Newsletter from 07/01/2014
344 HD OBVans - An Overview on the Installed Hardware
Cameras - Camera Lenses - Camera/CCU Connectors - Wireless Camera Adaptors - Vision Mixers - Video Effects - Character Generators - Displays - Multiviewer - Digital Glue - Video Routers - Video Tape Recorders - Video HardDisk Recorders - Microphones - Audio Mixers - Audio Routers - Audio Monitoring - Audio Multitrack Recorders - Intercom Systems - Signal Management
Get the market shares here
MOBILE PRODUCTION
21 new HD OBVans in the TV Live Production Catalogues
The number of entries in our Live Production Catalogues is continuously growing. Meanwhile the database consists of 573 entries: 26 Rental Companies, 27 System Integrators, 66 Studio Facilities – however the majority of entries you will find in the category of Mobile Production with 454 entries. Here you also find the specs of 344 HD OBVans.
Summary of the 21 HD OBVan/Truck entries from last week
NEP to Acquire Global Television from Catalyst
NEP is one of the largest broadcast and live event service companies with operations across the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil, and supporting thousands of events annually around the world. The acquisition of Global Television further expands NEP’s presence into Australia and Asia. NEP is majority-owned by private funds managed by Crestview Partners, with a significant ownership stake held by NEP’s management team.
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Vector Pan and Tilt Heads Are Standard on NEP Mobile Trucks
NEP CTO George Hoover pointed out that the reason why the heads have become the industry standard pan and tilt heads for hard cameras is that the camera operators like them best for smooth operation. “All of the cameramen on remote sites are generally freelancers, so they work a variety of different productions and mobile units. They can rely on the Vinten Vector heads to help them consistently get their shots.” Hoover explained that a freelancer’s next job is incumbent upon their performance at the current remote. “So from our perspective, we like to give them the tools that they know will let them work at their optimum creativity.”
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STUDIO PRODUCTION
Avid Systems Bring Good Cheer to Michael Bublé’s Christmas Special
During a recent break from his “To Be Loved” tour, Bublé recorded an intimate performance in his hometown of Vancouver for the nationally broadcast Michael Bublé’s 3rd Annual Christmas Special, with famed producer and sound engineer Bob Rock supervising the music recording and mixing for the project. To help handle the live show, Bublé’s longtime front of house engineer, Craig Doubet, turned for a second year to pro audio specialists Gearforce of Coquitlam, BC, to supply and support the live systems and recording rig. Although an audio truck was used for last year’s special, the team decided to save the expense and go with a more integrated and streamlined solution this year.
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Euro Media’s new Studer Vista 5 M3 Provides “Haute Cuisine” for TV Show
Audiopole, the French distributor for HARMAN’s Studer, has supplied the country’s first Vista 5 M3 to audiovisual technical services provider, Euro Media, for use on a popular TV program. It forms the hub of a technical package that has taken up a residency in a converted studio in a Paris industrial building. The site of a former factory, it is now used to host C à vous, a live primetime program about cuisine, broadcast by France 5, in which guests join host Anne-Sophie Lapix “at home.” Euro Media also supplied the production company with the necessary technicians.
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Aurora Lighting Projects SGM X-5S on Premiere TV Shows
Aurora Lighting Hire’s recent move to new purpose built warehouse facilities in Greenford, West London has coincided with a rapid take-up on their new SGM X-5 LED strobe inventory, as an increasing number of TV lighting directors and moving light operators turn to this new age solution. Says Aurora’s Nick Edwards, who joined the TV lighting facilities company as MD last summer, “We purchased eight X-5s to test the water back in August; we didn’t have any strobes in our current inventory so we were open to the idea of investing in this new technology — and I’m pleased that we did.”
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SPORTS
Premium Sports Prices Will Jump 14% in 2014
Deloitte has predicted the value of premium sports broadcast rights worldwide will increase to £16 billion (€19.3bn) in 2014, a 14 per cent rise, or £1.9 billion over 2013. This increase in rights fees, one of the Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions, will be driven by new agreements with certain top tier European domestic football leagues and major North American sports leagues. The double digit growth compares to average growth of 5 per cent between 2009 and 2013, and exceeds the forecast 4 per cent increase in global pay TV revenues for 2014.
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Interactive Graphics: 2014 Winter Olympics and 2014 FIFA World Cup
With such major events as the Winter Olympics and the World Cup taking place in 2014, it will be more important than ever for broadcasters and content owners to leverage technology to fully realize the potential of their key sports rights. Fortunately the variety of sophisticated tools and technologies available today has never been better. Graphics has always been the mainstay of television production, especially for sports. Real time graphics has always been an important tool to produce dynamic on-screen content for live sports events that helps to keep the viewers better informed.
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LiveU Provides Worldwide 2014 Sports Live Video Packages
In 2014, LiveU will support the Winter Olympics early in the year at Sochi, Russia, numerous US Collegiate Championships, The Super Bowl, the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and additional events throughout the year. US activities are driven by LiveU’s experienced team of veterans from within the sports industry. Samuel Wasserman, LiveU’s CEO, said, “Right from the outset when we introduced our cellular uplink technology at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our technology provided a new level of opportunity and creativity that sports broadcasters and online outlets embraced with open arms. For the 2010 South Africa World Cup we deployed over three dozen cellular bonding units. The level of deployment at the 2012 London Olympics was truly spectacular with over 100 units on the ground during the games. We expect even bigger numbers at the 2014 Brazil World Cup.”
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SHOWS
XL Has the #willpower
XL Video is supplying a high powered projection system, Pandora’s Box mapping and media server control, cameras and PPU to the current #willpower tour by will.i.am, which originated in the US and is currently in Europe. The tour’s all-white stage and production design was created by will.i.am and is heavily video orientated with minimal lighting. The tech savvy artist is involved with all aspects of his visual presentation - overseen by Production Manager Neil Porter - as well as bringing his innovative musicology and techniques to the stage.
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CT Alive with Jessie J
Creative Technology (CT) has supplied a video control system and LED screens package, crew and pre-programming services for Jessie J’s epic diva-style tour ‘ALIVE’. Brilliantly complementing the pop sensation’s considerable stage presence, Vince Foster’s set and lighting design offered a vivid mix of stunning lighting looks, and hot-to-trot pyrotechnics, while Paul Caslin’s clever mix of video production delivered sparkling video effects. The look and size of the show was ambitious. Caslin’s pre-recorded content was mixed with live camera feeds, directed by Steve Price, and broadcast across three portrait hung Flyer 12 touring LED screens positioned centre stage.
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The Alexandrinsky Theatre Hosts Luc Lafortune’s Lecture with Special Backing from Clay Paky
Lafortune is considered one of the most creative lighting designers of the last thirty years. He is the author of several prestigious lighting design projects, including the shows of the Cirque du Soleil, the "Turkmenistan Independence Day" celebrations, the musical "The House of the Dancing Water", and Peter Gabriel's "Growing up" tour. His approach to lighting design features elements that are so artistic it is defined as "poetry". It is inspired by a careful philological analysis of the show, which is then combined with a painstaking search for colours and atmospheres.
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PRODUCTS
Freefly MōVI M10 is Key to Australia’s Vivien’s Models Christmas Video
When tasked with shooting an ambitiously choreographed Christmas video for Australia’s Vivien’s Models, video director and director of photography, Justin Griffiths received a serendipitous email from Perth’s HD Rentals informing him the rental house had just put Freefly Systems’ MōVI M10 gyro-stabilized 3-axis gimbal system into its inventory. The MōVI features Freefly’s proprietary and highly advanced control software/hardware and 3-dimensional navigation avionics providing smooth stabilization and acceleration correction. It is designed for handholding camera packages up to 12 pounds/5.4kg.
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Control and Creativity ‘On the Go’ with the Latest LED Fixtures
Remote live productions make for amongst the most fraught experiences in the broadcast sector, therefore it’s important to eliminate any potential stress factors before you even arrive on location. It starts with selecting the right equipment; this should be quick and easy to set up, offer the highest quality performance, and whenever possible offer the same control that you enjoy in the studio. Lighting puts particular demands on production teams, for example maintaining the colour temperature or securing adequate power, which can make location shoots particularly challenging.
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Camera Corps Branches out for ITV's Text Santa 2013
Mini-Zoom and Q-Ball remotely controlled miniature cameras from Camera Corps, a Vitec Group company with extensive experience in designing speciality camera systems, went into action on Friday December 20 during ITV's annual Text Santa fund-raising initiative for six UK charities. Cameras were positioned at each extremity of a massive 'tree-of-terror' opposite ITV's London Studios on the South Bank. "The 'tree' was ascended by Ant and Dec, two presenters well known for the challenges to which they subject contestants in their own very popular television series," explains Camera Corps Business Development Director, Shaun Glanville. "The 30 meter high structure was comparable in size and shape with the mast of a tall sailing ship. The presenters' task was to climb the main tower and walk out along each branch. It looks challenging enough from ground level and would be a nightmare for almost anyone, even with protective rigging."
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Sennheiser Digital 9000 System Drives ‘Next Wave’ of Interactive Art
Last month, Invisible Cities, the world’s first large-scale opera for wireless headphones, completed its limited run of sold-out performances at Los Angeles’ Union Station – the largest railway terminal in the western United States. At the heart of the production, which was staged within the vast, multi-room expanse of the terminal as well as among its outdoor courtyards, was Sennheiser’s new Digital 9000 wireless system. The microphone system delivered uncompressed, artifact-free audio night after night to patrons donning Sennheiser wireless headphones. The opera, a collaboration among The Industry, L.A. Dance Project and Sennheiser, was written by Christopher Cerrone and based on the 1972 novel by Italo Calvino. The narrative, which is accompanied by an 11-piece live orchestra being captured by a selection of Sennheiser and Neumann microphones, takes audience members on an artistic, multi-sensory journey throughout the terminal as character Marco Polo describes his quests to Emperor Kublai Khan.
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3D/4K ARISING
Band Pro 4K Experts Workshop 2014
Get ready for the launch of the united Band Pro workshop sessions through Europe - Your way to 4K! „Nowadays media business is not simply an all encompassing monolith but rather comprises a complex understanding of many different fields of media production Band Pro can provide both, the complex technical experience and freshness of mind to push your products into the hands of real users and establish long lasting customer relationships.“ This ambitious statement will be put into practice during four European workshops to be held by Band Pro Munich in cooperation with Band Pro USA in Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Munich.
Find the dates of the workshops here
Amazon Plans 4K Future
Amazon Studios, the original film and TV production arm of Amazon.com, has revealed plans to shoot all 2014 full oiginal series, including comedies and dramas, in 4K Ultra HD. Rival entertainment streaming service Netflix recently confirmed that it is filming its second season of award-winning drama series House of Cards in 4K. “As a premium original content creator, we’re excited about 4K and the future of Ultra HD technology, particularly as we move into drama series next year,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “All of the pilots and series we produce next year will be shot in 4K. That includes our first ever drama series that we will greenlight next year—we think customers are going to love watching these series in the highest resolution ever available to consumers and we can’t wait to deliver it.”
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Six Marvels of the 4K Revolution at Sony Pictures Studios in LA
To say Sony is serious about 4K is a bit like saying Canon seems to like making cameras. 4K is at the heart of Sony's entire operation, and that's not surprising given the fact that it's the only company that can tell an on-brand end-to-end 4K story. It makes the movies and TV shows, it produces the cameras to shoot the content, it makes the projectors to display it in cinemas, it publishes the movies on disc, and it delivers 4K it to the home in the form of TVs, games consoles and media servers. Sony has already shipped over 15,000 4K projectors worldwide.
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