city and of Scotland as a whole.

To achieve that we managed: 24 production control units; 16 OB vans; 8 flyaway kits; 259 cameras; 26 super slo-mo cameras; 2 ultra slo-mo cameras; 70+ EVS replay machines; specialty POV cameras on athletics, swimming and diving; 2 helicopters, 2 motorbikes and 2 lead vehicle mounted cameras for outside race coverage; 4 beauty cameras located around Glasgow City; virtual graphics on swimming, athletics and lawn bowls; 1500+ production and technical personnel at Games-time; 200+ broadcast students in the Host Broadcaster Training Initiative; 16,000+ Games-time room nights; 28,365+ Games-time catered meals.

But our Host Broadcaster team kept the Games spirit and camaraderie going, even when we continued de-rigging and de-commissioning in the days following. Head of Production Services Ian Hirst and I shared Gold position on the podium as our customary engineering/production banter kept standards high and gave the team a good laugh. Before you could blink they were pulling the podium down! There were countless fond farewells, please-keep-in-touches, and final strolls through Glasgow to soak up the atmosphere one last time. O ur Host Broadcaster team members are now settling into their post-project lives. The ritual Linked-In updates arrive daily, letting colleagues know where they have moved to, or advising they are looking for the next project. Yours truly included. David Bowers was head of engineering and technical operations for SVGTV – a joint-venture between Australia’s Global Television (part of the NEP Worldwide Network) and Sunset+Vine, which held the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Host Broadcast contract.

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28/11/2014 11:17 am

SPORTSCASTING

Mediatec Harnesses the Power of Ross MEDIATEC GROUP PROVIDES integrated technical solutions for event and

was facilitated by Mediatec’s long-time Australian dealer, Techtel.

television producers across the globe. The company’s Asia Pacific operations are based in Melbourne, Australia. In the spring of 2013, the company won a contract to provide video and broadcast services for Harness Racing Victoria, which involved recording footage of HRV fixtures as well as broadcasting live via Sky Racing, Australia’s leading broadcaster for racing.

According to Owen Davison, “the features that you get out of the Carbonite and the openGear systems are as good as you get anywhere else, but are significantly more cost-effective.”

With approximately 470 events per year, every day (except for Christmas Day and Good Friday) there is a harness race being broadcast from Victoria across Australia, and some days there are two.

Owen continues, “It comes down to the support. We get a huge amount of support from Ross and have done so since day one, as well as new upgrades and features for Carbonite without additional cost. You simply download it from the Internet, plug it in, and the switcher can perform new functions. You just don’t get that from many other manufacturers. With Ross, right from the word ‘go’, we’ve had masses of support, updates, and training.”

Prior to this project, Mediatec Asia Pacific had one OB truck primarily used for the “A Day on the Green” concert series, as well as other corporate events. Mediatec originally invested in Ross Video Carbonite production switchers and openGear terminal equipment in 2011. At the time, the company was looking to upgrade its switcher series to HD and fulfil requirements at the Australian Open tennis tournament. The first purchase included a number of Carbonites and openGear frames with an assortment of cards. The following year, more Carbonites and openGear frames were added to the Mediatec rental inventory along with XPression real-time motion graphics. Co-owner Owen Davison and the team at Mediatec knew the Harness Racing Victoria contract was entirely different; they needed to find a solution that delivered HD quality broadcasts of the 470 events annually. Mediatec decided that it could best broadcast all 470 Harness Racing Victoria events per year, while still maintaining flexibility in how it used the broadcast equipment, by building two large outdoor broadcasting (OB) trucks. The new trucks were equipped with Carbonite eXtreme, openGear, and XPression. Once Mediatec was awarded the Harness Racing Victoria contract, Owen along with his colleagues went to IBC 2013, where Ross had just launched the Carbonite eXtreme production switcher. They decided to fit both of their new OB trucks with a suite of Ross products. Each OB truck includes a Carbonite eXtreme with 48 inputs and 64 outputs, along with nine openGear card frames and XPression graphics. The purchase

Customer support is also critical to Mediatec, and it valued what Ross had to offer in this area.

After the equipment was purchased in September 2013, Mediatec got to work on building the two OB trucks to facilitate work for Harness Racing Victoria. By April 2014, they had the first truck on the road. The second truck was completed in August 2014 and both have since been primarily used to broadcast the Harness Racing Victoria events. Each truck is capable of accepting and distributing feeds from up to 12 cameras. As Carbonite eXtreme is a multi-definition switcher with a built-in multi-viewer it has enhanced and increased the OB trucks’ production capabilities. “Everything is more user friendly than our past setup,” says Owen. “Rather than having to pull out the manual to figure out how to make changes to do something different, we can now easily achieve changes through the simple, intuitive user experience provided by Dashboard.” Following the success of the two new OB trucks, Mediatec has set out to build another two that are even more agile, allowing the company to cover more events around Australia. For Owen and his team, their Ross-equipped OB trucks have enhanced their value proposition and ability to satisfy customers. “At the end of the day,” he says, “broadcasters need content and if we can deliver it at a lower cost, then they can make more great quality content.” Visit www.rossvideo.com and www.mediatec.com.au

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PLP.tv Upgrades with Grass Valley and Soundcraft BROADCAST SERVICES PROVIDER PLP.tv (Pre Live & Post) has

SPORTSCASTING

completed a major upgrade to its OB vehicle equipping it with six new Grass Valley LDK series cameras and a Soundcraft Vi1 digital audio console. With these purchases PLP.tv completes what has been a 24-month progressive refit of the truck, and now offers one of the most powerful medium-sized facilities on the market. Managing director Dane Liepins explains his acquisition philosophy, “We have largely built our facility with a new generation of mid-level products that are perfectly scaled to the size of productions we facilitate. This includes products such as the Ross Carbonite switcher and EVS XT Nano server that offer all the features and power of equipment you might find in a semi-trailer OB truck but with a size and price tag more appropriate to our market. The Grass Valley camera systems and Sound craft Vi1 continue this tradition.”

After careful consideration PLP.tv selected the Grass Valley LDK3000+ as the most fitting solution for their needs with a powerful combination of features, performance and price. The latest generation CMOS “Xensium” sensor combined with Grass Valley’s proven HD triax transmission system were major drawcards to the LDK platform. Features such as IP based camera control, servo filter wheels and a maximum cable distance of 1.2km ultimately made the LDK3000+ stand out from rival options. The Sound craft Vi1 is a 64 input 24 buss digital audio console. The Sound craft Vi series shares many features with the Studer Vista consoles including the “Vistonics” user interface. It was this linkage that first attracted PLP. tv to the Vi1. The console features excellent MADI integration and this was an important factor as MADI presents the most effective means to bridge the digital audio and video worlds. Visit www.plp.tv, www.soundcraft.com and www.grassvalley.com

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Behind the Scenes at the G20 Summit Brisbane: a Host Broadcaster Perspective AS THIS ISSUE OF CONTENT+TECHNOLOGY went to print, the Global Television/NEP Australia team was finalising Host Broadcaster infrastructure for the G20 Leaders Summit Brisbane. The week was the culmination of 12 months of intensive planning for the main event as well as successful delivery of 10 pre-Summit meetings around Australia. The most recent was the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Cairns, which was web-streamed live via the Australian Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (PM&C) website. The hundreds of packages edited, produced and posted online drew heavily on the newsgathering and archival resources of Global’s content partner, SBS. Global also provided back-end content for the G20 website, including photography through Ethos CRS. The Summit itself – which took place on November 15 and 16 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) – was the most significant world leaders meeting Australia has ever hosted, with around 4,000 international delegates attending. Underscoring the event’s importance, 130 broadcasters and news programs, and up to 3,000 media representatives, arrived from November 12. They based themselves at the international media centre (IMC), which Global designed and built within the BCEC. As Host Broadcaster, Global Television produced and delivered more than 400 hours of content and thousands of photographs for broadcasters and news organisations, and delivered coverage to hundreds of countries around the world. All material was logged, stored on site and available online within minutes of an event occurring. Project Director Marc Segar says, “The past 12 months have been a nonstop series of we-can-do-this meetings and phone calls between Global Television, SBS and Ethos. We have all worked closely with PM&C to craft a Host Broadcast that reflects the size and gravity of the Summit. I could not be more proud of the amazing team of professionals who have come together to deliver this event.”

PRODUCTION The company’s HD4 high definition supertruck acted as a production hub. HD 4 was augmented with five additional production and graphics facilities. This allowed Global to deliver six contiguous events. Each production facility inside HD 4 is completely virtual. By harnessing the power of the VSM (Virtual System Manager), vision switcher resources can be dynamically allocated to an area that needs coverage. VSM looks after the routing of inputs to vision switchers but also reconfigures the monitor wall, tally and communications system at the same time – delivering maximum flexibility and maximising resources. HD4 also provided two 24/7 on-air channels, complete with graphics, replays, highlights and news packages. These were delivered to broadcasters along with an information channel giving up-to-date bulletins on what’s happening and where.

MCR A fully-scalable master control room (MCR) operation catered for the diverse demands of the world’s leading news channels, monitoring more than 100 sources 24/7 and switching on their behalf for the event duration.

EVS No production would be complete without a comprehensive EVS setup and this project is no exception: 11, 8-channel XT 3 machines recorded every second of content; all content was logged live by a team of nine logging and

content management staff working around the clock. Global opted to use a combination of IP Edit for fast turnaround editing on the fly, with three Avid and one Adobe Premiere Pro edit suites for finishing. All devices shared 80 terabytes of on-site fully redundant storage with an offsite backup. The archive team ensured all video, audio and transcript files were delivered to PM&C on hard disc with program content on XD Cam disc as a back-up and for future reference.

REMOTE PRODUCTION In addition to covering events at the BCEC, Global provided remote production coverage from four additional venues around Brisbane. Cameras at these locations were switched from the BCEC using a secure IP network for vision mixer control, camera control and voice over internet protocol for communications. This cut the number of staff required at other venues by allowing one main crew to switch and monitor multiple feeds – a huge advantage in a 24/7 event with complex personnel logistics. In order to ensure that all broadcasters and news organisations could watch what was being covered, Global added an extensive DVBT/HD modulation system to the BCEC in-house RF CATV system. It carried all Host Broadcaster feeds as well as 11 Foxtel channels that could be monitored from anywhere in the venue. Phase one of the installation included a fully-redundant fibre ring on which all signals external to the MCR area were moved. The fibre extends all the way to Sydney thanks to a scalable IP network from AAPT. Net Insight provided encoding and transmission signal transport. The broadcast infrastructure and output were as flexible as possible to meet the varying needs of broadcasters and governments. As MCR lead engineer Simon Reymers puts it, “Everything we shoot is in 1080/50i but we are catering for analogue, SD, HD, and NTSC – you name it, we are providing the format.”

STUDIOS The unique studio operation offered live backdrop images of the Brisbane River and city beamed into five giant 4K displays. A second, green screen chromakey studio was also available for broadcasters wanting the city skyline as a backdrop but without the need to leave the BCEC. Visit www.globaltv.com.au

NEWS OPERATIONS

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NEWS OPERATIONS

High Quality Skype for Broadcast with NewTek TalkShow NEWTEK HAS UNVEILED TALKSHOW VS-100, a video calling production system designed specifically for television studios and live video producers. With TalkShow, any television or live video producer can easily reach 300 million monthly connected Skype users and incorporate them as guest speakers into live programs with full-frame Skype video calls.

The turnkey TalkShow system builds upon Skype TX software from Microsoft for initiating, receiving, monitoring and managing video calls, with a unique set of live production tools not found in other video calling systems. With TalkShow, users have access to customisable settings for fully colour correcting live video calls (including features for automatic colour balancing) as well as SDI-embedded audio, and compressor/limiter, equalisation, and adjustable head-room controls for further improving audio quality. These tools allow producers to deliver enhanced video/audio experiences that are critical when producing credible, high-quality broadcast programming and are simply not possible with standard desktop video messaging products. Additionally, producers using TalkShow with Newtek’s TriCaster multi-camera video production systems will be able to route Skype video calls directly to and from a TriCaster over a network connection without tying up an additional HD-SDI input. TalkShow enables broadcasters to manage all aspects of a live Skype video call in the control room like any other video source—and adjust the visual and audio quality of each call. The low cost, integrated hardware and software solution is broadcast ready, offering dual channel Ethernet connectivity, two channels (1 in, 1 out) of HD-SDI I/O that includes reference signal, professional XLR audio support, Tally support and more. The 1RU system allows producers to easily incorporate TalkShow into any live production or studio environment and:  Access anyone they can reach online—including the rapidly growing audience of 300 million monthly connected Skype users worldwide, to include more expert analysis and perspective in their shows, without specialised networking tools, ENG clients or proprietary software to call into a live broadcast or event.  Transform any Skype video call initiated to—or from—a desktop, laptop, X-Box gaming system, Skype enabled TV, or mobile device into full-frame video—with automatic aspect ratio conversions and balanced audio.

Control Room Solution from Vizrt VIZRT, A LEADING PROVIDER of content production tools for the digital media industry, has announced the release of the new Viz Opus complete control room system. Viz Opus combines Vizrt’s graphics rendering, video playout, and studio automation capabilities to create a cost-effective control room for news and sports productions in a single system.

NEWS OPERATIONS

Viz Opus has four HD SDI inputs, two IP inputs, one HD SDI/IP program output and one HD SDI/IP multiviewer output. It includes integrated video switcher functionality, back-to-back clip playback and transitions, and an audio mixer. A built-in a Viz Engine renders graphics and video for the output channels. Expanded version will be available in the future. Viz Opus works with existing newsroom NRCS workflows. Rundowns created in ENPS, iNews, Octopus, Dalet News, Annova’s OpenMedia, NorCom, and others, are interpreted by Viz Opus to create a rundown that will be executed using the internal systems, mixing external video and audio inputs with internal video and graphics to create a broadcast-ready HD SDI/IP output. Viz Opus can also function as a cost-effective back up control room or even a secondary control room. Viz Opus can run alongside a Viz Mosart studio automation system and use the same NRCS rundown, keeping in sync with the show in progress and ready to take over if needed. Visit www.vizrt.com

LAT

had seve time file-b Com just TalkShow operators can work free of audio/visual distractions such as secondary call notifications and advertisements.  Colour balance video images—with full proc-amp controls and automatic colour correction to adjust image attributes for any lighting environment, enabling video calls with poor lighting and contrast to appear with far higher quality.  Deliver reliable broadcast audio signal quality—with SDI-embedded audio, and built-in compressor/limiter tools that keep call volumes at consistent levels and prevent audio clipping. Additionally, producers who often wrestle with scratchy audio and nasal-like midrange tone that results from small telephonic microphones can adjust overall tonality and background noise of any Skype call using the onboard graphic equaliser.  Actively monitor live Skype video calls—with full Tally support that allows operators to see when TalkShow Skype feeds are currently live in a program.  Easily manage multiple, simultaneous Skype calls—within a single, user-friendly interface that offers operator previews, continuous call quality monitoring, and automatic fallback to custom still images when unforeseen bandwidth constraints occur. Visit www.newtek.com

Quantel Fires Up Fileflow QUANTEL HAS LAUNCHED SQ FILEFLOW 2, adding a raft of new file handling capabilities for Quantel Enterprise sQ news and sports production system users. According to Quantel, sQ Fileflow 2 delivers more flexibility, easier IT integration, faster workflows and increased productivity. sQ Fileflow 2 comprises multiple independent engines; users can simply add more engines for increased bandwidth, speed and resilience. Enterprise sQ users can begin working with file-based media as soon as ingest commences, and export new files faster than realtime. New roles-based user accounts at user, media manager and administrator levels make system management easier. Security is enhanced with the support of HTTPS for both file and UI connections. Support for HTTPS also makes it easier to integrate sQ Fileflow 2 into security-conscious broadcast IT systems. FTP Client support enables easy file exchange with FTP and SFTP servers via Active and Passive FTP. New XAVC import and export enables easier integration with XAVC workflows and superfast import of XAVC camera files. 2K, UHD and 4K import is also supported, with automatic resizing to HD/SD on ingest. The new HTML5 UI delivers cross-browser access and support for tablets and other devices – now users can be productive wherever they are. New queue management with realtime charts and graphs enables users to check the status of their job in seconds, and access all settings and options remotely through the new Web UI. Visit www.quantel.com

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Avid Unleashes Creativity at Nine Network Australia LATE IN THE FIRST DECADE of the 2000s, Australia’s Nine Network had a growth spurt; increasing the regions it had to serve from five to seven and adding more channels to its existing service mix. At the same time, the network switched from analogue to digital signal flow, and file-based media acquisition and distribution became the industry norm. Commissioning lead times for promos also shrank – from days or weeks to just a few hours prior to air. These shifts turned up the pressure on Nine Network to churn out more promos – as many as 300 a day – under tighter deadlines and with more eye-catching special effects and regional customisation. When Mat Yelavich became Nine Network’s CTO in mid-2011, the Network was finding it difficult to meet this requirement without compromising the creativity of the production team or promo quality. The problem? An ageing, tape-based production setup pieced together with multiple, disparate systems and an island-based, disconnected storage architecture that strained to keep up with volume and pace. “The Network had outgrown its post-production technology platform and this was stifling our creativity, putting pressure on our competitiveness,” says Mat Yelavich, CTO of the Nine Network. “To push out high volumes of promos into multiple markets across multiple timezones, for multiple services, our only option was to produce generic promotions. No regionalisation, no targeting of specific audiences and demographics.” Creativity wasn’t all that was suffering. Outdated systems and processes were also taking a toll on productivity. Sharing content between three separate production systems involved a lot of duplication of effort. Downtime from system failure brought production to a standstill. With no support for proxy-based reviews and approvals, schedules stalled when promos that had already been published required remakes. The Network’s reliance on spreadsheets and email to track production was arduous and prone to error, making it a challenge to assign accountability. According to Yelavich, “To keep pace with growth and tighter production cycles, we had to streamline and eliminate any single points of failure. We also needed the flexibility to make last minute creative changes to reflect in different versions of our promos, without impacting schedule. No downtime could be tolerated.” The solution: Replace declining, stand-alone systems with an open and integrated, end-to-end platform to automate production and add robust infrastructure throughout, to eliminate any potential single points of failure. Other requirements included asset management and file-based workflows, along with the scalability to add ingest capacity, additional edit clients and storage with growth. Vendor evaluation for the new production workflow was a multi-stage, sixmonth process. Because Nine Network had an established relationship with Avid, Avid was already on Mat’s short list from the start.

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“We had confidence in the brand,” says Yelavich. “We’d been running Media Composer on OSX from the early 2000s and used three Unity servers within post production. We were too busy growing to notice that Avid had remained progressive in terms of technology, and had tools that could resolve the many issues we were facing.”

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Nine Network’s confidence in Avid was validated during the vetting process. One area where Avid really shone was audio workflow quality. Nine was especially impressed with the integration between Avid Interplay PAM, a production asset manager, and Avid Pro Tools music and audio production software.

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According to Yelavich, “The other tools we looked at required very complex workflows and manual file transfers. To put production on the fast track, we needed to minimise the paperwork and email interactions between producers, creative design artists and sound engineers. The connectivity

between Interplay, Media Composer and Pro Tools was proven to enable that.” Editor preference for Media Composer was also a deciding factor. “During the Proof of Concept, competitive video editing solutions couldn’t stand up to Media Composer 7,” says Yelavich. “Our editors were already familiar with its strengths. By sticking with Avid, we’d speed the learning curve, Matt Yelavich, Chief Technology Officer, Nine reduce the amount of Network Australia. change management required and enhance our existing capabilities with the addition of asset management.” Once Avid was chosen as the provider, it closely collaborated with the Nine Network to design a solution that addresses the broadcaster’s goals for growth, productivity and flexibility. The result was a configuration of audio, proxy and high-resolution workflows supported by a new shared storage server. “We went from creating promos on three disconnected Unity systems to one powerful ISIS,” says Yelavich. “This has really enabled us to streamline file sharing and increased our ability to collaborate.” The new Avid solution has enabled the cross platform sharing of media across multiple platforms, not just in the Promos department, but other production genres such as Current Affairs and Live Studio Production, and has set Nine up for further expansion in the future. Other investments included an Airspeed 5000 ingest station, an Interplay MAM media asset manager, Interplay PAM production asset manager, Media Composer (approximately 60 seats), Interplay Assist and six Pro Tools suites. The Avid solutions run on an infrastructure of equipment racks, video and data cabling, and dual Cisco 4500 routers. Nine Network’s new Avid configuration drives a six-step production workflow that streamlines scheduling, file ingest, editorial production, audio engineering, versioning and delivery. Promos are produced on this new solution at Nine’s main production facility and transferred to the Network’s centralised play out facility in Sydney, before airing in various regions. The process is seamless and requires almost no manual data entry or file management. Projects move from one step to the next with drag and drop ease. Team members know where a promo is at any point in the production pipeline. As a result, tracking and accountability has improved dramatically, which has been a big boon to productivity. The Network also has the flexibility to publish promos closer to airtime – a big advantage when working with high volumes of content. With an integrated file-based workflow, making changes to a promo is now as simple as moving a sequence into an Interplay PAM folder and alerting the right team member – whether it’s a Promos Producer on Media Composer or audio engineer working with Pro Tools. Visit www.avid.com

POST PRODUCTION

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POST PRODUCTION

Colorfront Transkoder 2014 Goes 8K COLORFRONT, a developer of high-performance, dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, high-end episodic TV and commercials, has announced the Colorfront Transkoder 2014, an automated, standalone system for high-quality digital file conversion, now featuring real-time 8K and 3D 4K capabilities. At IBC, Colorfront also showed the shipping 2014 versions of its On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies systems at IBC. Colorfront Transkoder 2014 is available on Mac, PC and the cloud for many key tasks: editing RAW film data, converting material to various output formats, plus conforming, colour grading and rendering 2K/4K/3D4K/8K/ UHDTV materials in various high-end delivery and mezzanine formats. Colorfront has successfully collaborated with NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Japan, using Colorfront Transkoder 2014 on 4K/60p broadcast programming, originated with Sony F55 and RED cameras, and also at 8K/60p on NHK’s Super Hi-Vision/ UHDTV project, with processing and real-time playback of 8K/60p footage from various RAW formats. Along with NHK, Colorfront has already sold multiple Colorfront Transkoder 2014 licenses to broadcasters and post facilities worldwide, including Deluxe, Technicolor, Fotokem, MGO and the BBC. Along with real-time UHDTV 60fps/4320p/8K and S3D/2160p/4K capabilities, key features of Colorfront Transkoder 2014 are: a brand new, easy-to-use interface; a multi-track timeline; EDL conform editing tools; support for subtitling; automatic watch folder processing; plus extended support for the latest digital cinematography camera formats. Supporting the workflow is Colorfront Engine, an automatically managed, wide-gamut, high dynamic range, colour pipeline, bringing true plug-and-play simplicity to today’s complex multi-source, multi-deliverable production needs. Visit www.colorfront.com

Avid Everywhere Creates Resolution Independence AVID (OTC: AVID) HAS INTRODUCED new and upcoming

FILMLIGHT HAS EXHIBITED a broad range of new functionality for the first time at IBC2014, designed to seamlessly integrate with today’s evolving workflows. Daylight, the new near-set colour grading tool, was featured on the FilmLight stand. IBC2014 saw the official launch of Daylight, a comprehensive solution for on-set and near-set production. Daylight is designed as a compact yet powerful grading decision tool to help DoPs and directors establish looks and visualise what they have shot, on set or on location. FilmLight has shown early development versions before – a Baselight variant for dailies – and Daylight pushes the possibilities even further. Available to purchase in Q1 2015, Daylight encompasses a number of new features, including: AJA SDI output; shot filtering and sorting; HTML report generation; RED GPU decoding; media consolidation tools; multi-format deliverables; and, just like Baselight, support for the latest camera codecs. Visit www.filmlight.ltd.uk

KONA 4 Support for Adobe CC AT IBC 2014, AJA Video Systems announced that its KONA 4 professional desktop video and audio I/O card now supports the latest versions of Adobe’s flagship video applications in Adobe Creative Cloud.

innovations for the Avid MediaCentral Platform – an open, extensible, and customisable common services foundation that delivers on the Avid Everywhere strategic vision for the media and entertainment industry. The company announced plans for resolution independence across the platform and the next phase of the Avid Connectivity Toolkit.

Device driver and plug-in software is available as a free download from AJA’s website, allowing users of Adobe video applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe SpeedGrade CC, to take advantage of KONA 4's unparalleled features for managing 4K, UltraHD, 2K and HD pipelines.

Powered by the MediaCentral Platform’s underlying shared media services, connectivity, and orchestration capabilities, Avid Resolution Independence will give customers the freedom of choice and unmatched flexibility to work the way they want. Professionals will be able to work with 4K media and other high-res formats anywhere in the world, fluidly shifting between native and proxy media, leveraging the newly introduced Avid DNxHR codec. Whether on premises or in the cloud, the workflow will enable customers to ingest, store, orchestrate, edit, secure, analyse, and distribute SD, HD, 4K media and beyond within their existing infrastructure.

“With this latest support, Adobe Creative Cloud users can tap into KONA 4 to streamline ingest, monitoring and management of multi-format 4K, UltraHD, HD and SD files while maintaining top image quality,” said AJA President Nick Rashby.

“Today’s media professionals face unrelenting pressure to handle high-res content with the same ease and agility as with HD and SD,” stated Chris Gahagan, senior VP of Products and Technology. “Additionally, the constant evolution of technology coupled with the lack of standardisation has resulted in tremendous fragmentation. Avid Resolution Independence will provide a holistic, platform-centric approach that puts no limits to the resolutions customers can capture, edit, and output.”

POST PRODUCTION

FilmLight Boosts On-Set and Near-Set Production

The next phase of this third-party developer program now gives partners access to the resources, documentation, certification, and services they need to create products and solutions that integrate with the Avid MediaCentral Platform ecosystem. Visit www.avid.com

Visit www.adobe.com and www.aja.com

Pronology Panel for Premiere Pro CC PRONOLOGY, a developer of tapeless workflow solutions, has demonstrated its new Pronology Panel for Adobe Premiere Pro CC at the 2014 IBC Show. The Pronology Panel integrates Pronology files and metadata for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. “The Pronology Panel allows Adobe Premiere Pro CC users to access the Pronology management system content files instantly, enhancing production turnaround times,” says Mike Shore, co-founder of Pronology. The Pronology Panel offers three essential tools for Adobe Premiere Pro CC projects. It allows an Adobe Premiere Pro CC user to browse Pronology folders directly, browse Pronology Bins for clear organisation of media and have drag-and-drop access to reference media and metadata in an Adobe Premiere Pro CC project. Visit www.adobe.com and www.pronology.com

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POST PRODUCTION

NVIDIA Releases VCA and Updates Quadro GPUs By Keith Ford NVIDIA have recently released the latest versions of their Quadro GPUs – the K5200, K4200, K2200, K620, and K420. These new GPUs join the K6000, NVIDIA’s top-of-the-line card, which was released at the back-end of 2013. NVIDIA also announced their Visual Computing Appliance (VCA), which dramatically accelerates ray tracing, enabling users to interact with high quality computer models to reduce or remove the reliance on 3D physical prototypes “DATA COMPLEXITY IS GROWING EXPONENTIALLY. It’s not just the size of the data, but the complexity of the data,” said Sandeep Gupte, Senior Director, Professional Solutions Business, NVIDIA. “If you look at Hollywood and content creation, just a few years ago, we were all getting settled in with HD - loved our HD sets, and then along comes 4K; that’s 4x the data handling capacity now. Not only that, you’ve got customers who are already transitioning to 6K. So the data complexity is continuing to go up even in Hollywood, so movie productions and visual effects and so on are driving this demand phenomenally.” In order to help post-production companies deal with the increase in data, the new GPUs have come with significant increases in performance across the board. Regardless of whether it is the entry-level K420 or the high end K5200, the whole range has been upgraded. “What we have done in this generation is that we have equipped it with almost double the GPU memory across the board. So lots more memory,

bigger GPUs, faster performance, so when you run traditional industry benchmarks, we’re seeing performance, on average, at least about 40 per cent faster performance generation over generation,” explained Gupte. “So really compelling performance advantage in this generation over the previous one. We have also implemented some new optimisations in our software layer so that we can take traditional local workflows and seamlessly extend them to the cloud.” “The number of cores has gone up phenomenally here across the entire line. Out of all these cards, two of the cards, this K2200 and the K620, which is the midrange and the entry level cards, the real volume part of the market; those are based on Maxwell GPUs. The others are all Kepler-based cards,” Gupte added. “It’s our first generation Maxwell GPU; phenomenal performance-per-watt advantage with Maxwell, and that GPU is ideal for the midrange. So you are positioned in the midrange because it is perfect in terms of its power consumption, performance, and everything; that’s the sweet spot for it.” The NVIDIA VCA is essentially a way of accessing additional compute power on an as-needed basis. Having a rig with eight K6000 cards is probably overkill for most needs, even at the very high-end. That doesn’t mean there won’t be occasions that require extremely intensive Iray rendering, but it would only really be needed for a small time frame. This is where VCA comes in. “We have taken our standard Iray local workflow and built this cloud bridge so you can access these other GPUs that are inside the VCA,” said Gupte. “It’s a rack-mount chassis that holds up to eight K6000 class cards. You can take those and you can have a whole array of them. You can stack a number of them. They could be sitting in the room next door.” The cluster used for a demonstration was in Santa Clara, California, thousands of kilometres away from Sydney. Using standard internet available in a hotel, NVIDIA connected into this cluster and had that cluster do the heavy lifting in a live environment. Visit www.nvidia.com

‘Gone Girl’ Takes Post to 6K with NVIDIA and AJA AS THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH FEATURE FILM to be shot in 6K, David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ faced some unique challenges in post production. Among the solutions that were employed on the production were the first NVIDIA K5200 GPUs, which were provided ahead of their official release, as well as AJA’s IO 4K device. The production system and workflow for ‘Gone Girl’ is the most advanced technical design of any feature film to date. The filmmakers opted to shoot in 6K using RED Dragon cameras, but frame for 5K to have an ability to reframe and stabilise, with greater resolution than before. They also wanted to retain control over a majority of the postproduction in-house to improve turnaround and reduce overall costs.

POST PRODUCTION

“Shooting in 6K, we had a large amount of RED media content to be converted and reviewed,” explained Jeff Brue, Post Engineer. “This, combined with a need for an ability during editorial for every shot to be reframed, posed a unique challenge.” “We gave Jeff Brue and the guys at ‘Gone Girl’ the first K5200 card several months ago and they were just blown away with the performance,” explained Sandeep Gupte, Senior Director, Professional Solutions Business, NVIDIA. “They immediately put that into their production pipeline and they did everything using the card - absolutely loved it. Loved the performance, love the fact that it had 8 gigabytes of GPU memory really helped them compress that workload.” On the back end of the workflow, the NVIDIA GPU-based production

system enabled up to 50 times faster transcoding of 6K files to DPX over CPU. This was a huge time-saving benefit that accelerated the project workflow for delivery to VFX. AJA Video Systems’ Io 4K device for professional video and audio I/O was used to facilitate 4K playback for VFX review on ‘Gone Girl’. “AJA’s Io 4K was used as a reference grade device as it allowed us to playback DPX frames without any tearing or artifacts when reviewing VFX shots,” explained Brue. “The Io 4K was ultimately chosen for the quality level, absolute sync and also for the fact that it can operate in 10-bit.” AJA Io 4K connects to any Thunderbolt 2-enabled device, and offers a broad range of professional video and audio connectivity, supporting the latest 4K and UltraHD workflows. For ‘Gone Girl’, Io 4K was connected to the Thunderbolt 2 output from an HP Z820 workstation running Adobe After Effects CC and Adobe Premiere Pro CC, which was used to edit the entire film. “When you’re working on a feature film project with this high of a data rate, you have to have a cohesive system to manage all of the 6K, from storage to the playback device. You have to know that everything works together and that the peformance is reliable. AJA Io 4K provided that reliability along with absolute frame accuracy, which was a necessity,” concluded Brue. Visit www.nvidia.com and www.aja.com

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT Radio Television Hong Kong Enlists DAMsmart to Digitise Archive DIGITAL MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANY, DAMSMART, has been appointed by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) to digitise and upconvert 21,000 hours of the broadcasters videotape library. The project will make RTHK’s production archive available in an HD digital form to coincide with the introduction of digital terrestrial television service by RTHK. The project will result in significant increases in production efficiencies for the broadcaster, reduced risk, storage and access overheads inherent to physical videotape and, importantly, ensure the content is secured for future generations.

program to address those carriers that are in poor condition. The company will be digitising the collection using a mix of automated and semiautomated workflows that will include SD to HD up-conversion to create two file types, XDCamHD 50 and MPEG4.

RTHK is Hong Kong’s public service broadcaster. Established in the 1920s, RTHK is responsible for producing independent public affairs, education and entertainment content, initially for radio and then for television from the 1970s. Up until this year, commercial free-to-air providers have been responsible for broadcasting the television content produced by RTHK. The video archive represents a significant cultural record of Hong Kong’s recent history.

General Dynamics Mediaware is providing frame accurate, lossless editing solutions to DAMsmart to assist in the editing of the 21,000 hours of videotape from RTHK’s archive. General Dynamics Mediaware’s integrated compressed editing platform will be used as part of the solution being deployed to enable RTHK to realise significant increases in post-production efficiencies, and reduce risk in the storage and access overheads inherent to physical videotape.

The total project will consist of 21,000 hours of content across as many as 40,000 individual Betacam cassettes. Up to 30% of the collection presents signs of deterioration such as mould, which will require meticulous attention to ensure all content is recovered. The collection will be temporarily relocated from Hong Kong to Canberra, Australia, in 8 batches. DAMsmart will be undertaking an intensive cleaning and preparation

“The General Dynamics Mediaware solution was chosen by DAMsmart due to its single pass workflow, frame accuracy and lossless editing process,” said Garrick Simeon, managing director, General Dynamics Mediaware. “With our software, DAMsmart is able to significantly accelerate the archival process, avoid a transcoding process and maximise the quality of the file.” “By segmenting the original content, quickly and frame accurately, General Dynamics Mediaware’s software is doing the heavy lifting in this project and interacts seamlessly with our workflow solution,” said Joe Kelly, general manager, DAMsmart. “Compared with baseband alternatives, General Dynamics Mediaware’s solution edits up to 30 times faster without generational loss allowing us to speedily move forward with preserving the thousands of hours of video. The project is due for completion by the end of 2015. Visit www.damsmart.com.au and www.mediaware.com.au

DAMsmart Launches File Clipping Service

Ai-Media Deploys Mediaproxy LogServer

DAMSMART HAS INTRODUCED a new file clipping service that targets the problem of segment clipping; a costly and problematic process associated with digitising compile tapes.

MEDIAPROXY RECENTLY ANNOUNCED that Ai-Media has chosen LogServer to enhance its caption quality monitoring. Ai-Media is recording in excess of 60 channels to enhance the accuracy of its caption services.

The service provides a fully automated clipping workflow, which is completely integrated into DAMsmart’s video digitisation solution. The service delivers individual TX or production-ready files for each segment on a compile tape as opposed to the traditional approach of capturing the entire tape as a single file. The speed and quality of the service are a highlight, as DAMsmart leverages the benefits of MPEG2 and MXF to create individual clips in a lossless fashion retaining the same quality as the original.

Ai-Media provides broadcast captioning to many channels on the Foxtel platform, and Nine Network Australia, and internet-based captioning to universities, schools, workplaces, and government clients in Australia and the UK through its Ai-Live service.

Broadcasters and content owners stand to benefit most from reduced timelines thanks to the sophisticated automated workflows used to create frame accurate clipped files. The other notable advantage of the new service is multiple custom quality checks embedded in the workflow to continually monitor the segment creation process protecting the integrity of the file. The inclusion of this service as part of a DAMsmart digitation project can mean an end to resource intensive clipping of master files prior to TX or production work post encoding, and no more clumsy partial file restore processes from digital archives. Visit www.damsmart.com.au

“There is nothing more important than captioning quality,” said Ai-Media CEO, Tony Abrahams. “Mediaproxy LogServer provides a reliable record of the customer experience for every captioned session, and is a vital component of our workflows.” Mediaproxy’s LogServer platform provides 24/7 SD and HD multichannel recording and live monitoring of video, audio and real-time data sources. Contents may be reviewed and managed long after the event for legal and commercial compliance requirements and competitive analysis. A feature set built around monitoring closed caption data allows for accurate reconstitution ‘as broadcast’ and enables quick export with option burn-in for verification. Visit www.ai-media.tv and www.mediaproxy.com

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

2014 marks a new era for the broadcaster with the introduction of its own digital terrestrial television channels. Having its own channels now means RTHK is responsible for both producing content and broadcasting content. This shift in operations has seen RTHK look to leverage its extensive production archive to meet its programming needs, however, RTHK first needs to digitise the archive as the content currently sits on physical videotape formats. After identifying a need to outsource the digitisation of its tape library, RTHK went through a thorough open tender process and the contract was finally awarded to DAMsmart.

Post-digitisation the files will enter a workflow to address program segmentation requirements prior to going through rigorous QC testing. The process will result in DAMsmart delivering RTHK a collection that is ready for ingest into the broadcaster’s storage infrastructure and files that are ready for immediate use in production.

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MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

R&S Upping Storage Capabilities ROHDE & SCHWARZ DVS’ storage solutions have been further developed to store the increasingly more typical quantities of data from 4K and even 8K production environments. Instead of the usual 24 disks, the new R&S SpycerBox Ultra TL now has 48 SATA drives each with 6 TB of storage capacity – equalling 288 TB of capacity in a 4U chassis. The nearline solution comes equipped with dual 10 GigE interfaces as standard, making it perfect especially for mastering environments. The R&S SpycerBox family’s high levels of performance and robustness are known across the industry. It is available in different versions and integrates seamlessly into any NAS or SAN storage infrastructure thanks to its vast array of optional interfaces. Boasting 36 TB in just a single 1U chassis, R&S SpycerBox Cell represents an exceptional combination of performance and functionality. In this regard, the system’s scalability plays a key role – followed by a data throughput of up to 3 GB/s per unit and maximum reliability thanks to a unique failover system. R&S SpycerBox Cell is an excellent solution when rack-space restrictions and energy saving requirements are key considerations. R&S SpycerBox Cell and R&S SpycerBox Ultra also complement each other. While R&S SpycerBox Cell supports formats up to 8K, the main focus of R&S SpycerBox Ultra is its capacity to handle compressed formats. Customers who opt for a combination of R&S storage solutions will enjoy an extremely robust synthesis of density and stable performance in a tiny footprint. The devices from the R&S SpycerBox family are all equipped with web-based management software. The SAN Remo GUI makes it easy and straightforward for users to configure their hardware and software components – SAN Remo also enables the devices to be easily configured in clusters, allowing system-status monitoring as well as performance- and bandwidth-statistic analysis. Visit www.dvs.de

VideoScanner Ingest and Normalisation Solution NOA HAS ANNOUNCED VideoScanner, an ingest and normalisation

MEDIA IN THE CLOUD, STORAGE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT

solution that creates lossless video archives in a format to suit longterm access and preservation strategies. NOA’s VideoScanner uses a combination of mathematically lossless formats based on royalty-free open source technology to create lossless encoded files in native source pixel formats (8bit 4:2:0 – 10bit 4:4:4). Future access to these formats is assured indefinitely, and decoders are available today for every computer operating system. VideoScanner imports most MXF OP1a and AVI files in a wide range of codecs (AVC Intra50/100, VC-3 [DNxHD], XDCAM HD 422, IMX D-10, FFv1, FFvHuff, etc.) together with up to 32 audio channels to produce the normalised archive. The lossless base format guarantees that copies subsequently created in production formats will be supplied at the highest quality, without suffering from lossy-to-lossy transcodings. To streamline the ingest process and further future-proof the archives created, VideoScanner creates a shot-detected index of the content and extracts all relevant technical metadata including timecode and source format properties. When users need to store additional technical metadata information which is not supported by the AVI container format, the data is stored in an openly-accessible standard IT database. Designed to run in conjunction with NOA’s MediARC systems, VideoScanner is available as a software licence for installation on standard IT hardware, and integrates fully with NOA workflows. Visit www.noa-audio.com

DAC Launches EX-60 Expansion Chassis for ALTO DISK ARCHIVE CORPORATION has launched a new expansion chassis for its ALTO tapeless long-term storage system. The EX-60 Storage Expansion for the ALTO Archive and Content Library meets the growing demand for larger capacity and more densely packed media storage. ALTO’s disk-based cold storage solution can accommodate up to 275 TB of storage in each 5RU module, with an exceptionally low power dissipation of around 1 watt per Terabyte. By adding the new 4RU EX-60, ALTO users can increase this capacity by up to 340TB per EX-60 chassis, and each ALTO can support two EX-60s for a possible 955TB per node. The EX-60 can be populated with locally sourced off-the-shelf disks on a buy-as-needed basis, with any mix of disk size and vendor in any slot, making ALTO a practical, competitive, and future-proof system for large-scale storage of infrequently accessed material in content libraries and archives. Visit www.diskarchive.com

The in th for 2

Xytech MediaPulse Cloud XYTECH, THE DEVELOPER OF facility management software for the broadcast, production, media services and video transmission industries, has introduced MediaPulse Cloud which delivers the complete functionality of Xytech’s flagship MediaPulse platform in a secure, managed solution operating 24/7/365. With Xytech’s scalable cloud offering, the company says customers will no longer need to purchase, maintain and upgrade their own IT infrastructure. Compatible with any IT environment, MediaPulse Cloud works with Windows PCs and tablets, Macs, iPads, and Android tablets. Users are set up with unique databases to ensure security, and MediaPulse Cloud is supported by industry best practices.

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Meanwhile, the latest version of Xytech’s installed on-site MediaPulse platform, MediaPulse 2014, delivers asset management, order management, resource management and financial management in a configurable, platform-independent, browser-based application. SKY 2014, the platform-independent and browser-based interface for MediaPulse, has been upgraded to include a complete graphical scheduling application, real time dashboards for user-defined KPIs and a form editor to modify all screens. Media Order and Transmission Order modules have also received significant enhancements, enabling users to create complex order profiles with a simple click. MediaPulse 2014 features new adapters for Miranda, Telestream, Avid AirSpeed and Avid Capture, expanding integration capabilities and facilitating automated workflows involving a range of third party systems via Xytech’s Digital Order technology. Clients can also add any hardware platform to the MediaPulse ecosystem using our unique MediaPulse Adapter technology and new SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) tool. Xytech’s new MetaVault MAM (Media Asset Management system) provides a complete content backbone for the creation and storage of files, proxies and metadata. This new functionality makes integrating multiple MAMs, including those from other vendors, into a comprehensive, federated solution a reality. MediaPulse 2014 includes a host of fully supported Language Packs to facilitate global usage. Visit www.xytechsystems.com

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• DELVE into the ‘future of TV and content’ and the technologies changing the way we reach the consumer

World Renowned Speakers Marc Watson Former CEO BT Vision (UK) Gill Whitehead Director of Audience Technologies & Insight Channel 4 (UK) Michael Ebeid CEO & Managing Director SBS Richard Finlayson Director of Television ABC

• HEAR from the game-changers in broadcasting on the latest trends and challenges facing the industry

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Featuring 3 dedicated streams on Day 2 1. Business Strategy 2. Technical 3. Digital Design, Integration and Execution

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28/11/2014 5:21 pm

AUDIO Digital soundwaves

www.content-technology.com/audio

ABC TV Taps PAT for Largest LAWO Solution PROFESSIONAL AUDIO AND TELEVISION (PAT) has announced the supply, configuration, installation and commissioning of the largest LAWO mc2 console system in a fixed Australian television installation at the ABC TV studios in Elsternwick, Melbourne. The system, commissioned recently, consists of one LAWO mc2 90 console with 105 faders and a LAWO 48 fader mc2 56 console system. LAWO’s mc2 90 flagship console core was supplied with 27 MADI ports, 96 AES3 inputs and outputs, 8 DSP cards including a redundant stand-by card, fully redundant controller cards and power supplies. Two local DALLIS frames in Control Room 31 provided access to all local Control Room I/O, while being connected to the main console core in DCAR via MADI. 6 mobile stage boxes with fully redundant DALLIS frames – each with 48 mic inputs, 16 line outputs, 4 AES3 I/O, as well as four serial ports – offer flexibility by adding resources

Marshall Rack-Mount Audio Monitors MARSHALL ELECTRONICS recently introduced its new AR-DM3 line of rackmount audio monitors. The AR-DM3 audio monitors are 16 channel digital audio monitors with tri-colour LED bar graphs offering 100 per cent digital processing, Class D (digital) amplification, selectable stereo downmix modes, Dolby Digital / Dolby E decoding capability (with optional ARDM-D552 module), a ¼-inch headphone jack with level control, and a USB port for upgradability. Additionally, the AR-DM32-B provides 20-segment tri-colour bar graphs, while supporting VU and peak metering. Audio quality on the AR-DM3 series has been significantly improved. In order to do this, the build of theAR-DM3 has been redesigned to provide an acoustic advantage over previous designs. The speaker enclosures have been re-engineered to maximise output power, and the AR-DM3 front panels have been changed to allow for more natural reproduction of all frequencies in the 200-20,000Hz range.

AUDIO

Like many Marshall products, the AR-DM3 audio monitors have user-configurable modules. Visit www.quinto.com.au

to the console’s MADI fibre infrastructure. In addition to two local DALLIS I/O frames in Control Room 33, the mc2 56 NOVA73 HD core was equipped with 18 MADI ports, 64 AES3 I/O channels and 5 DSP cards. After having been awarded the tender to supply the equipment and provide the installation services as head contractor in June 2014, PAT worked closely with the LAWO project team in Germany to firstly deliver the mc2 56 MKII console in August 2014, for ABC’s studio 33. Due to tight project timelines, while LAWO was building and testing the new 56 system in Germany, PAT supplied the ABC with a comprehensive fibre network throughout the entire facility to accommodate the new system. Managing Director of PAT, Patrick Salloch, commented, “We had to accommodate TV production schedules while performing this major upgrade of the audio facilities and it was imperative that the PAT project team worked

The Neumann U47 fet is Back

extremely close with LAWO in Germany to assure all timelines were meet precisely.” Once the mc2 56 system had been installed and commissioned, PAT’s focus shifted to the install of the mc2 90 from mid September. As the console was delivered in various sections due to its size, specialised LAWO factory engineers assembled and commissioned the 3.2m console in October. Visit www.proaudiotv.com.au

AMS Neve Back in Black

AN ICON THAT HELPED SHAPE the sound of the 1970s is the Neumann U47 fet. As the transistorised successor of the U47, it permitted the processing of very high sound pressure levels for the first time, for instance allowing positioning directly in front of loud amps. For the new ‘Collectors Edition U47 fet’, Neumann has resumed production of this classic mic, according to the original production documents and schematics. The Collectors Edition is supplied with a high-quality wooden case with special packaging, and an individual certificate with the serial number of the microphone. Technically, the U47 fet is a condenser microphone with a cardioid directional characteristic and fet 80 circuit technology. This technology, also used in the 87, is characterised by a wide dynamic range. The K47, already employed in the U47, is a double largediaphragm capsule with a slight boost in the range above 2kHz. If required, a switchable low-cut filter raises the lower cut-off frequency electronically from 40Hz to 140Hz, and switchable attenuation can reduce transmission levels by 10dB. Visit www.u47fet.neumann.com

G THE NEVE GENESYS BLACK is a digitally controlled analogue recording console with total integration with the studio environment and the digital audio workstations of your choice.

Genesys Black offers eight channels of 1073 mic/line preamps, 16-channels DAW/tape monitoring, hands-on DAW control for Pro Tools, Nuendo and others, eight channels of Neve digitally controlled analogue four-band EQ, eight channels of Neve digitally controlled analogue VCA dynamics and channel A/D/D/A conversion via MADI, AES and FireWire formats.

A central touch screen, eight auxiliary buses, eight group buses, two main outputs, four effects returns, comprehensive metering, 5.1 monitoring, and an integrated footprint with internal power supply are among the features. Visit www.ams-neve.com

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GET CARRIED AWAY IN THE DETAILS SRH1540 Premium Studio Headphones Developed with premium materials and precision engineering, the SRH1540 Premium Studio Headphones feature an expansive soundstage for clear, extended highs and warm bass. A replacement set of ear pads, zippered travel case, and an additional cable ensure years of uninterrupted listening enjoyment.

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AUDIO

CEDAR Advances Noise Suppression and Audio Restoration

Dynaudio ‘AIR Control’ for Mac, PC and Windows-Based Tablets

AT THE 137TH AES CONVENTION RECENTLY, CEDAR Audio unleashed

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its latest developments in noise suppression, audio restoration and speech enhancement for post, broadcast, live sound, mastering, archives, and forensic audio investigation. Demonstrations included the DNS 8 Live as well as the CEDAR Studio 6 suite of AAX and VST plug-ins.

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In addition to these, CEDAR also demonstrated its flagship Cambridge V9 workstation. This boasts many new features and tools for restoring vast quantities of audio for broadcasters, archives and libraries, for homing in on the tiniest blemishes for music, film and TV remastering, and for obtaining the maximum intelligibility for audio forensic investigation. Developed in response to requests from national sound archives and libraries, there’s the XML Extension with its enhanced reporting capabilities, and internationalisation, which allows dealers and users to customise their systems for local languages, plus numerous improvements to a number of existing modules and tools. In addition to all of this, CEDAR Cambridge V9 offers two new facilities – Track Loudness View and Track Loudness – which allows determining of whether audio conforms to a given loudness standard and, if it doesn’t, correct it. To ensure compliance, a report can be generated for every track, and to ensure productivity, myriad tracks can be batch processed in a single operation in a tiny fraction of the time necessary using other methods. Visit www.cedaraudio.com

HARMAN’s Studer Debuts D23m I/O System FEATURING ENHANCED channel count architecture that allows customers of its Vista X and Vista V digital consoles to transfer a huge number of channels; HARMAN’s Studer demonstrated the new D23m I/O system at IBC2014. The D23m integrates with Studer’s new Infinity Core and A-Link interface technology. The D23m is fully compatible with D21m systems already in the field. All existing D21m I/O-cards are fully compatible and can be used in the new D23m frame. Plug-and-play features like automatic card detection are also available with D23m. The audio between the mixing console or router system and the D23m connects via the A-Link interface. The A-Link HD card hosts a powerful processor to operate all required patching and may be used as the sync master to the system, or may be slaved to a variety of external synchronisation signals. The D23m can host up to 12 I/O cards with a total of 1,536 inputs and 1,536 outputs, dependent of the I/O cards fitted. HARMAN’s Studer has also announced the first MADI I/O card specifically designed to fit in the new D23 frame. The card may also be used in the Vista 1 I/O card slot. The new I/O card is a dual slot card fitted with two redundant MADI interfaces and provides up to 128 channels of inputs and 128 channels of outputs on the two fully redundant interfaces. SFP modules are used for the front panel MADI interfaces and these hotpluggable devices are available in a variety of optical and electrical formats. Each of the two MADI interfaces provides dual outputs (with the same audio and control data). MADI channel count to the D23m backplane may be set for both interfaces in eight channel steps individually from eight channels to 64 channels.

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AIR IS A NETWORKED SOLUTION for critical monitoring found in thousands of studios globally. Dynaudio Professional’s new AIR Control software gives complete editing, saving and preset-based recall of room adaptation DSP, precise timing and SPL calibration, bass management and monitor control in Air systems configurations spanning 2.0 to 7.1. Dynaudio Professional unveils a new AIR Control application for Mac and PC, allowing users to carry out advanced calibration and alignment of their AIR monitoring system. The software provides access to advanced tools and features inside AIR monitors and subwoofers including timing and SPL calibration and parametric EQs for each monitor. Air Control allows users to define and store custom setups and presets with selective parameter locking, and a special measurement mode provides EQ line signal out from selected monitors. “AIR Control will be available as a free download, and we are very excited to offer our current and future AIR users the advantages of this intuitive software that easily and intuitively unlocks all the power of their AIR monitor systems,” says Fred Speckeen, Global Business Manager for Dynaudio Professional. “AIR systems are an industry standard, and have been so for over a decade. It is chosen by ear by the world-leading film, music and broadcast production studios. AIR Control is designed to meet their accelerating project and workflow demands where minutely accurate adjustments and configurations must be easily made, saved and quickly recalled.” AIR Control replaces Dynaudio Professional’s original ‘TC PC-IP’ installer software that was developed for professional installers. The new AIR Control application design is easier to use and an even more efficient way to fine-tune a complete, digital AIR monitoring system. The new AIR Control runs on Mac, PC and Windows-based tablets. Visit www.dynaudioprofessional.com

Solid State Logic C100 HD PLUS and C10 HD PLUS SSL SHOWCASED its new C100 HD PLUS and C10 HD PLUS digital broadcast consoles to the European market for the first time during IBC2014. The new ‘PLUS’ versions of the C100 and C10 consoles bring together innovative features and the added value consolidation of SSL Production Assistant software to offer users the most powerful and flexible systems SSL has ever produced. The company also demonstrated how IP audio networking can deliver significant feature and cost optimisation benefits in audio routing systems for broadcast production. The demonstration showed how SSL’s product line and new ‘Network I/O’ broadcast audio interface range can be interfaced with devices from more than 75 different manufacturers using a Dante IP Audio Network. Visit www.solidstatelogic.com

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TASCAM Introduces New Recording Options TASCAM RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the US-16x08 audio interface, with 16 mic and line inputs. Eight Ultra-HDDA microphone preamps deliver up to 56dB of gain. An additional eight line inputs are provided, two of them switchable to instrument level for direct guitar or bass recording. Eight balanced line outputs are also available, two with a level control on the front panel for monitoring. Built into the US-16x08 is a DSP mixer for low-latency digital mixing. Each channel has four-band EQ and compression. In addition to interface mode, the US-16x08 can be used as a standalone mic preamp. Mac and Windows drivers are provided, as well as USB Audio Compliance 2.0 drivers for iOS compatibility. MIDI input and output is also available on the rear panel.

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Tascam is also releasing the DR-10X, which clips on to your interview mic, turning it into a self-contained ENG recording system for interviews, news, and sports. Two new recorders for lavaliere microphones have also been announced: the DR-10CL and DR-10CS. These models fit Lectrosonics and Sennheiser microphones, and option cards are available for Shure, Sony, and RAMSA mics.

TASCAM’s new HS-20 is built for installers and contractors who need a network-ready recorder. It can be automated to record on a schedule, then upload the recording as soon as it’s finished without supervision. The CD-240 is both a reliable CD player and a DLNA-compatible network audio player for installation.

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TASCAM has updated its recorder for use with DSLR video to the DR60DmkII. The four-channel recorder gets new microphone preamps with up to 64dB of gain for recording quiet voices on set. The DR-60DmkII is a portable recorder designed from the ground up for DSLR filmmakers. The design of the DR-60DmkII contains a tripod mounting screw on top and socket hole on the bottom, integrating with cameras from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others. The camera output attenuates down to mic level before passing the signal to the camera to prevent distortion. Visit http://tascam.com

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Sennheiser Launches Dante Card for Digital 9000 IBC 2014 HAS SEEN Sennheiser launch a Dante card for the EM 9046 receiver, enabling its Digital 9000 microphone system to be integrated into Dante audio-over-IP networks. Users can route the system’s high-definition audio data via Audinate’s Dante Controller. Dante works with existing network infrastructure using IP and ethernet standards and offers hundreds of channels of high- quality audio. The EM 9046 DAN extension card is inserted into the expansion slot of the EM 9046 eight-channel receiver. Internally, the card features sixteen audio inputs to send the digital audio and command signals over the Dante network. Connection is via two Gbit RJ45 sockets that serve to establish two redundant network circuits or daisy-chain the signals. The card works with sampling rates of 44.1/48/88.2 and 96 kHz at a resolution of 24 bits. The EM 9046 DAN will be available from mid-October. Sennheiser will also adapt its Wireless Systems Manager software to include a monitoring function for the Dante card. The new version 4.2 will also be available from October and will allow users to listen to and monitor the EM 9046’s Dante audio streams from any point in the network. Visit www.sennheiser.com.au

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AUDIO

TC Electronic Introduces aNorm

CEDAR Audio Grants Licence to Sonic Studio CEDAR AUDIO LTD AND SONIC STUDIO have entered into a non-exclusive licence agreement that enables Sonic Studio to use IPR contained within CEDAR Audio’s US Patent No. 7,978,862 ‘Method and Apparatus For Audio Signal Processing’. The patent refers to a method of displaying and editing audio content in a spectrogram interface as utilised in Sonic Studio’s proprietary audio restoration technology, and this information can provide professional audio engineers with a means to find problems such a noise and other artefacts in recordings and remove them without affecting the surrounding audio. “Like CEDAR Audio, Sonic Studio has built a legacy of innovation and technology for audio restoration, and we look forward to a long relationship with them,” said Gordon Reid, Managing Director of CEDAR Audio Ltd.

‘ANORM’ IS A NEW, original and innovative approach to loudness adjustment that learns the incoming program on the fly and adapts to hit user-defined Targets for Program Loudness and Loudness Range (LRA). It delivers audio that has not been dynamically processed unless requested. In most cases, setting the Targets is all that aNorm needs to achieve a greatsounding result that stays within the boundaries of international broadcast standards and legislation. In other words, it has never been easier to integrate, setup and use intelligent loudness processing that doesn’t destroy delicate balances set in production. During IBC2014, TC Electronic debuted a new Loudness Processing Meter as part of aNorm – The Butterfly Meter. This interface displays content pre and post loudness normalisation using a graph that instantly provides an overview of how and why incoming audio is adjusted. Both the Program Loudness and Loudness Range parameters are reflected visually – not just as numeric values. The sheer look of the meter is just as astonishing as it is intuitive and informative. Thomas Valter, VP for Broadcast & Production, said, “We are proud to offer second-generation loudness normalisation and new loudness processing metering to all audio-conscious broadcasters,” says TC Electronic’s Thomas Valter, VP of Business Management, Broadcast and Production. “aNorm adapts seamlessly to your content to achieve a transparent result where delicate production balances aren’t washed out. aNorm is also easy to use – It even leads to new transition processing never before possible.” The new aNorm algorithm and loudness processing meter are part of the new LoudnessWizard II license for TC Electronic’s DB6 Broadcast Audio Processor. DB6 comes with the original LoudnessWizard that covers loudness correction, upconversion from stereo to 5.1, downconversion from 5.1 to stereo and lip sync delay. Visit www.tcelectronic.com

IRCAM Launches IRCAM Lab ‘TS’ THE INSTITUTE FOR Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music

AUDIO

(IRCAM) has announced the launch of ‘TS’ (Transpose/Stretching) a stand alone application that revolutionises the way audio signal can be processed. Unlike other time stretching applications, ‘TS’ uses an advanced phase vocoder engine (SuperVP) as for the analysis/synthesis functionalities of ‘AudioSculpt’. Phase vocoder technology provides high-quality sound processing in real-time and offers impressive results even when used to transpose or stretch audio waveforms radically. It is able to transpose and/ or pitch a WAV or AIFF audio file with extremely accurate results and minimal artefacts.

“We are delighted to be have access to this technology so we may support our customers with the best restoration tools available,” said Jonathan Reichbach, President and Chief Engineer at Sonic Studio. “We look forward to continuing to innovate and deliver the very best audio restoration toolset available to mastering professionals everywhere.” Visit www.cedaraudio.com and www.sonicstudio.com

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Prism Sound Releases SADiE Version 6.1 PRISM SOUND HAS ANNOUNCED the release of SADiE Version 6.1, an update to its SADiE Version 6.0.0 recording and editing software. With no dedicated proprietary hardware requirements the SADiE v 6.1 software packs are application based and focus on the core SADiE expertise of mastering, radio production, TV/Film post, archiving and restoration, and high level sound design. SADiE’s newly introduced WAV Master feature allows users to create WAV files for an entire album, using PQ marks to define the start and end of the WAV file for each album track. Track Titles, Artist Name and other information is automatically incorporated into these files. As a further extension of its WAV Master feature, SADiE has also introduced a new high quality Sample Rate conversion algorithm. Prism Sound has also incorporated ISRC in BWF into SADiE’s new WAV Master option. This feature is included as part of the Mastering Suite and Sound Suite packs. Created and standardised by the European Broadcasting Union, Broadcast WAV (BWF) is an extended WAV format that allows ISRC data to be embedded in the file. Every song released, and every version of that song, is allocated a unique ISRC by the record label. ISRC is then used to ensure that the correct files are used for playback and replication. It also ensures that artists and recording professionals who stand to benefit financially from any playback or replication are identified and compensated. There is also an extension to SADiE’s Wav Master functionality with support for reading and writing a WAV file’s LIST-INFO chunk, and for Track Name and Artist metadata (included in Mastering Suite and Sound Suite packs). Prism Sound has also incorporated 32bit floating point format for recording or bouncing to WAV or BWF, thus allowing engineers to work at the highest possible resolution throughout. There is also the option of creating a profile when making a DDP Image or importing one.

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IRCAM Lab ‘TS’ also includes real time MIDI remote control and a live editing export feature. That enables users to export totally original sounds created in ‘TS’ as easily as clicking the mouse. A DJ’s dream come true...

In addition to these upgrades, Prism Sound is now including SADIE MTR (Multi-Track Recorder) software in the SADIE6 installer. This will run without license when using an LRX2 or Prism Sound Lyra, Titan, and Atlas, interfaces, and requires a license for native operation.

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Super Radio Network Expands Satellite Distribution SUPER RADIO NETWORK (SRN) has announced the replacement and expansion of its Satellite Radio Distribution Network to meet the existing and future demands of its Radio Network. A contract has been awarded to Omnicast Pty Limited and the system will utilise International Datacasting IDC equipment. Super Radio Network is a major commercial radio operator in Australia with 36 AM & FM Radio Stations, 45 translators as well as five Sydney DAB+ Radio Stations (Dance Super Digi; Fun Super Digi: Gorilla Dance Radio: ZOO Music Variety and 2SM). SRN delivers a majority of its radio from several studios to the regional stations by satellite and has operated a Flexroute system for more than 20 years. SRN distributes “The John Laws Radio Morning Show” from 2SM Studios in Sydney to the network and many other affiliate radio broad-

Canberra and Darwin DAB+ Trials Extended

casters throughout Australia. SRN also delivers sporting, major news bulletins and music and talk radio programmes via the Satellite Radio Network. After 20 years of reliable service and with the new technologies available, SRN decided to update to the new IDC STAR-4 Pro Audio Receivers and head-end equipment, including Net Manager and Event Manager. The system uses eight Event Managers and one Net Manager, and approximately 40 receive sites using IDC’s STAR-4 Pro Audio receivers plus affiliate radio stations that take programmes like “The John Laws Morning Show”. The new system will have the capacity and the flexibility to allow SRN to add additional programmes to SRN’s existing network thereby making these programmes available to regional stations. Also, the system has the capacity to allow for the expansion for the introduction of

Digital Radio DAB+ into regional Australia. The new system includes IDC STAR-4 receivers, which have 4 separate high quality stereo radio programs with associated data, mega data, switching & storage functions. IDC’s Net Manager & Event Manager will give SRN greater flexibility to manager their network. Also, the new system will use the DVB-S2 standard that allows more efficient use of the satellite. The expansion required a greater Satellite Bandwidth. OPTUS has provided assistance allowing SRN to relocate on the same transponder and satellite. SRN has entered into a long term contract with OPTUS. The system will be installed and commissioned prior to Christmas 2014 and will be fully operational by 1 January, 2015. Visit www.datacast.com and www.omnicast.com.au

Innes Corp Supply Nautel for Sky Sports Network Upgrade

COMMERCIAL RADIO AUSTRALIA (CRA) has welcomed the decision by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to extend the DAB+ digital radio trial licences in Canberra and Darwin until 30 June 2015. The “scientific licences” have been extended to provide an opportunity for broadcasters to experiment with new features and functionality on DAB+, as well as continue testing a range of planning techniques and equipment types. CRA CEO, Joan Warner, said, “Both trials have provided valuable insights into coverage planning that will help ensure regional rollout of DAB+ provides cost effective reception. In addition, CRA has been testing transmission of emergency information across DAB+, fully utilising the slide show and scrolling text features of DAB+.” CRA is the trial licensee and commercial and public broadcasters share the Canberra trial funding. The Darwin trial is fully funded by the local commercial station. The DAB+ trial signal in both Canberra and Darwin is at low power but ongoing tests have indicated coverage at low power has been able to extend to a large part of the Canberra and Darwin areas. A boost was required to re-transmit the trial signal into Parliament House and this has provided additional testing opportunities for “in building” coverage in a challenging structure. Visit www.commericalradio.com.au

INNES CORPORATION HAS ANNOUNCED the imminent deployment of 22 new Nautel AM and FM transmitters for the Sky Sports Radio network. Ranging in power levels from 300 watts to 12 kilowatts, the new fleet will replace aging equipment in both metropolitan and regional transmitter sites. General Manager Innes Corp, Karen Olliver, commented, “Sky Sports Radio has long recognised the quality and reliability of Nautel engineering and in recent years was one of the first Australian broadcasters to introduce the ground breaking VS series FM transmitters to their network.”

more than 12,000 deployments in over 177 countries. Their popularity in Australia continues to grow with almost 100 new deployments in the past year alone. “We’re very pleased to work with Sky Sports Radio and Innes Corp on this project,” said John Abdnour, Regional Manager/ Asia-Pacific for Nautel. “Nautel has supplied the solidstate RF needs and services of Australian broadcasters for decades. We are privileged to continue the tradition.” Visit www.nautel.com and www.innescorp.com.au

Sky Sports Radio Chief Engineer, Max Carter, said, “It was an easy decision to choose Nautel for our network replacement needs due to their excellent reputation for reliability and support. This is backed up by almost 30 years of firsthand experience with an early Nautel Ampfet series still delivering our primary Sydney metro service.” Nautel are world leaders in the development of highly efficient, innovative and intelligent broadcast transmitters with

RADIO

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RADIO

High Power Solid-State FM Transmitters Nautel Limited NAUTEL LIMITED has released HAS released the new, themore new, more compact compact GV30,GV30, the latest the model latest model in the in GVthe Series GV Series of Digital of Digital FM transmitters. FM transmitters. The GV30 The GV30 provides up provides to 33 kW up to of 33 analogue kW of analogue power or power 27 kWor of 27 analogue kW of analogue power in power -14dB hybrid in -14dB mode, hybrid and mode, is more andthan is more 20%than smaller 20%and smaller is even andmore is even efficient more than efficient its predecessor. than its predecessor. GV products offer audio management and processing tools previously unavailable in high power transmitters. Features such as MER instrumentation, HD PowerBoost, SNMP support, SHOUTcast and IceCast streaming input, PUSHRADIO with scheduler and play lists, Axia Livewire IP audio support, MPX over AES functionality, and optional Orban Inside onboard audio processing are available to users. Other features of the GV Series include:  Up to 15% improvement in efficiency over digital technologies introduced only 5 years ago  A new Spectrum / Efficiency Optimizer which automatically monitors the transmitter and dynamically adjusts parameters to meet the spectrum mask while maximising efficiency  RDS PS scrolling for song title and artist displays (fed via RS232 or IP), with 25 positions available in the alternate frequency table  Automatic audio loss switchback has been added to audio loss switchover, allowing automatic return to the desired audio source once it recovers  Sophisticated control via the award-winning AUI, with definable security/access levels  A new oscilloscope view for the AUI which monitors audio source signals in the time domain

Multi-Channel IP Stream Logger EARLIER THIS YEAR, Sonifex bought the Australian broadcast audio manufacturer and distributor Innes Corporation, based in Sydney. As part of the purchase, a number of products transferred to Sonifex with one of them being the Flashlog audio logger. The new V8 logger software has a number of new features, the biggest of which is the ability to log multiple IP streams. The Flashlog is a configurable, ultra powerful multi-channel logger which uses the Sonifex Auricon and Digitorc sound cards, IP based line inputs (Axia or Wheatstone), radio capture cards and internet radio streams, in a rugged, reliable 4U chassis to continuously log up to 2 years of radio broadcasts or audio. Applications include compliance logging, air checking, content reuse and the monitoring of competitors. Flashlog is able to record up to 64 stereo line channels, 32 stereo FM stations, 32 AM stations, 4 DAB+ ensembles and 32 internet radio streams with the number of logging days independently set for each line, DAB+ ensemble, internet stream, AM or FM channel. It is available as a ‘software only’ purchase, or built into rugged PC rack hardware. The V8 software can log up to 32 internet radio streams using Shoutcast, Icecast and RTMP protocols. It supports MP3 and HE-AAC audio encoding and also records the metadata. There is a software driver which supports up to sixteen stereo Axia Livewire inputs and playback outputs and also up to sixteen stereo Wheatstone WheatNet inputs and playback outputs.

Visit www.nautel.com

tive monitoring solution that works in conjunction with Intraplex IP Link codecs, optimising performance for mission-critical audio contribution and distribution networks. LiveLook provides time-based graphical analysis of network statistics, including burst packets and other performance-related measurements that adversely affect IP signal transport. Built-in data mining algorithms automate packet analysis and subsequent report generation, recommending optimal techniques for error mitigation. This streamlines the setup, configuration and optimisation of IP networks to reduce complexity and improve overall network performance. Broadcasters further benefit from analysis of both live and logged data. The graphical nature of LiveLook, in conjunction with log clock association, gives users better insight into performance trends over periods of time. Additionally, the continuous logging of IP packets ensures that broadcasters can easily pinpoint and analyse statistics from a specific time window to review and troubleshoot known performance issues. Ultimately, Intraplex LiveLook is a value-added complement to reliability techniques already built into IP Link codecs, including dynamic stream splicing, an application that provides hitless recovery of dropped packets via seamless convergence of main and backup streams. GatesAir has also announced support for the EBU 3362 specification which, in part, covers the use of standard SIP and RTP protocols to establish audio streams. This compatibility allows IP Link codecs to seamlessly mix with other hardware codec vendors across large broadcast networks, as well as software codecs used on various smartphones and tablets.

RADIO

Support for SIP, or the Session Internet Protocol, is especially attractive for remote broadcasts and similar contribution applications. Instead of requiring a remote encoder, a broadcaster can call into an IP Link receiver at a radio station using an iOS or Android phone, for example, to contribute an on-air feed. Additionally, a listener or guest with a SIP phone or application can similarly contribute to a broadcast call using a common mobile device. Visit www.gatesair.com

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 Along with MER measurement, a full suite of digital radio instrumentation is available with a spectrum analyser and constellation view, supporting Nautel HD Reliable Transport  Robust cabinet and module designs for easy installation, hot swap of power modules, extensive redundancy and field repairable amplifier pallets

Additional V8 features include the ability to increase or decrease the number of logging days on each line, AM, FM channel or DAB ensemble, full Unicode support for international use, SNMP and FM RDS decoding, SNMP reporting of RDS RadioText and DAB DLS text, as well as DAB MOT and DLS status, MP3 option when saving audio segments, dynamic calendar control showing the range of recorded days and a number of other features.

 Site control functions have been added for monitoring and control of items external to the transmitter, such as doors or generators

 Built-in Industry-leading PAPR/Crest factor reduction

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Frontier Silicon Launches Verona 2 DAB Module FRONTIER SILICON HAS LAUNCHED Verona 2, a new DAB digital radio module based on its 4th generation Kino 4 chip. The Verona 2 module is based on a chip which integrates RF, baseband, application processor, audio decode and DAC functionality on a single piece of silicon. The key benefits of Verona 2 are: • 50% lower power consumption than Verona 1 • enhanced performance and functionality • lower cost than previous solutions • modular form factor for shorter time to market • UK Digital Tick compliant The Verona 2 module will power all major categories of consumer DAB digital radio devices – in particular, portable radios (with entry level models retailing at under US$30), clock radios, docks, home audio systems and radio receivers with Bluetooth connectivity. Frontier will also introduce a range of new functionality based on its Kino 4 solution – with a particular focus on automotive aftermarket products (especially, automotive adapters). Anthony Sethill, CEO Frontier Silicon, said: “Digital radio is making strong advances across Europe and beyond. As the global market matures, it is critical that technology solutions continue to drive this progress. “With Verona 2, we have delivered a solution with lower cost, greatly reduced power consumption and improved performance – whilst retaining the reliability that is a hallmark of Frontier’s solutions.” Visit www.frontier-silicon.com

Sonifex Telephone Hybrids THE DHY-04 AND DHY-04G automatic digital hybrids from Sonifex both feature AES/EBU and analogue autosensing I/O together with an Ethernet port for control and configuration. The DHY-04 telephone hybrid is a redesign of the existing DHY-03 with 76dB typical line balance rejection offering superb performance and crystal clear audio. It is automatic in operation, with auto answer, auto disconnect and auto ducking, adapting to varying line conditions with fully adaptive echo cancellation. The DHY-04 has all the features of the DHY-03 plus some useful additions. The front panel has four speed-dial buttons for dialing internally preset phone numbers and a Redial button. The audio input is an auto-sensing combined analogue or AES/EBU XLR input, accepting sample rates up to 24 bit/96kHz. The output is configurable as analogue or AES/EBU. There is an Ethernet port for remote configuration via a web browser GUI and this also provides remote dialing, line hold control and the ability to generate SNMP Traps for SNMP management systems. Additionally the DHY-04 has DTMF dial tone recognition for reporter remote access – a journalist can dial into the unit, which can recognise a pre-programmed DTMF numeric password to automatically connect the journalist on-air. The DHY-04G is a digital GSM hybrid which has all features of the DHY-04 but uses a quad-band 2G/GSM cellular connection instead of an analogue POTS line, converting the GSM call to the 4 wire audio signal to and from a connected mixing console. The DHY-04G is suitable for studios in remote locations, for OB vans and trucks on the move, and in emergency situations where a telephone landline can’t be guaranteed. The DHY-04G has some additional front panel indicators. There are two LEDs, one for SIM enabled and one for GSM Network availability. Visit www.sonifex.co.uk

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TRANSMISSION Signal distribution, test & measurement

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Red Bee Gives Flying Start to Ericsson Broadcast

and Media Services

WITH ITS ACQUISITION OF RED BEE MEDIA finalised in July, Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services (EBMS) has emerged as a global leader in the provision of outsourced services for broadcasters across a range of disciplines. After assuming responsibility for the play-out operations and facilities of TV4 and Canal+ in Sweden in the mid-2000s, the Ericsson business unit acquired scale in 2012 through its acquisition of Technicolor’s Broadcast Services and its facilities in France, the UK and the Netherlands, transforming them into successful managed services. Headquartered in the UK, Red Bee Media had established divisions in Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and Australia. According to Tony Moran, Head of Sales, Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services in Australia, “The acquisition has increased the scale of the business within the broadcast services domain, but has also increased the breadth of services that we can address. Previously, the focus was very much around play-out. We had done some media asset management and some OTT-type services, but Red Bee Media very much broadens the scope of what we bring to the market.” While Red Bee Media was known largely for captioning services in Australia, the service offering is now being expanded under the Ericsson banner. According to Managing Director, Chris Howe, this offering will be around content acquisition, processing and delivery to multiple platforms. “That includes all the editorial, operational, technical and regulatory management of content, and the mechanisms for delivery of that content onto all platforms. Historically, Red Bee Media has done these kind of services for key operators like the BBC and Channel 5, but the expansion of that portfolio across other brands and content owners has been quite successful across Europe. “We focus on relationships with the studios and the content production houses, and we hold a number of archives. That content is then processed and then delivered in an appropriate form to broadcasters across the globe. So, that’s one of the services we’re delivering into Australia which is processing content in the UK. We perform

quality checking and we can do editorial and regulatory work on it and deliver it into Australia for broadcasters here. That’s a service that we’re currently delivering.” Other services brought to the EBMS portfolio by the Red Bee acquisition include: Access Services covering captioning, signing, audio description and translation; Creative Services encompassing advertising, promotions, branded content, user interface design across multiple platforms; and Content Discovery. According to Chris Howe, the latter is “… all about metadata acquisition and creating information and rich metadata around programming so it can be found and searched for, providing the appropriate marketing content around programming on all platforms.” “One of the things that’s interesting is the linkage that’s emerging between the access services work and search and recommendation,” adds Tony Moran. “By doing the captioning, you generate a transcription of the asset, so we’re finding lots of other applications for that transcription data – whether it’s driving search and recommendation, whether it’s helping in MAM and archiving application or it’s third parties interested in that transcription data such as media monitoring services.”

VOD One of the new services the group provides is looking to launch is the creation of Videoon-Demand (VOD) assets from linear content streams. “We have some software applications which allow us to recut the assets back out of the programme streams and then process them in multiple ways for various VOD platforms and various devices,” says Chris Howe. “So, it’s a really efficient way of creating assets from the output streams that the broadcasters produce using metadata and information to recreate the asset. The asset’s already QC’d because it’s going out the door in the linear stream. It’s already branded because it has the network branding on it and then we can recreate the asset efficiently using automated techniques. You can create a ‘dirty’ VOD where you’ve got some lead-in time

Chris Howe and Tony Moran of Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services Australia.

and some advertising still in there, right the way through to a clean VOD where you can remove the advertising and provide a clean asset to be used on more premium platforms.” “One of the features of this service,” says Tony Moran, “is that it’s hosting a lot of the compression technology that’s used for both linear and on-demand IP-streaming, so we’ve allowed broadcasters to simplify their workflows and it’s simply outsourced as a service. All the multiplatform services can be brought into this managed compression system which has obvious synergies with the other business Ericsson’s well known for in the marketplace.”

EXPANSION Utilising Red Bee Media’s experience in providing remote captioning services overnight to the UK, as well as content delivery from Europe to Australia, Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services will leverage offshore infrastructure where appropriate, but is also planning for expansion of its local facilities, which currently include hosting of the SBS network’s disaster recovery operation. According to Chris Howe, “There is definitely a requirement for significant local expansion because of some of the limitations with connectivity in Australia, because of the need to be close to the client, there are lots of sensible economic and technical reasons why you want to do it here.” Chris Howe is backed up by Thorsten Sauer, Global Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson. “We believe Australia is a market with high potential,” he says. “In the fast paced times we live in, broadcasters and content owners must respond to changing viewing habits by offering

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AVC nels,

A ROUND-UP OF COMPRESSION AND TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY. PART 1. AUSTRALIAN COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER, Malcolm Turnbull, dropped a bombshell in September as he painted a future picture of broadcasting that included sub-letting of TV spectrum, multiplex sharing and an end to free-to-air community TV broadcasting. Against a background of Federal budget deficits and the potential of new spectrum auctions, the Minister said, “With the completion of the digital switchover, advances in compression standards and Australians increasingly accessing content that doesn’t require spectrum – such as cable and overthe-top services via the internet – the Government considers that it is timely to recast the current broadcasting spectrum policy framework.” According to the Minister, a future broadcasting spectrum framework should consider the following elements:  The Government would retain the current restriction on the number of commercial television licences that can be allocated for the one area.  Commercial and national broadcasters would be increasingly permitted to use spectrum more flexibly and allow third party access to their spectrum.  The Government would not constrain the type of services broadcasters offer apart from retaining the restriction on subscription television services.  The Government would not mandate that commercial and national broadcasters provide minimum numbers of multi-channels or HD content. The Minister also said the Government was keen to encourage commercial and national broadcasters to transition to MPEG-4 only broadcasting. “To achieve maximum spectrum efficiency the Government will encourage spectrum sharing between television broadcasters,” he said. “We expect the

Visit

national broadcasters to lead the way in this regard, with the commercials to follow. In the short term, to allow for this transition to MPEG-4, the Government intends to free up the spectrum known as the sixth channel to assist in the testing and migration to this more efficient technology.” The “sixth channel” is currently used by community broadcasters C31 Melbourne and Geelong, TVS – Television Sydney, 31 Digital Queensland, Channel 44 Adelaide and WEST TV Perth. These broadcasters have until the 31st of December 2015 to make other delivery arrangements.

Compression and Transmission Tools In response to these moves, Content+Technology is presenting an ongoing round-up of “MPEG-4 Broadcasting” tools. We’ll also be looking at HEVC versus H.264/MPEG-4 encoding schemes.

COMPANY:

APPEAR TV

PRODUCT:

MPEG-4 ENCODERS AND TRANSCODERS

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Appear TV’s MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC encoder solution is able to encode digital video data in all common distribution profiles from SD to HD. Input is digital SDI/HDSDI with embedded audio, or analogue CVBS (Composite) with separate analogue audio. Meanwhile, Appear TV’s Transcoder solution is able to transcode digital video data in all common distribution profiles from SD to HD. The transcoder module is able to transcode AVC to MPEG-2, MPEG-2 to MPEG-2, MPEG-2 to AVC, and

Thomson-Broadcast on Display at IBC2014 Show Thomson Broadcast (Stand 8.C35) announced the launch of a new lowpower ultra-compact transmitter range. Available from 20W to 150W RMS, and designed to adapt to any field situation, the low-power range provides dualcast DVB-T/DVB-T2 coverage extension and benefits from multiple options such as a built-in 1+1 configuration. The low-power series is based on the same design and concepts featured in the company’s new line of environmentally-efficient transmitters and benefits from the advanced features and performance gains seen in recent major digital deployments by Thomson Broadcast. The compactness of the low-power range — 1RU up to 80W and 2RU up to 150W — allows broadcasters to achieve valuable savings on infrastructure rental costs. The transmitters are suitable for any MFN or SFN network, and all configurations are available with multiple options including a DVB-S/DVB-S2 receiver, and built-in 1+1 capability, to provide redundancy within the compact form-factor, and without requiring additional modules. Available for rapid deployment in indoor or outdoor locations, the lowpower range is easy to install for a quick plug-and-play solution. The transmitters guarantee consistency of performance through advanced real-time Digital Adaptive Pre-correction to address linear and nonlinear distortions. Visit www.thomson-broadcast.com 20140924_GV2014_GVSP_halfpage_outline.indd 1

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AVC to AVC. Each module supports transcoding of 4 SD channels or 2 HD channels, providing up to 64 channels per 4 RU chassis.

 Support for up to 14 independent modules with internal connectivity

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COMPANY:

HARMONIC

The following Harmonic solutions currently support MPEG-4:  Electra 9200 universal multi-service encoder  Electra 8000 universal SD/HD MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC encoder  Electra XVM virtualised media processor  ProStream 9100 high-density stream processor  Ellipse 3000 contribution encoders  ProView 8100 commercial integrated receiver-decoder (IRD) Visit www.harmonicinc.com

COMPANY:

IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS

PRODUCT:

SELENIO MCP3 3RU

Selenio MCP3 3RU Media Convergence Platform combines traditional baseband video and audio processing, compression and IP networking features — all in a single, space-saving 3RU frame. Features include:  Dual-channel baseband modules provide 28 channels of high-density baseband video processing, including up-, down-, and cross-conversion and synchronisation  Advanced audio processing capabilities, including integrated Dolby E, Dolby Digital, AAC, AAC-HE, MPEG audio and DTS  MPEG-2 and H.264 compression standards are supported from SD and HD

to 3 Gb/s and mobile

NET INSIGHT

PRODUCT: NIMBRA VA 220 MEDIA CONTRIBUTION OVER INTERNET The Nimbra VA 220 enables fast and cost-efficient media transport over the Internet, combining the powerful media protection capabilities of Nimbra VA 210 with built-in state-of-the-art MPEG4-AVC encoding and decoding. The Nimbra VA 220 offers a unique solution for live media Visit www.netinsight.net

COMPANY:

NTT ELECTRONICS

PRODUCTS INCLUDE:  HVE9230 is enhanced AVC/H.264 encoder, which provides 16 channels audio for 8 stereo, 5.1 ch. + stereo, or 8 PES or Ancillary Data transmission.  HVE9210/HVE9230 also provides One Frame Super Low Latency for high quality video transmission, Closed Captioning for IPTV or CATV AVC/H.264.  HVE9110 is MPEG 2 or AVC/H.264 switchable encoder which provides advanced features of Ancillary Data transmission or High Efficiency Video Mode.  HVD9130 4:2:2 10bit AVC/H.264 and MPEG-2 Decoder performs low latency and compressed video transmission with NTT Electronics’ High End Encoder family. Visit www.ntt-electronics.com

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Sony Launches Networked Media Interface SONY, IN COLLABORATION WITH 10 of the world’s leading broadcast used the recent IBC show in Amsterdam to launch the Networked Media Interface. The new AV-over-IP interface delivers low latency and noise-free switching of HD and 4K video, audio and metadata as part of IP-based networking. The Networked Media Interface packetizes video, audio and metadata, enabling real-time transmission between video-production products via standard network infrastructures. This technology will further enhance Sony’s IP Live Production system by increasing efficiency and reducing cost for the broadcasting of live studio and sports production. Sony is developing Low Latency Video Codec (LLVC) technology, which supports the video compression required for 4K 60p transmission over 10 Gbps Ethernet. The creation of SMPTE Registered Disclosure Document (RDD) for this codec technology is currently in process. Sony has also adopted SMPTE ST 2022-6 and ST 2022-7, a technology which transports uncompressed HD-SDI over IP network. Sony has played a major role in the driving take-up of IP-based networking and has taken significant steps to enhance its interoperability throughout the professional video production industry. Sony is contributing to standardization of SMPTE 2059, a Precision Time protocol that permits the seamless switching of different devices over IP to achieve broadcast quality IP genlocking. Sony is also working with SMPTE, VSF and JT-NM1 to create a unified future standard. To promote the widespread use of the new AV-over-IP interface across various video-production products, Sony plans to initiate licensing of the Networked Media Interface in the near future. This licensing will entail developing tools

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and technical specifications that enable the deployment of related products. The new Networked Media Interface combines the latest IP network technologies with a current SDI standard interface to support any resolution of video transmission. While conventional systems require multiple different types of cables to carry various signal types (video, audio, reference, metadata and control data), the Networked Media Interface requires only a single standard network cable passing through conventional network switches. Sony has combined unique new technology with already established standards to achieve reliable, scalable and stable transmission. This new solution supports direct connection of numerous types of production devices onto the IP network via an existing Layer-3 IP switch infrastructure. Furthermore, it enables simultaneous transmission to multiple points and real time noise-free source switching, handling SD, HD and 4K video resolutions together. The new IP Live Production system has been designed to be flexible and scalable, since users have the ability to migrate to greater numbers of devices and higher video resolutions including HD to 4K over time. Ten leading companies have formally announced their support of Sony’s effort to promote the Networked Media Interface, including: Altera Corporation; Cisco Systems; Evertz; Imagine Communications; Juniper Networks; Macnica Americas; Matrox Electronics Systems; Rohde & Schwarz DVS; Vizrt; and Xilinx. Visit www.pro.sony.eu/ibc.

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Mediaproxy Releases v9 of LogServer Suite Mediaproxy the developer of broadcast compliance logging, content monitoring and transport stream analysis solutions has released version 9 of its LogServer suite of products. The latest version is delivering a new core encoding engine and newly designed user interfaces across the entire range, that are raising the standard to provide modern simplicity and efficiency. The LogServer suite of product provides broadcasters with a comprehensive and intuitive set of client applications across Windows, Mac, web and mobile

Norwia Rings the Changes NORWIA AS HAS USED IBC2014 to demonstrate how the versatility of its miniHUB optical platform enables broadcasters to contribute video and audio over a fully redundant ring structure with ease. The demonstration showcased Norwia’s AutoSFP technology, which simplifies the operation of fully functioning broadcast redundant ring structures. The platform consists of a fully flexible optical blade with the next generation miniHUB interface. It is configurable as a multiple fibre solution or a multiplexed backbone structure that provides redundancy in both main and redundant fibre paths. This means that the fibre can be utilised in either direction and still provide signal integrity.

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Strengthening the resilience of the miniHUB ring structure allows for total power outage at any site, while other locations will still receive and send signals between each other. Norwia’s AutoSFP technology ensures that signal capacity can be easily added without having to worry about difficult calculation of bandwidth. The miniHUB optical platform is built around a single card that adapts to the individual function a ring structure needs. All other manufacturers require a series of cards for each function while the miniHUB platform is dynamic, as it only needs one card to deliver all functionality through simple configuration. SNMP is available for integration into larger media control systems through the RCONmini surveillance system to provide seamless monitoring locally and remotely. Visit www.norwia.no

platforms. Supported SD and HD input formats range from baseband, ASI, IP to OTT. Users can easily review, extract and analyse live and recorded contents across multiple channels via the simple yet powerful LogPlayer interface, while TSAnalyzer provides engineers with a leading edge UI for transport stream analysis. The newly engineered LogServer core engine provides the highest level of reliability for hands-off operations. Visit www.mediaproxy.com

Versatile H.264/AVC Codec NEVION HAS LAUNCHED the NX4600 H.264/AVC Media Gateway. Designed primarily for contribution networks, the NX4600 offers highquality H.264/MPEG-4 AVC encoding and decoding with flexibility, density, ease of use and cost-effectiveness. The NX4600 unit can include up to 4 codec modules, each of which can be used either as an encoder or a decoder, providing up to 4 encoders or 4 decoders in a single RU. A module can be switched from encoding to decoding and vice-versa without need for hardware changes. This versatility and compactness means that the NX4600 can fit into most environments, particularly where space is at a premium, like outside broadcast trucks, or rented space in data center or telecom facilities. The NX4600 has an easy-to-use control interface and is integrated with Nevion’s management solution, VideoIPath, which makes it easy to manage traditional and IP-based media networks by hiding the underlying complexity. The NX4600 includes in-built monitoring capabilities that help anticipate and correct any network issues. It is also ready to support Nevion’s trademark advanced protection mechanisms for the real-time transport of professional media. Designed to function with Nevion’s existing range of media edge adapters, the solution can work alongside existing offerings from the Ventura product line. Visit www.nevion.com, email asiasales@nevion.com or call +65 6872 9361

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TRANSMISSION  Continued from Page 41

COMPANY:

TESTSYSTEMS BY ENENSYS

PRODUCT: EDGEPROBE ADVANCED DVB-T/T2 1.3.1 RF, TS AND T2MI PROBE EdgeProbe Advanced is able to continuously monitor DVB-T and DVB-T2 signals at transmitter outputs through its RF inputs (up to 4 in 1 U) as well as at modulator inputs and on distribution links with its ASI and IP inputs. EdgeProbe Advanced is able to continuously log all measurements values in an archievefile and to send SNMP traps if selected parameters exceed defined thresholds. For troubleshooting, remote access allows analysis of all parameters from RF to baseband. EdgeProbe Advanced provides monitoring of the signal at transmission and transport stream. Visit www.enensys.com

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THOMSON VIDEO NETWORKS

PRODUCT:

VIBE XT1000 XTREAM TRANSCODER

The ViBE XT1000 Xtream Transcoder is powered by the company’s Mustang video encoding algorithms using Intel Quick Sync Video (Intel QSV) technology. The ViBE XT1000 supports up to 54 HD channels or 180 SD channels with transcoding from any format to any format, including MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/ AVC, making it suitable for turnaround services on cable, IPTV, DTH, and DTTV services as well as multi-screen delivery. The ViBE XT1000 offers reliability through load balancing and built-in redundancy powered by MediaFlexOS. Visit www.thomson-networks.com More compression and transmission technology next issue.

 Continued from Page 38 on-demand services and multi-screen experiences. “We’ve have more than 2,500 Broadcast and Media Services employees in seven countries. In Australia, for example, we are present in Sydney and Melbourne with around 130 employees. I believe that Australian market can benefit from the expertise and scale Ericsson has globally.” In light of recent pronouncements by Australian Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, on the Government’s desire to see broadcasters share spectrum and move to MPEG-4 broadcasting, Tony Moran says EBMS would be well placed to enable terrestrial broadcasters effect that transition. “If that transpires,” he says, “that could mean changing the model today where you have a broadcaster per slot of spectrum. If that were to change then it would look closer to the UK model where you have mux providers operating for a number of broadcasters. So, naturally, that would lend itself to an organisation offering that as a service to a number of broadcasters. “Yes, we would see an opportunity there, particularly with our other organisation which is very much embedded in the terrestrial compression/ transmission industry, so we’d have a lot of expertise there to draw on to enable us to enter that space.” But, while EBMS has a remit for Australia and Southeast Asia with its local operation, Moran says it is generally not focused much outside AustraliaNew Zealand at this point. “We see so much opportunity in the local marketplace that’s where the focus is,” he says. “There are places, like Singapore, where it’s pretty saturated already, so we’re not really paying attention to that. So, AustraliaNew Zealand is the focus and we’ll be opportunistic elsewhere.” Contact Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services/Red Bee Media via +61 (0) 292 125 277.

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CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS Position Vacant – Television Broadcast Engineer PROFESSIONAL AUDIO & TELEVISION One of Australia’s leadi.ng broadcast suppliers and integrators, has a position vacant for an experienced television broadcast engineer, Sydney-based. The successful candidate:  Will have extensive Television engineering experience in the broadcast industry;  Experience in designing complex IP networks be it for control, vision and/ or audio;  Be able to design TV and radio systems from the ground up as well as integrate new technologies into an existing system;  Is a good communicator who can manage staff and sub-contractors, being a team player but who can also work unsupervised;  Has an eye for detail and is able to transfer the customers vision incorporating detailed CAD drawings, project timelines, and the entire process to final commissioning;  Is dedicated and takes pride in his/her work, while being prepared to go the extra mile;

 Is able to travel nationally and internationally; and  Has a current Australian drivers license and the appropriate VISA to work in Australia In return for your services, we will provide you with:  A salary that reflects your experience and work commitment;  Flexible work hours that provide a healthy work and life balance;  A relaxed work environment with a small team of high achievers; and  The opportunity to work on some of the most exciting and challenging broadcast projects in Australia. If you feel that you are the right person for the job, we would love to hear from you! Please send us a one page document outlining why you are the right person for the job in addition to your CV. Applications should be mailed to management@proaudiotv.com.au NO AGENCIES.

Position Vacant – Stagetec Mediagroup Australia CASUAL ENGINEERING POSITIONS – SYDNEY

LEVEL 1 SUPPORT ENGINEER – SYDNEY

Stagetec Mediagroup Australia is part of a dynamic, international consortium that specialises in Audio Engineering.

Stagetec Mediagroup Australia is part of a dynamic, international consortium that specialises in Audio Engineering. We are looking for a Level 1 Support Engineer to join our small, tight knit team based in Sydney. With our office in Alexandria, this challenging role will suit an experienced all rounder. This role will be responsible for the following:  Managing and answering Support Tickets and Telephone Calls  Level 1 Telephone and OnSite Support including troubleshooting  Assist the Project Team when necessary Ideally you will have:  1 + years of audio or broadcast industry experience and / or qualifications.  IP Networking knowledge is essential and cisco experience preferred.  Current valid Drivers License  You will need to pass the RISI (rail industry safety induction) in order to receive full time employment. An attractive package awaits a mature, responsible all rounder with a great sense of humour. This is a rare opportunity to join a fast growing privately owned company with high profile clients so don’t miss out! If this is you then rush in your CV and application letter to careers@stagetec.com.au.

We have multiple casual positions available for Audio and Broadcast Engineers to help us during busy project periods. Our Offices are located in Alexandria NSW; under 5 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. We are looking for both experienced and junior casuals to join our team, some tasks would include:  Building racks and cabling systems  Assembling equipment  Testing and configuring equipment  Assist the Project Team when necessary Ideally you will have:  Some audio or broadcast industry experience and / or qualifications.  IP Networking knowledge Contact careers@stagetec.com.au if you think this is you.

Position Vacant – NEP Australia NEP Australia (Formerly Global Television), Australia’s leading provider of studio and outside broadcast production services is expanding its outstanding knowledge base within the company. NEP Australia seeks to set new standards in service excellence within the television industry. As part of this increased customer-focussed vision, NEP Australia is recruiting for the following roles:

CLASSIFIEDS + EVENTS

FACILITIES VIDEO CO-ORDINATOR – SYDNEY Our Facilities Co-ordinators work in a team environment within warehouse operations (Field Shops) across the country and must possess the following attributes;  Minimum 3-years television related industry experience with a thorough knowledge of video related facilities  The Facilities Video Co-ordinator has a focus to video equipment but is also required to be across the basics of audio equipment  Be physically able to undertake various manual handling tasks  A good working knowledge of all types of broadcast television equipment  An unrestricted driving license is required, a medium rigid (MR) license is an advantage  Being licenced to operate a forklift, scissor lift and boom lifts is also advantageous

SENIOR ELECTRICIAN – SYDNEY Our Senior Electrician is required to be fully qualified to head our internal electrical compliance needs for our large outside broadcast fleet as well as studio operations. The role will also have a national focus to WHS electrical compliance and will also support the manager in charge of Sites Repair and maintenance of electrical systems of Outside Broadcast vehicles, equipment generators and Studio facilities  Ensuring Electrical compliance with Australian standards are maintained and documented  Test and tagging of broadcast , site and office equipment to Australian Standards  Training and documentation for staff in electrical safety practices  Electrical design ,installation and commissioning  Experience in following would be advantage, Building Management, security and access control systems, Switchboard design and maintenance, Computers and software, Air Conditioning and mechanical repairs and Network cabling Expressions of interest are only acknowledged by emailing your resume to infoau@nepinc.com

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TIME shifter NFSA Celebrates 30th Anniversary October 2014 has seen a milestone reached by the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), with the celebration of its 30th anniversary. The NFSA kicked off operations in October 1984, following the announcement in Parliament by Barry Cohen, Minister for Home Affairs and Environment, that the government would establish an autonomous audio-visual archive on April 5, 1984.

NFSA CEO Michael Loebenstein

HOWEVER, THE HISTORY OF THE NFSA doesn’t begin in 1984, but can trace its origins to December 11, 1935 when a Cabinet decision lead to the creation of the National Historical Film and Speaking Record Library, with Australia’s film and sound collections to be managed within the Commonwealth National Library (now National Library of Australia). When the NFSA became its own entity in 1984 it moved into the former Australian Institute of Anatomy on the Acton Peninsula, a building that was built in 1931. Over the course of the three decades that the NFSA has been operational, there have been many changes to the media landscape. Chief among these, according to CEO Michael Loebenstein, is digitisation. “The two biggest changes go hand in hand with each other, and I would say one is the move to digital production workflows and deliverables across all the media we deal with,” explains Loebenstein. “The other is a change in audience expectations, which I think is caused by the prevalence of digital technologies and the pervasion of digital technology into almost all aspects of our lives. You can’t separate the two. It is not only a huge technological shift, but also a huge cultural one. “If you think about it, 30 years ago a group of less than 20 technicians, archivists, and librarians moved across from the National Library and brought collections that were entirely analogue with them. They were catalogued on index cards and stored on motion picture film and magnetic tape or disc media. Not even 20 years later digitisation of still images started, followed by digitisation of all of the audio preservation functions. Only in the last couple of years has digitisation of moving images – television, broadcast collections, and now, finally, motion picture film – started. So the acceleration is quite dramatic.” This rapid acceleration of formats, particularly when compared to the decades that preceded them, is at odds with the way that archives generally function. The raison d’être of an archive is to preserve the past for future generations. This doesn’t easily lend itself to being caught up

Prime Minister Bob Hawke unveils the NFSA plaque

in the latest innovations. “Archives by their nature are cautious to jus jump on the bandwagon of every trend or emerging technology,” said Loebenstein. “They observe; they take their time. You could say archives are risk averse to a certain degree, but that comes out of their duty of care for their collections. “It took us many years to establish the most sustainable method to digitise broadcast content, to digitise it to certain metadata, and to certain compression standards. Everything in an archive takes longer, because the ultimate goal is sustainability and the minimisation of risk for the collection.” There are a staggering 2.165 million items in the NFSA collection (516,000 moving image; 444,000 recorded sound; 1,205,000 documents and artefacts). The oldest of these is The Hen Convention (sound recording on wax cylinder, 1896), the Lumiere film Workers Leaving the Factory and Australia’s earliest surviving moving image shot at the Melbourne Cup carnival (both from 1896), plus ‘magic lantern’ projectors from the early 1800s. “The collection size and backlog of analogue materials does not lend itself easily to your business as usual digitization process. At the current pace that we digitise broadcast material it is going to take in excess of 20 years to actually make it through that collection,” adds Loebenstein. “A large part of our analogue tape stock is not going to be accessible anymore in 20 years, so we need to accelerate that process.”

TIME SHIFTER

To celebrate the anniversary, the NFSA held a number of screenings and sessions in Canberra during October, including Peter Weir’s Gallipoli and Step Back In Time: 1984 a special package of television coverage from the opening night on 3 October 1984. As for the most important moment in the NFSA’s 30 years, for Michael Loebenstein the mere existence of a dedicated archive takes the cake. NFSA CEO Michael Loebenstein with Senator Amanda Ruston at the 30th Anniversary celebrations

Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Hazel Hawke arrive at the NFSA

“I think the really big feat was the creation of the NFSA, really that a commitment was made and that there was enough advocacy for the Government to finally make a commitment to have a dedicated audiovisual archive in this country,” he concluded.

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