Newsletter from 30/12/2015
NCAM Augments UEFA Champions League Coverage for BT Sport
As the exclusive UK broadcaster of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, BT Sport recently upgraded its studio to add augmented reality capabilities. This included the installation of Ncam’s Live tracking systems on a rolling jib, a Steadicam and a robotic dolly. The jib allows free movement around the studio, as well as high beauty shots which include an intricate night-time 3D map of Europe with models of the stadiums in use, all generated in RT Software’s graphics engine. The map, and other graphic elements, must be rigidly locked to the live camera outputs.
MOBILE PRODUCTION
Timeline\TV UHD1
Outside Broadcast and Post Provider Timeline Television has designed and built its first purpose built Ultra HD 4K OB unit. The new unit was built in conjunction with BT Sport who have awarded Timeline a four-year contract for the provision of Ultra HD 4K OB’s to provide content for the new BT Sport Ultra HD channel. The first UHD broadcast will be the Community Shield. UHD events will be broadcast throughout the year, each week, and will include UEFA Champions League, Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and Aviva Premiership Rugby. The unit launched in August and is available for hire for both sporting events and other production genres such as the arts, entertainment and natural history.
Fi Media Broadcast OB6
Based in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, Fi production is a full-service video production and post-production company, operating under creative swing of a long time TV industry professional Izidor Farič. Operating across numerous media channels and categories, we create dynamic TV and RA commercials, presentational and industrial films, music videos, we produce original soundtracks, TV shows and broadcast live events. Our talented and experienced team of creators helps us meet the toughest of the customer’s demands, ensuring that their projects are creatively transitioned from concept to completion. Our own editing and grading suites, synchro studio and high-end in-house video equipment enable fast and high quality services and products which deliver a powerful message and leave a lasting impression. Latest addition to its services is the HD OB6.
CSP Mobile Productions Picks Joseph Electronics
CSP's new fiber system is installed in the company's newest mobile unit, CSP HD 4, and is configured for eight transmits and four returns of HD video. Before getting the DFT solution, CSP used heavy coax looms or single-channel fiber solutions. In the offseason, CSP deploys the system to other events, such as MMA fights and, more recently, on behalf of the Boston Athletics Association at the Boston Marathon for supplying HD monitor feeds to the Boston Public Library. "We designed the DFT Series to be the standard in economical signal transport over fiber so that customers like CSP can accommodate demanding events with ease. DFT-12-JR gives CSP a low-cost solution for the bidirectional flow of up to 12 video signals on a single fiber, which saves the company the time and trouble of dealing with coax in a crowded truck compound," said Yohay Hahamy, president and CEO of Joseph Electronics.
IP PRODUCTION
DutchView Infostrada Selects Grass Valley’s IP Camera Solution
The cameras will be used by NEP’s newly acquired DutchView Infostrada businesses, part of the purchase of Consolidated Media Industries (CMI) that closed in August this year. By using the cameras connected to the IP solution, DutchView Infostrada will benefit from a production workflow called “cloud production,” doing live, remote production where cameras are connected to an IP network. Cloud production centralizes all production operations in a data center, reducing the amount of equipment needed on location and in studio. Fiber links will connect the event, studio and centralized galleries, providing more content choice and a higher quality that’s faster and greener.
Riedel MetroN Streamlines Signal Distribution for 2015 Red Bull Air Race
Deploying the new MetroN core router along with its MediorNet real-time media network, Riedel Communications radically reduced the signal-distribution infrastructure required to support the Red Bull Air Race World Championships. Throughout the season, this new solution enabled Riedel to reduce the required hardware by 75 percent while increasing available bandwidth. Providing a massive 640 gigabytes of real-time signal-routing in just 2 RU, Riedel's MediorNet MetroN fiber router enables users to configure robust and highly redundant MediorNet installations using less hardware and cabling. The addition of this fiber router to the MediorNet systems typically implemented for the Red Bull Air Race World Championship facilitates the transport of large volumes of high-bandwidth signals without compromising the flexibility of the network.
SPORT EVENTS
NEP Delivers 2015 Presidents Cup Golf Tournament
NEP Australia facilitated four days (8-11 October) of gripping PGA action from Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon on behalf of the host broadcaster, NBC Sports Group, and unilateral broadcast clients PGA TOUR, Golf Channel, Jupiter TV Japan, Chinese Golf Network and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) South Korea. The Presidents Cup tournament has been held outside the United States on five occasions and NEP Australia (formerly Global Television) has facilitated two of them, delivering Melbourne in 2011 and now Korea. 38 tonnes of broadcast technical equipment were shipped to Incheon via sea and air from Sydney, and the NEP team laid more than 42 kilometres of cabling and set up the infrastructure to support this massive international broadcast. A total of 54 high definition cameras captured every shot.
Riedel Takes on Multiple Roles at TORONTO 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games
Technology from Riedel played a starting role at the recently completed TORONTO 2015 Pan American Games and Parapan Am Games, supporting assistive hearing services, wired and wireless communications, and signal transport at nearly every venue and at the opening and closing ceremonies. The Pan American and Parapan Am Games are the world’s third largest international multi-sport games, surpassed in size and scope only by the Olympic Summer Games and the Asian Games. A primary goal of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/ParaPan Am Games was to ensure that all spectators have access to the same experience. To that end, assistive hearing and audio descriptive services of the performances and announcer broadcasts were available in English, French, and Spanish through FM-transmitted devices supplied by Riedel.
Robe BMFL Blades for All Africa Games Opening Ceremony
Robe’s BMFL Blade fixture continues to be a popular choice for designers of large scale ceremonies and events needing some serious power and effect – the latest being the Opening ceremony of the 2015 All Africa Games in Brazzerville, Republic of the Congo (République du Congo). French based creative event production designers Concept K were brought on-board by the With Up agency and commissioned to create the event’s lighting and visual design – which also included eye-catching projections onto the field-of-play at the 60,000 capacity Stade Municipal de Kintele venue. The overall event production company was Richard Attias & Associates. Jérôme Pasteur was the chief project manager for With Up and the OC show was directed by Fanny Moreau.
Novatech Shines with The Diamonds
The Australian Netball Diamonds crowned their 2015 Netball World Cup campaign with their 11th title, beating out 15 other nations, including arch rivals New Zealand in the grand final. A crowd of just under 17,000 at Sydney’s Allphones Arena watched the Diamonds emerge triumphant, and Novatech Creative Event Technology were on hand to make sure that the final, and every game in the 10 days leading up to it, were presented with the best possible audio and technical production. Novatech partnered with the Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015 as their Technical Production Team, overseeing production for all their games, events around Sydney’s Olympic Park. In addition to providing PA and support in the Arena itself, Novatech also handled preliminary and qualify games in the neighbouring Netball Central, the opening and closing ceremonies, presentations, functions FanFEST and special events.
SHOW EVENTS
Designing Tegen de Sterren Op Live
Creative lighting, video and visual design specialist Painting with Light brought their imagination and flair to six special live recordings of popular Belgian comedy / impressionist TV show ‘Tegen de Sterren Op’, designing the set, lighting and visuals for producers Studio 100 and DEDS IT. To be broadcast on VTM, the action took place over three days at the 6000 capacity Lotto Arena in Antwerp. The Painting with Light team was led by Luc Peumans, who has also designed set and lighting for the most recent series of Tegen de Sterren Op studio based shows. Wanting to replicate key visual elements from the TV show, but enlarged to capture the scale of the arena sized production, the design featured a striking LED screen portal / pros arch measuring 8 metres high by 16 metres wide.
dbn Lights 2015 Ramsbottom Festival
dbn Lighting from Manchester were delighted to return to the picturesque town of Ramsbottom in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, UK, a deep valley steeped in history nestling amidst the stunning scenery of the west Pennine moors – for the annual Ramsbottom Festival. The 5000 capacity truly ‘boutique’ music event is action-packed with fun, adventure, good vibes and great music for all the family. It’s the fifth year that dbn has lit the event’s main stage in which time the production has grown steadily under the direction of Roy Fernley of ETS, with whom dbn regularly works on other shows in and around Manchester.
Robe BMFLs Help Kick off NBC Sunday Night Football 2015 Season
NBC's 2015 “Sunday Night Football” Open with Carrie Underwood features 34 x Robe BMFL Spots which were specified by Los Angeles based LD Benoit Richard from Millennium Lighting Design, Inc. who was charged with creating all the theatrical and effects lighting for the shoot. This follows his great success utilizing Robe Pointes and CycFX 8 fixtures for last year’s intro. The high energy 2015 SNF Open features another new and rousing rendition of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” sung by Underwood. The shoot location changed this year as the production team took over one of the large sound stages at Warner Brothers Studios in L.A.
PRODUCTS
New Tiffen Steadicam M-1 looms large in Japan
TOHO Studios, the legendary Tokyo production house responsible for the original Godzilla and its current remake, as well as Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa, has purchased the new Tiffen Steadicam M-1 camera stabiliser for all its current and future feature projects. Senior Cameraman Kosuke Yamada has been looking at the M-1 since its launch, and was further excited about bringing a rig to Japan after he completed the 6 Day SOA (Steadicam Operators Association) Classic workshop in the US with Jerry Holway and Steadicam’s inventor Garrett Brown. Assisting him on the language front during the workshop was Tiffen / Steadicam's US sales manager Dan Ikeda, one of Tiffen's senior workshop instructors.
NEP turns to Calrec Audio once again for new OB unit
U.S.-based global outside broadcast (OB) and facilities company NEP has installed Calrec Apollo and Artemis audio consoles into a new OB truck to cover professional golf and football in the U.S. "NEP introduced Calrec to the U.S. marketplace with two S series desks in 1996, and Calrec has been our console of choice since then," said George Hoover, chief technology officer of NEP Group. "A feature-rich, great-sounding, and reliable desk drove that first purchase nearly 20 years ago, and it has been a pleasure working with Calrec on the evolution of its desks to help meet the ever more complex needs of audio for remote and studio production."
AJA Technology Powers Dynamic Video Wall Content for Katy Perry’s ‘Prismatic’ Tour
Cole Gion is the man behind the scenes quietly powering AV for live event productions across the globe. Recently, the AV systems engineer and ProCraft Media owner trekked across the U.S., Europe and Asia, supporting video production for Katy Perry’s “Prismatic” concert tour. In the pop star’s typical over-the-top style, the show offers fans a visual cornucopia of neon costumes, illuminated props and laser projections. The stage is adorned with large LED walls that screen video clips throughout the performance, providing context for the action on stage. To cue up the content on time for the Asia leg of the tour, Gion banked on an extensive workflow, with video input, output, conversion, scaling and recording powered by a combination of AJA gear, including ROI and HD5DA Mini-Converters; Io 4K capture and output hardware; and Ki Pro recorders.
4K / 8K ARISING
FUJIFILM UK Ltd and ES Broadcast announce major acquisition of 4K UHD lenses
This is the latest order in a row of recent acquisitions for the newly developed FUJINON 2/3-inch 4K UHD lenses, it can be viewed as a clear indicator that the TV broadcast market migration to the new 4K UHD format is picking up pace. The signing parties were represented by the owners of ES Broadcast Mr.Taggart, Mr. Saunders, Mr. Toru Takahashi (Director, Senior Vice President & General Manager Optical Device & Electronic Imaging Div.) at Fujifilm Corporation and Fujifilm UK Sales Manager Mr. Ian O’Connor. ES Broadcast Hire ordered a total of twenty-six (26) 4K UHD Series lenses; thirteen (13) UA80x9BESM EFP Box lenses and thirteen (13) UA22x8BERD ENG lenses.
TERN launches Insight, UltraHD factual entertainment channel
On Monday, October 5, TERN (Television Entertainment Reality Network) was launching Insight, an UltaHD/4K factual entertainment channel on Astra. The new channel launched during a special event at this year’s MIPCOM in Cannes and will be available as a free-to-air service on Astra at 19.2 degrees East. Insight is the fourth Ultra HD channel on this orbital position, which already houses Pearl.tv UHD, UHD1 by Astra / HD+ and Fashion 4k. Insight will reach around 60 million homes in Europe and India, in partnership with satellite operator SES, India’s iTV Network, Russia’s Tricolor DTH platform, and broadcast facilities company United4All. TERN is headquartered in Hilversum, the Netherlands, but set up with capital from General Satellite in St Petersburg, Russia.
RT Software Standardizes on AJA Corvid
RT Software’s first system to integrate Corvid 88 is a tOG-VR 3D solution currently deployed at BT Sports to facilitate exclusive 4K broadcasts of the 2015/2016 UEFA Champions League season. As part of the launch of BT Sports’ new 4K channel and studio upgrade, RT Software supplied and assisted with the implementation of the augmented reality solution that delivers studio floor graphics during demanding live broadcasts. RT Software integrated Corvid 88 into the live studio workflow to facilitate the real-time render of on-air broadcast graphics. The in-studio setup consists of up to four cameras, each with its own render PC using Corvid cards.