SuperSlowMotion and Beyond

TNDV Applies Diverse Mobile Production Skillset for Academy of Country Music Events

TNDV has five mobile production trucks and several flypacks crossing the country every week, with production teams working across multiple cities and locations on any given day.  Occasionally, the stars align and several TNDV productions converge on the same city on the same date.  This was the case in April, when the company sent its two largest trucks and a flypack to Las Vegas for three shoots, each with very diverse production requirements across live TV, post and professional AV environments. The shoots were all tied to the Academy of Country Music, which held its annual ACM Awards and second-ever ACM Party for a Cause Festival in two separate city locations.  TNDV was tapped for the live ACM Red Carpet show at the MGM Grand in advance of the ACM Awards.  The all-HD, multi-camera production aired live on the Great American Country Network, with TNDV handling all live acquisition, graphics, switching and instant replay of country’s biggest stars as they descended on the venue.

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AKK TV Powers up EVS Technology for Live Coverage of Grand Prix European Motor Racing

AKK TV, a German OB facility, has upgraded all of its EVS production servers to enable Austrian public broadcaster ORF’s live TV coverage of this season’s major motor racing competition in Europe – starting with the recent Spanish Grand Prix motor race in Barcelona. EVS, the leading provider of live video production systems, strengthened its long-standing relationship with AKK TV by facilitating the upgrade of its existing XT2 servers to XT3 live production servers and adding an LSM Connect tablet-based solution for instant access to, and control of, all clips and playlists. For ORF’s Grand Prix workflow, AKK TV employs XT3 servers to ingest multiple feeds and playout highlights packages and pre-recorded interviews. The LSM Connect allows the operator to instantly access clips, integrate metadata and create and edit playlists on-the-fly via its direct connection to the LSM remote and XT3.

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Video Europe Debuts C2S-Built OBVan 3

Video Europe’s newest outside broadcast vehicle – a 16-camera, double expanding truck built by C2S Systems, the broadcast integration arm of WTS Group – has carried out its first production at Chelsea FC’s Player of the Year awards in London. And hot on the heels of the 26-tonne vehicle’s debut outing, the two companies have agreed a £1.35m project for C2S to build a further vehicle – an eight-camera OB truck – and a flypack, Video Europe’s second, as part of the film and broadcast equipment rental company’s ongoing expansion. Having covered Chelsea’s end-of-season awards ceremony at their Stamford Bridge ground on Monday (12 May), the new 16-camera truck next heads to Monaco for Marcor International’s production of the World Music Awards on 27 May.

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NEP Installs Calrec Audio Console at London's Wimbledon TV Studios Production Complex

Roll to Record, NEP's U.K.-based provider of custom studios and control rooms, has installed a console from Calrec Audio in its permanent studio operation at the Wimbledon TV Studios complex in London. The permanent installation eliminates the need to install a flyaway console every time NEP does a show at Wimbledon Studios, saving both time and money. "Having the new Calrec console in place means we can easily attract more customers to our production service at Wimbledon Studios," said Paul Fournier, head of sound at NEP Roll to Record. "Having a Calrec console in a facility always sells. Calrec is a well-known brand with proven reliability, and there are plenty of freelancers who already know how to operate the consoles. That's why we are a Calrec company."

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ARD-aktuell Goes HD for News with Quantel

German broadcaster ARD-aktuell went on-air in April with a full HD service for all its news broadcasts, with production powered by a Quantel Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround production system. ARD-aktuell, whose flagship ‘Tagesschaü’ program is the most-watched daily news show in Germany, has relied on Quantel technology for news production since 2006. The move to all-HD production required a major upgrade of ARD-aktuell’s Quantel system, all carried out while daily news production operations continued unaffected. The new HD Enterprise sQ system supports around 100 sQ Cut desktop editors on the journalists’ desktops, which are fully integrated with ARD-aktuell’s NRCS. In addition, ten Quantel craft editing workstations handle production of high production value news packages. The Enterprise sQ system is split into two zones to provide additional redundancy and has storage for 600 hours of HD – more than enough to keep a full week’s media instantly available to all users of the system, including journalists and editors working on the weekly Sunday news round-up show, ‘Wochenspiegel’.

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Clay Paky Sharpys Beat the British Weather for Celebrity Big Brother 2014

This year popular British TV series ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ evicted each voted out participant along a ‘catwalk of shame’ under the piercing, bright spotlight of the Clay Paky Sharpy. Mahal used 32 Clay Paky Sharpys, encased in watertight Clay Paky ‘IGLOO’ domes and positioned them in various locations outside and on top of the Big Brother House. “By placing Clay Paky Sharpys on top of the Big Brother house and in carefully chosen locations on site I managed to create something quite special,” adds Mahal. “I used a narrow gobo in the Sharpys to achieve a intense, laser style look. The addition of smoke bought definition to the Sharpy atmosphere and because the fixtures are so bright they helped maintain a saturation of colour outside.”

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Going Into Production

HBS teams from each department have been steadily filling their space within the IBC for the past few weeks, with the Production Operations Centre (POC) within the Production area the latest to take shape. The POC is home to the key editorial personnel and facilitates all workflow with regards to editorial and operational decisions. The centralised ‘newsroom’ style of the POC enables a constant information flow and coordination that benefits content creators. Approximately 300 staff members will be based in the Production areas of the IBC, working on every aspect of the broadcast operation from the facilities in Hall 3 of the IBC.

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FOX Sports Introduces Antelope PICO Polecam for A-League Final in Australia

The Antelope PICO Polecam recently appeared down under with FOX Sports for the Australian A-League Final. The facility was introduced to Fox Sports by the multi-national solutions provider Gearhouse Broadcast. While FOX Sports uses other Ultra Motion Cameras they are all much larger. The small size of the PICO, which was mounted to a PoleCam behind the goal, allows vision of angles never seen before in Australian football coverage. Todd Procter, Head of Innovations and Outside Broadcast Special Events, said the team ran the PICO at 350 fps (14x faster than a normal broadcast camera), capturing all the goal mouth action and replaying key moments.

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Tightrope Media Systems ZEPLAY Enhances Fan Experience For Ottawa Senators NHL Games

The Ottawa Senators recently upgraded the production capabilities of its multipurpose home arena, Canadian Tire Centre, focusing on a new LED score board, cameras, fiber infrastructure and a complete control room overhaul. The control room project included replacing its older SD gear with new, all-digital HD switchers, routers and replay system that would meet the production crew’s specific requirements. The production team selected two ZEPLAY slo-mo instant replay solutions for sports from Tightrope Media Systems, citing ease of use, durability, and quick and easy access to game action as benefits – all while offering exceptional value for its price.

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Robe For Clash of the Choirs 2014

For the second year running Pretoria South Africa based Blond Productions are supplying full technical production – lighting, video and sound – including Robe moving lights – and design for the popular South African TV talent competition, Clash of The Choirs. The 10 ‘final’ performance episodes this year involve seven hand-picked choirs performing several different pieces of work each week. The show is being recorded in the Victory Theatre, Orange Grove, Johannesburg and is broadcast twice weekly by Mzansi Magic. It is again expected to be one of the ‘most watched’ series on SA television and highlights the country’s propensity for vocal talent. Lighting for this year’s show is a co-design between Peter Rieck - who did the first series – and Ryan Lombard, both of whom specified the Robe ROBIN MMX Spots and ROBIN LEDBeam 100s.

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Philips Vari-Lite VL3000 range provides '20/20' lighting for Justin Timberlake

Live music lighting designer Nick Whitehouse is currently out on the road for a year long tour with pop superstar Justin Timberlake and he has chosen to specify Philips Vari-Lite's VL3000 range of luminaires as the backbone of his stylish and dynamic design. Though 2014 the tour will visit some of the world's biggest arenas in Europe, America, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. With such a gruelling schedule Whitehouse needed robust and consistent luminaires that would also give him plenty of creative options. He also wanted a luminaire that was ubiquitous worldwide. To that end he tested a number of products before settling on the Vari-Lite fixtures.

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MerleFest 2014: The Tradition Continues with DiGiCo

Country music superstars Alan Jackson and Merle Haggard, as well as bluegrass icons Dr. Ralph Stanley and Ricky Skaggs, were among the 130 acts over four days in late April whose tunes wafted pristinely from MerleFest 2014. As has been the case for the past 26 years, DiGiCo consoles processed much of the music emanating from the Wilkesboro, NC festival’s 13 stages, helping to cement MerleFest’s reputation as a highly celebrated perennial American music event. MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, son of bluegrass legend Doc Watson, as a fundraiser for Wilkes Community College and to celebrate “traditional plus” music, a term coined by Doc Watson to describe the wide variety of musical genres and styles celebrated at MerleFest.

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EVS XT3 Servers Integrate Seamlessly with new Grass Valley LDX XS Camera

The latest EVS XT3 live video production server offers full support for the latest LDX HiSpeed (LDX HS™) 3X and LDX XtremeSpeed (LDX XS™) 6X Super Slow-Motion Cameras from Grass Valley. Existing XT3 customers can integrate these cameras into their existing workflow without the need for any additional equipment or the extra cost. EVS XT3 servers have been supporting 3G already since 2011 enabling easy integration with other High Speed camera systems available on the market. By adding full support for the Grass Valley LDX 6X High Speed Super Slow Motion camera, live Super Slow Motion replays can now be fully managed and controlled via EVS Multicam LSM. Leading Asian facilities provider Broadcast Solutions is planning to use its XT3 fleet along with recently released LDX XtremeSpeed cameras to offer unique 6x Super Motion replays to its customers.

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Lawo Releases Major Update for mc²-Systems with Software V5.0

Software version 5.0 for all Lawo MKII mc² mixing consoles and routers will be available from 15th May. As with all Lawo software releases, version 5.0 is free of charge for all existing customers, and represents a major upgrade to functionality and operation. Version 5.0 introduces the all-new AutoMix feature. In contrast to existing systems, AutoMix automatically balances mono, stereo and surround-sources for a variety of different applications. For talk shows or panel discussions, for example, AutoMix ensures users never miss a fader raise and always have the right mic open in time. A completely new application would be to use AutoMix during the broadcast production of sports events and shows, where it can be used to mix the commentators and international sound, reducing spill from the crowd and avoiding sound coloration from mics when multiple commentators are working. In this application, the AutoMix works as gentle bi-directional ducking.

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LiveU Deploys Service Packages for Global Broadcasters at the FIFA World Cup 2014™

LiveU has revealed the scale of its technology and service support for customers at the FIFA World Cup 2014™ in Brazil. Over 200 LiveU units will be deployed in the 12 host cities across Brazil by media companies from over 30 countries. LiveU units will offer live video transmission, as well as hot spot connectivity via the new LiveU DataBridge solution, which turns any LiveU unit into a bonded cellular hotspot for any kind of Internet usage on any device. LiveU’s support team will be on the ground in the different locations, offering onsite 24/7 support in multiple languages during the tournament.

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DPA Miniature Microphones Chosen For The Bodyguard

The hit stage musical of The Bodyguard, currently playing at the Adelphi Theatre in London, is relying on DPA's d:screet™ 4060 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones to provide amplification for all members of the cast who have spoken lines. Written by Alexander Dinelaris and based on the 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, the stage version of The Bodyguard features Beverley Knight in the role of Rachel Marron, with former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke taking over from June 2nd 2014. DPA microphones have long been popular with the sound teams working on theatre productions, particularly those in the West End and on Broadway. The rugged nature of the company's miniature microphones, combined with their ability to deliver great quality audio even when hidden in wigs and costumes, have made them enduring favourites.

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Thomson Video Networks Enables Teracom to Deliver Ultra HD Over DVB-T2

Sweden's Teracom, a leading provider of technical infrastructure and network solutions for media distribution and communications, is using Thomson Video Networks' award-winning ViBE™ VS7000 video system, NetProcessor 9030/40 multiplexer, and Sapphire MPEG stream server to demonstrate a complete transmission chain for DVB-T2 delivery of HEVC-encoded video. To enable delivery of Ultra HD content that significantly improves the home viewing experience, Teracom has combined its DVB-T2 transmission capability with the exceptional HEVC compression efficiency enabled by the ViBE VS7000 and the DVB-T2 gateway processing provided by the NetProcessor multiplexer.

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Ultra-HD TV Shipments top 1m in March

The market for Ultra-HD TV panels reached a significant new benchmark in March when global shipments exceeded 1 million units for the first time, driven by vastly increased deliveries from the industry’s three largest makers of the high-end panels, according to a report from IHS Technology. UHD TV panel shipments amounted to 1.1 million units in March, nearly a threefold increase from 384,300 units a month earlier in February. The gains are even more spectacular when measured from the same time a year ago in March 2013, when total UHD TV panels had not yet cracked the 150,000 mark.

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