NEWS & VIEWS16 May 2013NEWS & VIEWS16 May 2013

4k trending at this year’s NAB ShowBY SHAWN LIEW

LAS VEGAS – Technology and me-dia continue to undergo profound changes, as last month’s NAB Show, with its theme of Metamorphosis — The Changing Face of Media and Entertainment, illustrated.

If the buzz of the show floor this year is any indication, 4k is likely to lead the wave of changes that would have the biggest impact on broadcasters in the near future.

Following the success of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Black-magic Design unveiled its Black-magic Production Camera 4k, a high-resolution 4k digital film camera equipped with a large Super 35 sensor that comes with a professional global shutter.

Capturing 4k in compressed CinemaDNG Raw and ProRes 422 (HQ) file recording, the Black-magic Production Camera 4k also supports the new 6G-SDI video interface.

In addition, Blackmagic Design announced at the show the world’s “first” Ultra HD 4k production switcher, which includes support for Ultra HD live production via 6G-SDI and HDMI 4k.

These products will help spur the creation of 4k content, declared Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic De-sign. “With the new Ultra HDTV hitting the market, consumers are gearing up for an amazing transi-tion into a cinema-viewing experi-ence in the home,” added Petty.

At the Miranda booth, the company demonstrated a 4k-ready workflow to manage production, based on a line-up of 4k-capable products.

Spearheading the demonstra-tions was the new Telecast Copper-Head 3404K, a camera-mountable transceiver that requires only two strands of lightweight fibre-optic cable to carry all bidirectional signals needed, including 3Gbps HD/SDI paths, for 4k productions from a camera to a truck or control room.

4k will be a reality, although it will not take off immediately, David Cohen, director of market-ing communications, Miranda, as-serted, adding: “There is no existing standard formalised to deliver 4k — yet, while there are limitations in getting 4k into the home.”

Robert Rowe, CTO of Snell, agreed that the market for 4k pro-duction is limited today. However, he contended that the time is right to help facilitate the 4k transition.

Snell is now offering 4k func-tionality at no additional charge in its range of products, including the flagship Kahuna 360 multi-format production switcher.

This means that the Kahuna 360 now supports any combination of SD, HD, 1080p and 4k sources in

the live production environment. Working with 4k and 1080p

inputs, broadcasters can use Kahuna 360 to mix HD and 4k ei-ther as backgrounds or key layers on the M/E switcher.

That 4k will not go down the path trodden by 3D was the firm conviction of Yang Mingkai, sales director, Asia-Pacific, Matrox.

“We are confident that 4k will take off,” said Yang, who reported increased interest in 4k from Asia-Pacific customers, particularly in Japan and South Korea.

Matrox’s 4k offerings at the NAB Show include the Matrox Mojito 4k, a quad 3G-SDI, 4k monitoring card for use with the upcoming release of Adobe pro-fessional video editing tools on Windows platforms.

Matrox Mojito 4k enables real-time monitoring and output of video footage at resolutions of up to 4096x2160 pixels and at frame rates of up to 60fps.

At the Vizrt booth, the Matrox DSX LED 4k card was also utilised to preview the 4k rendering capability of the Viz Engine.

The Viz Engine is a content management system that gives broadcasters a file-based workflow for controlling their content from ingest to archiving, editing and distribution.

With its new enhancements, the Viz Engine is now able to render 4k graphics in real time, as well as accept IP streams, process them, and output them in real time.

3D, with all its variables, was always going to be a “gimmick”, while 4k promises to have more staying power, insisted Adam Scha-dle, vice-president, Video Clarity.

Video Clarity is a provider of audio and video quality assess-ment and analysis systems, who introduced at the NAB Show the ClearView Extreme 4k video qual-ity analyser and ClearView Extreme with Display Port.

The new products are capable of interactive playback and com-parison of two uncompressed 4k sequences at up to 60Hz in real time. Additionally, A/V sequence files can be easily imported and played to compare processed video to original sources with new eight- and 10-bit high-resolution displays.

For Harmonic, what better way to project the appeal of 4k than to have an Ultra HD theatre right in its booth?

In a series of demonstrations, Harmonic successfully showcased Ultra HD content at bandwidths currently used for HD (3Mbps-7Mbps), using the HEVC standard.

Still, Ultra HD, or 4k, will take time to happen, reiterated Andrew Thornton, Harmonic’s vice-pres-ident of sales, Asia-Pacific. Major

event coverage, particularly in sports, will showcase the technol-ogy, while initial 4k content will primarily be upconverted from HD, added Thornton.

As for HEVC, which Harmonic believes is “still a couple of years away”, is likely to be a key enabler for 4k. HEVC, or H.265, is a new video compression standard that promises to offer up to 50% encod-ing efficiency improvement from its predecessor, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264).

Harmonic’s ProMedia suite of adaptive bit-rate (ABR) solutions for multi-screen processing and delivery now includes new features, including support for HEVC and Ultra HD.

With more efficient use of wireless bandwidth, Harmonic also expects initial demand for HEVC to come from over-the-top (OTT) HD, IPTV and mobile services.

Remi Beaudouin, director of product marketing at Ateme, also agreed that HEVC is future-proof and will support new services such as Ultra HDTV.

At the show, together with the Titan File and Live transcoder, Ateme demonstrated the GAPC Player, the industry’s “first” open source implementation of a soft-ware media player supporting HEVC. GAPC Player can be used to play back live or file-based audio and video content, as well as encapsulate and transmit such content as a stream.

By this September, a software upgrade will see the Titan File and Live be equipped for HEVC, Beau-douin disclosed.

Also highlighting HEVC was Digital Rapids, whose Transcode Manager 2.0 and Kayak workflow platform now support HEVC.

With technology from Van-guard Video, its Kayak ecosystem partner, Digital Rapids previewed HEVC encoding in Transcode Man-ager 2.0.

With Vanguard’s “V.265” HEVC codec now available as a modular component integrated directly into the Kayak platform, support for HEVC can be incorporated for users of Transcode Manager and Kayak workflows.

For China’s Dayang, meanwhile, the spotlight was on the Fresco IP, an Internet protocol stream-based multiviewer system supporting MPEG-2 and H.264 — and is likely to support HEVC in the future, “as and when there is demand for the technology”, said Dayang.

Fresco IP can decode up to eight HD or 32 SD programme channels, and display the decoded content via two HDMI outputs.

Away from 4k and HEVC, broadcasters were also reminded of other priorities.

“File-based loudness process-ing has now become an urgent

Benoit Rousseil, Snell’s regional sales manager, highlighting Snell’s 4k offerings at 2013 NAB Show.

Harmonic’s Andrew Thornton says Ultra HD, or 4k, will take time to happen, as the company demonstrates Ultra HD content at its very own NAB Ultra HD Theatre

Linear Acoustic’s Daniel Wang: “Audio processing is important despite the lack of legislation to mandate it in Asia.”

Yospace’s Tim Sewell: 2013 is a year where broadcasters will really embrace the idea of closed captioning.

NEWS & VIEWSMay 2013 17

issue for broadcasters,” warned MC Patel, founder and CEO of Emotion Systems, who cited regulatory re-quirements such as the CALM Act in the US.

With that in mind, Emotion Sys-tems released version 3.0 of eFF, an automated loudness analysis and compliance software. In addition to providing support for Dolby E, Version 3.0 also provides fast processing of all common file for-mats, including Panasonic P2, and runs on OS X, Windows and Linux.

As Asia migrates from SD to HD, more broadcasters are pay-ing attention to audio processing, although legislation is still not in place, according to Linear Acoustic.

“Audio processing is important, despite the lack of legislation to mandate it in Asia,” elaborated Daniel Wang, senior business de-velopment manager, Asia, Linear Acoustic.

To allow broadcasters to deliver to TV viewers, audio that satisfies loudness regulations and meters — without permanently impacting audio quality — Linear Acoustic is now offering its Intelligent Dynam-ics hybrid metadata processing technology, a “revolution for audio processing”, described Wang.

Featured at no additional cost on the Aero.1000 and Aero.2000 platforms, Intelligent Dynamics combines two technologies: Dolby Intelligent Loudness system and Linear Acoustic technology.

Dolby Evolution (EVO) data measures and incorporates authen-ticated loudness data within the audio at each stage of the produc-tion chain, while Linear Acoustic technology creates new metadata dynamic control range via tradi-tional single-ended processing. Dolby EVO data is then used to control the degree and type of processing applied to the audio.

At the Volicon booth, the com-pany has enhanced its Obser-ver digital video monitoring and logging solution with the new Programme Loudness Report (PLR) module, which measures all audio tracks associated with a pro-gramme, highlighting any loudness violations against fixed, dialnorm, or long-term references.

Andrew Sachs, vice-president

for Product Management, Volicon, noted: “The Observer’s loudness module makes its easier for broad-casters to confirm that loudness levels will remain within accept-able parameters no matter how customers watch and listen to programming.”

Earlier this year, the US Fed-eral Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules for closed captioning of video program-ming delivered using IP. The rules are due to come into effect this September.

To prepare broadcasters for the new legislation, Yospace has an-nounced full support for captions in its live streaming technology, including allowing Flash players to display HLS content.

Yospace has an SDK (software development kit) that allows a Flash player to consume HLS streams, and is compatible with CEA-608 captioning. The CEA-608 standard defines the means by which closed captions are em-bedded within video data as it is distributed.

Calling closed captioning a “powerful access tool”, Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace, expects 2013 to be a year where broadcasters, including those in the Asia-Pacific, really embrace the idea of closed captioning.

To offer content providers and pay-TV operators “complete control” over the allocation of video content to multiple CDNs (content delivery networks), there was a North American debut for Broadpeak’s umbrellaCDN.

Jacques Le Mancq, president and CEO of Broadpeak, said: “um-brellaCDN perfectly complements our existing CDN solutions by enabling content operators and providers to balance traffic be-tween multiple CDNs.”

For TMD, it is all about monetis-ing content, as the company added Mediaflex CI (Content Intelligence) to its Mediaflex workflow engine platform.

“Mediaflex CI is a game-chang-er in creating new efficiencies in content management, and transforms the Mediaflex platform from a leading asset management

platform to a complete enterprise business system,” declared Tony Taylor, chairman and CEO, TMD.

Mediaflex CI delivers intelligent process automation and business analytics, together with workflow development tools to understand and monetise the underlying con-tent flows in an organisation.

At the Cobham booth, being wireless — and small — was the focus, as the company previewed Solo Micro HD, a fully featured COFDM digital video transmitter. With its small size and low power consumption, Solo Micro HD has been designed for high mobility sporting applications. It employs MPEG encoding, with integral COFDM modulation, and offers a typical range of 750m.

Solo Micro HD represents the company’s ongoing drive to mini-aturise its products to better aid remote outdoor live production, revealed JP Delport, broadcast sales manager, Cobham Tactical

C o m m u n i c a -tions and Sur-veillance.

T w o R e -nowned Manufacturers: One Vision was Riedel’s 2013 NAB Show mes-sage, as the company unveiled the MediorNet Modular and Medior-Net Compact Pro interface cards for integrating Grass Valley cam-eras into MediorNet fibre networks.

With the new MediorNet ex-pansion cards, Grass Valley LDK and LDX cameras can be connected to the MediorNet real-time fibre network, as well as to base sta-tions. This provides a solution to route bidirectional camera signals, including all embedded audio and telemetry control data, via the Medior Net fibre infrastructure.

For enhanced control of its Artist digital matrix intercom, Riedel also released the Artist Level Meter app for iPad. By monitoring and controlling up to eight freely assignable audio inputs of an Art-ist digital matrix intercom system, the iPad app allows the intercom administrator to manage the four-wire input levels of an Artist system from anywhere.

At the Lynx Technik booth, a distinct yellow hue welcomed visi-tors to the booth as the yellobriks

family welcomed the yellobrik CDH 1813, a new SDI to HDMI converter that replaces the CDH 1811 SDI to HDMI converter. With the addition of 3D format support, the CDH 1813 is an “ideal tool” for monitor-ing single-link 3D SDI streams on a 3D HDMI monitor — whether in side-by-side, top-and-bottom, or frame-packing formats.

Lynx Technik also unveiled the yelloGUI application for yellobriks, a new complimentary software ap-plication that permits selected yel-lobriks — including the CDH 1811 — to be controlled and configured over USB using a PC.

It was ‘back to square one’ at the Photon Beard booth, as the lighting company launched Square One, a 1sqf fluorescent lighting panel which includes eight 5/8-inch diameter fluorescent panels.

There is too much focus in the industry on LED as the only solu-tion for lighting, lamented Peter Daffarn, managing director, Photon Beard. Fluorescent produces “much better quality” and is more energy-efficient, Daffarn asserted, adding that Square One delivers fewer spikes and spectral variations usu-ally associated with similar-sized LED-based fixtures.

At the same time, the NAB Show indicated an increasing adoption, or at least consideration, of the cloud — even as doubts and uncertainties remain.

“More customers are coming to ask us about Lynx; we definitely see the cloud as an increasingly viable technology, although se-curity of content is still key to the deployment of cloud,” said Paul Jones, international regional sales manager, Front Porch Digital.

Lynx is Front Porch Digital’s content storage management (CSM) solution based on an enter-prise-scale cloud implementation.

At the show, Front Porch Digi-tal announced the release of DIV-Archive 7.1, which has been in-tegrated with ExpeDat WAN, an acceleration product from file-transfer software company Data Expedition.

According to Front Porch Digi-tal, this is the “first” direct integra-tion of a WAN (wide area network) acceleration protocol into a CSM

cloud-based solution.“While security is still a primary

concern, we see more and more broadcasters and content owners slowly moving content into the cloud,” added Lisa Clark, vice-president marketing, Signiant.

To enhance its cloud offerings, Signiant has added file-sharing capabilities to its Media Shuttle file transfer solution, allowing multiple users to easily upload and down-load content from a shared file system in the cloud.

Signiant also announced the availability of CloudSpeX, a patent-pending software application that validates media file delivery formats prior to transfer through matching file types and metadata against a cloud-based directory of published specifications.

CloudSpeX is available for use with Media Shuttle or the Signi-ant Managers + Agents media file workflow engine.

As content is increasingly de-livered over the open Internet, the cloud could also prove to be an attractive proposition for OTT and multi-screen service provid-ers. Pilat Media, for instance, is offering the OTTilus Online Video Platform (OVP), an end-to-end enterprise-class, OTT TV solution for delivering live, catch-up and video-on-demand services. It is available as a cloud service on an on-premise end-to-end or modular solution.

Another cloud-based solution offered by Pilat Media is IBMS Express, a modular and flexible entry-level business management system.

Even Snell is merging on-demand with the cloud. Its Snell On Demand platform is a new processing framework designed to provide on-demand access to its image processing algorithms in file, virtualised broadcast, as well as digital media environments.

According to Snell, the new platform also marks the begin-ning of the company’s migration of its image-processing tools from dedicated hardware platforms to software-based applications that can be elastically provisioned in file, cloud-based and virtualised infrastructures.

Cobham Tactical Communications and Surveillance’s JP Delport: The smaller, the better. Cobham is miniaturising its products.

Have an iPad? Download Riedel’s Artist Level Meter app for the Artist digital matrix intercom, urges Andreas Hilmer, Riedel’s director of marketing and communications.

Joehan Tohkingkeo, Asia regional sales director, Lynx Technik, showing off the company's yellobriks, including the new CDH 1813 SDI to HDMI converter.