Newsletter from 18/05/2018
Tomorrow's Entertainment
Everything is changing at the speed of light … everything is in flux … everything is play when it comes to creation, delivery and consumption. As long as you understand what the content industry will be like in 2041 - 25 years from now, tomorrow will take care of itself. By 2041, not even your grandparents will be able to tell kids about the days that movies were sprocketed, 35mm moved up to 70mm and stereo sound was becoming popular with just an analog trace on the edge of the film. Today’s digital natives will be Millennials in 2041, carrying forward the habits they developed in their early years. They will simultaneously create content, edit it, post it on social media and carry on conversations with a constantly changing pool of “friends”. They will literally be documenting/uploading/sharing everything--instantly. And they will lose interest just as fast. The 1-5-minute life/impulse moments will be delivered to people based on their interests, mood, needs and curiosities supported by very appropriate/personal ads.
MOBILE PRODUCTION
CITVC OBVans and Flyaway Systems
CITVC Huan Ya, a subsidiary company of China Central Television, holds a large number of professional television broadcast equipment, known as the high-end production equipment and service supplier specializing in broadcast coverage and international feed. Huan Ya is qualified with an experienced bilingual technician team, has spread its footprints across Asia-Pacific, served variety competitive sports and hundreds of productions, such as golf, motor sports, athletics, basket ball, soccer, ice hockey and etc. Undertook arduous tasks of covering and transmitting live productions to many clients. CITVC Huan Ya is willing to serve you with our professional skills and fine customized solutions.
Dome Productions Pioneer 4K
Dome Productions is owned by Bell Media and Rogers Media Inc. As one of North America’s leading production facilities providers, Dome Productions offers mobile production facilities, transmission services, studio facilities and full turnkey host broadcast services. Dome Productions offers a fleet of 18 multi-format production mobiles (2 of which are UHD capable), 7 support units, 1 production/uplink mobile and 3 uplink tractors. The downtown Toronto production facility offers the most current video equipment, multiple studio facilities, and a team of video production experts. Dome Productions is 27 Years in Business.
Mobile TV Group 39 Flex
Established in 1994, Mobile TV Group is celebrating its 22nd anniversary with continued dedication to technological innovation, customer service, maintenance, and competitive pricing. The company was initially launched as Mountain Mobile TV (in Colorado), then added Lone Star mobile (in Texas), Western Mobile TV, and eventually combined operations into Mobile TV Group (MTVG). In 2016 MTVG released 39 Flex, the first all 4K production unit in the U.S.It is privately owned.
NEP Acquires Avesco Group
“NEP and Avesco have very similar cultures centered on delivering exceptional service to our clients, and the two companies have already had a strong working relationship for years. I am excited to have them as part of our Worldwide Network, and to work with Graham Andrews and David Crump to continue to grow NEP’s live event solutions offerings around the globe. The Creative Technology and mclcreate brands complement our existing live event groups well, and together we will be able to greatly enhance our depth of service and reach worldwide,” said Kevin Rabbitt, NEP’s CEO.
SPORT EVENTS
Longines pushes the limits of timekeeping in alpine skiing
Longines has been involved in alpine ski racing since 1933 and has always taken up challenges in the field of timekeeping, pushing its expertise to the highest levels to measure the exploits of skiers. This year once again, the watch brand is preparing to push the limits of timekeeping by making new performance data available to enhance the spectator experience and improve the understanding of all alpine skiing enthusiasts. This technological innovation consists of a chip attached to the skier’s boot, equipped with a radar and motion sensors. The sensors will enable the real-time and continuous measurement of the athlete’s speed, acceleration and deceleration, the time it takes to reach 100km/h and an analysis of jumps.
Presteigne on a roll with Six Day Amsterdam cycling
Six Day Amsterdam, which aired live on Eurosport from 6-11 December, follows on the heels of the highly successful production of “Six Day London”, at the Lee Valley VeloPark, east London, which was covered on Eurosport and Sky Sports, from 25-30 October. Six Day London featured many of the world’s top professional riders, including Team GB Olympians Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. To cover both London and Amsterdam for broadcast, Presteigne provided Aurora Media with production technology, technical staff, and engineering support. Presteigne also provided handheld and, importantly, competition cycle-mounted HEROCast™ wireless transmitters, to capture video from the heart of the action.
Riot Games joins forces with BAMTech
New York City technology firm BAMTech is paying the $300 million to Los Angeles gamemaker Riot Games for the rights to distribute “League of Legends” matches in an app and across other services. BAMTech will attempt to make its money back — and more — through ads on the streams, though Riot Games will get an undisclosed portion of the profits. The “League of Legends” (LOL) deal comes after Disney agreed to pay $1 billion for a 33% stake in BAMTech. e-sports is especially popular among younger audiences. According to Riot Games, its 15-day “LOL” 2016 championship tour in North America this fall attracted 43 million unique viewers who watched a total of 370 million hours of live video. BAMTech, under the “LOL” agreement, will handle future distribution of live eSports broadcasts, including distribution on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
Host cities gear up for the FIFA Confederations Cup
Host cities for the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup are getting ready for this year’s “Tournament of Champions” with a unique campaign being rolled out in Kazan, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Sochi. Information about the Confederations Cup, for which the best national teams in each continent are preparing in earnest, has appeared in airports and train stations in Kazan, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Sochi. Multiple public transport vehicles – including buses, trolleybuses, trains between Moscow and Saint Petersburg and on the underground Moscow Metro Circle Line – will be dressed up in the memorable signature style of the tournament’s Host Cities.
Eurosport becomes new European home of the Olympics
Ross takes on Eurosport Olympics role. Discovery Communications and Eurosport holds the exclusive multimedia rights for 50 countries and territories (excludeing France 2018-2020) in Europe for the 2018 through the 2024 Olympic Games, announced with the International Olympic Committee in June 2015. Eurosport will be the Official Broadcaster in the UK 2018 and 2020. The broadcaster has reached sublicence deals with public broadcasters in most European countries with the notable exception of Germany where ARD and ZDF could not reach a deal with Discovery. As a result, Eurosport will show the Olympics exclusively in Germany. in the US NBCUniversal will be launching a new cable channel in the US, The Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA.
IOC, USOC and NBCUniversal Announce Olympic Channel Partnership in the United States
During the second half of 2017, the partnership will launch a new U.S. television network under the “Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA” brand that will offer fans year-round Olympic-sport programming from around the world, with an emphasis on their favourite American athletes and teams. The new partnership complements the Olympic Channel, which launched as a worldwide digital platform following the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Additional details about the launch of the new linear cable channel will be provided at a later date. Along with the Channel, the partnership also brings additional coverage of Olympic sports programmes that will appear exclusively on other NBCU platforms – including NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Digital outlets. The first such coverage begins this Saturday, 17 December, with the Team USA Winter Champions Series.
AT&T, DirecTV to carry new Olympic channel in US
US telecommunications company AT&T and its DirecTV satellite service provider and broadcaster have agreed carriage deals for the new cable television channel that will be launched under a partnership between media company NBCUniversal, the International Olympic Committee and United States Olympic Committee. Speaking on a conference call following the announcement, NBCU executives said the channel will be carried from launch by AT&T and DirecTV. Further distribution will be included in future deals that NBCU negotiates with cable and satellite service providers for its package of cable channels.
SHOW EVENTS
Spiiders for Placebo Tour
Leading London based rental company Colour Sound Experiment was the first in the UK to purchase Robe’s brand new Spiider LED WashBeam moving light – with 30 being delivered directly after the PLASA expo in London in October. These went straight out on the Placebo “Retrospective” tour, with show visuals designed by Jvan Morandi. The tour is a showcase of the band’s ground-breaking work from 20 years at the forefront of indie and alt.rock. “We were very excited to be the first in the country with Spiiders,” enthused Colour Sound’s Haydn Cruickshank (H), “I think they have great potential and I was really pleased that Jvan could integrate them into his design which – as we would all expect – is refreshing, ambitious and different”.
Claypaky delivers intense lighting effects for Architects European tour
British metalcore outfit Architects have stormed through Europe in support of their critically acclaimed new album 'All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us', with Claypaky fixtures providing blast-beat perfect strobing and high-impact gobo projection to complement the band's exhilaratingly relentless sound. The Brighton-based juggernauts, who were this year described by Rocksound magazine as 'one of the world's most exciting, vital bands', rounded off the tour by playing a sold-out show at Brixton's o2 academy for the first time. Tour lighting designer Paul McAdams selected Claypaky Stormy CC strobes and an Alpha Spot HPE 1500, supplied by Colour Sound Experiment, to execute his high-impact concept, which is based around the band's stark album artwork depicting a lunar eclipse.
Capital Cities Plays Beneath Elation LED Rig at Bowery Ballroom in New York
On November 3rd American pop duo Capital Cities played a pair of shows at the venue as part of their fall 2016 tour. Capital Cities Production Designer Noah Sharp, who also runs lighting for the band, had 8 Satura Spot CMY Pro™ LED moving head spot luminaires, 8 Platinum Wash ZFX Pro™ LED moving head wash lights, and 6 ACL 360 Bar™ LED battens at his disposal for the shows, supplied for the Bowery Ballroom install by Christie Lites. “I was very excited when I saw that the lighting rig was all color mixing fixtures,” said Sharp, who collaborates with the band to design production packages, including video content tailored to each of their shows.
PRODUCTS
AV-Professional invests in Panasonic AK-UC3000 4K studio cameras
Vienna-based Panasonic Partner AV-Professional has invested in four Panasonic AK-UC3000 4K studio cameras, making AV-Professional the first Austrian rental company offering AK-UC3000. AV-Professional is a leading rental and sales company for conference and event technology with more than 20 years of experience. The company supports its customers in the technical realisation of their ideas and offers extensive rental equipment, which is continuously updated to meet state-of-the-art standards. With its portfolio, AV-Professional provides innovative solutions for events of any size. In terms of sales, AV-Professional offers professional comprehensive solutions and unites diverse components in an overall concept.
NewTek and Wowza: The First Ever Global and Local Media Distribution Platform
NewTek™ and Wowza™ Media Systems announced the immediate availability of MediaDS™, a revolutionary real-time media encoding and live streaming video delivery system. MediaDS is a hardware and software solution merging NewTek’s industry-leading live production technology with the powerful, proven Wowza streaming software in a 1RU footprint. The result is the industry’s first end-to-end streaming solution to allow producers to launch their own multi-channel content networks from their production site and deliver a live video stream directly to their viewers. For enhanced scalability, producers can also create a virtual CDN or edge network by connecting multiple MediaDS together.
ViBOX - A new level of efficiency in Live Production…
The Vibox is a new pioneering solution for Live Broadcast with an initial focus on Sports coverage. The fundamental concept is to provide full professional coverage of smaller productions (between 4 to 7 cameras) with a reduced on-site equipment footprint (remote access capable) and more efficient utilization of production crews. The Vibox allows multiple levels of customized automation to resourcefully manage the full expectations of the show with far less people and cost than a traditional broadcast production. The savvy touch interface is intuitive and designed with a natural layout to quickly master the ability to create a high-quality production.
Penguins Evolve Winning Workflow with EditShare
2015-2016 was a pivotal season for the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins. After a rough start and mid-season coaching change, the team skated all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, winning their fourth championship after a seven-year dry spell. The momentum continues this year as the team enters its 50th anniversary season and seventh inside the state-of-the-art LEED gold-certified PPG Paints Arena, the first arena of its kind in the NHL. PPG Paints Arena is also home to the Penguin's award-winning on-site production operations that feeds live game coverage and produced content to the NHL Network, Pittsburgh's regional sports network and the team's online channel, PensTV, as well as to the 900 wireless IPTV media kiosks, in-suite touchscreens, extensive digital signage and massive Mitsubishi Diamond VisionBoard—inside the arena.
4K/8K ARISING
Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K used on Panic! At the Disco and Weezer Concert Tour
Illinois production company Upstaging Inc. has built a complete IMAG and AV production using Blackmagic Design Ultra HD products during this year’s sold out Weezer and Panic! At the Disco summer concert tour covering 42 cities across the US. Production Designer Robb Jibson of Chicago firm So Midwest, Inc. and Video Director Jack Edinger developed a system that included four Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K for IMAG, as well as engineering racks containing ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel, HyperDeck Studio Pros, Teranex Expresses, Teranex Minis, MultiView 4s, SmartView 4Ks, SmartScope Duos, ATEM Talkback Converters, UltraScopes and various Mini Converters.
BPH and Panasonic sign final agreement to collaborate on technology development
Panasonic will provide the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall (DCH) platform with state-of-the-art 4K/HDR video equipment such as broadcast cameras, mixers and monitors for the auditorium and the video studio of the Philharmonie. The installation will start in July, 2017 and the new studio will be operational for the 2017/2018 concert season. The DCH will then broadcast high quality 4K/HDR video concert recordings in enhanced audio formats. Furthermore, BPH will collaborate with Panasonic and Technics, the high-end audio brand of Panasonic, to reproduce an authentic concert hall experience on the latest Panasonic video and audio equipment at home and in the in-car environment.