Newsletter from 15/12/2011
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
MOBILE PRODUCTION
TV Skyline Ü1/HD SNG
Since 1991 TV Skyline is in the business of meeting challenges in television-related fields. Broadcast OBVans for HD/ SD, 5.1 or stereo, SNG, and vehicles used for editing or special cam- eras to meet demands of any production. Two studios may be implemented in live atmosphere with up to 200 guests. Remote cameras, tracking systems, fiber and wireless technology for video and data transmission are all available. The brand new universal 4-camera Ü1/HD SNG with HD/SD broadcast technology offers a very spacious interior despite its small size. This innovative car concept offers up to seven workplaces.
Get the full specifications of Ü1/HD SNG here
CP and STAGETEC MADI Connect Two NFL Games of the Week
NFL Network broadcasted their first game of the season from San Diego, November 10, 2011 (and will continue every Thursday night for the rest of the season) with a NEXUS base device on the field and a STAGETEC CRESCENDO audio console connected to the NEXUS router in the audio submix unit. With a base device in the RF receive field rack connected to the compound via fiber and connecting to both the main audio production and submix trucks, the NEXUS transports the sounds on the field from the RF racks and parabolic microphones for use back in the compound as well as all 4 wire needed for communications on the field. The NEXUS also connects the CP trucks via fiber and MADI so that the main production truck can grab the announcer’s mics and whatever other signals he needs in addition to the submix. Connections between the mobiles, booth and field devices are via single strand single-mode fiber.
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SNRT Deployed EVS HD Fly Away at the Marrakech International Film Festival
The new fly away production platform is supported by an assortment of fully integrated EVS products, including the XS media server, the XStore NAS and the powerful content production and management suite IPDirector. At SNRT the XS server has replaced the VTRs with its unique loop recording architecture, which provides uninterrupted multichannel recording (up to six HD channels in multiple IN/OUT modes) and instant access to material from the moment it is recorded. All recorded feeds are sent to an XStore NAS, which offers up to 360 hours (content recorded in HD) of nearline storage. As a result, media content is instantly available for production, editing and playout via the Gigabit Ethernet network.
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Studio Technologie's Model 400 SDI-Over-Fiber Transport Delivers NFL Action for NEP
NEP Broadcasting is a leading international provider of outsourced teleproduction services for live sports and entertainment applications, specializing in digital capture and transmission of events ranging from professional football and the Olympic Games to the Academy Awards and everything in between. The recently purchased Model 400 units have been integrated into a second production truck covering the national Sunday Night Football broadcast. NEP’s new trailer provides the technology that generates the virtual signage, lines and images that float on the field. It also handles the transport for all of the wireless and RF cameras between where they are received, processed and handed off to the main truck. The trailer also houses all the transmission hardware to get the signal back to the broadcaster. Reliability was extremely important because every camera and the outbound transmission path flowed through this fiber backbone.
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SPORTS
Olympic Games 2012: Canoe Sprint
For London 2012, the Canoe Sprint competition will be held at Eton Dorney, one of the best still-water courses in the world with a wonderful location close to Windsor Castle. Races will be held over distances of 1,000m, 500m and, for the first time at the Games, 200m: with the fastest races taking just 30 seconds to complete, it’s bound to be very popular with spectators and athletes alike. The programme for London 2012 will consist of 12 events, eight for men and four for women. The 200m events will be an Olympic feature in London for the first time in the Women’s and Men’s K1 and the Men’s C1. Women will race over 500m in the K1, K2 and K4 and Men will race over 1000m in the K1, K2, K4 and C1 and C2. On the whole, Europe has dominated the sport, winning over 90% of all available medals.
Read the case study here
I-MOVIX X10 Chosen for 2012's Major Sporting Event
Developed in partnership with EVS, the X10 smashes the performance ceiling of existing continuous slow motion systems, which are restricted to 3x slower than real time, or 75 fps. The system incorporates the latest generation high-speed HD camera, delivering exceptional image quality matching the standards of the best broadcast HD cameras. The X10 system is a fully broadcast-integrated solution, and includes the latest version of high-speed HD camera, a camera control unit, an operational control panel, and is used with an EVS XT3 production server. The I-MOVIX X10 has been chosen for 2012's most prestigious sporting event. The event will mark the production debut of the X10, with systems located at selected competition venues.
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Telestream Builds High Definition Instant Replay System for NASCAR Race Officials
Telestream's Pipeline HD video capture system simultaneously acquires multiple camera feeds in high-quality Apple ProRes 720p as well as other HD and SD formats. Video feeds are delivered to shared storage where they are available for immediate playback, editing during capture, or transcoding to other file formats. Telestream's Replay multichannel video player provides instant, synchronous multichannel playback of multiple HD camera feeds for simultaneous review and analysis of incidents from different camera angles. The player also allows officials to easily locate any camera and scrub forward or backward through any portion of the event video. "The instant replay system that Telestream will be providing NASCAR next season will enable our officials to perform their jobs in an even more efficient and time-sensitive manner," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition. "Having instant access to that many camera angles featuring such high quality video will be a terrific addition to our race weekends."
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Who Will Be the Millionaire at the Four Hills Tournament?
In the past three years the Austrian eagles had dominated the legendary Four Hills Tournament: Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Kofler and Thomas Morgenstern managed a hat-trick with three successes for a nation in a row. Together with their compatriot Gregor Schlierenzauer the Austria-quartet recently won nine of twelve individual competitions, only Simon Ammann (Switzerland, two wins), and Tom Hilde (Norway, winning the finals in 2011) succeeded a little bit against the Austrians. The statistics are still impressive. Since 2006/07, there were at least two stage wins per year for Austria, since 2008/09, there were even three. "We want to have a very special attraction for the 60th anniversary of the Four Hills Tournament, therefore, we award this special prize for the “Tournee-Grand Slam", says Alfons Schranz from Innsbruck, president of the Four Hills Tournament.
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SHOWS
The Sing Off Takes to the Stage with a Live Finale and 100 Sennheiser Wireless Microphones
In the case of a live programming scenario such as “Live Finale: Top 3 Finalists” where audio is being broadcast to millions of television viewers, the audio quality needs to be synchronous with solid and reliable RF performance. In the middle of Los Angeles — one of the most difficult RF environments in the world — the challenge can be daunting, especially considering the massive lighting rig and number of microphones operating on the stage at the same time. Dave Bellamy of Las Vegas-based Soundtronics Wireless was in charge of ensuring that the RF for Monday evening’s performance — and indeed the entire preceding season — was flawless. “In a show like this, ‘pretty good’ isn’t going to get you there,” Bellamy observes. “This is a very demanding and exacting business, and in an extremely overcrowded RF environment, Sennheiser gives me predictable reliability.” Bellamy used Soundtronics’ Phoenix system antenna system in combination with dozens of Sennheiser EM 3732-II wireless receivers to ensure that the audio was free of any RF interference.
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Selena Gomez and Delicate Productions Take VENUE to a Whole New Level
Currently touring with her band, Selena Gomez & the Scene, Gomez has been selling out arenas and adding dates across North America, with no sign of slowing down. The tour’s audio systems are provided by California’s Delicate Productions, with three Avid VENUE Profile Systems, each with FOH and Stage Racks, courtesy of Hi-Tech Audio. As production manager and monitor engineer Javier Alcaraz explains, the setup is anything but typical. At the helm of the computer network is Marco Gamboa, a veteran Pro Tools whiz whose credits include world tours with Shania Twain, Jennifer Lopez, and Luis Miguel. As Gamboa explains, his choice of Digital Performer is based on both function and familiarity. “Even though I do edits in Pro Tools, I’ve been using Digital Performer for many years—in fact, since it was just called Performer—so I’m very fast with it,” he says. “And the fact that VENUE makes it easy to integrate with DP and Pro Tools makes the whole thing seamless.”
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W-DMX™ on the 99th Grey Cup Halftime Show
The Pepsi Max Halftime Show was performed by the Vancouver-based rock band Nickleback, playing songs off their albums All The Right Reasons, Dark Horse, and Here and Now. The halftime show was produced by Patrick Roberge of Patrick Roberge Productions, alongside Production Designer Robert Sondergaard and TV Lighting Director Jason McKinnon of Electric Aura. System Engineer was Jason Bolger and Production Electricians were Charles Arrata, Corey Proulx, and Ken Reckahn. The stage for Nickleback was erected center field with the stage set made up of Jarags stacked like blocks, flanked by video screens on both sides. A catwalk extended from the stage out into the audience. Lighting consisted of over 150 Martin MAC moving lights. 4 W-DMX Tranceivers sent a flawless wireless signal from 4 grandMA Light consoles, 2 grandMA NSPs and 2 Vixen Media Servers, programmed by Shaun Forbes.
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PRODUCTS
Third Kayenne for Nine Network
The latest Kayenne switcher ordered features a large 3.5 M/E frame and a 4 M/E Kayenne control panel and includes sophisticated multi-layered effects and DVE transitions, making it the Southern Hemisphere’s largest Kayenne platform in operation. It will be used for a variety of news, current affairs and entertainment programs that go live to air from Nine Network’s Willoughby studios, or recorded for later transmission. The Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center is a family of powerful, highly modular production switchers, with 1.5 M/Es to 4.5 M/Es. Grass Valley DoubleTake™ split M/E technology effectively increasing the available M/Es to 10. The modular control panel is designed for easy expansion and service. Each source select and aux bus module has two rows of OLED Source Name Displays that provide ultra-clear text with extremely wide viewing angles.
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Soundcraft Releases “The Soundcraft Guide to Mixing” App for iPad“
Since its introduction, ‘The Soundcraft Guide to Mixing’ has become a popular reference for learning about what a mixer does and how to use it, and there are more than a million copies in use worldwide,” said Keith Watson, Marketing Director, HARMAN Mixing Group. “From its original booklet form it has evolved to become available as a web page, as a downloadable PDF, on DVD and online video formats. Making this industry-standard reference available on the iPad was the inevitable next step.” “The Soundcraft Guide to Mixing” is tailor-made for the iPad. It uses the same now-classic video clips that have drawn more than 350,000 views on YouTube alone. The Guide takes users through all aspects of setting up and using an audio mixer including: explaining the various controls and functions, connecting microphones, instruments and outboard effects, basic and advanced mixing techniques, using mixers for live sound and for studio recording, and many additional topics.
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Sennheiser Launching Online version of the “Recording Sound Academy”
The Recording Sound Academy -– which takes place entirely online –- is an interactive program that provides aspiring engineers and producers with raw, individual pre-recorded tracks for three unreleased songs by a well-known recording artist, each recorded with Sennheiser and Neumann microphones. To participate, users simply download these from the Recording Sound Academy website, mix them on their computers or home studios and then upload a finished track to the site. After each mix is completed and uploaded, it is then individually critiqued by an award-winning engineer. The first artist to be featured in the program will be Bo Bice, who has been featured on the hit TV show American Idol. The online Recording Sound Academy borrows instructional elements from the highly successful Sennheiser Recording Sound Academy, such as valuable tips and instruction on microphone selection and placement and recording techniques.
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Vizrt Gives Worldwide Broadcasters On-Demand Access to DigitalGlobe
Using the familiar and intuitive Viz World interface, subscribers can quickly search the DigitalGlobe archive to find and preview the imagery that best suits their needs. They can then immediately begin using the imagery to create high-accuracy maps of a region, adding dynamic touchscreen-based drawing tools and controls that give on-air talent the freedom to move, resize, highlight, and animate areas of the map. In addition to using archived imagery, subscribers will also be able to use newly captured imagery of crisis events taking place worldwide. This allows production teams to consistently monitor high-risk events as they unfold, then quickly begin using images from before, during and after the crisis to maximize newscast impact and accuracy.
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3D ARISING
BBC Broadcasting 3D Strictly Come Dancing
The BBC is to enter the third dimension once again, following the successful 3D trial that took place during the Wimbledon tennis Championships back in June and ast year's studio based 3D test: It was a special Strictly Come Dancing sequence for Children in Need - actually it was the second time Children in Need tried 3D. And the good news is that, as long as you've got a 3D TV, you'll be able to tune in. You don't need Virgin Media or Sky (although the 3D action will be available on both) as the action will be shown on both Freesat and Freeview via the BBC HD channel. 3D action will also, for the first time, be available on the BBC iPlayer (on set top boxes) in what the corporation is dubbing a "technical trial". It will also be shown live in selected cinemas including in London, Burnley, Cardiff, Belfast and Leamington.
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3net Sees Growing Potential in 3D
At the 7th Annual Digital TV Summit in London (Dec. 6-7), it was clear that 3DTV is still a technology to be reckoned with. During a Keynote address entitled “Pioneering the small-screen 3D experience,” Tom Cosgrove, president of 3net — the joint venture between Discovery Communications, IMAX and Sony — predicted that one out of every two new TVs sold in the U.S. by 2014 would be 3D compatible. He also said that 3D would not replace HD, but that the two technologies would complement each other, as the new generation of sets can display both types of broadcasts.
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Blackmagic Design Announces New Teranex Prices
The Teranex VC100 now includes, as standard, extremely high quality de interlace, up conversion, down conversion, SD and HD cross conversion, SD and HD standards conversion, automatic cadence detection and removal even with edited content, noise reduction, adjustable scaling, aspect ratio conversion and smart aspect ratio 4:3 to 16:9 conversion, all with full time code and multi channel audio conversion. Also included is 3D dual channel conversions, new patent pending 3D simulation and the forthcoming 3D toolkit for matching cameras in 3D rigs for perfect alignment. The Teranex VC100 model now includes all available processing at one flat cost of US$19,995. This feature set and processing previously cost almost US$90,000 and this new price point is a dramatic price reduction. This price reduction means customers can now get the maximum processing features at one single price and without any extra cost.
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