In search of a modern definition for channel in a box

Buyers’ guides Drones, transcoders,

encoders

Product reviewsCamera lenses,

audio repair

BVE preview edition

Europe

THE TECHNICAL RESOURCE FOR THE BROADCAST MEDIA PROFESSIONAL

February 2015 I Issue 1 I Volume 33

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

Thinking outside

the box

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com 03 February 2015 TVTechnology

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the re-launch edition of TV Technology Europe.

Defi ning a new focus for an established brand is no

easy task, but what has always been clear with TV Technology is its evident potential to be a resource of signifi cant value to professionals throughout this marvellous industry of ours.

That’s why we’ve refi ned our focus to become the product and technical resource for broadcast media professionals of all shapes and sizes.

That means more reviews, interviews, user reports, technical insights and intelligence that will showcase the people and technologies at the forefront of our sector.

Our new quarterly print cycle, and NAB and IBC-dedicated supplements, gives us the platform to cover more of the key news around the major trade shows, as does the launch of our standalone website.

But enough preaching from me. There’s plenty to get stuck into this issue. We start this year’s review series by looking into the latest camera lenses, as David Fox reports on the fl urry of new lenses that are increasingly aimed at broadcast rather than digital cinema.

We also cover audio repair software, and off er the lowdown on the latest drones, transcoders and encoders in our buyers’ guide.

Our cover feature this edition seeks to fi nd some common ground in the search for a modern defi nition of channel in a box, and assess the impact that the cloud is having on the CiaB market.

Cloud and IP transcoding also features in our new commentary section, plus we bring you our guide to what to expect from BVE 2015.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this edition of TV Technology Europe.

James McKeownExecutive Editor

EDITORIAL COMMENT

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOXThe first in a new series of roundtable features brings together some of the leading authorities on channel in a box (CiaB) to examine why a common definition of CiaB is so hard to come by, and how the cloud has impacted the space

36

BUYERS’ GUIDE: DRONES, TRANSCODERS AND ENCODERSFlight of the navigator: there are a blizzard of drone filming options but not all are up to production standard. Adrian Pennington surveys the marketplace

BVE PREVIEW Alison Willis, portfolio director for i2i Events Group’s Environment and Broadcasting Division, discusses what we can expect from BVE 2015, while we take a look at a selection of products to be on show at ExCeL London

SHARPSHOOTERBarrie Smith meets Sarajevo-based cameraman, Emir Dzanan, to discuss his current projects and find out more about the man behind the lens

PRODUCT REVIEWSThe advent of larger sensor cameras, particularly 4K, has brought a flurry of new lenses, many of which are aimed more at broadcast than digital cinema use. David Fox reports

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CONTENTS

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 04

COMMENTARY

The technical impacts of transcoding in the cloudThe use of IP technology and the cloud today

has led to encoding and transcoding solutions

becoming much more flexible and scalable.

Designed to process content in a multitude

of ways, to suit varying usage profiles from

production and post production to traditional

broadcast and OTT distribution, IP-centric

options include: services running on dedicated

physical server hardware in private data centre

environments, on virtual machines in shared

cloud server environments or even delivered

as fully managed services in the cloud.

What’s driving the update in IP and cloud transcoding?Demand on transcoding services is

snowballing due to the insatiable consumer

demand for access to content on all devices,

both linear and VoD, via a converging

world of traditional distribution platforms

and new OTT channels.

Platform operators, entertainment brands

and content distributors are all striving to

match this demand, to maintain brand

presence and parity with peers, which has had

a multiplying effect on transcode volumes

and formats. New end-user devices are

launched or enhanced and updated regularly

leading to a fluid and ever growing need for a

slightly differentiated mix of encode formats

(H.264, HEVC), container profiles (MPEG2,

MPEG4) and adaptive streaming protocols

(HLS, HDS, MSS, DASH).

For broadcasters and content distributors,

the move to a flexible IP or cloud-based

transcoding approach is being driven largely

by these expanding market expectations,

which in turn is putting commercial pressure

on the costs of operation and delivery. As the

broadcast market continues on this path of

dynamic evolution, with any time, any place

and any device consumption, there is a strong

desire to build cost efficiencies and flexibility

into processes and workflows.

Content producers and distributors are

transitioning away from traditional capital-

hungry builds to a more manageable

operational service delivery with the inherent

elasticity to support substantially increased

throughput volumes. Also, these encoding

and transcoding services – traditionally

delivered in-house using dedicated hardware

and supported by specialist video engineers

and infrastructure – are now increasingly

being provided by third parties.

The impact of transcoding on contentThe flexibility and elasticity of the cloud can

make such options seem like the ideal solution

for transcoding. However, whilst appreciating

these obvious benefits, consideration must

be given as to what stage in the production

and broadcast lifecycle the transcoding is

taking place. Additional factors related to the

content itself should be considered, such

as whether the service includes live content

feeds (especially for sports and gaming where

latency is an issue), whether the delivery is

linear or non-linear in nature, and the access

to, and importance of, the video quality of

the source and output in terms of bit rate,

compressed or uncompressed.

Lastly, as we move to a world where

traditional broadcast levels of service are

expected, it is extremely important for content

producers and distributors to consider not

only the impact of both IP and cloud-based

transcoding from a cost and end-user point of

view, but the important issue of service quality

and reliability. The cloud can be inherently

resilient, but with multiple technology vendors,

a reliance on various connectivity providers

and many stages in the production lifecycle

with differing performance measures, it is

unlikely that there will be a single SLA on

the service. With multiple parties to contact

if there are issues with the identification of

where a fault has occurred, establishing

responsibility and achieving a suitable

resolution can be a complex task.

Making the choiceThe cloud and the move to IP transcoding

services can undoubtedly offer both

commercial and technical benefits, but it is

important to consider all of the determining

factors of the service. The best solution

in practice will likely be a well designed

and orchestrated mix that uses the cloud

and hosted transcoding services where

appropriate, but that also includes the

connectivity, security and SLAs required

to deliver the optimum experience whilst

supporting ultimate commercial objectives of

cost efficiency and service flexibility.

IP and cloud transcodingDavid Patton, portfolio development director for satellite and media at Arqiva, examines the impact of IP and cloud-based technologies on transcoding practices

‘Demand on transcoding services is snowballing due to the insatiable consumer demand for access to content on all devices, both linear and VoD, via a converging world of traditional distribution platforms and new OTT channels.’

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 06

For contemporary cutting-

edge audio infrastructure,

many broadcasters continue

to choose AES10 (ANSI

S4.43-1991), a.k.a. MADI, to

transport up to 64 channels of digital audio

over a single coax or fibre-optic cable. While

the original idea for MADI was catering to

a very narrow recording studio application,

the standard has survived to address the

expansion of digital production and HD

workflow for broadcasters. A few years ago,

MADI saw a resurgence at a time when newer

IP-based technologies were still a glimmer in

engineers’ eyes. Today, audio over IP/Ethernet

is a reality with manufacturers offering several

flavours such as AVB, Dante, and RAVENNA.

So why aren’t broadcasters beating down the

doors to buy Ethernet-based audio solutions

for production facilities?

There are many advantages to using

MADI over analogue/AES, and the broadcast

industry’s familiarity with it enables the

standard to remain a good choice. While

audio-over-IP is making great strides, there

are few tools available to suit broadcasters’

unique requirements.

MADI is primarily used in the distribution

of audio-only signals within the production

environment. For broadcasters, it has found

a particular niche in the OB truck market

where weight, simplicity, and reliability are

paramount. The US OB market in particular

has embraced MADI mainly because of

the difference in how people use ‘comms’.

Traditionally, every position would have

had an audio monitor being fed with eight

channels of analogue or AES. Running

eight lots of analogue audio to every single

position through huge patch bays is very

cumbersome, very heavy on the copper,

and very old school these days. When MADI

was introduced, rather than using eight lots

of analogue cables, a single coax cable was

used to carry those 64 channels, which can

be daisy-chained, with eight groups of eight

to the different positions. MADI I/O is now

a standard feature on most of the big audio

and video routers. This is now very common

in the US and finding more widespread global

adoption, which is why demand remains high

for MADI monitoring equipment. One of the

other reasons why MADI regained popularity

had little to do with any significant changes

to the technology itself, but rather with the

trend towards more integration between

manufacturers and technologies. Today, it

is quite common to integrate the intercom

system with a digital audio router system.

With MADI this can be easily achieved

between any systems supporting this simple

and effective standard.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR MADI?Today, as technology development for

IP/Ethernet solutions continues, what is

the future for MADI?

Beyond pure familiarity, the live production

industry is very conservative – for good reason

– when it comes to changing technology

for mission-critical workflows. If we have

something that serves a purpose well and is

proven reliable, we’d be fools to go away from

that in a hurry, just to try out a new technology

with a couple of new features. There’s a lot

on the line in a live event, so there’s much

more at stake, and only one shot to get it right.

Naturally, this leads to a more conservative

mind-set. Audio-over-IP is still an unknown for

a lot of people, and seen as inherently risky, in

an industry that works very hard to minimise

risk; trusty old coax cable is easy to make, and

fairly easy to test. There’s typically one interface

where users can do all of their video routing,

but also all of their audio routing for the entire

truck. It’s not yet another piece of software they

have to open to start managing streams.

“I have yet to have a request for Ethernet-

based audio on the trucks that we build

although the IP infrastructure is already there for

other reasons,” says Ian Bowker, owner of Icon

Broadcasting, a company that specialises in the

design and building of OB trucks. “One of our

major clients requested MADI be used on the

new truck we’re currently building for them.”

It’s a nice flexible standard that works on

very cheap cables and 64 channels is a nice

number for most people. If you put it on fibre

you can get some really nice long distances

as well. So, while MADI still has time to run,

it will eventually be replaced. There’s no two

ways about it. The next generation of trucks

being built will probably stay on MADI, but

maybe the year after, they’ll likely switch over

to audio-over-IP because there are distinct

advantages. But for the foreseeable future,

MADI is still a solid choice.

“While MADI has some time to run, it will eventually be replaced. But for the foreseeable future, it is still a solid choice.”

COMMENTARY

BY PIETER SCHILLEBEECKX, PRODUCT MANAGER, TSL PRODUCTS

Broadcasters still mad for MADI

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 08

With offices throughout Denmark, Sweden

and Norway, Dicentia is one of Scandinavia’s

leading content ingest companies covering

everything from digital post production, DVD

and Blu-ray authoring, DCP files, digital asset

management and digital delivery to master

replication and conversion, as well as sound

engineering. Over 25 years, the company

has supported the region’s broadcast, film,

music and publishing industries in maximising

the value of their content. “Our mission is to

support our clients in getting their content

out to the consumers on whatever media is

available from VHS to DVD/Blu-ray and now

digital solutions such as VoD, apps, smart TV

and other platforms,” explains Kasper Holme

Johannesen, managing director of Dicentia. 

As part of its digital strategy, the company

has developed MediaCloud, an online archive

and distribution system that handles audio

and video files, metadata validation, subtitles,

artwork, and a screening room to send

out online screeners. Dicentia is a Netflix

Dicentia tests cloud encoding with stellar results

This issue, we take a look Scandinavian content ingest company Dicentia’s recent tests in cloud encoding, and how it managed to surmount a 24-hour turnaround of ‘herculean’ proportions

“The Herculean one-off task facing them was to encode, resize and burn the films in local Scandinavian language subtitles, all within a 24-hour period”

Dicentia HQ

CASE STUDY

Preferred Partner, GooglePlay and an iTunes

Movie Encoding House and supports clients

on a worldwide basis.

THE PERFECT STORMDuring its lifetime, Dicentia has developed an

infrastructure that is capable of providing what

it would describe as the right level of technical

and operational support to enable its clients to

operate exactly as they wish. In doing so, the

company has been able to attract some of the

most creative staff in Scandinavia and they are

supported by state-of-the-art technical facilities.

Dicentia has been one of the region’s biggest

Telestream Vantage encoding platform users

for many years. 

However, even the best-resourced facilities

can be sorely tested by extraordinary customer

requirements and this is exactly what happened

to Dicentia when it was presented with a

massive task to meet a customer order. The

requirement was to encode 20 feature films in

24 hours in order to deliver the order to one of

its VoD customers.

The Herculean one-off task facing them

was to encode, resize and burn the films

in local Scandinavian language subtitles, all

within a 24-hour period.

While the Dicentia team has the skills

and experience required to meet these

timescales, the big challenge was to source

the necessary encoding facilities. Working

with Telestream’s local Danish channel

partner, Alleroed-based Tech2Net, the team

decided their best option lay in Vantage

Cloud Subscriptions; a system that was

untried, having been launched by Telestream

less than a month earlier. Vantage Cloud

Subscriptions is a new service that provides

a broad range of enterprise-class

transcoding and file-based workflow

automation for Amazon Web Services

(AWS) on AWS Marketplace.

The new service is a natural extension

of on-premise Vantage transcoding and

provides discretionary capacity for managing

demand peaks, prototyping new concepts,

and deploying cloud-based media services.

Transcoding farms can be purpose-built and

collocated with content libraries stored on

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).

“Vantage Cloud Subscriptions saved the day

for us. Without this service, we would not

have had a product to show our customer

the next day,” explained Johannesen.

INTUITIVE CLOUD-BASED OPERATION HELPS FAST IMPLEMENTATIONEven though Dicentia was an existing Vantage

user, it had no experience whatsoever

with Vantage Cloud Subscriptions or AWS.

However, the company was quickly able

to access the cloud-based service and start

working on the encoding task.

With the ability to securely provision

anywhere in the world, content creators can

define the scale, location and performance

of virtual Vantage domains, allowing them

to deliver products and services to their

customers and organisations.

Telestream’s new Vantage Cloud

Management application allows users

to create, monitor and manage Vantage

Virtual Domains from any location. When

creating a virtual domain, the user selects

the appropriate region for the domain,

instance types and the optimal number

required for the network tasks to be run.

After the domain has been created, it can be

dynamically scaled up and down as required

while tasks continue to run. For monitoring,

a dashboard view provides a health status

for each running domain. Snapshots of

workflows and configurations can be taken

for easy migration and restart of a domain

configuration in the future.

“Getting started with Vantage Cloud

Subscriptions was very easy. Installing

the Telestream Vantage Cloud Manager

software on to our system took around

30 minutes, and once installed you don’t

notice the difference in operation from

our traditional Vantage encoding system,”

commented Bjørn Petersen from Dicentia’s

engineering team. “It provides a seamless

add-on to our existing Vantage platform,

taking files from our servers and delivering

them back once they’re completed. It

worked perfectly.”

As well as providing all the additional

encoding facilities that Dicentia needed

at very short notice, Vantage Cloud

Subscriptions proved to be a highly

cost-effective production platform for

the facility. “In this situation, where we

needed the resources to encode 20

feature films immediately, Vantage Cloud

Subscriptions proved to be tremendously

good value for the money, and already

we can identify many more opportunities

to use it within our business operations,”

explained Johannesen. “In a facility such

as ours, you never know how big your

workload will be from one week to another.

Now, whenever we need to, we can open

up this cloud service and respond as fast

as the situation demands. This is a fantastic

add-on for established Vantage users.”

‘Broadcasting in the cloud’ has become

a buzz term that many organisations use

whilst far fewer really understand the

creative potential that it offers. Dicentia’s

experiences have provided an interesting

proving ground for Telestream. “With the

instant provisioning that cloud-based

resources provide, media professionals

such as Dicentia can hit the ground

running whenever a business opportunity

arises. They can quickly add to their

production resources without committing

to more expensive, inflexible premise-

based equipment networks,” commented

Jim Duval, Director of New Products at

Telestream. “This creative spontaneity

can energise, motivate and inspire

organisations, since they can take

immediate action whenever the need

arises. Whether it’s about being first to

market or moving content to market

faster, cloud-based resources enhance

productivity and give companies a greater

competitive advantage.”

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology09

USER REPORT

“Whether it’s about being first to market or moving content to market faster, cloud-based resources enhance productivity and give companies a greater competitive advantage.” Jim Duval, Telestream

Dicentia’s Kasper Holme Johannesen, left, and Bjørn Petersen

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 10

SHARPSHOOTER

Tell us about your current assignments. I’m currently working on several projects, the

most interesting of which is a documentary

series about the highest peaks of Eastern

Europe being produced for Al Jazeera Balkans.

For the purposes of the film, the crew climbs

to the summits of the highest mountains,

which can be dangerous sometimes.

Have you been busy? I have hardly had a day off in the past two

years, which is great. I hope it remains so.

How do you travel around the country?Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small country.

From Sarajevo, it’s possible to get to almost

every part of the country and return in one

day, so I usually use my own car. Besides

being small, Bosnia is a country with

incredible tourist potential and my ambition

is to make a series about all the things

that Bosnia provides for potential visitors:

mountains, rivers, cities that are hundreds

of years old, a mix of different cultures

and religions… these are just some of

the things that this country offers. The

interesting thing about Sarajevo is that

within a few hundred metres you can

see the mosque, Orthodox and Catholic

churches, and a synagogue.

Which are the best seasons to travel around?Each season has its charms. During the

winter, there are the Olympic Mountains just

20 to 30 kilometres away from Sarajevo.

In the spring and summer you can go to

the south and the beautiful city of Mostar,

famous for the Old Bridge, which is on the

UNESCO World Heritage List. There are

many places in Bosnia that are worth visiting

to catch beautiful video. Unfortunately, the

Life through a lens

Sarajevo-based cameraman, Emir Dzanan, discusses his current projects and

how his work has taken him into some precarious situations

BY BARRIE SMITH

international media are writing

about the negative things in Bosnia

and Herzegovina as well as war

crimes, mass graves and a bad

economic situation. I hope that

will change soon.

What types of productions have you mostly shot? I mostly do documentaries, but I also

handle the production of commercials,

various types of events, news, etc.

Which do you prefer? I prefer to work on documentary films

because I like working in small teams.

This way, there is more room for

creativity and independence.

What was your first-ever shooting job? My first shooting job was for a local television

station. The editor sent me to a government

building in Sarajevo to film inserts. Although

I had no previous experience of working in

television, I somehow got the job done. Of

course, what I filmed that day was not very

good, but it was a nice start for the camera

and me to become friends. The camera was

a Sony Beta SP.

And what have been your most interesting recent assignments? One of my most recent assignments was

shooting the Al Jazeera documentary

channel here in Bosnia. The topic was human

trafficking and prostitution after the war

in Bosnia and the role of the UN troops

in all of that.

What equipment do you use?I am using the Canon XF100 and Canon 6D

and I am very satisfied with the ratio of price

versus quality. Of course, there are some

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology11

“I prefer to work on documentary fi lms because I like working in small teams. This way, there is more room for creativity and independence”

ProfileName: Emir DzananAge: 29Star sign: ScorpioHometown: I was born in Sarajevo where I live with my wife and our daughterLanguages: Bosnian, English and I understand a little German and FrenchOccupation: Freelance lightning cameraman and video editorQualifi cations/training: I fi nished my secondary school of tourism and studied journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo. As for my work with the camera, I’m self-taught. I can say that we’re lucky to live in a time when knowledge is truly accessible to all, thanks to the internet. I’ve learnt a lot from older colleagues and, of course, I’m still learningTaste in music: Rock and roll Favourite group: Many of them, from Deep Purple to Alice in ChainsFavourite food: Bosnia and Herzegovina is, among other things known for its food, which is really delicious

Dzanan’s work has taken him into many

precarious situations, including a minefield

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 12

flaws, but I think that Canon has made a real

revolution with its DSLR video in recent years.

Other gear you have access to? Depending on the client’s needs, almost

all equipment is now available through

rental companies: cameras, lighting, audio

equipment; you name it.

What editing hard/software do you use? I use a PC with i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce

graphics card, 16GB of RAM and a lot of hard

drives. Adobe Premiere 6.0 currently meets

all my needs related to video production. I

have also used Final Cut and lately have been

doing a little bit in Edius too. For me, one of

the best things that happened in the world of

video production is moving from tape to card.

Working with cards significantly accelerates

and facilitates the process of editing.

What’s on your equipment ‘wish list’?The Canon C500 is currently on my wish list,

and hopefully soon in my backpack!

What’s the best thing about your job? Definitely travelling, meeting new people and

cultures. There are very few jobs that can

enrich a man spiritually and culturally as well

as the job that I do.

What are the challenges of working in Bosnia Herzegovina? Like almost everywhere, the biggest problem

in Bosnia is money. The budgets for filming

here are certainly the lowest in Europe.

Clients often expect that for very little money,

they can get miracles. But on the other hand,

the positive thing is the establishment of Al

Jazeera Balkans, based in Sarajevo, and soon

CNN for the Balkan region. Their arrival in

Bosnia and Herzegovina means more work

for independent productions and freelancers.

What’s the worst thing about your job? Although it sounds paradoxical, one of the

worst things in this business can be the

people. People, who for reasons known only

to them, will attempt to prohibit the recording

and then, during some protests, try to destroy

your equipment and smash your head in.

There are people who will make it difficult

for you to do your job in many other ways,

and of course, there is another group of

people who don’t pay for the work that

you’ve done for them.

What are the dullest assignments, and why? Those jobs where you have to wait and wait:

and at the end, nothing happens.

Tell us about your hairiest/scariest assignment.During the shooting of one of the

documentaries, the sound recordist and I

had to enter a minefield. At first, I didn’t really

think of what I was doing. But then one of the

de-miners gave me a paper on which I

had to write my blood type and sign that I

was there at my own responsibility. Then I

realised that I was doing something stupid.

Luckily, all ended well.

Also, there was one situation in Libya

when the army took me and a fellow

journalist at midnight to film Gaddafi. I had

one of those big Sony Beta cameras and

every time I pressed the record button

you could hear a click and the guys who

guarded Gaddafi pulled a weapon on us

every time they heard that sound. A very

interesting evening!

How much 16:9 do you shoot? All the time. 4:3 shoots look a little

weird these days.

What country would you most like to shoot in? Iran. I’ve heard a lot about the country, about

its natural beauty and hospitable people and

this is definitely one of the countries that I

would like to visit and shoot in. There are also

some parts of the USA, Japan and China on

my list as well.

ContactPhone: 00387 63 405 863Address: Grbavicka 11, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegovinaEmail: emirdzanan@yahoo.com

Emir approaches the summit

of another mountain peak

SHARPSHOOTER

“There are very few jobs that can enrich a man spiritually and culturally as well as the job that I do”

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 14

PRODUCT REVIEW

F ujinon’s Cabrio lenses started the

trend for adding detachable ENG-

style servo drive units (for zoom,

focus and iris) to cinema-style

4K-capable lenses, to make them suitable

for handheld broadcast use, particularly for

sports, wildlife and news. They have now

been joined by Angénieux, Canon and Zeiss.

The latest PL-mount Cabrio lens is

Fujinon’s ZK12x25, covering the most

frequently used 25mm wide angle to

300mm on the telephoto end. It uses high-

precision large-diameter aspheric elements,

with a three moving-zoom group system

that minimises aberration fluctuation during

zooming, controls image distortion across

the zoom range, and delivers edge-to-edge

sharpness. Its Macro function lets users

approach objects as close as 59cm.

Thales Angénieux has two new hand-held

zooms that can use its new servo system. The

16-40mm and 30-76mm T2.8 zoom lenses

each weigh less than 2kg, making them

particularly suitable for hand-held cameras,

and have 2x extenders.

The lenses have an easily interchangeable

mount (PL, Canon EF, Panavision) for use

with a wide variety of cameras, while the

Angénieux Servo Unit (ASU) is compatible

with broadcast remote handles, cinema

remote controls and wireless remotes such as

Preston, and generates lens metadata based

on the Cooke /i Technology protocol.

The ASU is also an option for any Optimo

Lightweight Cine Zoom, including the Optimo

15-40, 28-76mm and 45-120mm lenses.

Canon also has two new 4K lenses with

removable servo drives, including what is

claimed to be the longest telephoto cinema

lens yet made. The 6.6kg CN20x50 (T5.0-8.9)

has a native 50-1000mm focal range that

expands to 75-1500mm using the built-in

1.5x extender, making it particularly useful for

wildlife or sports. The focus ring rotation is

180̊ , to balance the accuracy required for 4K

with the speed needed for broadcast use.

The 2.9kg CN7x17 KA S has a focal length

of 17-120mm with an aperture of T2.95

(17 to 91mm) to T3.9 (at 120mm). Virtual studio

use is supported via 16-bit encoder output.

The EF-mount versions of both use Canon’s

own lens data system, while the PL-mount

models support Cooke’s /i Technology. Both

use a 12-pin serial connection for integration

with broadcast equipment.

The new Zeiss Servo Unit for its Compact

Zoom CZ.2 cine lenses will be on show at

NAB, costing between €5,000 and €6,000,

and will extend the capabilities of the CZ.2

15-30, CZ.2 28-80 and CZ.2 70-200 T2.9

lenses. The full-frame cine zooms (36x24mm)

are suitable for a wide range of cameras,

thanks to their exchangeable mount (IMS).

The servo can be controlled directly on

the handgrip, through broadcast demands, or

via wireless lens control systems, and can be

fitted without any tools. The optional focus

unit can easily be mounted on the main

unit and adjusts quickly to the individual lens

during lens changes. It can be powered via a

PL-mount with contacts, through the camera

interface cable, or externally. Existing CZ.2

lenses require a mount modification.

ENG-style for cinema lensesThe advent of larger sensor cameras, particularly 4K,

has brought a flurry of new lenses, many of which are

aimed more at broadcast than digital cinema use

BY DAVID FOX

Controlling interest: The new Zeiss Servo Unit fitted to a Compact Zoom CZ.2 cine lens

FULL-FRAME LENSESThe increasing number of full-frame

(24x36mm) DSLR-based cameras, particularly

Sony’s compact Alpha 7s low-light 4K model,

is attracting a lot of interest, and new lenses.

Zeiss has its first new F2 lenses for the

Alpha 7, 7s and 7r models that offer manual

focusing, manual aperture and “maximal

image quality”. The €966 nine-element

Loxia 2/35 has a minimum object distance

of 30cm, while the €713 six-element Loxia

2/50 can focus as close as 37cm. The filter

diameter will be a consistent M52 across

the entire lens family, and they have a large

focus rotation angle of 180̊ for fine focusing.

An electronic interface transmits lens data

(EXIF), recognises focus movements and can

activate the camera’s magnifier function.

For video work, users can mechanically

deactivate the aperture click stops to allow

both progressive and noiseless aperture

settings. Not being autofocus lenses makes

them more compact, lightweight and quieter.

Sony itself has introduced the first 35mm

full-frame lens with a power zoom. The FE PZ

28-135mm F4 G OSS is compatible with all

Sony E-mount cameras and its focal length

extends to 42-202.5mm (35mm equivalent)

when used with APS-C/Super35 sensors, as

on the PXW-FS7.

The 1125g lens has a constant F4 maximum

aperture, and is designed to minimise breathing,

focus shifts during zoom and movement of

the optical axis during zoom, while aspherical

lens elements suppress unwanted aberration

and advanced multi-coating technology boosts

contrast and cuts glare.

Three separate rings offer independent control

over focus, zoom and iris, and zoom is claimed

to be “exceptionally smooth and silent”.

Sony’s latest full-frame Zeiss wide-angle

(16-35mm, F4) full-frame zoom joins its

E-mount lens range, alongside the existing

24-70mm and 70-200mm models. It offers a

minimum focus distance of 28cm, has a filter

diameter of 72mm, and weighs 518g.

IB/E Optics has new 65mm prime and

zoom lenses for the Alexa 65. The 50-110mm

Zoom 65 and the eight Prime 65 lenses,

ranging from 24mm to 300mm, use optics

from Hasselblad, housed in robust, uniform

lens barrels co-developed with IB/E. It also

has two new optical extenders for 35mm

PL-mount cameras (the PLx1.4 and PLx2).

GOING WIDECooke is widening its Anamorphic/i

lens range. Its new 25mm and 135mm

Anamorphic/i lenses are being followed by

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology15

The increasing number of full-frame (24x36mm) DSLR-based cameras, particularly Sony’s compact Alpha 7s low-light 4K model, is attracting a lot of interest, and new lenses.

A long shot: Canon’s new 4K CN20x50 offers ENG-style shooting

Alpha bravo: Sony’s full-frame FE PZ 28-135mm power zoom

(SEL28135G)

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 16

180mm and 300mm models, to take its

Anamorphic/i range to nine (including 32mm,

40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm: all T2.3).

Cooke is also adding a 21mm lens to both the

miniS4/i range (which are all T2.8) and the 5/i

series (which are T1.4).

It is also adding sensors for the /i Squared

Technology metadata system to all new

Anamorphic/i, 5/i and S4/i lenses. The inertial

system, developed by Cooke with support

from The Pixel Farm and Codex, builds

on current /i Technology by supplying

position and orientation data, in addition

to lens data, to aid post production work,

particularly visual effects.

Angénieux now has two PL-mount

anamorphic zoom lenses, with a third in

development. The new Optimo Anamorphic

30-72mm 2S (2x squeeze) joins the

compact 56-152mm 2S, with both claimed

to exhibit exceptional sharpness and lower

distortion compared to typical anamorphic

lenses, thanks to a new optical design that

combines spherical and cylindrical elements

in the same group. Both are T4 with 320°

focus rotation with over 50 focus marks

and no breathing.

The latest Master Anamorphic MA135/

T1.9 lens is the seventh in the Master

Anamorphic family jointly developed by

Arri and Zeiss, and completes the high-

performance range (including 35, 40, 50, 60,

75 and 100mm). They are designed to be

particularly effective wide open (all are T1.9),

and are claimed to solve many problems

commonly associated with anamorphic

optics. The lenses show hardly any image

breathing and exceptionally low distortion.

The issue of anamorphic mumps – when

faces shot at close range appear wider – is

balanced out automatically. This is achieved

by positioning the cylindrical lens elements

at strategically important points in the lens.

The almost telecentric optical design

reduces chromatic aberrations and shading

in the corners of the image. They have

a new iris diaphragm with 15 aperture

blades to create a perfectly oval and evenly

illuminated bokeh.

FAST APPROACHINGWith a lens speed of F0.85, the new €1,799

HandeVision Ibelux 40/0.85 is claimed to be

the fastest lens for system cameras currently

in series production, and ideal for low light.

There are versions with Sony E, Fuji X, Canon

EOS M and Micro 4/3 mounts.

It has ten diaphragm blades, to give a

pleasing bokeh, and uses ten multi-coated

lenses in eight groups, for increased contrast

and minimised reflections. Its lateral chromatic

aberration is smaller than 6μm, which gives a

resolution of about 4K. It was developed by

German lens manufacturer IB/E Optics and

Shanghai Transvision Photographic Equipment

(which makes Kipon branded adapters), and

is the first of a new range of HandeVision

models, which will include: a wide-angle

Ibegon lens; a high-speed telephoto APO

mirror lens, the Ibecat; a tilt-shift lens; and a

compact fixed focal length lens.

Luma Tech has extended its Super35mm

Illumina S35 PL-mount lenses at both

ends, adding its widest-angle 14mm and

its longest 135mm lenses, both T1.8. The

Illumina S35 14mm has a close focus of

25cm and weighs 1.6kg, while the 2.3kg

135mm S35 lens has a 150cm minimum

object distance. The other five lenses in the

range (18, 15, 35, 50 and 85mm) have T1.3

apertures. All the lenses use Lomo optics

PRODUCT REVIEW

Wide open: The Arri/Zeiss MA135/T1.9 lens

completes the Master Anamorphic set

Fujinon’s new HA18x5.5

HD ENG lens

Visibly superior: Canon’s HJ18ex7.6B is faster,

lighter and longer than its predecessor

A forgiving creaminess: Luma Tech’s new

Illumina S35 14mm PL-mount lens

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology 1717

and are claimed to offer high resolution and

contrast, with “a forgiving creaminess”.

The new PrimeCircle XM (manual

focus and manual aperture) cinema lenses

from LockCircle offer smooth focus action

with calibrated (one-to-one) focus scales

for precise follow-focus work. The

lightweight Italian-made EF-mount and

F-mount lenses use Carl Zeiss optics, and

are priced from €1,399 to €3,499. They

are designed to meet the requirements

of 4K cameras, and are available in nine

different focal lengths: 15mm/T2.8; 21/2.8;

25/2.0; 28/2.0; 35/1.4; 50/1.4; 85/1.4; 100

Makro/2.0; and 135Apo/2.0. The optics are

aesthetically consistent over the different

focal lengths, with natural colour balance

and skin tones, and are claimed to offer

“serious cinematic character” exhibiting a

“pastel organic” bokeh.

ENG ZOOMS EXTENDEDFujinon’s A21x7.8 BERM/BERD is “a lightweight

21x lens, but it’s a similar weight to a 18x

lens, which is significantly lighter [at 1.6-1.7kg

depending on version] than a traditional 22x,

so it’s particularly suitable for news and sport,”

said Stefan Czich of Fujinon distributor Pyser-

SGI, which is showing it at BVE and has had a

lot of interest in it from news companies.

It has a focal length of 7.8-164mm, or 15.6-

328mm with 2x extender, maximum relative

aperture of F1.8 (7.8-109mm) to F2.7 (164mm),

and minimum object distance of 85cm.

It joins the 1.97kg HA18x5.5 2/3-inch

lens, which covers 5.5mm to 100mm and

uses high-precision large-diameter aspheric

elements, designed with Fujifilm’s proprietary

optical simulation technology, that are claimed

to achieve sharpness at the centre as well as

all corners for edge-to-edge image quality.

The lens has a minimum focus distance of

40cm, and its built-in 2x extender brings the

focal length on the telephoto end

to 200mm, allowing it to accommodate a

broad range of needs. “With the combination

of wide angle performance and telephoto

reach, this could be the ultimate news

lens,” said Czich.

Canon’s HJ18ex7.6B IRSE/IASE ENG lens

for 2/3-inch cameras is its successor to the

popular HJ17ex7.6B. “This lens has been

comprehensively upgraded in virtually every

area, delivering enhanced performance,

specifications and usability, with a reduction in

weight [of 20 grams to 1.58kg] also ensuring

mobility,” said Canon.

The lens is claimed to offer “superior

optical performance”, delivering an

increase in magnification to 18x and a

longer focal length of 7.6-137mm (plus

2x extender) and a maximum aperture

of F1.8. Minimum object distance is just

56cm (10mm with Macro). A new fast

start-up digital drive unit provides enhanced

usability, system support and operability,

and also supports multiple types of image

compensation – including lens and

chromatic aberration. For virtual

studio integration, it comes with 16-bit

encoder output.

ADAPT AND OVERCOMEMTF Services has worked with AJA to

introduce the first lens adaptors for AJA’s

Cion camera (which comes with a PL

mount). The adaptors include: a Nikon G

“With the combination of wide angle performance and telephoto reach, this could be the ultimate news lens” Stefan Czich, Pyser-SGI

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 18

adaptor with aperture control for both new

and old Nikon lenses; an optical system for

B4 lenses compatible with any lens with a

2x extender – allowing total sensor coverage

with HD B4 lenses as the multi-layer coated

optics extend the image from its original 2/3-

inch size to cover the Cion’s Super35 sensor

while maintaining the original angle of view

of the lens; and three adaptors for Canon

lenses: Canon FD-to-Cion adaptor for old

FD lenses, plus two options for Canon EF

mounts. The first is a standard mechanical

adaptor, for EF-mount lenses with an

aperture ring; the second, a version of the

MTF Effect range of adaptors for electronic

lenses. When used with the MTF Effect

Control Unit it controls the iris in 1/8th

stop increments, and powers lens stabilisation

and focus (for lenses with powered focus).

New IMS Lens Mount Adapters for the

Arri Amira and Micro-Four Thirds mount

cameras have been introduced by P+S

Technik. The seven for MFT offer plug &

play mounting for: Professional (Nikon) F;

Professional (Canon) EF; Canon FD; Leica R;

Panavision; BNC-R; and PL mount, costing

from €284 (plus VAT) to €609. They are

pre-collimated and shims are available for

individual adjustment. There are four for the

Amira: Canon FD; Leica R; Panavision; and

BNC-R, from €471 to €650.

The new Wide Angle Adapter from

Schneider Optics for Fujinon’s 19-90mm

T2.9 PL-mount Cabrio zoom lens provides

a 30 per cent wider angle than the Cabrio’s

19mm limitation, offering users a minimum

focal length of 14.5mm. With its 114mm

diameter, it will also work with Fujinon’s

14-35mm T2.9 PL-mount Cabrio. The

non-zoom through adapter is designed for

quick mounting and removal, using a

quick-release lever.

A new system for mounting and

controlling Canon EF-mount lenses on

high-end digital cinema cameras has been

introduced by LockCircle. The Prime Circle

XE System is claimed to offer the first lens/

controller/adapter mount integration

between DSLRs and cine/video cameras able

to be used in photo mode (full automatic

aperture) and cine/video mode (stopped

down aperture), where the lens aperture can

be controlled wirelessly up to 150m. The

XE System intelligent mount adapter can be

used with a wide range of cameras.

LENS DATAArri’s new Lens Data Encoder LDE-1, part

of its Electronic Control System, uses an

encoder that delivers data on the position

of the lens ring to which it is attached, and

can be used with a manual follow focus unit

or third-party wireless lens control system.

It allows lens data to be generated when an

Alexa is used without an Arri lens motor or

an LDS lens. Arri has also updated its Wireless

Compact Unit WCU-4 to allow easier lens

programming, so that lens tables can be

generated for any lens, from vintage to

modern in less than a minute.

CineMultiTrack is a new distance

measurement system that can measure

multiple objects, in association with

Transvideo’s existing LensReader. The system

can measure simultaneously the position

of several tags and provides the data to the

focus puller on the scale of the lens reader.

The system can also deliver the information

to Preston FI+Z lens controls to help focus in

difficult conditions.

The latest release of LensReader displays

graphic data (focus with depth of field and

hyperfocal point, iris, zoom) in real time

from intelligent lenses: Arri/Zeiss LDS Master

Prime, Ultra Prime and Master Anamorphic,

Arri/Fujinon Alura Lightweight zooms,

Angenieux /i zooms, Cooke and Fujinon

Cabrio lenses.

A new wireless interface that allows users

to access and edit live lens data has been

introduced by Cmotion: cworld allows

Cmotion control units and web-enabled

devices to be connected so that multiple users

can access lens and distance information,

firmware updates, and user guides on a

cvolution camin. It means that a director could

remotely access the iris data and adjust the iris

scale through their smartphone, while other

members of the crew view other readouts.

A €350 smart range finder application

(cfinder) provides a wireless distance read

out when cworld is connected directly to a

measurement tool, such as cmotion’s cfinder,

Arri’s UDM or Cinetape.

PRODUCT REVIEW

B4 and after: An AJA Cion using with MTF’s blue B4 optical adaptor

Mobile control: Apps offer wireless motor control information using cworld

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 20

USER REPORT

Established in 2005, Lillasyster is a production

company that supplies content for television,

web, radio, and cinema distribution across

Sweden. We support every production stage:

from pre-production to online and delivery of

both pictures and sound. We’ve been using

RX for around a year, mainly for general noise

reduction. When we heard about its launch

last September, the decision to upgrade to RX

4 Advanced was simple.

We’ve been using RX 4 for a couple of

months now and it is starting to become

addictive. With the new “RX Connect” feature

our workflow is so fast: it feels as if any part of

the content that hasn’t gone through RX, then

it hasn’t been worked with properly.

It is great having the small floating window

on-screen all the time. When something is

noisy or distorted or if I need fill, then all I

need to do is to mark the region and send it

to the standalone app. This way, I have more

options and direct access to the spectral

editor without having to compromise my

workflow in Pro Tools by having too many

plug-in windows open at one time. When it’s

completed processing, I send it back to Pro

Tools where it renders on demand.

RX’s spectral editor takes a bit of getting

used to but once you figure it out, it is very

effective and tons of fun. I recently edited

out the sound of a saxophone playing in

the background of an interview. The result

was amazing: what was left had a couple

of artefacts but considering what had been

taken away it was very impressive. You can

also use it for sound design and create scary

voices or unnatural sounds.

RX 4 is great if you want to clean up

dialogue recorded in a wide variety of

different settings: let’s say inside a car. On

the screen, you mark the low end and use

the function to only listen to the selected

The audio fixerJakob Myrman is sound designer and audio engineer at Stockholm-based TV, film, and radio production company, Lillasyster. Last autumn, the facility became one of the first in Europe to adopt RX 4 Advanced, the latest version of an Emmy Award-winning audio repair toolkit developed by iZotope to address the specific needs of TV and film editors

Jakob Myrman

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology21

USER REPORT

frequencies so that you don’t take too much

away from the sound you want to keep,

and just clean up those frequencies. Also,

the EQ Match facility is really useful. On one

project, we recorded ADR but had no idea of

what microphone had been used on set, so

instead we used the Ambience Match facility

in RX 4 Advanced.

For quicker mixes, I put the Dialogue

Denoiser on my dialogue bus and put the

reduction-lever at zero. When a noisy part

comes along, I simply automate it to

reduce the required amount. Fast, simple,

and great sounding.

‘Declip’ is another feature that we think

is really good. Just mark the distorted data,

slide the threshold, and render. It’s not

perfect every time but more often than not

it turns distorted to clean, turning unusable

material into great-sounding audio. In today’s

economic environment, the ability to salvage

the audio in rushes is invaluable – the cost

savings are really significant.

RX’s Declick is another module that’s

easy and fast to use. It’s great for ‘chappy’

voiceovers or even if you have a scratchy

lavalier from clothes or hair. You need to

tweak it a bit more than Declip but it’s still

easy and intuitive to operate. And then there’s

Decrackle, which is pretty similar.

I guess that to provide a comprehensive

review I need to talk about the things that

I don’t like quite so much. The Leveler and

Loudness functions in RX 4 Advanced are

not my favourites. Instead, I use iZotope

Insight® and Waves’ Loudness Meter for

measurement because auto-levelling has

never felt safe. Dereverb in RX 4 Advanced is

also a feature that I use less and less: it seems

to take away more of the sound quality than it

takes away reverb.

RX SAVES THE DAY FOR A SWEDISH FEATURE DOCUMENTARYI guess that the big ‘so what?’ about the

iZotope RX audio repair platform is its ability

to retrieve broadcast-quality audio from

content that sounds unusable. Recently, we

mixed a feature documentary that was mainly

shot on a compact digital camera with no

lavs, booms, or ADR. If it wasn’t for iZotope’s

RX audio toolkit, it probably wouldn’t have

been possible to play the feature in a cinema

theatre. This was partly due to noise levels

but also because important parts of the film’s

audio were totally distorted.

There was one specific interview – that

was very important for the story – that was

particularly distorted. The producer asked

early on if I thought they needed to cut the

scene out of the movie and I told him I’d

do my best. The results were mind-blowing:

we used RX’s Declip and you wouldn’t know

it had ever been distorted. RX enabled the

director to tell the story that she wanted

despite a lot of quality issues. The RX suite

pretty much saved the story.

So, to conclude, at Lillasyster our most

valuable resource is our gifted and talented

staff. All of the technology in the world is no

replacement for creativity, but what we need

to do is to support and inspire our editors by

providing the best tools to help them in their

day-to-day work. I believe that RX is the plug-

in that makes the biggest difference in sound

quality on our projects, especially on projects

with difficult production circumstances;

be it because of location or budget. Quite

simply, RX sets us apart from those facilities

that don’t have it.

Myrman at work with the RX 4

The RX 4 Dialogue Leveler

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 24

FEATURE

Why is it so hard to come up with a universally accepted definition of channel in a box?

Jan Weigner, MD, Cinegy Part of the reason CiaB is so hard to define to

everyone’s satisfaction is that the ‘box’ itself

is all but indefinable. The box your channel

comes in – if it’s a box at all – is irrelevant.

Because we (Cinegy) operate in a software-

only environment, the concept of a box is a bit

anathema to us and the sooner the term ‘CiaB’

dies, along with ‘SDI’ I might add, the better as

far as I’m concerned. I can buy a ‘box’ off the

shelf from any reliable IT supplier, install some

software on it and have a channel playing out

for you in a few minutes. I can paint that off-

the-shelf box in my company’s colours, slap a

logo on the side and sell it to you at a premium

as a CiaB ‘solution’, but that’s just marketing

guff that adds unnecessary cost to the end user

for the purchase of a pretty logo.

I wouldn’t want to be defined as a CiaB

solution provider, because I don’t sell boxes.

The first in a new series of roundtable features brings together some of

the leading authorities on channel in a box (CiaB) to examine why a

common definition of CiaB is so hard to come by, and how the cloud

has impacted the space

Thinking outside

the box

I sell software. You can run it on any box you

want. It therefore depends on how good – or

bad – the box you’ve chosen is as to whether

you can run one, many or no channels at the

same time. I can buy an off-the-shelf box for

less than €300, drop an inexpensive SDI card

in it and it will run an HD channel just fine.

This is how meaningless the colourful tins

with logos have become.

Igor Krol, COO, Veset Over the past decade, a large number of

vendors have offered CiaB playout automation

solutions. CiaB was originally conceived as

an alternative to traditional solutions, offering

emphasis on cost efficiency though integration

of previously disparate playout, master control

and a number of other functionalities.

From that, it would seem to be a logical

deduction that, for many vendors, there’s no

compelling reason to clearly define, across

the board, what constitutes a channel in a box

because, from a marketing perspective, there is

a promise of CiaB being an all-in-one solution.

However, in reality, customers have to figure out

what is inside of that particular box and even

more importantly how many additional ‘boxes’

or pieces of hardware or software he has to buy

from the vendor to make his workflow work.

We believe that the move to cloud

platforms and technologies should bring

more transparency to the end users. It is a

general trend. The cloud is very transparent.

In the early 2000s, CiaB was a step in the

right direction, however, lack of transparency

and hidden costs are limiting factors in the

business model. It took CiaB 15 years to be

adopted; nonetheless, we think that tectonic

shifts in television will result in faster adoption

of the cloud by the industry.

James Gilbert, CEO, Pixel PowerIf a universally accepted definition were

needed, no doubt someone would come

up with it. But the reason there are a lot of

different solutions on the market is simply that

there are a lot of different requirements. Each

broadcaster or service provider is different,

and each has its own set of priorities.

Some will simply be looking for the ability

to get on-air for the lowest possible price, and

so will accept the restrictions of a PC-based

system. Others will want complex interworking

between traditional and integrated playout

architectures. Still, others will place the biggest

emphasis on channel branding, and so seek

a graphics-based system such as the Pixel

Power ChannelMaster.

Channel in a box systems can provide

the primary playout for premium channels

including manual intervention, or they

can be entirely automatic and only suitable

for fully planned services. Some choose

channel in a box as a disaster recovery

solution to a traditional playout infrastructure,

or to provide regional variations of a

national channel. There is a common thread,

though, which is simplification. Channel in

a box systems tend to be easier to deploy

and to support through a single vendor.

Operationally, they should be simple too. But

the key requirement is to understand precisely

what your requirements are: there is no one

size that fits all.

Tom Gittins, sales director, Pebble Beach Systems Generally speaking, a ‘channel in a box’ is a

self-contained solution from a single vendor

which claims to encompass all

of the functionality required in a

traditional broadcast output chain.

These solutions will typically incorporate

a control system that controls only the

channel functionality within the box.

However, the term ‘channel in a box’ is

frequently misleading: many solutions

actually comprise multiple boxes, once

fully configured.

A number of vendors offer ‘integrated

channel technology’, using this broader

term to describe solutions that collapse

the traditional functionality of discrete

playout devices into as few boxes as

practical, and using software processing

where possible. Many of the integrated

channel solutions on the market only work

under their own control systems, which

are often limited and have little capability

to control any other devices. This forces

the customer to create standalone islands

of channels. In reality, customers often

need to deploy this technology alongside

existing equipment and systems, and

to accommodate specific workflows

for subtitling, media, and graphics, etc.

Also, the internal architecture of these

solutions can be quite rigid, not allowing

the configurability which broadcasters have

become used to when deploying discrete

devices in an SDI environment.  

What the end user really cares about

is whether the overall solution will meet

their specific channel requirements;

whether it offers the graphics, and audio

track management they need; whether

it can handle the compression and

file formats which are being used in

acquisition; if it is capable of handling

complex reactive channels including

unpredictable late changes; and if their

capital and/or their operating expenditure

will be reduced?

There is also a wider question worthy

of consideration in a volatile mergers and

acquisitions environment: is it wise to

entrust one’s entire playout capability to a

single vendor?

It is clear that whilst there is a huge

variety of so-called channel in a box

devices on the market, the buyer needs

to carefully consider which technology will

best meet their requirements now and in

the future. One size does not fit all.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology25

“The box your channel comes in is irrelevant. Because we operate in a software-only environment, the concept of a box is a bit anathema and the sooner the term ‘CiaB’ dies, along with ‘SDI’ I might add, the better as far as I’m concerned.” Jan Weigner, MD, Cinegy

Jan Weigner

Igor Kroll

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 26

What impact has the cloud had on channel in a box?

Jan Weigner, MD, Cinegy Will the real cloud please stand up? Even the

definition of the cloud is ambiguous. It can

mean different things to different people,

largely derived from how it’s implemented.

So, is your fluffy, pristine cloud actually full

of boxes? It has to be, if you believe certain

manufacturers whose cloud solution means

that you have to install a hardware card in

a tin box, which to me is a very interesting

definition of ‘cloud’.

The IT industry has successfully set

definitive technical standards for decades. In

the broadcast industry, however, if someone

says, “we need to broadcast a channel

of DPP compliant video with, say, two or

three layers of branding, what do I need for

that?”, you’d be hard pressed to make any

meaningful comparison between vendor

CiaB offerings, but you could spend an awful

lot money finding out.

If you don’t want to invest a penny, you can

install your content in, for example, the Amazon

AWS cloud environment and pay as you go.

That, for me, is the real cloud. If you need your

own special cloud with your own special plug-in

cards, well, that’s more fog than cloud.

It’s all about commodity IT. And the real

test of commodity is, “where’s the free trial

version that I can run on my tin box or my

own cloud to see how it works?” If a vendor

can’t provide this, today, for free, they should

get out of the business. In the meantime,

good luck with pushing tin.

Igor Krol, COO, VesetCompared to other industries or even its

‘twin sister’ VoD/digital media, the linear

broadcast industry has resisted adopting

cloud solutions. However, that will inevitably

and rapidly change. Very soon, cloud-

based playout will disrupt the CiaB space,

all but eliminating the need for a physical

or metaphoric box to get a channel on

air. With the cloud, there’s no need for a

broadcaster to invest in proprietary hardware

and/or software and maintain underlying

infrastructure, of which a ‘box’ of sorts

would be a part. Over time, SaaS platforms

that combine linear, catch up and VoD

capabilities will run from the cloud. It may

sound futuristic for some, but we see how

forward-thinking broadcasters are actually

moving in this direction.

In the meantime, given its IT nature, cloud

playout can actually coexist with traditional

broadcast technology. That said, those

hardware devices are, one by one, being

absorbed into the cloud, and CiaB – at least

in terms of the requirement for a card or the

box in which it is installed – is eventually likely

to become one of them.

I think we’re pretty close to making

an important step from CiaB to channel

in a cloud.

James Gilbert, CEO, Pixel Power In truth, while there is a lot of talk about the

cloud, it is not really the issue today. There are

challenges with the cloud – such as reliable

bandwidth to move content in and out of the

cloud, and security of the content while it is

in someone else’s care – which have yet to

be fully satisfied.

The real issue is the move from

dedicated, bespoke broadcast hardware to

products that provide all the functionality

required, but in software which can run on

a standard computing platform. This is not

necessarily an off-the-shelf PC: you may

need the power that only a multi-processor,

multi-threaded share of a server farm

can provide.

Successful software implementations

then lead to virtualisation. This technique,

extremely common in other IT applications,

runs multiple processes on a shared

processor farm, with an orchestration layer

managing priorities and taking resources

as necessary. Sensible virtualisation

management will allocate to mission critical

processes like graphics and playout the

resources they need at all times.

Once a channel in a box can be virtualised

it could be deployed in the cloud; either the

broadcaster’s own private cloud or an off

premise commercial offering from a third party.

Tom Gittins, sales director, Pebble Beach SystemsThe advent of cloud technology has

spawned an interesting debate in the

playout space, as stakeholders try to define

what element of playout can be abstracted

into the cloud. Whilst it seems clear that

the private cloud offers a level of playout

security that the public cloud cannot, it is

important to understand what the objective

really is. What benefit is the broadcaster

looking for in the VM environment? If they

want to exploit a processing platform that

can flex according to requirements, this

brings its own risks, as reactive channels

need ring-fenced processing capacity to

cater for the most processor-intensive

tasks, and these may be impossible to

predict when the schedule is subject to

late-breaking changes.

To date, cloud hasn’t had a great impact

beyond early trials and testing. Its early

application will be limited to low revenue

channels which are clip-based, and there

will be a long period of experimentation and

benchmarking before its adoption for (especially)

high value linear playout applications.

“The term ‘channel in a box’ is frequently misleading: many solutions actually comprise multiple boxes, once fully configured.” Tom Gittins, Pebble Beach

James Gilbert Tom Gittins

FEATURE

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 28

MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

T he aerial filming industry is going

through a bonanza as low cost

drones become the latest must-

have item. “It’s a modern-day gold

rush,” warns Arland Whitfield, founder of The

SkyWorks Project. “Companies are scrambling

to put incomplete products to market.”

Producers looking for a unique piece

of footage, that may previously have only

been obtainable from helicopter, will

consider three broad sectors of the market.

These divide budget hobbyist models from

more professionals production-ready units

from commissioning a specialist aerial

filming company.

“While some manufacturers promise

systems that can carry huge amounts

of weight, they often only stay in the air

for up to ten minutes,” says Whitfield.

He suggests that the difference between

a ‘hobbyist’ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

(UAVs) and a ‘commercial’ drone, lies in

payload, battery-life and safety. “Because

the industry is relatively new, drone

technology is not developed to the point

where it is bulletproof. Failures do happen

when systems are in the air, and to prevent

catastrophic results, commercial drones

need effective fail-safes.” Professional outfits

such as Skyworks use drones of their own

design (i.e. Carboncore Cortex) which come

with a number of fail-safes: redundant motor

systems to prevent the drone from falling out

of the sky even if a motor fails, and return-

to-home modes ensure that the equipment

returns safely in the event of a lost radio

signal. Pro models are designed to be flown

Flight of the

navigatorThere is a blizzard of drone filming

options but not all are up to

production standard

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

Drone used by UNIT9 to shoot catwalk show

Parrot’s mini-drone Jumping Sumo

by two people: one pilot and one camera

operator, under licence.

“Cheaper and lighter weight drones

have lowered the barriers to entry and thus

enabled experimentation, which can only

be a good thing,” says Sandeep Kamal,

managing partner, UNIT9 Mumbai. “However,

there’s always a trade-off when adopting

a particular technical approach. Smaller

and lighter drones are naturally limited in

the payload they are able to carry and are

restricted not only in the type of camera

rig they can mount but also the time/range

they can achieve when airborne. They are,

however, very useful when covering live

events where intrusion of public space

may be a concern.”

For the Autumn/Winter Fendi fashion

show in Milan (February 2014), UNIT9 flew

a lightweight drone indoors above the

catwalk transmitting footage live via Wi-Fi

to a web camera feed.

In traditional rigs there is a restriction of

movement in at least one axis but with a

drone the range is extended in all axes – even

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology29

Onboard image from Fotokite

Fotokite circumnavigates

civil aviation UAV rules

The Mavrik drone

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology 30

up to a few kilometres in spaces with

an unrestricted line of sight. The movement

of the camera can be controlled manually

or automated to the extent that it can

then be repeated, such as in a motion

control system.

“Using waypoint navigation, relative

coordinate systems and GPS it is possible to

plot paths for the camera to follow with good

accuracy,” says Kamal. “This eliminates the need

for an experienced pilot and helicam or other

helicopter-based camera systems for

certain types of shot.”

According to Robert Campbell,

founder of commercials production

agency Outsider, “It’s pointless having

a brilliant drone carrying a Kodak

Brownie. It’s all about the camera, the

lenses and the operator. A helicopter

operator earns their money because

they know exactly what they’re doing.

If you want something hovering in

the air, then maybe a drone will work, but

if you need to follow the action, then get a

cameraman who has worked in the business. I

wouldn’t go near a DIY drone outfit.”

Dean Wynton, who runs UK specialist

Aerosight, agrees. “There are a lot of cowboys

with a GoPro and a drone who undercut

the market and give aerial filmmaking a bad

name.” He advises producers to check for

insurance and a licence. “If a showreel shows

shots of fields, trees and churches you can

expect little experience of flying to order.”

For anyone surveying the blizzard of ‘fly

your own’ options, there are a number of

factors to consider. Size will generally dictate

the camera payload. Quadcopters (a craft

with four motors and propellers) are generally

more efficient than an octocopter (a craft

with eight). The added motors mean more

energy sucked out of already limited battery

lives, and the larger footprint makes it harder

to transport and fly.

“Crucially, however, they can lift more

weight than quadcopters,” says Whitfield. “More

motors means more thrust, and more thrust

means the craft can carry more weight. This

allows you to fly bigger cameras and lenses.”

Live streaming is essential to be able to

see what you’re filming. Audio always needs

recording separately since these beasts are

remarkably noisy. Professional production

models will most likely have at least a

3-axes gimbal.

The market leader, which regularly tops

polls for usability, is DJI (DJI.com). Its £1,000

flagship Phantom 2 Vision+ comes equipped

with a 1080p/30 720p/60 camera, a three-

plane gimbal for image stabilisation, and a Wi-Fi

extender for control up to 2,000 feet away. It

recently launched the £1,600 Inspire, a version

which includes a 4K/30fps (1080p/60fps)

camera and will upturn its wings on lift-off to

avoid line of sight with the lens. Its gimbal will

swivel 360-degrees and tilt 125-degrees while

camera sensors allow for indoors flying or

where the GPS signal is low.

Lumenier (Lumenier.com) offers no-frills

airframes with a reputation for judder-

free and agile flying. Its QAV400,

for example, costs between £800

and £1,500 and targets GoPro

Hero carriage.

The £450 Aries Blackbird X-10

(from Adorama) has a 16MP

camera, and can shoot 1080p

MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

The Parrot Bebop costs £430

Tiny consumer drone Zano from the UK’s

Tourqing Group coming to market in 2015

DJI Inspire

The Rolling Spider

video at 30fps. It doesn’t have a gimbal, but

the company says it uses a combination of

a six-axis gyro and GPS to maintain stability.

The Blackbird can be controlled with the

remote or an iPhone or Android app.

Steadidrone’s (steadidrone.com) product

ranges from the £6,000 (minus batteries and

other accessories) Steadidrone X boasting

60 minute flight times and a payload

capacity over 8kg, to the £2,500 Mavrik

which will fly 18 minutes carrying a Sony

NEX7 (or similar DSLR) and lens. The Flare

is a budget version of the Mavrik, suitable

for GoPros and there are basic carbon

fibre airframes too such as the $125 Dash

for self-assembly.

Cinedrones’ Action XL+ Hex is a six-motor

UAV from £1,600 with streaming video

capability but without camera and again

more suited for GoPros. It uses a DJI Naza

V2 Flight GPS Controller. With payloads of

6lb and cameras such as Canon 5D, C300,

or Nikon D800, Cinedrones (cinedrones.net)

offers the DSLR Octo while the Cinema X8

Heavy Lifter can carry a Red Epic 6K plus lens

up to 17lb. It features an HD video streaming

option and a gimbal that can be converted

from aerial to handheld work.

At the fun-sized end of the market, Parrot

(parrot.com) sports a number of colourful

designs with durable styrofoam frames. Most

are steered by apps on your mobile device,

to which live images can also be sent.

The Bebop’s in-built 14MP camera has

a fisheye lens and records videos in a

180-degree field. It comes with sensors

(accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer,

ultrasound sensor, pressure sensor) and

takes a still picture vertically every 16

milliseconds to track speed.

For anyone wanting a good trainer

before gravitating to larger machines,

the Blade Nano QX is a £50 palm-sized

quadcopter and is deemed one of the best.

The technology is reducing in size, and

increasing in sensors.

Due this year is a drone on a leash,

Fotokite, which circumnavigates civil

aviation laws since it qualifies as a kite;

the Nixie which can be worn on your wrist;

and another tiny consumer drone, Zano,

from Wales’ Tourqing Group.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology 31

The Parrot smartphone control app

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 32

MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

Operators face a daunting task:

there is a bewildering array

of devices to which they are

expected to deliver media in

addition to their traditional broadcast outputs

– ranging from smartphones to set-top

boxes, to smart TVs, UHD TVs and beyond.

This is a significant increase in operational

complexity – but for several of these

outlets, the monetisation model is not

yet fully formed, so the additional

complexity is not necessarily matched by a

commensurate increase in revenue. In short,

operators – the clients of transcoding kit

vendors – have to do more work for not

a lot more money.

“We see operators tugging in opposite

directions when it comes to hardware

or software encoding and transcoding,

especially when it comes to multiscreen,”

says Carl Furgusson, Ericsson’s head of

business development, TV compression.

“Considerations such as performance,

reliability, costs and resolution requirements

will heavily impact decisions that operators

make in the coming years.”

TV Technology Europe asks key

transcoding vendors for their views on

key investment criteria including premises

versus cloud; hardware versus software; and

integration with MAM.

INVISIBILITY, FLEXIBILITY, SCALABILITYIt all boils down to invisibility for Bruce Devlin,

chief media scientist at Dalet. Essentially,

transcoding is becoming an enterprise-

invisible business process, he says. It’s

industrialised, and a modern transcoder not

only has to deliver great output content, but

also management interfaces and controls to

allow the entire farm to be run in an almost

invisible way. Devlin says operators need

transcoding systems that can create all of

the output formats that their new business

model requires, but with a level of automation

that allows them to do this without a huge

increase in staff. “Automation not only allows

operators to do more with their existing

staff, but also allows the system to be self-

monitoring, self-adjusting and in some cases

self-correcting,” explains Paul Turner, VP

enterprise product management, Telestream.

“This fundamentally enables them to

offer services which are of importance to

their business, while significantly reducing

the costs of doing so. The revenue models

for these services are starting to solidify,

so customers want to be sure that their

transcoding systems are flexible enough to

handle the ad insertion and recognition process

that will become standard practice as these

models mature.”

Harmonic emphasises flexibility in

transcoding systems, particularly with

respect to adaptive bit rate (ABR) packaging

and delivery (e.g., HLS, HDS, DASH, etc).

“Many operators are combining ABR and

broadcast encoding/transcoding systems

(as these are the most stable with respect

to standards and configuration) and

leveraging a separate ABR packaging and

origin stage to manage the volatility of

standards and devices on the consumption

side,” explains Tom Lattie, Harmonic’s VP

market management and development,

video products. “With ABR becoming a more

Code mastersTranscoding vendors assess key investment criteria for operators including

premises vs cloud; hardware vs software; and integration with MAM

Telestream Vantage

ATEME TITAN

BY ADRIAN PENNINGTON

common consumption method, particularly

on big screens, greater emphasis is being

placed on the video quality provided by

encoding/transcoding solutions.”

ATEME is similarly focused on making

transcoding plants as flexible and scalable as

possible. “If a new device appears, operators

expect their transcoding solution to easily

evolve with a software release to address

the latter,” says Remi Beaudouin, product

marketing director. “If content production

ramps up, operators want to quickly add

processing resources with a minimum

impact on operational layers.”

ON-PREMISE, CLOUD OR HYBRID?One vital business decision is whether to

adopt an on-premise, cloud-based, or a

hybrid approach to the operation. Each has

cost variables. “An operator with UHD master

files transcoding for OTT will have a very

different set of cost models to an operator

who only transcodes SD content in-house for

proxies,” outlines Devlin.

“On-premise transcoding gives you

ultimate control and, potentially, the minimum

operating costs if the system is stable and

fault/rejection rates are low. A fully cloud-

based system gives maximum versatility with

an elastic cost model that can scale easily as

business requirements change. On-premise

solutions are hard to scale elastically because

servers and storage will have to be procured

in order to do the up-scaling and they won’t

be ‘sold’ when down scaling. Internal transfers

of content, however, are free. Off-premise

storage can also lead to complex security and

key management challenges when high value

material needs to be converted.”

Agreeing that on-premise transcoding

requires upfront capital investment, Turner

says it can be cheaper in the long run, and

can be significantly faster if the source and

destination are within your facility. “The

downside is that operators have to size their

transcode farm to match their peak load.”

Processing in the cloud requires that the

media be processed with the end point of

the processing also located in the cloud.

This means that media has to be transferred

up to the cloud before processing can

take place, which has cost implications

in both time and money (if operators

already store their programmes up on

cloud storage – as many do – this cost is

somewhat mitigated). “The same is true for

the delivery point,” Turner continues. “If the

next step in the overall workflow occurs

at some other premises, then the time of

transfer of transcoded material must also be

considered. While the cost per transcode

hour can seem very attractive, operators

should also consider just how many hours

per year they will use.”

Turner likens this to somebody who needs

a truck to move some furniture: if you’re only

moving furniture once, then you’ll hire a truck

to do so. But if you move furniture all day

every day, the rental costs will far outstrip the

cost of buying a truck in the first place. “The

major positive points for cloud operations are

that you don’t have to make significant capital

investment in the transcoding infrastructure,

and that you can operate a pay as you go

method of funding,” says Turner.

Vendors tend toward a hybrid solution

where a certain volume of transcode capacity

is ‘owned’ and the elastic load capacity

is scaled into a private or public cloud.

“Good resource management with business

rules implemented in a MAM like Dalet

Galaxy should allow the benefits of cloud

to be achieved as well as the benefits of

on-premise,” says Devlin.

“With a hybrid model, operators can size

their on-premise transcode farm to match

their typical run-rate load, and handle peak

work by offloading some of that additional

processing to a cloud extension as and when

needed,” is Turner’s take.

HARDWARE-BASED VERSUS SOFTWARE-BASED ENCODINGThe prevailing technology narrative across

the industry is from dedicated hardware to

software, and nowhere is this more apparent

than in the encoding/transcoding field. Yet,

the answer is not as simple as you’d think.

Of course, opinions vary depending on the

vendor’s software or hardware-based product.

It can’t be doubted, though, that Moore’s

law and the development of GPU assist has

meant that standard computer platforms can

now match, and in many cases exceed, the

speed of their hardware counterparts.

The main difference lies in flexibility,

suggests Telestream’s Turner. “Software

solutions are generically easier to update than

their hardware equivalents, and through the

update process can have new features (which

weren’t available at the time of purchase)

added to them at any time. Hardware

transcoders are generally more difficult to

update with new codecs and features.”

Dalet argues that many organisations

are now looking at the energy consumed

by data centres and are weighing up the

benefits of some hardware acceleration

from an energy perspective. “In transcoding,

the format stability is such that hardware is

often only appropriate for long-term stable

functions such as low level codecs and

some image processing,” he outlines. “The

rate and ease with which software can be

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology33

“On-premise transcoding gives you ultimate control and potentially the minimum operating costs if the system is stable and fault/rejection rates are low” Bruce Devlin

Workflow overview for Brightcove’s Zencoder transcoding API

ATEME Kyrion

Bruce Devlin,

Dalet

Harmonic’s

Tom Lattie

written and deployed means that it is used

for nearly all encode and decode operations.

The exceptions to this rule tend to be in live

operations and for the last encode prior to

emission. Even those elements today are

becoming software functions due to the

versatility of today’s software.”

Here is ATEME’s take: “A hardware-based

system is tailored for its target, no more, no

less, which leads to the best performance and

usage,” says Beaudouin. “The downside is that

it creates as many processing silos as services:

one silo for over-the-top, one silo for the

linear channel, one channel for VoD. Software

solutions overcome this issue by providing

flexibility and ease-of-operation: the same

appliance can be used for several purposes

as software firmware, as well as virtualisation,

allows easy portability to various locations.”

Ericsson says its bespoke hardware, which

is designed using the company’s own chipset,

has benefits over software when it comes

to performance. “If the operator needs to

maximise bandwidth efficiency then hardware

is the primary choice, and will provide the best

performance and network efficiency,” says

Furgusson. “For traditional broadcast, hardware

will often still be the predominant choice due

to the high value of network bandwidth.”

For ABR and file-based environments,

however, the story is slightly different. Operators

need to quickly adapt their ABR transmissions

to accommodate the needs of new devices,

which can launch at any time without advance

warning. “This inability to know what new

device or codec is round the corner has led

to the emergence of software as a favourable,

flexible alternative which can quicken adoption

for new devices,” says Furgusson.

“Hybrid models combining hardware

and software can also help to address this

challenge, allowing operators to use hardware

for the stable core service (HEVC, MPEG4,

and so on) but use software when flexibility

is required, such as dealing with changes to

packaging formats.”

INTEGRATION WITH ASSET MANAGEMENTMulti-platform consumption is causing an

explosion in the one-to-many ratio of file-

based workflows, resulting in a constantly

increasing number of distribution derivatives

from each master asset. Tight interaction with

the asset management system is critical for a

successful file-based transcoding workflow.

“Today, this is mostly used for linking the

asset to all of the device-based derivatives,”

says Lattie. He points to efforts around

BXF (Broadcast eXchange Format) and IMF

(Interoperable Master Format) to make this

interaction more intelligent and powerful.

“The next opportunity is to automatically scale

the creation derivatives, not just based on

consumption device, but also on content-

specific considerations such as regional or

ratings deltas and ad insertion.”

Integration is generally done via

API, although as Turner points out, less

sophisticated systems may only offer ‘hot

folder’ integration, “which as you can imagine

offers much less interaction, and places all

of the management burden on the asset

management system itself.” A lot of content

is assembled from new and old footage that

may have been shot at different rates. The

results do not look good when broadcast

on a low bandwidth transmission channel

and displayed on a big, bright, flat screen.

That’s where patented frame rate conversion

technology from Dalet comes in. “It can fix up

many of these problems without resorting to a

re-edit of the original content,” says Devlin.

QC is another vital element in the media

chain to the extent that the UK DPP mandates

it for UK broadcaster delivery. “Modern media

files are so complex that no single playback

device can check everything so there is now

a broad range of products that are able to

perform QC on files and streams,” says Devlin.

“These are able to find common design and

configuration errors in media files and streams.”

FOCUS ON NABTelestream is focusing on the creation of

VoD assets with support for DAI (Dynamic

Ad Insertion) which, claims Turner, “is a

direct monetisation play for our customers,

allowing them to create VoD assets in such

a way that they can be customised via DAI

and therefore monetised.” This hasn’t been

possible to date, as all of the necessary

pieces weren’t in place. Harmonic is also

showing improved ingest support for

camera file formats to increase its reach into

production workflows.

Harmonic’s software-based offerings include

the VOS virtualised video delivery platform, the

power and flexibility of which “allows operators

to transition services from SD MPEG-2 to HEVC

UHD without having to completely replace

their infrastructure,” says Lattie. Just prior to

press, Harmonic announced the launch of its

new Electra X encoder.

Ericsson is highlighting Virtualized

Encoding, described as the industry’s first

software solution for intelligent utilisation

of multiple encoding resources (regardless

of technology) and speaking more about

this product in the context of TV Anywhere.

Another key topic for the company at NAB

is likely to be bandwidth efficiency and the

effects of mezzanine links on compression

performance. “We will show the considerable

improvements this can have on broadcast

distribution and delivery to the home, and

set the scene for wider discussions on

compression performance, and how it

underlines everything that Ericsson does,”

says Furgusson.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology 34

MARKETPLACE – BUYERS GUIDE

Dalet server racks

Remi Beaudouin, ATEMETelestream’s Paul Turner

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

New focus

New frequency

New digital platforms

New technology-

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Buyers’ guides Drones, transcoders,

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BVE preview edition

Europe

THE TECHNICAL RESOURCE FOR THE BROADCAST MEDIA PROFESSIONAL

February 2015 I Issue 1 I Volume 33

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com

Thinking outside

the box

RELAUNCHED

FOR 2015

For more information contact:

Ben EwlesSales ManagerTel: +44 (0) 207 354 6000Email: bewles@nbmedia.com

Nicola Pett Sales ExecutiveTel: +44 (0) 207 354 6000Email: npett@nbmedia.com

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SALES EDITORIAL

TV Technology Europe is the leading product and technical resource for the broadcast media professional. Providing independent coverage of

the latest equipment and technology releases, and offering exclusive insight, opinion and analysis from the industry’s

leading experts and commentators, TV Technology Europe offers unrivalled

coverage of all aspects of product technology and engineering in the

broadcast media sector.

www.tvtechnologyeurope.comTVTechnology February 2015 36

MARKETPLACE – BVE PREVIEW

What has stood out for you in terms of industry developments since BVE 2014? The last 12 months have seen remarkable

changes, even by the standards of an industry

like broadcast that is constantly evolving.

Take for example the move from tape-based

to file-based programme delivery: that was

described as the biggest change since the

introduction of colour pictures. This shows

the level of development we are seeing at

the moment.

As part of that shift, we have also seen

the almost universal adoption of a common

Loudness standard that can be applied to all

types of broadcast content. That is another

key change and one that will benefit all

television viewers, whatever device they are

using. For the industry, it means a slightly

different way of working and a need to invest

in new equipment. As such, there are still

some issues to overcome so I believe that

Loudness will continue to make a huge noise

at BVE 2015, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Looking to the future, the impact of IP on

the broadcast chain cannot be understated.

As an industry we are not there yet but very

soon the established methods of cabling up

studios, OBs, post houses and more could be

superseded by standard internet connectivity.

It promises a more cost-effective approach.

Again, there is still work to be done in this

area but, now that it is technically possible for

live video and audio to be synchronised down

computer cables, the change looks inevitable.

4K continues to generate debate, not least

because none of the major UK broadcasters

have yet committed to broadcasting any

content in a format that is four times bigger

in resolution terms than HD. Many people

now shoot in 4K – and indeed 5k and 6K

– but until a broadcaster dips its toes in the

4K water, the talk will continue. BVE will be

a good place to learn more about the 4K

problems that are left to solve.

At the consumer end, having access to big

data is going to be huge for the broadcasters.

By gathering, analysing and cross referencing

accurate viewing and user statistics, content

providers – in their many forms – will hope to

deliver better and more personal experiences

across both TV sets and mobile devices. It will

require a careful balance of editorial input and

sophisticated computer algorithms but the

possibilities are almost endless.

What has 2014 taught us about the progression of the industry, and where it currently sits in its evolution? With all the changes that are happening, from

how content is created to how it is viewed,

one constant remains: the content itself is

still king. It’s a cliché but content is still what

matters. Just look at the furore over inaudible

dialogue in various period dramas in 2014.

The British public care deeply about TV, it is

ingrained in our culture now, and they will

always want more and better content. The

important thing for the industry is to keep

remembering that in its quest to satisfy all the

other viewer requirements.

On that note, consumer habits are

clearly changing and broadcasters need to

continue to not just be reactive to this but

also proactive. According to the latest Ofcom

figures, one third (32 per cent) of the online

population in the UK uses the web to watch

TV at least once a week. This is the highest

rate of any country in Europe. That provides

you with an idea of the shift that is taking

place. But the baby should not be thrown out

with the bath water just yet as, according to

BARB, 98 per cent of TV viewing in the UK

still takes place on a TV set. At the moment

this is a gradual change, an evolution not a

revolution. Ask me again in 12 months time

and I might say something different though!

We hear constantly about the challenges faced by the operators and suppliers in the industry in this stage of its development, but the evolving marketplace must have a significant impact on your business strategy. What are the main challenges that you face as a key industry event in terms of preparation for both the conference and exhibition sides of the show? Every industry event faces challenges. Some

are more specific than others but the fact

that broadcasting, as we know it, is now

embracing and dovetailing with parts of

the telecoms and IT sectors means we

have to extend our reach further to satisfy

the demands of visitors. At the same time,

industries closer to home, such as advertising,

are aligning themselves with content creation

evermore. You only have to look at the

burgeoning developments in branded content

and advertiser funded programming, not to

mention product placement.

To bring all these parties on board we

are working closely with expert partners and

respected organisations that can help BVE to

reflect the change in the make-up of what we

used to call TV.

What differences can we expect from the content of this year’s seminars, and which ones do you think are likely to grab people’s attention? BVE is recognised as a great learning and

networking event, and this will be reflected

in the make-up of this year’s show. So, you’ll

see more panel discussions and chances to

BVE is back to excel in LondonTo open our preview of this year’s BVE in London on 24 to 26 February, TV Technology Europe sat down with Alison Willis, portfolio director for i2i Events Group’s Environment and Broadcasting Division, to discuss what we can expect from the 2015 event

Alison WIllis

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology37

USER REPORT

talk with peers and learn from masters of their

craft. One example is the new training hub

that we are launching. This will sit within the

BBC Academy’s Skills and Networking Zone.

4K will be prominent, especially on the

acquisition side, but also in terms of problem

solving. There are parts of the broadcast

chain that are not quite mature enough for

mainstream broadcasting. BVE will be a good

place to learn more.

Of the other sessions, I think the

Raindance Film Festival’s Interactive workshop

‘Producing your indie film-kit’ will be a real

hit. As will the panel session ‘Commissioning

Drama – What’s important to know in 2015?’

There is a drama production boom in the UK

at the minute so this will be essential viewing.

On the technology side I would expect

‘Asset Management: Crucial steps to take in

ensuring your content becomes the asset’

to gather a significant crowd as storage and

asset management are big news right now.

Sessions on big data, such as ‘Demystifying

IT in broadcasting – is cloud, big data and open

source the solution?’, and loudness, ‘How

broadcasters should go about implementing

loudness recommendation EBU R128 for

programmes’, will be popular too.

I’m also very excited about the speakers

we have assembled. Our keynote sessions

will include talks by comedian, actor, writer

and director, Richard Ayoade, and American

director, Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight).

Vasha Wallace, senior vice president of global

acquisitions and development at Freemantle

Media, the company behind Idols, The X

Factor, Got Talent and other formats, is a

really interesting one. She is a big name and

should prove to be a big draw.

Likewise, Peter Robertson is one of the

UK’s leading camera/steadicam operators.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in

feature film, TV production – including Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Edge of Tomorrow and Anna Karenina.

Bruno Mahe, head of technology at

Illumination Mac Guff, the film company

responsible for films including Despicable Me, The Lorax and Minions, will be presenting

a keynote presentation in the 4K Theatre

discussing how the rise of 4K will influence

the animation space.

And David Gibbs, director of digital media at

Sky Sports, will discuss the role of the second

screen in maximising engagement across live

sporting events, looking at the role of apps and

whether personalisation is the way forward for

multi-platform sporting experiences.

What else is new for 2015? There are lots of new things this year but the

ones that stand out for me are: Raindance

– Live! Ammunition!, a pitching competition

for filmmakers; the Skills and Networking

Zone, which includes master classes from

the renowned BBC Academy; and even more

cinematic 4K experience in our 4K Theatre.

Where does BVE sit in relation to the rest of i2i’s portfolio of events – you cover a variety of sectors and marketplaces, but where would you say it is in the hierarchy? i2i organises a large number of market leading

events and, as you would expect, each is given

high priority within the business. We pride

ourselves on the quality of our exhibitions

and conferences and our efforts to constantly

improve and develop BVE mirror that.

In fact, BVE has been given additional focus

this year as it is very much a growing show in

the i2i portfolio and has huge potential. The

2015 show has 250+ exhibitors including 35

brand new ones and over 90 per cent of the

floor space has already been sold. We are

very pleased with how it has gone but we can

always do better and will strive to do so.

Finally, what sort of progress do you think we’ll see in the marketplace in 2015? I think we will see four key trends: more

suppliers entering the broadcast market from

IT and telecoms; more brands becoming

buyers of broadcast equipment; a slow

but gradual shift to 4K/UHD with more UK

consumers buying 4K ready televisions and

broadcasters taking the plunge with services;

and more viewing of content (both live and

on demand) via the internet on either smart

TVs, smart set-top boxes or mobile devices.

Exciting times.

“4K will be prominent in terms of acquisition and problem solving. There are parts of the broadcast chain that aren’t mature enough for mainstream broadcasting. BVE will be a good place to learn more”

Delegates at BVE 2014

There is a big buzz around drones, or UAVs, at BVE this year. One aerial specialist, AerialWorx, is running a free raffle to win a first prize of two days aerial filming, a second prize of one day aerial filming and a third prize of a Quadcopter fully built, tested and ready to fly.

Based in North Wales and the North West of England, it offers aerial filming services for promotional, film, broadcast and commercial projects throughout the UK and abroad, with clients including: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, and numerous independent production companies.

It has recently been awarded BBC approved supplier status, which “will certainly broaden the horizons for us in the future,” said AerialWorx’s co-founder and drone pilot, Stefanie Williams, and it recently filmed the Rickshaw Challenge with Pudsey Bear for BBC’s The One Show.

Aerialworx uses a variety of drones equipped with Ultra HD, 4K or 1080p cameras with live HD 1080p down links. “We have highly experienced pilots and crew capable of flying in all situations from indoors to extreme conditions,” she added. “We film using the Panasonic Lumix GH4 4K camera, but also have a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Canon 5D. We also use the state-of-the-art MoVI and also Zenmuse gimbals to ensure the steadiest shots. Our MoVI gimbal is also capable of lifting client-specific cameras if required.” Williams will be speaking on Wednesday in the Production Theatre.Stand: C40

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 38

MARKETPLACE — BVE PREVIEW

What to see at BVENew for 2015 will be the launch of the first ever BVE Daily, the event’s official newspaper. Published under the NewBay Media umbrella, TV Technology Europe is able to provide an exclusive insight into a selection of key product releases you can expect to see at ExCeL London

Drones take to the air

4K Cion goes with the (work)flowAJA Video Systems’ new Cion camera has

recently started shipping and is claimed

to offer the easiest 4K workflow yet. The

ergonomic, lightweight Cion can shoot

4K, Ultra HD, 2K and HD, recording Apple’s

ProRes codecs, including 12-bit ProRes 444,

directly to cost-effective AJA Pak SSD media

at up to 4K/60p. It also outputs AJA Raw

HFR at up to 4K/120p.

It is claimed to offer more simultaneous

on-set monitoring outputs than any other

camera in its class, alongside a built-in

confidence monitor and LAN browser video

tap. Users can choose a combination of

2x 4K/UltraHD and 3x 2K/HD or 8x 2K/HD,

check each camera feed in multicam setups

through an integrated LAN connection,

and monitor remaining recording time all in

tandem. Multiple Cions can be set up and

controlled via a web browser.

“Cion is the culmination of years of R&D,

technical ingenuity and passion,” said

Nick Rashby, president, AJA Video Systems.

“It not only delivers an extraordinary film-

like image quality and accuracy, but offers

a unique feature set that facilitates a level

of flexibility and control in production

environments unlike anything else before

regardless of resolution.”

The sub-£7,000 camera feaures: a

4K APS-C sized CMOS sensor with an

electronic global shutter; 12-stops of

dynamic range; PL lens mount; multiple

3G-SDI/HD-SDI outputs; HDMI outputs; 2x

mic/line/48v XLR audio inputs; 2x LANC

control ports; LTC input; USB; Ethernet; and

a Thunderbolt connector.

Stand: G20

Dyno soars to XtremeSpeedGrass Valley is showing its new LDX

XtremeSpeed (LDX XS) 6x ultra-slow-

motion camera system, with the K2 Dyno

Replay system, which acts as a pan and

zoom interface for 6x replay. This allows

slo-mo operators to vary the speed of an

XtremeSpeed replay using its AnySpeed

technology and to use key frames to zoom

in on an area of interest in a critical replay.

Because there is far less motion blur with the

LDX XS than with standard 50Hz-frame-rate

cameras, there is more detail viewable for

zooming in on fast-moving sports action.

Also new are Ultra HD versions of Grass

Valley’s LDK system cameras. The B4-mount

cameras, use three 2/3-inch sensors, and

mean that users can zoom in just as much

as they would with a traditional HD camera

compared to larger-sensor 4K cameras,

offering deeper depth of field, which is

important for sports production. The cameras

will integrate with current camera control

systems, via fibre, and include: CLASS4K

(Chromatic Lens Aberration and Sharpness

Solution) to improve the sharpness of

broadcast lenses; and XF transmission for

full bandwidth transport. Ultra HD slo-mo

cameras are expected soon.

The new CopperHead 3430AP integrates

the existing CopperHead 3400 fibre

transceiver with the PowerPlus 3000 power

adapter to provide a single, more ergonomic,

multifunction unit. It supports 3D and dual-

link operation, and is smaller, with reduced

external cabling, than the existing system.

Stand: P06

Ergonomic controls:

Adjusting a focus

wheel on AJA’s

new Cion

Giving UAVs her best shot: AerialWorx’s director,

Stefanie Williams

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology39

Low-cost HC-HD300 studio cameraIkegami’s new “aggressively-priced”

HC-HD300 HD studio camera is making

its show debut. The compact, flexible

docking-style camera can be used with

a newly developed control system: the

FA-300 fibre adapter and BSF-300 base

station, which can provide power to

camera via a hybrid fibre cable.

The HC-HD300 has a 1/3-inch bayonet

lens mount and employs three 1/3-inch

CMOS progressive-scan 1920x1080

sensors, and offers a 58dB signal-to-noise

ratio and 2,000 lux sensitivity at F11 aperture

in 1080/50i mode. Other features include

focus assist and lens aberration correction.

It weighs 4.5kg including FA-300.

Also new is Ikegami’s HDK-97 Arri

large-sensor broadcast production camera

with internal HD to UHD upconversion

developed with Arri. The docking-style

camera includes Ikegami’s latest 3G FPGA-

based DSP, for complete real-time control

of all grey scale, colour, and detail functions.

A new 3G transmission system transports

video from camera to CCU, as well as 3G

transmission from CCU to camera.

For slow-mo applications, Ikegami has

the NAC Hi-Motion II sports broadcast

camera, delivering up to 20x slowdown.

Stand: F25

The entry-level Canon EOS C100 Mark II Super 35mm camera has been upgraded to deliver improved image quality, better in-camera recording quality and greater creative flexibility, plus easier operation and wireless sharing. There is also an improved, tiltable electronic viewfinder and a new flip-out OLED display (just one of many improvements that recognise that the C100 is often used by lone shooters).

It is the first Cinema EOS camera to get integrated Wi-Fi, for file transfer via FTP, and can record HD at up to 50/60p in both MP4 (at up to 35Mbps) and AVCHD (up to 28Mbps), or HD and SD, simultaneously to the two SD cards (and upload the lower bitrate version). There is also browser-based camera control via Wi-Fi.

It also has an extended ISO range of 320 to 102,400, for low-light use, and a new image processing system (based on the more powerful DIGIC DV 4 processor)

to reduce moiré and aliasing. Its Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology simplifies finding focus and switching between multiple subjects - it also has Face Detection AF for automatic recognition and focus tracking. A built-in microphone has been added to the camera body, enabling sound recording for continuity in the smallest possible camera configuration.Stand: G12

Fujinon’s “most interesting new lens” at BVE

is the A21x7.8 BERM/BERD, which “is a top

quality, lightweight telephoto zoom,” said

Stefan Czich of Fujinon distributor Pyser-SGI.

“This new lens is in the same size and

weight category as a standard 17/18:1 lens.

This means that you can use smaller filters.

The lens is around 1.5cm shorter and 400g

lighter than traditional 22/23:1 lenses.”

He believes it is “ideally suited to news

gathering or sports production where

the combination of a long reach and

lightweight body make for an easier

working day.”

Its focal length is 7.8-164mm (plus a

2x extender), with a maximum aperture of

f1.8 (7.8-109mm) to f2.7 (at 164mm), and

minimum object distance of 85cm. The four

different versions (depending on servo drive

unit) weigh from 1.61kg to 1.74kg.

Also new is the 1.97kg HA18x5.5

2/3-inch lens, which covers 5.5mm to

100mm and uses high-precision large-

diameter aspheric elements, designed with

Fujifilm’s optical simulation technology,

Stand: H49/D30

The C100 Mark II has been upgraded to better

serve self-shooters

In the dock: Ikegami’s

new HC-HD300

HD studio

camera

Mark-up for EOS C100

Shorter, but longer:

Fujinon’s new A21x7.8

zoom lens

Sony is showing its newly improved XDCAM

range of cameras, including the recently

shipping PXW-FS7, PXW-X200 and PXW-X70

models. The FS7, in particular, has attracted

“massive interest,” according to Robbie

Fleming, product marketing manager, Sony

Professional Solutions. “It’s been amazing.

We have a lot of back orders.” The X200

is also much in demand. “We can’t make

enough of them.”

The Super35 sensor FS7 is now available

with the new 28-135mm lens (as a package

– the FS7K). “It comes across as a really good,

all-round camera for freelance work, because

it’s very versatile. It can give a cinematic look

or run and gun,” said Fleming.

Being connected is also a key attraction.

“All our cameras are now wireless,” he added,

but they aren’t all yet 4K, as there is still a

large market for HD. “The 4K ability is only

one part of the attraction of the FS7. It also

records 180fps slow motion on board,”

at up to 600Mbps, and its lightweight

shoulder-mounted form factor is also

appealing. The X200 has three 1/2-inch

Exmor CMOS sensors, 17x zoom lens,

MPEG HD422 (50Mbps) recording, two

SxS media slots for simultaneous recording,

a versatile new Multi-Interface (MI) Shoe

and GPS data recording.

Stand: F50

Sony’s PXW-FS7 equipped with Arri’s new

professional camera accessories

Updated XDCAM in demand

Lightweight lens extends reach

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com February 2015 TVTechnology41

MARKETPLACE — BVE PREVIEW

Ultra HD gallery in the newsIf you are building a new studio, even for

news, it might as well be ready for Ultra

HD. This is the reasoning behind Celebro

Studios’ pioneering new 4K news gallery

in central London.

“Live news is definitely one of the more

demanding live television environments

and we saw an opportunity for a 4K ready

news gallery in the centre of London,”

explained Wesley Dodd, founder of

Celebro Studios.

The dry hire studio is based around an

UHD/4K live workflow using Blackmagic

Design equipment, with fully automated

playout server, audio control and camera

robotics. “We paired three Blackmagic

Studio Camera 4Ks with the Mark

Roberts Motion Control, which for us

has really unlocked the true potential of

Blackmagic’s studio cameras, giving us

a facility that rivals that of even the big

broadcasters, but at a fraction of

the cost.” The cameras can also be

operated manually.

It has an optical fibre/SDI backbone,

with video and audio distribution via

Blackmagic’s 20x20 Smart Videohub

router. “All of our inputs and outputs

are virtual so we can very quickly

route any source, sometimes multiple

times, to any output, and it automatically

recognises the incoming source

and destination so we don’t have

to worry about up or downscaling

any video,” he said.

All acquisition, monitoring and

recording is in UHD until transmission,

where it down converts to HD. The

three studio cameras and a single ceiling

mounted PTZ, are patched via the router

into the switcher, where a simple 4K

cut is made and then recorded on a

HyperDeck Studio Pro broadcast deck or

transmitted live. A second switcher is used

for virtual studio applications.

Choosing the ATEM switcher and

camera combination means it can rack

the cameras without a complex CCU

chain. “We are using Tokina’s new 4K cine

lenses, which are fully manual, and so

the robotics provide us with full control

over zoom, iris and focus, while the ATEM

Camera Control gives us full primary

colour correction.”

The company has production contracts

with BBC Worldwide and MTV in London

and in Moscow, where it has built a similar

UHD-ready studio that is currently HD.

Stand: K20

VariCam heads new camera line upPanasonic is showing its modular new VariCam, marking its return to high-end cinematography, as well as two remote cameras making their European show debuts.

The large-sensor VariCam 35 can shoot 4K and uses a recorder, developed with Codex, that can simultaneously record Raw, up to 12fps, plus 4K compressed using AVC Ultra onto Express P2 cards, and 2K and 1K proxies on to the same microP2 card, while the 2/3-inch chip VariCam HS version can record up to 240fps in HD and is being aimed mainly at natural history.

“The take up since we launched the camera in September has been highly impressive and we’ve had lots of positive feedback regarding the camera’s colour reproduction and workflow capabilities,” said Nigel Wilkes, group manager, Panasonic ProAV UK.

The new AW-HE130 pan-tilt-zoom camera is the successor to the popular AW-HE120. It has optical image stabilisation, three MOS sensors, IP streaming, and can be used for everything from lecture broadcasting to reality TV and documentary production; while the smaller, user-friendly single-sensor AW-HE40, with 30x optical zoom, is aimed at the lecture, conference and leisure

market. Both can be powered via a LAN cable, controlled remotely from a PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone, and have night mode for low light.

The new AJ-PX800 is the lightest (2.8kg) three-chip 2/3-inch shoulder-mount camcorder and offers full networking with the ability to stream from the camera at high quality with latency of less than one second, to do a two-way interview over a 4G network.

The lightweight new HC-X1000 camcorder can record UHD 60p/50p on an SD card, plus Cinema 4K. It has a compact optically-stabilised Leica 20x lens, with 40x intelligent zoom for HD, plus: three manual zoom, iris and focus rings; two-channel XLR audio; ND filters; and dual SD card slots.Stand: K40

Pro Tools 12 for Cloud CollaborationPro Tools 12, a new generation of the

digital audio software featuring new flexible

licensing options, is on show at BVE. Avid

is also announcing new innovations to

support artist collaboration and content

distribution

with Avid Cloud

Collaboration.

Pro Tools 12

allows customers to

either subscribe per

month or annually,

or to still buy the

digital audio suite

outright with a

perpetual licence.

Avid said the

subscription options

allow users to stay

current with future software updates and

innovations as soon as they are released via

the cloud, at no additional charge.

Avid Cloud Collaboration, initially to be

accessed by Pro Tools users with others

to follow, will enable artists to compose,

record, edit, and mix sessions working

with other Pro Tools users in the cloud, as

if they are all together in the same studio.

Built-in communication tools allow users

to engage with collaborators through

text or video chat directly from within Pro

Tools. Users can

invite other artists

to collaborate on

a session, or find

new collaborators

through the new

Avid Marketplace

Artist Community.

Other key

benefits include

the ability to post

sessions to your

own cloud storage

space and invite

others to collaborate, as well as share

audio and MIDI tracks, edits, mix changes,

automation. Users can keep track of

all contributors and version changes

with automatic and fully customisable

metadata tagging.

Stand: F60

Panasonic’s new VariCam comes in large sensor

and high-speed versions

Multiple Pro Tools 12 users can work on the same

cloud-based session at the same time

www.tvtechnologyeurope.com TVTechnology February 2015 42

MARKETPLACE — BVE PREVIEW

Multifunction monitors cover all basesNew audio and refined multiformat

monitors are on show, offering a

comprehensive battery of features.

Wohler’s new AMP1-16M dual-input SDI

audio monitor provides high-performance

monitoring of embedded audio in two

3G/HD/SD-SDI streams. The 1RU system

de-embeds and provides metering and

monitoring of any or all of the 16 audio

channels in the selected stream.

Bright 2.4in LED-backlit LCD displays

enable one-touch monitoring and

summing of any selected channel pairs

to built-in speakers, headphones, or XLR-

balanced analogue outputs.

The AMP1-16M monitor also features

remote access for setup and storage of

user-defined presets via Ethernet and

USB connections.

It offers gain adjustment/trim of

individual audio channels with the ability to

assign channels as left, right, or centre to

the internal audio system and the analogue

outputs. It can also offer both pass-through

of each SDI input and a re-clocked output

of the selected monitored SDI stream.

Refinements have also been made to

the AMP2-E16V audio/video processing

monitor. The unit features simultaneous

multi-format monitoring, quick program

selection, instant stereo downmix,

loudness monitoring, internal channel

mixing and audio delays.

Stand: L01

New 4KCAM camcorder product line launchedJVC Professional is showcasing its recently launched new 4KCAM camcorder product line, comprising of three new handheld camcorders and a remote head camera system. The new JVC GY-HM170 and GY-HM200 handheld camcorders feature a 1/2.3” CMOS sensor with a 12x optical/24x dynamic zoom lens, recording 4K Ultra HD and full HD files (H.264 4:2:2) at up to 50Mbps to readily-available memory cards. Other features include built-in ND filters, stereo microphone and 3.5mm audio input, with live 4K UHD output through a built-in HDMI connector. The GY-HM200 adds dual XLR audio inputs via an integrated handle with hot shoe and microphone mount, and is also JVC’s most affordable live streaming camcorder. The GY-LS300CHE handheld camcorder and GW-SP100E remote head

camera system (comprising camera head, a recording/playback device with foldable/detachable 7-inch HD LCD monitor and a wired camera remote control panel) each uses JVC’s 4K Super 35mm CMOS sensor with MFT lens mount. They record to non-proprietary SDHC and SDXC media cards in a variety of image formats, including 4K Ultra HD, full HD with 4:2:2 sampling, SD and web-friendly proxy formats. Stand E16

Multi-camera links via Wi-FiA Wi-Fi-based camera link for cable-free

multi-camera production is being released

by IDX. The CW-F25 uses standard 802.11n

technology to keep costs down, but to

deliver the quality needed to mix seamlessly

with wired camera systems it uses 4x4 MIMO

channels with OFDM/64QAM

modulation, for a maximum

data rate of 300Mbps.

It supports

H264/25Mbps high

profile video with four

channels of embedded

audio and timecode data,

plus a second video stream over the link

from an IP camera or the Gigabit Ethernet

connector on the receiver, which can be

used to route the main feed into an IP

server or network. IDX sales manager Neil

Marflitt believes that “most suppliers will

struggle to show wireless products within the

congested 5Ghz band” but expects to see

“a very high quality and reliable link” with the

CW-F25 as it uses beam forming technology,

with the added advantage of increasing its

wireless range to a maximum of 400m using

the standard antennas. Optional external

patch antennas give a range of up to 2km

where the delay is six frames.

Stand: L20 Additional reporting: Michael Burns, David Fox, Heather McLean and Philip Stevens

EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR James McKeownjmckeown@nbmedia.com

CONTRIBUTORS David Fox, Adrian Pennington, Barrie Smith, Davide Moro, Heather McLean, Philip Stevens, Michael Burns

NEWBAY MEDIA LLC CORPORATEPRESIDENT AND CEO Steve Palm

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Paul Mastronardi

CONTROLLER Jack Liedke

GROUP CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Denise Robbins

VICE PRESIDENT OF WEB DEVELOPMENT Joe Ferrick

PUBLISHER Steve Connollysconnolly@nbmedia.com

TV Technology Europe ISSN 2053-6674 (Print) ISSN 2053-6682 (Online) is published seven times annually by NewBay Media. ©2015 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved.

Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N18LN, England

Free subscriptions are available to professional broadcasting and audio visual equipment users. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome for review – send to James McKeown at the feedback address.

CONTACTS EDITORIAL +44 (0) 20 7354 6002 SALES +44 (0)207 354 6000

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Ben Ewlesbewles@nbmedia.com

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PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Davis White

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PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Jason Dowiejdowie@nbmedia.com

IDX’s new CW-F25TX is

designed for cable free

broadcast production

The 1RU AMP1-16M offers 16-channel

audio monitoring and quick adjustments

Fancy a new GY-HM200 handheld camcorder?

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