Newsletter from 26/09/2013
NEP & VSM - RAI & Robe - NTV-Plus & Edius - NIMB & ATEM
MOBILE PRODUCTION
Hattrick on Tracks
Recently the RTS TrackRunner achieved a sportsmenlike masterstroke : after the Swimming World Championships in Barcelona taking place July 19th to August 4th in Barcelona and the IAAF Athletics World Cup in Moscow in mid-August the TrackRunner achieved a real Hattrick being applicated at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg at the end of August. Amongst other special features, TrackRunner runs extremly smooth due to its unique Cable Management System and with a high speed of 13 m/s it is stunningly fast. TrackRunner is suitable for cornerings on curved tracks and may also be mounted in an up side down hanging position which makes it an ideal allrounder for any live broadcast event.
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Bexel's Long-Lasting Partnership with EVS
At the 2013 US Open, Bexel and EVS are once again working together to help deliver the highest quality broadcast possible to the millions of tennis fans who will be watching around the world. In addition to supporting the primary coverage of the tournament on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN360 and ESPN Interactive TV, the companies will be working with ESPN Argentina, ESPN Brazil, The Tennis Channel, and CBS Sports. The core of this year’s project for Bexel will be putting together an EVS server system that includes 15 XT3 servers, six additional XT series servers, two XS servers, 36 IPDirector suites, six XTAccess servers, two XStoreSE 20TB storage systems, four DBServer SQL database servers, 10 EVS network hubs, and four XFile gateways. Bexel recently purchased 10 IPDirector suites, two XS servers, and an XT3 server to accommodate the massive installation needed at the US Open Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.
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Maria Rud & Ross Ashton Present “Dark Matter”
Projection and digital art specialist Ross Ashton collaborated with Russian artist Maria Rud to present ‘Dark Matter’ a dynamic ‘AniMotion’ live performance painting projected in giant format on to the Institute of Astronomy library in Cambridge UK. It was the world-wide launch of this concept, complete with live music from flautist David Heath, vocalist Fay Fife and DJ / producer Dolphin Boy (Andy Levy). The one off event also coincided with the launch of the 2014 e-Luminate Festival in Cambridge - which in February will celebrate the fusion of lighting and technology to show the city literally ‘in a different light’ - with a fundamental emphasis on eco-sustainability.
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Historic Concert in Kashmir with Zubin Mehta
On the 7th September 2013 maestro Zubin Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra hosted a landmark event in the foothills of the Himalayas in the town of Srinagar. Srinagar had not witnessed any official form of cultural activity since a cricket match in 1983, making this one of the most eagerly anticipated concerts in recent times. Zubin Mehta is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and main conductor for Valencia’s Opera House. Nearly 2,000 guests attended the event, hosted by the German Embassy in the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar. It was the lifelong dream of Zubin Mehta’s to perform in the beauty and serenity of the Shalimar Gardens. The garden is over 500 meters in length with natural waters running through the garden and then entering into the famous Dal Lake.
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Peace One Day Presented 24-Hour Global Broadcast For Peace
This year, Peace One Day was working with various actors around the world to bring the event to a worldwide audience with the Peace Day 24-hour broadcast, streamed live on YouTube. The show, contained extraordinary contributions from all over the world, aiming at raising awareness of the day and helping to build participation from individuals and organizations in every continent. Lines Broadcast and Broadcastnow set a partnership to be part of the incredible adventure of Peace-Day 24-Hours Broadcast. The backbone of the production was a NewTek TriCaster 850, connected with a TriCaster 455, providing 4 more HD-SDI inputs. Three workstations linked with the TriCaster 455 via HDMI, shared the content recorded and stored in the TriCaster, and distributed it to different part of the world to feed the live streams.
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TV Skyline Creates New OB Van Model With Snell's Kahuna 360 Switcher and New Maverik
"Product launches and similar live events are highly complex and can push broadcast systems and production staff to their limits, so it is critical to employ systems that can be tailored to the demands of a given event," said Wolfgang Reeh, founder and CEO of TV Skyline. "Event-specific control solutions are only possible with a control panel system that enables the user to change the order and combination of the subpanels on an individual basis, and Snell's Maverik is the only product to achieve this functionality. In combination with the Kahuna 360 system's Make M/E technology, the Maverik panel will enable us to realize our vision of a uniquely customizable OB van."
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STUDIO PRODUCTION
United Installs Studer Vista 1 in Dutch Villa for RTL4
Recently the company purchased a compact HARMAN Studer Vista 1 all-in-one console for use on the daily Koffietijd (Coffee Time) programme, broadcast by popular commercial station, RTL4. The new 32-fader desk, which was supplied by Heynen, Studer’s Dutch distributors, is installed long-term in a permanent control room at a luxury villa in Eemnes, where the studio has been purpose designed for technical equipment and crew. United has been using Studer platforms for at least 15 years, with the famous Studer 928 analogue console being their standard broadcast mixer (in fact two are still in operation). In 2008 they moved up to Studer’s digital platform, purchasing two Vista 8’s for use in both their new and upgraded OB vehicles.
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Robe for Reazione A Catena Series
Leading Italian television lighting designer Salvo Perrini used nearly 200 Robe moving lights on the most recent series of ‘Reazione A Catena’ (Chain Reaction) for national TV channel RAI. The show was recorded at RAI’s Auditorium HQ in Naples where Perrini lit the show for the second time, before which it was recorded in Rome. The game is based on the association logic of words or numbers and allows viewers to test their intuition and mastery of the Italian language. Each episode needed to have a different look and flavour, on which Perrini worked closely with scenic designer, Marco Calzavara. As each programme built up towards its final section the money stakes increased dramatically … and the lighting was integral to helping build the tension.
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Yamaha Delivers High Quality On A Low Budget For Telegraaf TV
TMG publishes the Netherlands most popular newspaper De Telegraaf, as well as regional newspapers, magazines, web sites and has significant interests in radio and television broadcasting. In-house production company Telegraaf TV has just moved into a brand new studio in TMG’s main Amsterdam building to produce online news content. Built by broadcast technology provider DutchView, a Yamaha O1V96i digital console and DUGAN-MY16 auto mic mixing card have satisfied the need for high quality on a very tight budget. The new facility features two studios with a combined control room, where every day five different programmes are recorded and then broadcast on TMG’s news web site.
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Gearhouse Broadcast Wins Contract for 5 Camera HDTV Studio
Leading broadcast services specialist, Gearhouse Broadcast, has been awarded the contract to design, supply, install and support a new state-of-the-art HDTV facility at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) in Dublin. The two-studio campus is due to be officially opened at a ceremony on Tuesday, 26 November 2013. The larger of the two studios will be fully equipped with five Hitachi SK-HD1200 multi-format 1080p/3G HDTV broadcast cameras channels, equipped with Fujinon HA23 x 7.3BERD HD studio lenses. These cameras are hot-swappable between the two studios as needed. The second smaller studio will feature a FOR-A VRCAM2 Sensor-less Virtual Studio System, including an HVS-390HS 2 M/E mixer with the option of accepting data from a Vinten 430i and Quattro SE encoded head and pedestal. Gearhouse Broadcast is also supplying an ARRI ALEXA camera with ARRI Alura 35mm zoom lenses and three Sony CineAlta 4K Prime lenses.
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The AED group Acquires the Alfacam Mediacenter
AED group, the European AV equipment banker with Headquarters in Willebroek (Belgium) is active all over the world and has offices in 5 countries in the EU (BE,NL,FR,DE,UK) covering more than 50,000 m², handles over 50,000 rental vouchers realizes 15,000 sales of professional AV equipment. Glenn Roggeman, CEO of this unique AV industry banker reports: We can proudly state that Alfacam’s crown juwel, albeit under a new name, will remain in Belgian hands! As of 01/10 Eurocam Mediacenter will continue under the name of AED Studios. This acquisition not only guarantees the continuity of existing business, it also ensures that 60% of the jobs will remain secured. The site comprises 15 studios, of which 3 have permanent lighting, sound and video equipment installed. For TV/Video recording productions AED Studios will collaborate, with the Belgian Outside Broadcast. They offer technical services such as OB vans, camera-teams and video editing facilities for sports and other TV events, supporting the AED Studios.
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SPORTS
Thirty-two Countries Declare Interest for UEFA EURO 2020 Bid
The 32 member associations which have stated their interest, together with their proposed provisional host cities, are: Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku), Belarus (Minsk), Belgium (Brussels), Bulgaria (Sofia), Croatia (Zagreb), Czech Republic (Prague), Denmark (Copenhagen), England (London), Finland (Helsinki), France (Lyon), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Skopje), Germany (Munich), Greece (Athens), Hungary (Budapest), Israel (Jerusalem), Italy (Rome and Milan), Kazakhstan (Astana), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Poland (Warsaw and Chorzow), Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), Republic of Ireland (Dublin), Romania (Bucharest), Russia (Saint Petersburg), Scotland (Glasgow), Serbia (Belgrade), Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia), Sweden (Solna), Switzerland (Basel), Turkey (Istanbul), Ukraine (Kyiv and Donetsk) and Wales (Cardiff).
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Europe’s Great Summer of Television
Despite the fact that this summer did not feature a FIFA World Cup, a UEFA European Championships or an Olympic Games, and despite the unusually warm summer weather in much of Europe, viewers remained gripped by TV shows – whether about sport, politics, royalty or entertainment... The Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, was watched by a global audience of 360 million, 23.7m of them in Germany; Up to 13m viewers in France and 2.75m in the Netherlands watched coverage of the Tour de France. The Tour also broke records in the UK; In other sporting highlights, over 14m people in the UK watched Andy Murray win the men’s singles at Wimbledon (and Marion Bartoli’s victory in the women’s singles created an audience record for its channel in France), while 2m Swedes watched the women’s European Championship football semi-final.
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ADTEC Streams America's Cup Live from San Francisco to Auckland
While it was a battle of the best in the Americas Cup Race with Oracle Team USA and - Emirates Team New Zealand racing to the end, it’s a partnership of ideas that is streaming the race live from San Francisco, CA, USA, to Auckland, New Zealand over IP via the Internet. “Our goal was to stream live and pre-recorded program material back to New Zealand over the internet from San Francisco into the Television Centre in Auckland for playing on our flagship TV ONE television channel and live streaming back out on the internet through tvnz.co.nz,” explains John West, executive VP sports events for TVNZ.
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Optocore Serves up Audio Fibre Transport for US Open
As Mike Sinclair of Audio Incorporated, the audio designer for the U.S. Open live events for the past six years, explains, “We needed to find a way to connect the roof of the Broadcast Center building with our central patch area at the other end of the stadium in the photographers’ pit. We had to be ready to transport the programme audio feed, Clear-Com Encore Analog Party Lines converted to 4-wire for a production channel and a lighting channel. We also used Optocore’s 100Mb LAN tunnel between devices to network show control computers and DMX lighting control together.” Audio Incorporated employed Optocore X6R-FX-INTERCOM devices using the fibre infrastructure of Arthur Ashe stadium to connect and multiplex the various different audio and data streams over one pair of fibre lines. “We had to be ready for any eventuality and the Optocore X6R-FX-INTERCOM performed flawlessly with connectivity to spare,” Sinclair said.
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NTV Plus Selects Grass Valley Live Production Solutions for 2014 Winter Games
Grass Valley® will provide Russian satellite broadcaster NTV Plus with several of its innovative live production solutions to deliver multichannel sports production for the 2014 Winter Games to be held in Sochi, Russia, February 7-23, 2014. These solutions include a K2 Summit® production client with a K2 Storage Area Network (SAN), GV STRATUS® nonlinear media production tools with EDIUS® editing capabilities, and a K2 Dyno® S Replay Controller. The Grass Valley-NTV Plus collaboration was completed via Grass Valley’s long term Russian partner OKNO TV, alongside System Integrator PTS to deliver smooth installation of the Grass Valley solutions.
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SHOWS
Over 250 Robe Fixtures Purchased by Procolor For Alejandro Fernandez World Tour
The fixtures – which include 95 of Robe’s brand new ROBIN Pointes, together with 52 x LEDWash 600s, 40 x LEDWash 300s, 12 x LEDWash 1200s, and 5. 0 x MMX Spots – were delivered by Robe’s Mexican distributor Vari Internacional – and constitute the biggest sale yet of Robe fixtures to Mexico. Robe and Vari Internacional arranged comprehensive training sessions for all of Procolor’s technicians and crew, and Robe’s Technical Support Manager Steve Eastham visited the tour’s production rehearsals in Guadalajara to ensure that everything ran like clockwork ahead of a truly amazing first gig last week at the Telmex Arena in Zapopan, Guadalajara.
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Clay Paky Sharpys Rock with Rush as Band Wraps Clockwork Angels Tour
Rock band Rush just wrapped its Clockwork Angels Tour in the US in support of its eponymous album, and Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures went along for the ride. Rush began its US tour last September on the heels of a successful European leg. Dates in Phoenix and Dallas were recorded for a DVD release later this year. “We had 55 Clay Paky Sharpys on the tour for the duration,” says Howard Ungerleider, lighting designer for Rush. “Sharpys are one of the most versatile and exciting lighting fixtures I’ve used in a while. I can really get a lot of looks out of them. I definitely work them without over-using them.”
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XL Video and Roger Waters: "The Wall Live"
XL Video are the multi-award winning AV experts responsible for the projection of Video Director Richard Turner's innovative video display on Roger Waters' ‘The Wall Live’ concert tour. To help XL Video bring the shows to life, forty units of Panasonic twenty thousand lumens PT-DZ21KE and PT-DS20KE projectors are being installed into the grand scale stadiums and arenas, as the musician delivers twenty-seven electrifying rendition performances across Europe running until autumn 2013. Roger Waters comments on the technology of the show; “This wide wall stadium show couldn’t have been done 40 years ago. We couldn’t have filled the space in a way that would have been emotionally, musically and theatrically satisfying. Technology has changed. Now we can.”
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The Best Sound, the Biggest Broadcast Events
Launched at last year’s IBC, Sennheiser’s Digital 9000 wireless system has since become an integral part of the broadcasting, theatre and live audio worlds. The high-end solution is the first digital wireless system that can work without compression, transmitting full HD audio. Praised by engineers and artists alike for its incredible sound, the Digital 9000 system is the perfect solution for music broadcasts. In its first year, Digital 9000 has already powered prestigious shows such as the Eurovision Song Contest and The Voice of Switzerland. We take a look back at what Sennheiser achieved together with customers in a year of pristine audio transmission. It’s a journey featuring top events such as Eurovision, global superstars like Leona Lewis, renowned theatres, and national broadcasters.
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PRODUCTS
SSL Live Console is now Shipping
Early response from FOH and Monitor Engineers has been extremely positive. The more operators see it, the more the excitement surrounding the console grows. Praise surrounds the operational flexibility of the console, its sonic performance and the sensation of ‘finger painting with audio’ via the gestural touch screen. The on-board effects and superb channel processing toolkit and the unique SSL Blacklight system, which simplifies running audio and control between console and stageboxes delivers a surprising amount of power at a compelling price. The first three consoles all shipped to U.K.-based global tour production company Britannia Row for use on Peter Gabriel’s forthcoming European ‘Back to Front’ tour and another two shipped to SGroup in France for the imminent Amel Bent tour.
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Snell's Vega Platform Boosts Routing Flexibility in EMAV OB Unit
Snell announced that EMAV, one of Portugal's leading production companies, has installed a Vega routing platform in one of its midsize OB vans in order to maximize routing capacity and flexibility. Vega is the industry's most flexible asymmetric routing solution in a 4RU 192-port chassis and allows the EMAV OB production team to configure any signal port independently for fiber or coax (copper) connectivity, and to configure any signal port as either an input or output. The system was supplied and installed via Snell's Portuguese channel partner, Amperel. With services based in Portugal and expanding across Europe, EMAV can send its OB vans to cover a wide range of live events, ranging from sports to cultural and political events.
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SuperSport Selects Second Harris Broadcast Platinum IP3 Router
“Although we are just a few months into our usage of the Platinum IP3 router, we already can see that speed of operation, ease of operation, ease of resource assignment and operational reliability are all evident in this new design router,” said Eddie McAlone, Technical Director at SuperSport. “The Platinum IP3’s frame synchroniser capabilities have had a significant impact on our operations. What this means is that we have been able to hook together the new and old buildings and come straight on to the new router from the old building without any need for external hardware and glue products. The frame synchroniser reduces the hardware count, simplifies the system architecture and thereby increases system reliability in the long term.”
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NEPs SS22 Mobile Production Truck Takes a Leap into the World of VSM
USA-based company NEP has announced the use of VSM as the central control system for their mobile production truck SS22. SS22 is the first mobile production truck in NEP’s fleet to use VSM, and allows them to offer innovative and simplified operational workflows to both engineering and production staff. VSM handles all router control in the truck by interfacing directly to the video and audio routers. Growing directly from the requirements of the mobile production truck application, over the past decade L-S-B has established VSM as the leading umbrella Control System in European mobile vehicles. Over the past several years L-S-B has consistently expanded, offering VSM in new markets around the world that include: China, Russia, Korea, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.
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IBC Previews & Reviews: Find More than 90 Product Announcements from Axon, EVS, Evertz, Grass Valley, Hitachi, JFS, NOAH, Ross Video, Sony and Vizrt (and another 70 companies)
More than 50,000 professionals from over 160 countries engaged in the content creation, management and delivery of electronic media and entertainment will convene at IBC2013 in Amsterdam tomorrow, ready to challenge, direct and set the industry's agenda through a world class conference and vibrant exhibition. Uniting everything and everyone you need to know, IBC Amsterdam is the perfect forum to network and exchange ideas.
Find all IBC Releases sorted by date here
3D/4K ARISING
AJA Releases TruZoom™ for Realtime 4K to HD Region-of-Interest Workflows
AJA Video Systems announced TruZoom™ delivering high-quality region-of-interest (ROI) workflows from 4K and UltraHD video. The TruZoom software and external joystick controller drives AJA’s Corvid Ultra professional video I/O platfrom. TruZoom allows customers to scale any 16:9 region within 4K frames to HD in realtime, making it ideal for sports broadcast, live event production, professional AV, and digital film. "Corvid Ultra is a powerful solution for high frame rate workflows across a range of resolutions, from SD all the way up to 4K. With the release of TruZoom, we’re offering a simple front end interface for very high-quality HD region-of-interest scaling and extraction from 4K sources," said Nick Rashby, President, AJA Video Systems. "TruZoom has already been proven in critical on-air broadcast environments, including the MLB Network, who was very pleased with its performance during the baseball Division Series playoff games."
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Sony Demonstrates its "beyond definition" Strategy
Sony demonstrated a variety of new value-creating video production solutions at IBC 2013 in Amsterdam. In line with the company’s beyond definition concept, Sony is continuing to develop exciting and innovative business opportunities that revolutionise the industry. Visitors to the Sony booth saw live 4K production solutions, highly usable IT-driven systems and services and an HD product line positioned at the heart of today’s media industry. The use of 4K content for movies, TV shows, adverts and documentaries is growing rapidly, boosted by the launch of the Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta camera in February and the new XAVC video format, capable of handling both 4K and HD data streams efficiently. At IBC 2013, Sony was pushing the envelope further with new solutions for live 4K broadcasting for sports and events.
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Denmark’s First Ultra HD OBVan
Nimb TV, an innovative broadcast production start up in Denmark, has unveiled the country’s first, and smallest, Ultra HD OB van. The unit is built around a number of Blackmagic Design’s Ultra HD products, including the ATEM Production Studio 4K and Blackmagic Audio Monitor. Uniquely housed in a three wheeler moped van, it can be positioned right at the heart of any live production. Built with the help of AV specialist Stjernholm & Co, the OB van will be used for high quality, multi camera Ultra HD 4K production in the Danish broadcast industry, big screen events and live concerts. It has already been booked for the ‘boot camp’ section of the next season of Denmark’s version of The X Factor, which will use various locations across Copenhagen.
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