Newsletter from 30/12/2015
IBC Preview #5 - Rising Stars
The IBC2015 Rising Stars Programme offers a new generation of students and young professionals the chance to experience the realities of the electronic media and entertainment industry. A free event, it provides a truly unique flavour of the workplace with an unrivalled array of business personalities who have been invited to inspire, educate and challenge those attending. Delegates are part of an amazing event which includes free entry to the fourteen exhibition halls; exclusive conference sessions tackling the topics that really matter to young professionals; exclusive networking opportunities and an invitation to the IBC Hackfest party.
Delegates will get to see and handle the latest technology and learn about how the industry is developing; meeting established, successful and highly influential industry figures, as well as some of the brightest and most ambitious young entrepreneurs working in the industry today. The Rising Stars Programme offers the chance to network and meet others in a similar position, as well as to gain inspiration from current Rising Stars who are already making their way in the business.
We currently have IBC Previews online of the following companies.
Adder - Anton/Bauer - Apantac - Argosy - Artel - AVIWEST - Axon - Bluebell - BMS - Bradley Engineering - Broadcast Solutions - Calrec - Camerobot - ChyronHego - Clear-Com - Cobham - Danmon Group - DirectOut - EBU - EVS - eyevis - FOR-A - Fujinon - Gearhouse Broadcast - Genelec - Grass Valley - Guntermann & Drunck - Hitachi - i-movix - IABM - IHSE - Ikegami - Imagine Communications - Jünger Audio - K-tec - L-S-B - Lawo - LMC - Matrox - MHz - NCAM - NewTek - NTP - Quantel - Riedel - Rohde & Schwarz - Roland - rt1.tv - RTS - Sennheiser - Snell - Sommer Cable - Sony - Sound Devices - Thomson - Tiffen - TSL - TVU - Vizrt - VRT
The new entries from this week are displayed in bold. The previews will be maintained on a daily basis and the link IBC2015 will always show the growing number of featured companies in alphabetical order.
MOBILE PRODUCTION
NEP Australia HD11
To meet the increasing complexity and volume of client projects NEP Australia launched the newest addition to its outside broadcasting (OB) fleet: HD11. Surpassing the size, technical capabilities and work environment of every other mobile production facility in Australia, HD11 is the country’s first purpose-built 4K broadcast truck and the first equipped with Sony’s HDC-4300 4K and high-speed camera technology. HD11 is dedicated to Geoff Rudder – until early 2015 General Manager of Resources and Logistics – who throughout his career championed NEP Australia and Global Television's continual pursuit of technological excellence. NEP Australia President Soames Treffry says HD11 is a fitting tribute to a treasured colleague.
AMV Adds 10th Studer Vista Console to its Lineup with Vista X for New Remote Truck
All Mobile Video (AMV) has become an industry leader in providing end-to-end video and audio solutions for broadcast, entertainment, programming and events by adopting the latest technologies for its Manhattan and Los Angeles studios and nationwide fleet of mobile production trucks. In outfitting its new, yet-to-be-named remote truck, AMV’s previous positive experience with HARMAN’s Studer led them to Studer’s flagship Vista X large-scale mixing console for broadcast applications. The new remote truck will be operational by the end of 2015 and will service the type of high-profile entertainment programs AMV excels in producing—their previous credits include the MTV Video Music Awards, the Tournament of Roses parade, the CMT Music Awards, the NCAA Final Four and a “who’s who” of corporate clients.
Sky News Sets a Guinness World Record for Most Concurrent Live Web Streams for an Event Using LiveU Technology
LiveU, a pioneer and leader in IP-based live video services and broadcast solutions for acquisition, management and distribution, has today announced that its technology was central to Sky News’ world record beating UK General Election coverage on May 7th this year. The UK broadcaster has confirmed that it set a new Guinness World Record for the most concurrent live web streams for an event – streams fed from 138 locations to cover 150 constituency results. LiveU supplied 138 units for the coverage – including comprehensive testing - to allow the broadcaster to bring what was predicted to be a very tight election to its viewers.
Sky News described its coverage at the time as “the most ambitious and wide-ranging results service available and will ensure customers have the most up-to-date information as it happens”. This included a specially created studio at Sky News’ Osterley location.
Riedel Supplies Communications Solution for Wacken Open Air Festival
When tens of thousands of heavy metal fans descended upon the small town of Wacken, Germany, for the Wacken Open Air festival held from July 30 to Aug. 1, organizers were ready, having deployed a comprehensive communications solution built on Riedel Communications' MediorNet real-time media network and Artist digital matrix intercom system. The Riedel equipment provided the fiber backbone and communications infrastructure necessary to support security, radio communications, and audio and video transport throughout the expansive festival site. "The world rocks with Wacken, and Wacken rocks with Riedel," said Holger Hübner one of the founders and organizers of the Wacken Open Air festival. "The signal network backbone that Riedel provided in 2015 for the 26th anniversary of the Wacken Open Air festival ensured a safe and unforgettable experience for 90,000 metalheads enjoying the show. We've been well-satisfied with Riedel's state-of-the-art equipment and highly competent crew, and we look forward to rocking on with Riedel into the future."
STUDIO PRODUCTION
MBC Pro Sports Kicks Off Saudi Pro Soccer League Broadcasts with RCS LaunchPad
MBC Pro Sports is helping Saudi Arabian soccer fans delve deep into the 2015-2016 season with comprehensive on-air soccer analysis fueled by Reality Check Systems' (RCS) industry-leading LaunchPad touchscreen solution. The Dubai-based broadcaster recently outfitted its studio with the cloud-based technology, which it began using this month to bring viewers real-time player, team and match data; video replays; Tweets; telestrations; and analysis in Arabic. Throughout the season, MBC will tap into LaunchPad's feature set for highlights and review programming across four competitions including the Saudi Pro League and Crown Prince Cup. Using the interactive formation builder, on-air talent will predict match outcomes as they move player markers around a virtual pitch.
Image Video Upgrades TV and Mobile Production with Hitachi HD Cameras
Image Video Teleproductions, a premiere broadcast and production services company based in North Canton, Ohio has equipped one of its 30-foot mobile production trucks with four Hitachi Z-HD5000 HD camera systems as part of a comprehensive HD upgrade. The same cameras are also regularly reconfigured and used in Image Video’s large studio for a variety of TV programs, including some broadcast locally on WIVM-TV, its owned-and-operated local low power TV station. In addition to WIVM programming, Image Video creates content for other TV stations in the region; as well as private corporations and various sports broadcast networks.
SPORTS
Gearhouse points the way as host broadcaster at Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015
Gearhouse Broadcast has partnered with production service providers McGuire Media to perform host broadcast service duties at the Netball World Cup SYDNEY 2015. This is the third time in 2015 that Gearhouse has acted in this hugely important role – first at the AFC Asian Cup and then the Australian Open tennis. As part of its role at the event, Gearhouse provided complete coverage of the entire tournament - from the initial group stages right through to the final. Using three OB facilities on site at the tournament, Gearhouse provided the broadcast with 16 Hitachi cameras – a mixture of SKHD-1200s and SKHD-1500 HD slow motion units. The latest in RF systems were also included on Steadicam mounted camera units, feeds of which were captured into EVS XT3 live production servers. Graphics for the tournament were provided through six Namadgi graphics system.
Fonix LED Makes Waves at America’s Cup with Blackmagic
Drafted in by organizers of the America’s Cup World Series, Fonix LED was tasked with delivering all of the audiovisual infrastructure at the opening regatta of the 2017 cycle, which for the first time in its history, took on the Solent hub of Portsmouth, England. “Our brief was vast,” explains Colin Parnell of Fonix LED. "Multiple feeds, multiple locations, full camera coverage of the event, at sea and on the festival site, password protected live streaming and screens positioned around Portsmouth as well as in the fan zone, waterfront arena and VIP areas. We also needed to support the broadcasters and take live feeds from them."
Brilliant Bonhomme wins Ascot - Riedel guaranties signal transport and comms
Britain’s Paul Bonhomme was crowned the winner of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship stop at the famous Ascot Racecourse on Sunday, flying brilliantly under pressure in the world's fastest motorsport series. The victory was Bonhomme’s third this season and second straight win at Ascot to the delight of more than 40,000 spectators. Repeating the pattern of recent editions of the Air Race, Riedel engineers again built a signal distribution infrastructure for video, audio and communications and data based around a MediorNet real-time media network. Technicians interfaced audio signals via both MADI and Riedel’s RockNet digital audio network solution, in combination with the MediorNet system. Meanwhile, a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom served as the events communications infrastructure, and was integrated seamlessly with Riedel’s digital trunked (TETRA) installation.
SHOWS
alt-J Tour U.S. with Custom LED Solution from XL Video
Following on from the custom video solution they supplied for alt-J’s headline show at London’s O2 Arena and subsequent worldwide festival runs, XL Video has supplied a similar LED set-up for the band’s current U.S. tour. The tour, in support of alt-J’s second album, ‘This Is All Yours’, visited a variety of indoor and outdoor venues around the US including a show at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The video design, created by Jeremy Lechterman and Jackson Gallagher from FragmentNine, uses horizontal rows of LED, interspaced with gaps which can be used with lighting. For the centre section, behind the band, the horizontal LED rows were mounted on to five dollies, built by Upstaging, with specialist spacer brackets, made by XL Video, used to attach XL’s indoor/outdoor ROE Visual MC-7 LED.
Clay Paky Fixtures Hit the Road with Derek and Julianne Hough’s “Move Live on Tour”
Choreographers, actors and dance champions Derek and Julianne Hough have taken their “Dancing with the Stars” expertise on the road for a second year in a row with their dynamic show, “Move Live on Tour 2015.” Lighting designer Peter Morse of Peter Morse Productions in South Lake Tahoe, California is using Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20 and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures on the show. “Move Live on Tour 2015” opened in Phoenix and played 42 dates across the country before closing in Las Vegas August 8. The spectacle features dancing and singing by the Houghs and the Move Dance Company; they even encourage audience participation. “A lot of shows I do are rather large in scale. This tour plays mostly theaters and small arenas so it poses a bigger challenge: working with budget and truck space limitations while still making sure you knock it out of the park,” says Peter Morse.
Kinesys for Zac Brown Band Tour
Zac Brown Band's 'JEKYLL + HYDE' North American Stadium Tour presented by Bai is the band's largest tour to date and features a production design created by James Scott and Louis Oliver, of UK-based creative specialist Okulus, which involves several moving elements with a Kinesys control system at its core. The Kinesys control system was specified by the tour’s rigging contractors Atlanta Rigging Systems (ARS) and is running 39 axes of movement facilitated by 38 Lodestar 1 tonne chain hoists and a custom screen element. Ten of the axes run with Kinesys variable speed Elevation 1+ controllers while 28 run with encoded fixed-speed hoists. The system also features eight pile-wind winches, which were custom-fabricated by ARS to control a gauze screen in front of the stage to be used as a projection surface at integral moments throughout the show.
PURE LIVE Directory 2015 now available in our Online Shop
The 2015 Directory gives an overview on high end live productions from all around the world: The Volvo Ocean Race, the UEFA Champions League Final in Berlin, The Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, The SEA Games in Singapore, The European Games in Baku, The UK Golf Open in St. Andrews, or The Glastonbury Festival to only name a view out of the 22 case studies we present. In addition you find 20 HD OBVans & HD Studios: _wige HD_one & _wige HD_two, Bayerischer Rundfunk FÜ2, CTV OB11, Gearhouse Broadcast OBPod, Gearhouse Broadcast Supertrucks 5 & 8, JSBC 4K OBVan, Nydalen Studios, OB-Team HD 2 & OB-Team HD 3, OB-Team SNG 9 HD, Oman TV HD1 Salalah & HD2 Muscat, Telerecord Unit 24, TopVision Ü2, TV Skyline Flight Pack, Videohouse HD one & HD two. Included in the 200 pages are also 17 company portraits like OB-Team Norway, Gearhouse Broadcast, _wige Group, Ostankino, or TopVision and finally a preview on NHK's 8K initiatives towards the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo.
PRODUCTS
Boland Communications Expands Lineup of LVB and PVB Series Monitors
Boland Communications, has announced a wider lineup of their popular LVB and PVB Series models. Both series feature professional, color-accurate LCD's with multiple signal formats. "Since their introduction in 2014, the LVB and PVB models have grown more and more popular, and it was simply a logical choice for us to add more size options to the product offering," says Gary Litwin, national sales director, Boland Communications. Originally designed to give production companies a dependable, cost-effective, SDI-based monitor, both LVB and PVB units offer deliver metal cabinet constructions, off-axis viewing angles, multiple I/O's, and the ability to calibrate each screen for accurate colorimetry reproduction.
HSL Invests £2 Million in New Lighting Kit
Leading UK lighting and visual rental specialist HSL has invested well over £2 million in new lighting kit – primarily moving lights, LED fixtures and control to help service its busy summer season. MD Simon Stuart stated, “We have a great diversity of shows out – from opera and the arts to concert and theatre touring to major sporting events - and wanted to ensure that all of them had the latest and most appropriate technology at their disposal”. He adds that this is just the first such announcement that HSL will be making in coming months as it continues to invest in the latest cutting edge technology. The addition of over 500 moving lights and 400 additional LED products brings HSL’s current available moving light inventory to one of the largest in the UK, which also supports and includes all the top brands.
Lawo in the Mix for Pan American Games
Lawo, German manufacturer of broadcast audio, video and IP networking equipment, has provided all audio integration and distribution systems for support of the international feed of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The main mix was provided with a 48 fader Lawo mc²66 console and a secondary console, a Lawo mc²56 with 32 faders, handled sub mix duties for over 40 ambient microphones used to bring the action from the field to the broadcast center. In addition to the main and secondary mix consoles, Lawo provided five DALLIS Stageboxes and a Nova73 router to manage over 1900 redundant crosspoints utilized to gather and distribute audio feeds including over 496 record tracks, 256 channels of RAVENNA (AoIP) and over 880 channels of MADI audio.
4K/8K ARISING
4K Optics Defined to Standing Room Crowd During First-Ever FUJIFILM 4K Day
It was standing room only at the recent FUJIFILM 4K Day held at the Digital Motion Picture Center (DMPC) in Culver City, California on August 13, with attendees eager to discover what makes a 4K lens truly 4K. The crowd - a cross section of DPs, engineers, company executives, TV and film rental house personnel – got to see the much buzzed about 4K PL-mount Cine-Style and Ultra HD lenses for 2/3-inch broadcast cameras operating side by side and participate in a Q&A following detailed presentations by FUJIFILM executives about the nature of 4K optics. Ten 4K FUJINON zoom lenses were on display throughout the day, a mixture of 25-300mm Cabrio (ZK-12-25) PL mount cine lenses, UA80x9 4K Ultra HD field lenses for 2/3-inch broadcast cameras, and UA22x8 4K Ultra HD portable zoom lenses for 2/3-inch broadcast cameras. The 25-300mm Cabrio was shown in both Cine and Broadcast style on a Sony F55 broadcast studio camera. The UA80x9 and UA22x8 lenses were shown on Sony HDC-4300 4K broadcast studio cameras.
Canon Announces World’s First 4K UHD Wide-Angle Broadcast Lens
Canon unveiled theCJ12ex4.3B, a new 2/3” portable 4K zoom lens with the world’s widest focal length. At an incredible 4.3mm it is designed for professionals shooting interviews and live broadcast, including sports and news. Canon also today announces that it is developing a new compact 2/3” 4K all-purpose-zoom lens. Further bolstering Canon’s 4K broadcast lens range for cameras employing 2/3” sensors, the versatile new lens will be optimised for both indoor and outdoor shooting, across a variety of applications including sporting events and live broadcasts as well as television dramas and commercials. Leveraging Canon’s renowned heritage in optical design and advanced technologies, the CJ12ex4.3B delivers outstanding 4K image quality throughout the entire 12x optical zoom range.
KarismaCG 4K character generators to be showcased at IBC2015
KarismaCG 4K provides sophisticated on-air 3D graphics, animation and effects for 4K environments with support for frame rates up to 60 fps. Advanced features include realtime OpenGL rendering technology, realtime shading, multi-animation, live mapping on 3D objects and import of popular image file formats including 3D modeling data from Autodesk® 3ds Max® and Maya®. Matrox X.mio3 LP is a low-profile, half-length PCIe card that offers up to eight reconfigurable I/Os, from SD to 4K. Multi-channel hardware processing accelerates compute-intensive operations including motion-adaptive de-interlacing, up/down/cross scaling and mixing/compositing for all resolutions.