Newsletter from 02/12/2014
Linkin Park 4K: The Energy is Visible in the Images
MOBILE PRODUCTION
SIS Live Completes Delivery of New SNG Fleet to SKY News
Each truck carries SIS LIVE’s DriveForce antenna, the lightest high power, vehicle mounted satellite uplink system in the world. DriveForce’s reduced weight allows it to be installed on a smaller 3.2T vehicle, avoiding large vehicle speed restrictions and so enabling faster travel to the breaking news event. With a focus on simplicity of operation the design nevertheless offers everything needed for news gathering. On board equipment includes HD, SDI, fibre and wireless camera inputs, and the infrastructure for the installation of future IP solutions. The design and careful selection of technology enables a lone operator to manage the whole broadcast and transmission process, including driving, satellite transmission and camera operation.
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Red TX Standardises Studer Consoles in OB Vans for 96kHz Format
A little over three years after commissioning its second mobile recording unit, with 3D and 7.1 surround sound, premier location recording company, Red TX has upgraded its original Red 1 OB to give it 96kHz capability. Both Red I and Red II are equipped with HARMAN Studer Vista 8 consoles, with 96 mic amp capacity as standard; but by streamlining their original recording truck, with a new Studer SCore Live engine and faster computer, the Beaconsfield-based facility is able to maintain its high profile live event, film and television recording facilities at the cutting edge. With all microphone inputs now 24bit/96kHz with full DSP on every channel Red TX has already carried out a number of projects since the fit-out of its original vehicle, including Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) at Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, Red Bull Culture Clash and MTV Europe Music Awards in Glasgow.
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CEDAR DNS One is Installed in the Triofilm TV OB Trucks
Triofilm TV GmbH & Co. KG, based in Hamburg and Dusseldorf, has specialised in studio and location production since 1989, and the company's two HDTV OB (remote) vans are equipped with the latest audio-visual equipment for continuous use at Bundesliga soccer matches and large-scale shows for public and private stations. Both trucks have recently installed CEDAR's DNS One dialogue noise suppression software.
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STUDIO PRODUCTION
ABC TV Melbourne with Lawo by PAT
Australian national public broadcaster ABC takes delivery of two Lawo mc² consoles – one large Lawo mc²90 and one compact mc²56 – for its ABC TV studios in Elsternwick, Melbourne. Supply, configuration, installation and commissioning are carried out by Lawo’s Australian partner for audio and video broadcast equipment, Professional Audio & Television (PAT). The system, which was commissioned recently, consists of one Lawo mc²90 console with 105 faders and a Lawo 48 fader mc²56 console system. Lawo’s mc²90 flagship console core was supplied with 27 MADI ports, 96 AES3 inputs and outputs, 8 DSP cards including a redundant stand-by card, fully redundant controller cards and power supplies.
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NEP Australia Acquires Silk Studios
NEP Australia (formerly Global Television) has acquired Sydney’s Silk Studios – enhancing NEP’s international portfolio of studio, outside broadcast, video display and host broadcast assets. Clients will continue to enjoy the comprehensive shoot/edit/post-production/playout service and competitive pricing for which Silk Studios is renowned, but will now have access to the additional support and expertise of NEP’s worldwide network. The studios will continue to trade under the Silk Studios name and operate separately to NEP’s main studios at Media City, Eveleigh. NEP Australia’s Director of Sales, Andy Armstrong, will manage the studios on a day-to-day basis, with Harry Michaels acting as a consultant to ensure a seamless transition.
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VSM System Controls New ARD “Tagesschau” News Studio
The first transmission from the new ARD “Tagesschau” studio (Germany’s most prominent news program) took place April 2014 after conversion and modernisation work that had taken a number of months. The new studio sets new standards in audio-visual communication of information – with the most impressive feature being the 18 metre wide back projection wall onto which video material can be projected in real time during the programmes. This modernisation also included converting the whole production to HD quality. A key component of the new technology is L-S-B Broadcast Technologies’ VSM System, which assumes control of several tasks in the new studio complex.
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SPORTS
Red Bull Air Race 2014: Worth the Wait
After a three-year hiatus, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship came roaring back in 2014. The eight-stop 2014 Red Bull Air Race World Championship began in Abu Dhabi in March with subsequent stops in Rovinj, Croatia in April, Putrajaya, Malaysia in May, Gdynia, Poland in July, Ascot, United Kingdom in August, Dallas/Fort Worth, USA in September , and Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in October, before it arrived for the final in Spielberg, Austria, a sensational location for the sport. The Spielberg stop was the 58th overall Red Bull Air Race, a sport that has been staged in 18 countries since it was launched in 2003. As 12 of the world’s best pilots reunited in February for the season opener in Abu Dhabi, new rules and mandatory standardization of engines and propellers leveled the playing field. This year, the competition would be tighter than ever and would make small pilot errors even more costly for the championship. It was exciting racing right through to the season final in Spielberg, Austria.
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Live HDR Footage Captured by Grass Valley and EBU
Grass Valley recently collaborated with the European Broadcasting Union to capture High Dynamic Range (HDR) footage during a live event for the first time. A specially prepared Grass Valley LDX Series camera was employed at the August European Athletics championship in Zurich to capture HDR output in 1080p/50 in parallel with regular processed video output in 1080i/50. Together with host broadcaster tpc and EBU member SRG SSR the EBU initiated a project to shoot footage at the Zurich European Athletics Championships in August 2014 that would represent UHDTV Phase 2 requirements, such as HFR, HDR and higher resolution. The project was supported by: SRG SSR, tpc, ARRI, Grass Valley, Kamerawerk.
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ChyronHego Partners With Fraunhofer IIS to Market and Develop GoalRef
In its ongoing commitment to provide best-of-breed technologies for the world's most popular sports, ChyronHego today announced a new licensing agreement with the renowned Fraunhofer IIS. Under the agreement, ChyronHego will bring to market Fraunhofer's GoalRef system, a Goal-Line Technology (GLT) solution for measuring whether a goal has been scored or not. The Fraunhofer GoalRef system, which is licensed by FIFA, is a highly innovative approach to GLT that uses a magnetic field within the goal and a specially designed ball bladder within the balls supplied by most major ball manufacturers. The system can accurately and precisely determine whether a ball has crossed the goal-line or not, even if the ball is completely hidden from view.
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SHOWS
25th Anniversary: Fall of the Wall
When the infamous Berlin Wall finally ‘fell’ in 1989, it was not only an event of national importance it touched the entire world as a peaceful demonstration led to the end of an authoritarian regime. The recent celebrations at the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) heralded the slogan “Mut zur Freiheit” (Courage for freedom). One of the many highlights was the “LICHTGRENZE” (Border of lights), a project tracing 15 kilometres of the former Wall’s course with 8,000 white helium filled balloons. To the sound of Beethoven’s 9th symphony played by the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, these balloons were released one-by-one and flew up into the night sky over Berlin.
The grandMA Story
The Clay Paky Story
The GLP Story
The WIcreatio Story
This is All Great for Robe and Alt-J
Indie rockers Alt-J’s new album “This is All Yours” rocketed straight to number one in the UK and number four on the US charts, and the band has embarked on an international tour in support of this second studio work, complete with a lighting and visual design by New York-based Jeremy Lechterman of Fragment Nine. Jeremy – known for his fresh, innovative and lateral approach to lighting and several interesting up-and-coming and creative artists prominent on his CV – started using Robe products in his design work earlier this year for O.A.R.’s US summer tour. For the first UK leg of Alt-J’s “This Is All Great” tour, he specified 39 x Robe CycFX 8 moving LED battens and for the first – and current - US leg, the design is also utilizing 23 x Robe Pointes.
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XL Video Supplies Camera Package for Fat Freddy’s Drop at Ally Pally
XL was asked to provide an HD camera system and IMAG projection for the show. To ensure the enthusiastic audience had the best view from anywhere in the venue, XL supplied 3 x Sony HXC-100 cameras plus robocams, paired with 4 x Barco 12k projectors doubled stacked on to XL’s 16x12 ECT screens. The set-up was also used for opening DJ Mr Scruff. Two of the cameras were situated in the pit, and used XL’s track and dolly system for the close-ups, with a further static HXC-100 at front of house for longer shots. Cameras were operated by Jane Petrie, Mattie Jobson, and Andy Joyes. In addition to the IMAG in the venue, Video Director Richard Ellis and Engineer Dhanuka Karunanayake made a fantastic record of the show for later promotional use by the band.
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Sennheiser Still on Top for Kylie Kiss Me Once Tour
Pop Princess Kylie Minogue has been touring Europe this autumn before heading back to her native Australia. Sennheiser microphones and in ear monitor systems have played a vital role in Eighth Day Sound’s audio production. The tour’s microphone package features Sennheiser SKM 5200 series mics with MD 5235 capsules and EM 3732-II receivers, with monitoring via Sennheiser SR2050 IEM transmitters and EK2000 IEM belt packs.
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PRODUCTS
Riedel Gear Supports Live Productions From Red Bull eSports Studio
Riedel Communications announced that its MediorNet real-time network, RockNet audio system, and Artist digital matrix intercom system are being used in the Red Bull eSports studio at Red Bull Media House's North American Headquarters in Santa Monica, California. The Riedel gear is enabling the production of events, as well as the live streams watched by millions of fans. For example, one eSports broadcast format that's produced out of the Red Bull eSports studio pits two video gaming teams of five players against one another. As they play, MediorNet Modular frames take in a total of 20 HDMI POV video signals from the gaming consoles, convert them into HD-SDI, and carry them to the control room. The POV cameras focus on the faces and hands of all 10 players, with additional HD-SDI cameras positioned on the game commentators.
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AXON's Cerebrum Makes Liaoning HD Broadcast Master Control More Intelligent
Cerebrum can control and monitor thousands of devices supporting the SNMP protocol, AXON's ACP protocol or Generic Devices protocol. It can also control and monitor at the same time matrixes, broadcasting switchers, multiviewers, peripheral devices, waveform monitors, encoders, fiber transmissions and so on.In case of Liaoning Cerebrum is used to monitor the two large screens which are used to display the signal flow chart, the geographical locations, the real-time monitoring of the entire broadcast signal working condition, and the key nodes in the signal window which show low real-time video streams. Cerebrum enables a simple, clear and intuitive way of setting, adjusting and judging for the personnel on duty of any faults by a sound and light alarm.
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Dolce Sport Purchases Enterprise sQ for News and Sports
Dolce Sport TV channels have purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ fast turnaround news and sports production system. The system was supplied through Quantel’s system integration partner, Studiotech, following a bidding procedure. Dolce Sport are the sports TV channels of Telekom Romania Communications S.A. (former Romtelecom S.A. and arm of OTE and Deutsche Telekom Groups). One of the biggest TV providers in Romania, Telekom Romania Communications reported almost 1.4 million subscribers at the end of Q2 2014. The Enterprise sQ system enables full HD editing to begin the moment media ingest begins, with edited packages ready to go to air, web and mobile/tablet the second they are completed.
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3D/4K ARISING
Quantel Pablo Rio Powers up to Deliver World's First 8K 60p Post Workflow
Quantel unveiled a new Pablo Rio working in realtime at 8K 60p at InterBEE 2014. The new Pablo Rio system makes 8K 60p post-production practical as 8K moves out from the laboratory into real-world production. The new Pablo Rio 8K will ship next year. Pablo Rio is a software high quality color correction and finishing system that runs on high performance PC hardware. The new Pablo Rio 8K has significant power-ups compared to the systems shipping today.One is the realtime 8K 60p input and output via 16 3G SDI interfaces using the latest AJA Corvid 88 multichannel I/O boards to achieve the necessary number of connections in a practical unit.
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AJA Announces Ship Date for the CION Production Camera
AJA Video Systems announced that the company has started accepting orders for the new CION production camera, with an anticipated initial ship date by the end of December. CION is both ergonomic and lightweight with unparalleled connectivity, and is capable of shooting at 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD resolutions direct to Apple ProRes or AJA Raw. AJA pioneered professional ProRes support with the Io HD, the first non-Apple device to encode ProRes, introduced in 2007, and then the Ki Pro recorder, introduced in 2009. CION builds on these achievements by offering in-camera recording directly to proven AJA Pak SSD media in the Apple ProRes family of codecs - including 12-bit ProRes 444 - for pristine image capture at up to 4K/60p.
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Holdan to Support Panasonic in VariCam Launch
Long term Panasonic distributor Holdan has taken delivery of the newly launched 4K VariCam and will support the manufacturer’s launch in the UK. Holdan has been a distribution partner of Panasonic for over seven years. The move to distribute VariCam adds to the existing lines that it represents which includes broadcast and professional camcorders, PTZ cameras and business LED displays. The distributor hopes it can use the VariCam to break in to the costume drama market, which is filmed largely around its Derbyshire base.
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I-MOVIX X10 UHD 4K Captures the Action in Sky Sports’ Ryder Cup UHD Trial
Broadcasting history was made when Sky Sports pioneered full end-to-end production in 4K during The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, chosen as the testing ground, with 4K ultra-motion replays provided by the I-MOVIX X10 UHD. Sky Sports covered the entire week’s action at The Ryder Cup as a full production trial for 4K broadcasting. This test contributes to help them better understand the technology and the changes that are happening in this field, and it follows their first 4K test broadcast, showing West Ham vs. Stoke City on 31 August 2013. The Ryder Cup UHD trial involved Telegenic's T25 with ten 4K cameras and the industry-leading production servers from EVS, Grass Valley and Sony. Fletcher London provided the I-MOVIX X10 UHD ultra-motion system, running during the entire event at 500fps to capture the action at the club head and in the crowd.
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