Newsletter from 18/05/2018
The Tapeless IBC in Rio
For the first time ever the wide range of production and technical services provided by OBS is completely tapeless. A combination of dozens of EVS XT3 servers, hundreds of EVS IP Directors and other EVS technologies play a key part in leaving tape behind. The EVS server farm is much, much larger than the system for the London games as there are more feeds and the Multi-Clip Feed services didn't exist in 2012 so that makes 12 more feeds to log. And there are all the mixed zones and interview areas. On the first two days there were already 70,000 logs per day. Getting the EVS side of the facility up and running required 15 EVS support personnel to be on hand (currently nine EVS staffers managing the project during the games). There are 33 EVS XT3 servers on hand for OBS at the IBC, providing 167 channels of ingest (more than 160 IP Directors can be find throughout the facility). Most of the servers are six-channel units while the mixed zone units feature 12 channels. The main equipment room houses the servers that store footage from around the Games. There is, however, a running back-up created on another site so that live Olympic coverage is reduced, but not suspended, in the event of server failure.
OLYMPIC GAMES IN RIO
The International Broadcast Center (IBC) for the Olympics in Rio 2016
The host broadcaster for every Olympic Games, Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) has a permanent base in Madrid where it has a full-time staff of 150. That workforce has swelled to around 7,100 for Rio 2016, with an army of freelancers taken on to bolster its technical, editorial and administrative operations. There are two buildings making up the IBC in Rio. Staff and visitors enter through the operations building, an administrative hub where broadcasters can book rooms or liaise where required with the city. This is also the place to find the spectrum desk, where every camera and piece of wireless broadcast equipment must be accredited and fitted with a barcode. With 27,000 people making use of the IBC over the course of the Games, there is a lot of equipment to register.
Riedel Communications’ Massive Presence at Rio
Riedel Communications once again is at the center of the Olympic events in Rio, as well as plenty of the events surrounding the Olympics, thanks to an agreement with the Rio 2016 Local Organizing Committee (LOC). Under the deal, the company is providing a wide range of technologies and services for the Games, and it has 150 engineers onsite to make sure the thousands of pieces of technology perform as needed. Once again the Mediornet real-time network for video, audio, and data communications is at the center of the installation for LOC in combination with 1,200 wireless radios and hundreds of belt packs. Upwards of 20,000 in-ear monitors were used for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, and they will also be used for the Closing Ceremony. The company is also providing 14,000 official radios used by the LOC and several other parties, including sponsors, who use them for coordination and their VIP events.
Omega's High-Tech Timekeeping in Olympic Games Golf
36 laser positioning systems are installed around the course with which OMEGA can identify the position of the balls. Whether it is distance from the tee or to the hole. Although these laser systems have been used in other golf tournaments, OMEGA has developed its own software to manage the data in real time. On top of that, the laser system can be used for enhanced statistics such as number of putts, fairway shots and how many shots have gone in the rough. Surrounding the golf course, there are also 11 scoreboards that show a current leaderboard with scores and player names. Finally, four scoreboards have been placed at ground level on four dedicated tees, all equipped with radar measurement systems.
Rio 2016: Social media, second screens and video streaming
According to forecasts, 85 per cent of online Olympic viewers will use a 'second screen' to feed their appetite for insights and to share their reactions. Since the first live radio broadcasts at Antwerp 1924 and the first live television coverage at London 1948, the Olympic Games have always used cutting-edge communications technologies to bring the main events to audiences all around the world. This year at Rio 2016, social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat will take sports fans closer to the action than ever before, turning athletes and fans into content producers and transforming the experience of watching the Games. It's a rare athlete these days who doesn't have their own Twitter, Facebook or Instagram accounts. Some of the biggest stars now have followers numbering in the millions or even tens of millions, giving fans unprecedented access to their preparations for their events and delivering a unique taste of the atmosphere in Rio.
MOBILE PRODUCTION
Gearhouse Broadcast Keeps Rebel Heart Pumping for Madonna Tour
Following its success implementing facilities for a recent live Taylor Swift concert, Gearhouse Broadcast has been selected by York Studios in Melbourne to provide live music and OB production facilities for Madonna’s Rebel Heart tour concert at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena. With facilities similar to the Taylor Swift event, the Rebel Heart tour production consisted of a mix of six Sony PMW-F55 large sensor cameras. Which were used for close up and stage shots while six broadcast cameras with box lenses were installed for longer coverage. Gearhouse employed the same HD6 “Entertainment” supertruck that was previously implemented used on the Taylor Swift event as its production centrepiece.
NEP UK Wins ITV Contract to Cover Horse Racing
Horse racing has recently found a new home at ITV, with NEP UK confirmed to continue working on the new contract from January 2017. As part of NEP UK’s regeneration after last year’s devastating fire, several new trucks are being built, one of which will make its way onto the racing coverage as soon as possible next year. All of NEP UK’s new trucks will be UHD ready. John Turnbull, Deputy Managing Director, NEP UK says, “The horse racing has been part of NEP UK for almost 30 years, right since the inception of the business. The team and I are very much looking forward to working on another major project with ITV Sport & producing top quality coverage.”
STUDIO PRODUCTION
Vizrt tech transforms TV 4 Sweden’s main studio for coverage of UEFA EURO 2016
The popular network’s new sports studio has been outfitted with a large panoramic 60 square meter video wall as a backdrop. Video and graphics for the video wall are being controlled by a Viz Multiplay software package that allows the production crew to display and arrange up to eight simultaneous HD outputs from a single Viz Engine real-time compositing and rendering engine. Vizrt’s Viz Virtual Studio software is also being used to add augmented reality graphics into the physical studio. The TV 4 Sweden technical team also implemented augmented reality elements to the set using Viz Virtual Studio, which is used in a variety of ways to support the on-air presenters. These virtual elements are driven by a stYpe tracking system mounted on a camera crane in the studio.
BeckTV and TEGNA Media Collaborate
BeckTV, one of the United States' premier design-build systems integrators, has completed the relocation of the TEGNA Media-owned stations KING, KONG, and 24-hour regional news channel Northwest Cable News (NWCN) to a newly remodeled building located across town in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood and adjacent to the home fields of the city's Major League Baseball and National Football League teams, the Mariners and Seahawks. Collaborating with TEGNA Media on the design and build of broadcast facilities within "Home Plate Center," BeckTV assisted with programming, space planning, broadcast system design, broadcast budget development, and system integration to enable a rapid transition to more robust and innovative facilities.
SPORT EVENTS
NHL’s Hurricanes increase live production capacity with EVS
“We chose EVS because we were looking for a way to maximize our production potential,” said Logan McDonald, producer/system administrator at CanesVision. “We needed access to more camera feeds and greater capacity – all at once.” The system includes two XT3 production servers, providing versatile SD/HD, 1080p or 4K configurations to flex with CaneVision’s needs. EVS’ IPDirector content management suite, each with a dedicated operator workstation, is critical to the control room operations. One workstation is dedicated to replay content, another for clipping and assets. A third operator exclusively creates playlists for time outs and intermissions and exports clips to fiber connected storage for editors to post on external outlets. The system enables operators to focus on specific tasks while providing deep archive for back-and-forth media exchange and quick content turnaround.
Amsterdam ArenA Improves Stadia AV Signal Routing with Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design announced that the home of leading Eredivisie football club AFC Ajax, Amsterdam ArenA has upgraded it’s audiovisual production capabilities with the addition of Blackmagic’s MultiView 16 and two Smart Videohub 40 x 40 video routers. The Amsterdam ArenA is a multi-purpose stadium, hosting some 450 corporate events per year in its hospitality areas, as well as a dozen major annual music concerts including Rihanna, One Direction and the dance event Sensation. The ArenA's production facilities are primarily used, however, by Ajax Media, the club's content division. Ajax Media produces three in-house television channels during live games, including a live feed of the match action taken from the league's host broadcaster, mixed with bespoke sponsor logos and public transport information. Ajax Media itself operates three pitch-side cameras, a PTZ camera in the press room and two fixed cameras in the players’ tunnel to produce a second channel.
Australia’s Matt Hall claims critical Air Racing win at Ascot
Australia’s Matt Hall just topped overall leader Matthias Dolderer of Germany for the win at Sunday’s Red Bull Air Race in Ascot, UK, proving that there’s still everything to play for with three races left in the season. Finishing third, Austria’s Hannes Arch is still firmly in the mix. The thrills were nonstop when the second half of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship season took off at Ascot Racecourse in the UK on Sunday, as pylons and track records fell in a desperate drive to stop the momentum of overall leader Matthias Dolderer of Germany. In the Final 4, it was Matt Hall of Australia seizing the win with a time of 1:03.426, while Dolderer was second with 1:04.887. Hannes Arch of Austria took third.
SHOW EVENTS
Robe Adds Magic to Ehrlich Brothers Record Breaking Stadium Show
Taking the genre of illusionism into a completely new dimension, brothers Chris and Andreas Ehrlich – who had already played to over half a million people on their “Magic – Experience Dreams” arena tour put on a special performance, “Magic – A Unique Stadium Show” at the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt. Designing all visual departments - stage, video and television, effects lighting (design and operating) and co-ordinating the OB and camera technology - for this truly jaw-dropping spectacular experience was the team from Cologne based visual design and creative practice mo2, led by Manfred “Ollie” Olma. The performance was recorded for DVD and broadcast – a package of 19 x 4K cameras and 6 x GoPros was undertaken by Berlin based production company TopVision - so when it came to lighting, there were many challenges.
50th Montreux Jazz Festival
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Montreux Jazz Festival invited the international jazz scene to enjoy an especially rich programme at Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Stars from rock, pop, blues and soul performed from 1st to 16th July. An estimated 250,000 fans thronged the three concert halls and numerous open air stages on the lakeshore promenades. RTS recorded all concerts at three venues using three of their own OB vehicles as well as an additional private one. The Montreux Jazz Lab, a concert hall that holds around 2000 people, is where RTS deployed the audio facilities of HD1, the flagship of its OB fleet. Ever since the festival began, the concerts in Montreux have been recorded in the highest possible quality to enable flexible use of audio and video recordings.
EDC Spectacular with Enteetainment
On behalf of Festival Republic, Dick Tee of ‘enteetainment Ltd’, was thrilled to be asked to look after the technical production management of the recent EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) show in Milton Keynes Bowl, working alongside his counterpart, world renowned Production Manager Jake Berry, who was representing Los Angeles based Festival producers ‘Insomniac’. Electric Daisy Carnival UK returned to Milton Keynes Bowl for a one-day electronic dance music party that is unlike any other with the very biggest EDM and house DJs in the world performing in front of 50,000 dance music fans.
PURE LIVE 2016 will be published on 28 August prior to IBC!
PURE LIVE 2016 will cover:
Detailed descriptions of 24 new 4K/UHD OBVans from all around the world: Australia, China, Canada, Europe, United States, in particular AMP VISUAL TV, Arena, Clark Media, Croatel, Dome Productions, Euromedia, Gearhouse, Hunan TV, JSBC, Mediapro, NEP, Telecenic, Timeline\TV, TopVision, TV Skyline, TVN, Videohouse.
Portraits of international system integrators, rental facilities and production houses .
Case studies and reports highlighting our areas of focus: video, audio and lighting as well as the latest developments in sports and entertainment live-production: UEFA EURO - Adele - Le Mans - Royal Opera Stockholm - Formula E - Montreux Jazz - Trotting - PAC-12, to only name a few of the Highlights.
PRODUCTS
IBC2016: FREE registration ends Friday 19 August.
The extended Early Bird deadline is fast approaching. This is your last chance to register for the IBC Exhibition for free! Register Now.
Session Spotlight 'Sport: The future ain't what it use to be...'
The world has moved on a lot since the social media breakthrough that was London 2012. Our panel will focus on how both new and traditional players can benefit from a renewed sense of engagement around sporting events, looking at Rio 2016 and the Euro 2016, as well as Major League Baseball.
Thursday 8 Sept | 14:45 - 15:30
As of today we feature 42 companies and their approach at IBC2016. This list is continously updated until IBC opens on September 8th in Amsterdam.
2wcom - Adder - Artel - AviWest - Axon - BB&S - Belden - BFE - Bluebell - Calrec - ChyronHego - Custom Consoles - Dejero - DNF - EBU - Elemental - EVS - Grass Valley - Guntermann & Drunck - Harmonic - Hitachi - Ikegami - Imagine Communications - Jünger - Leader - Media Links - Megahertz - MSE - Nevion - NOA - Omnitek - Rohde & Schwarz Ross Video - SAM - Sixty - Sonnet - Tektonix - Telestream - Timecode Systems - Video Devices - Vimond - Wisycom
The link "IBC2016" will always show you the featured companies in alphabetical order
4K/8K ARISING
Danmon Builds Scandinavia’s first UHD Channel
Danmon Group announces the completion, for ViaSat Sport, of Scandinavia's first UHD television channel. Part of Modern Times Group, ViaSat is based at MTG's headquarters in Stockholm. ViaSat Sport will transmit selected live sport events in UHD to viewers throughout the Nordic region. The new channel commenced with the Rio Olympics, MTG being the official Rio Olympics 2016 broadcaster for Sweden. ViaSat Sport will also transmit specially produced UHD sports content such as soccer via the SES-5 satellite for ViaSat customers throughout Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. At the same time, Danmon built an additional HD Sports channel which is branded as ViaSat Sport Premium.
8K Hi-Vision Trials at the Rio Games by NHK
The real showstopper at this years Olympic Games comes courtesy of Japanese broadcaster NHK. It is trialling its Super Hi-Vision 8K technology at Rio 2016, with resolution twice that of 4K and 16 times that of high definition. OBS is treating visitors to live 8K screenings of events from the Games in a custom-created cinema room. Swimming heats from the Olympic Aquatics Stadium and athletic events from the Olympic stadium are an excellent vehicle. Paired with 22.2-channel surround sound, watching sport in 8K is a remarkable experience. There is a marked leap in clarity from HD, with the viewer’s eye taken to details that would go without notice in the flesh but would not be visible in a regular broadcast: the creasing of clothes, the rippling of the pool’s surface, reflections of light in each swimmer’s cap and the running water on their skin.
Sony strengthens BVM-X300 4K OLED Master Monitor with enforced capabilities
Sony is introducing the second generation BVM-X300 OLED master monitor, giving users more flexibility and more features for HDR and 4K production applications. Starting in October 2016, this new version of the BVM-X300 will feature updated Version 2 firmware including additional HDR EOTF and function support, a new hardware with an HDMI input for easy connection to cameras or Blu-ray players, and a second 3G/HD-SDI 4K input for simpler system integration. Since the BVM-X300’s release in early 2015, it has been adopted by major post-production houses for color grading and used for monitoring and quality control on the sets of television shows and films and in 4K/UHD ready OBVans.