Panasonic has announced the introduction of the AW-UE100 integrated pan/tilt/zoom camera, which supports a wide variety of IP transmission protocols, including high-bandwidth NDI, high-efficiency NDI|HX and Secure Reliable Transport (SRT). This new PTZ camera has a newly-designed direct drive motor for smooth pan and tilt movement and offers installation flexibility, low noise and high-resolution image capture. It is ideal for high-quality live remote and studio production for broadcast, staging, corporate and sports events.

In an expansion to its AK series studio and field camera line-up, Panasonic has announced the cost-effective AK-HC3900 1080p HDR studio camera system, which will be upgradable to native 4K 60p/50p. The new AK-HC3900 is ideal for broadcast, education and corporate markets. It follows in the footsteps of the company’s AK-HC3800, a model that has defined high-quality professional systems and cost-efficient production for close to a decade.

Panasonic System Solutions Company of North America, Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America (Panasonic) has announced KAIROS, a next generation live production platform that provides incredible productivity. This new IT/IP video processing platform offers an open architecture system for live video switching with complete input and output flexibility, resolution and format independence, maximum CPU/GPU processor utilization and virtually unlimited ME scalability

FOX Sports went the whole nine yards in its coverage of Super Bowl LIV in Miami this year, building a South Beach studio compound that represented the network’s largest footprint ever for a Super Bowl. FOX Sports’ collaborated with Creative Works London on the studios’ set content package, which featured disguise solutions driving more than 50 square meters of LED video at the compound.

The Covid-19 Coronavirus crisis has focused attention on the need to provide safe and secure working conditions for essential workers. Many industries and services have to continue to operate effectively during the pandemic even with reduced staffing levels and with social distancing measures making it harder for colleagues to cooperate closely with each other.

After having rented and extensively used a GENESIX VideoServer since 2015, the enthusiasm for the easy-to-use failsafe 24/7 system gave impetus to the ProSiebenSat.1 PULS 4 Group to purchase the latest 2U edition GENESIX VideoServer with 16 HD-SDI channels for its leading Austrian private TV station in March 2020. As one of the most diversified media companies in Europe, ProSiebenSat.1 addresses over 45 million TV households in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 15 free and pay TV channels, leading entertainment brands and numerous successful productions. Needless to say, STRYME’s flagship product was put through its paces over the past 5 years.

Genelec –the global leader in professional loudspeakers –is to donate a percentage of every sale of its new RAW loudspeaker range to the Audio Engineering Society (AES), for the remainder of this year. Additionally, Genelec will be funding ten one-year AES memberships for those individuals whose lives have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
 

With a warehouse full of touring gear grounded by Covid 19, leading Latvian rental company, 3S SIA quickly transformed its Riga headquarters into a fully equipped livestream performance space, including Allen & Heath dLive and Avantis systems. Created in partnership with local broadcaster, TVNET, the resulting 3S Lockdown Sessions have reached tens of thousands of isolating music fans each week since they debuted in March, with livestreamed performances by popular artists including Latvian Blues Band, Aminata, Samanta Tina, Lauris Valters, Ozols, Indygo and Riga Reggae.
 

After 28 years of consistent touring, the Stereophonics’ relentless quest to improve their stage sound and gain closer engagement with their audience continues.

First, Ross is launching a new inverted S2 Lift for the Furio SkyDolly ceiling-mounted rail-based robotic camera system. Based on the award-winning floor-mounted Furio solution, Furio SkyDolly provides dramatic and dynamic camera motion shots from above, offering exciting creative options with safety and security at their core. The S2 Lift adds silky smooth elevation to these dolly shots – with up to 48.3cm (19”) of vertical lift – and has been designed to handle net payloads of up to 30kg (66lb), easily supporting a full-size camera and prompter. The two-stage lift mechanism limits flex and minimizes sway, and the linear rail design ensures SkyDolly can be used in virtual set and augmented reality applications. The Furio SkyDolly delivers a visual impact that was previously only available with a jib, now with the benefits of automation. The new S2 lift will be available in May 2020.

Feed Our Crew is an NGO initiative (non-government organization) in South Africa co-founded by Johannesburg-based Tamsyn Strydom (project manager from production and rental company MGG), Kagiso Moima Wa Masimini (KG) who owns Blackmotion Production and Marcia Alves from We Are Boundless.

Riedel Communications today announced a significant expansion of the company’s MediorNet family of video networking devices. With 13 new hardware devices and nine new software apps, the MediorNet product line is better equipped than ever to meet the distributed routing, processing, and multiviewing requirements of today’s SDI, IP, and hybrid production environments.

Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) has standardized on Grass Valley cameras, deploying 49 LDX 82 Elite camera systems, with XDR licenses, across its studios and Outside Broadcast (OB) fleet. The upgrade to its camera chains provides HD and high dynamic range (HDR) support across RTP’s live events and studio productions and ensures future-proof acquisition capability, thanks to Grass Valley’s robust upgrade path.  The sale was managed by Grass Valley’s Portuguese channel partner Ibertelco.

Lawo, German innovator and manufacturer of pioneering IP-based broadcast technology, introduces with the Release 2020-2 further control enhancements for VSM, Lawo’s globally leading IP broadcast control system. The new Flow State Master functionality defines VSM as the master of the true flow routing status. With this functionality, Lawo’s IP Broadcast Control System ensures that an IP infrastructure is in a deterministic routing state at all time. In addition, it restores this state automatically after partial or full outages in the network infrastructure, bringing a new level of operational security to IP production environments.  

More than 25 years after they unapologetically catapulted into the UK charts, and 10 since disbanding to produce solo material, much-loved British rockers Supergrass returned to touring with audio rental house Britannia Row in February and March.