ISE 2017- The centre of innovation for the AV Industry

Eurotek's annual ISE Showcase Review

This year's ISE conference and exhibition took place at the RAI in Amsterdam from 7th to the 10th February. As usual, Eurotek had a big team in attendance, roaming the floors to see what's new.

With the growth of the AV industry over the past few years, ISE has itself grown to become a huge show, with 60,000+ attendees, and spread now across four days. It has arguably become a bigger show than IBC, the Broadcast convention that takes place at the same venue each September.

Getting to see every new product from every vendor is impossible, so our focus is on new and interesting developments- it can be taken from granted that all the major manufacturers will have new versions of their established products, and without wishing to diminish the importance of these, we think that highlighting the clever new stuff is more interesting!

So, the highlights:

Christie Pandora's Box Widget Designer wins InAVate Technology Award

Pandora's Box is a display processor, enabling multiple source signals to be merged and displayed on a large canvas backdrop. Our colleagues in AVTEK are long term users of Pandora's Box, and have used it on numerous events over the past few years. 


The Christie Pandoras Box 6.0 and Widget Designer 6.0 captured the Technology for Entertainment and Live Video award, which were presented by InAVation magazine on Tuesday evening, February 7 at ISE.

Christie Pandoras Box, featured in numerous sports arenas and other installations around the world, combines the latest rendering technology with intuitive media and show control. Christie Pandoras Box 6.0 features editable meshes & warps, UV map adjustments and live canvas masking. In addition, its multi-user mode allows operators to share the workload and complete different tasks including warping, encoding and timeline programming simultaneously.

The new Widget Designer 6.0 redesigns include an HTML5 user interface, native HTML support, and CSS styles. Animation and transitions are now available for all pages and widgets. Together, Christie Pandoras Box 6.0 and Widget Designer 6.0 allow show managers and integrators to build fully customizable control interfaces with a flexibility no other system on the market offers.

Christie Velvet LED Videowall

Our team were very impressed with the new Christie Velvet APEX LED Videowall range. With a range of pixel pitch options from 1.2mm-1.6mm, the Velvet APEX is a modular, high-quality display system, which is starting to make inroads in the traditional monitor-based videowall arena, as the ultra-high resolution displays content in impeccable detail, making it the ideal choice for applications where image quality and clarity is paramount, but which up to now has been at a significant price premium. 

Christie Mystique

Christie also showed a clever suite of tools to assist in the design and implementaiton of large-scale projection projects, with the ability to "virtualise" the projection plan in advance to test the setup, and the ability to simulate the licve setup on a small scale plan- at ISE, they were using a model of a stadium, with mini projectors, to simulate the setup in a real-life stadium environment. 

Details here: https://www.christiedigital.com/emea/about-christie/news-room/press-releases/launch-of-mystique-at-infocomm-english

You can see Christie's ISE Video Blogs and releases here: http://www.isechristie.com/

AREC Video/Audio capture System

An interesting product that caught the eye of our team was the AREC Video/Audio capture system. This is a system to capture, record, and stream live video content, with a really simple and easy to use user-interface. Designed for corporate, educationa, and mediacal applications, the AREC media Capture System provides an easy way to record training sessions, confidential interviews, surgery, lectures, counselling sessions, and any application that needs to record a video and audio record.

AREC MediaStation is the core capture device, and can capture virtually any signal type, including HDMI, VGA, and of course standard video signals. Options include remote PTZ cameras, with optional auto-tracking of the subject, and VOD/Live streaming options.

http://arec.com/index-en.html

Angekis SABRE PTZ Camera

The new SABRE PTZ camera from Angekis is winning plaudits across the board, for it's picture-quality, user-interface, quality of the pan/tilt movement, and overall design. Featuring a HDMI & USB 3.0 interface, and resolution of 4K, the SABRE provides ultra-high quality images, for use in video conferencing, control room monitoring, corporate studio areas, and any application where a high quality camera system is needed. 

SABRE is very competitively priced, and with low-light capability down to 0.01lux, it is equally at home in virtually any application. http://www.angekis.com/saber.asp

Absen

ABSEN have been gaining a reputation for being one of the leading manufacturers of LED displays for the past couple of years, with high-profile installations throughout the world. In fact, our colleagues in AVTEK have almost 80SqM of Absen LED in their rental fleet, used for such high-profile events as the 1916 Anniversary Commemorations. 

At ISE this year, they were showing off their latest super-high resolution HDV series of UHD videowalls, featuring a super-slim profile of just 65mm, making them suitable for installation in virtually any environment. 

The attractive and wire-free HDV series is comprised of three models with pixel pitch ranging from 1.25mm (for the HDV1.2) to 1.92mm (HDV1.9), boasting brightness of up to 1000 nits and a refresh rate of 3840Hz. It can be displayed openly or installed in hard to reach areas. Each HDV module is imbued with the strength of its distinctive honeycomb cellular design, to aid perfect flatness and prevent warping across its 160° ultra-wide viewing angle.  

Absen will also unveil its expanded N series of LED indoor display solutions within a retail-inspired environment to ISE visitors. The recently added N3 and N5 panels offer greater viewing versatility to the range with the additional pitch levels of 3.2mm and 5.14mm. The dedicated retail area will display the full N series range, including N2, and N4 panels.   

Check out the complete Absen range here: https://www.absen-europe.com/

BlackTrax

One of the most exciting products our team saw at the show was the BlackTrax real-time tracking software for projected images. In fact our AVTEK colleagues were so impressed with this when they saw it at last year's Infocomm show, that they've ordered a system for their rental fleet!

Blacktrax lets you project video (or lighting) onto free-moving objects, using techniques similar to tracking software in VFX systems. A number of tiny LED emitters are attached to the object being tracked, and a number of cameras then pick up the light from these LEDs, The Blacktrax system then controls the image processor- for instance,  Pandora's Box- which manipulates the projected image to map onto the object being tracked. it's an amazing effect, and is used by organisations such as Cirque du Soleil to add that WOW! factor to their shows. But it is equally impressive for corporate launches, live TV shows, outdoor events, or anywhere that you want to control the projected image or lighting in free-space.

Check out the Blacktrax showreel here: http://blacktrax.cast-soft.com/showcase/

Sony

Not usually at the forefront of mainstream AV equipment, other than displays and projectors, Sony are entering the BYOD connectivity arena for meeting rooms, with a device that looks set to compete with devices like Clickshare and We Present. The Vision Exchange is aimed at providing collaborative working within the meeting room, with the ability to share content from the participant's device, via wireless connections.

Interestingly, the device also has some optional additional features, available as licenced options: a streaming option allows remote participants to see streamed video, and allows the device to provide a video conference capability compatible with industry-standard video conferencing systems.

The system is due to be released in the first half of 2017, so it will be interesting to see how Sony manage to make inroads in this pretty crowded marketspace.

Details here: https://blog.sony.com/press/sonys-new-vision-exchange-brings-active-learning-and-corporate-meetings-alive/

There were many more products and ideas that left our team excited and enthusiastic for the coming year's activity, and we'll add these to the blog as we extract details from them....

TV Consumption & changing habits- why it's nothing to fear

As we come towards the end of 2016, it's interesting to look at what is happening in the world of Television, and how the perceived death of the traditional television service is being heralded by some industries, (particularly the newspaper business), without taking account of the old adage that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones....

The Irish Independent recently ran a report titled Why can't the TV industry admit we've changed habits?

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/why-cant-the-tv-industry-admit-weve-changed-habits-34280695.html

As with all reports, I don't think it's a simple equation. It's a fact that consumers are consuming media in may more ways than in the past, and this is reflected in viewing figures for linear TV. Online services, such as Netflix and Amazon have changed the way a lot of the drama and episodic TV is consumed, but these services do not, to date, provide the real-time content that is still the biggest draw, such as sports, news, and a lot of the entertainment genres- (X-factor, The Voice, Strictly, etc.)

The Rugby World Cup, All-Ireland Finals, Olympics, and even the recent Conor McGregor UFC fight are all huge draws for the audience, and remain largely the domain of network TV, albeit with online viewing options available. The Late Late Toy Show is still the biggest show of the year in Ireland, with almost half of all viewers tuning in. So the fact remains that the biggest viewership by far remains on the traditional TV platform, albeit not to the same extent as in days of old.

meanwhile, improvements in technology- such as HD, UHD, and surround sound all contribute to enhancing the TV experience. and although these are not the exclusive domain of traditional broadcasters, they remain the driving force behind these innovations. Most consumers still like to settle down in front of the box in the corner, regardless of what service they are viewing.

There are other factors at play too- network television is still the biggest commissioning agent for content. And although we are seeing a lot more original content from online providers, the total amount of content they are producing represents a tiny proportion of the available content globally. 24/7 TV- of whatever type- is a hungry mouth to feed, and the relentless need to fill content suggests that the still much bigger network audience will be needed to fund this production for many years to come. Wall to wall reality TV just isn't going to cut the mustard!

Demographics definitely play a big part in the viewership, with the 18-24 demographic displaying the biggest decline- a recent report by Marketing Charts

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/are-young-people-watching-less-tv-24817/

clearly indicates the decline in traditional viewing among this group. However, there is evidence that as these viewers move into their mid-twenties and beyond, and settle down with houses, families, careers, and all the associated responsibilities and pressures on time, they tend to return to the easy option- turn on the box and see what's on. It takes effort to search online for something to watch, and although we all do it, sometimes you just want to vegetate and let someone else make the decision for you.

That's not to say all is rosy in the garden. There is no doubt that alternative platforms- be they mobile, online, even gaming- have hugely fragmented the viewing audience, and the glory days of 20M+ viewers for an episode of Coronation Street will never return- but equally it's not true to say that broadcasters don't recognise this fact, and haven't taken steps to participate in the new world of media. The BBC's iPlayer is the biggest VOD content provider in the UK, and RTE's Player is the biggest provider in Ireland. The challenge is to find a way to monetise this. Viewers are quite happy to pay a Sky TV subscription monthly, and subscribe to Netflix and other services. But they baulk at paying a TV licence which costs no more than 2 months of the average subscription service, and there is strong resistance to paying a subscription for broadcaster's own VOD services.

In many ways, this echoes the challenge facing the newspaper industry- the migration of news to online has had an event greater impact on newspaper publishing, and this industry has still not managed to find a way to convince its readership that they should pay for a subscription for online content. But someone somewhere has to pay the journalist, and this is a tough circle to square.

The fact remains that every industry has to adapt, find new ways, and move with the times. Wells Fargo don't still run stage coaches across the US, and Sony no longer manufacture VCRs. But these businesses have found new ways to serve their markets, and the global media business- which includes TV, radio, newspapers, and online services- will find their level. No doubt some will fail, and some will become mere shadows of their former selves. But there will be newer, smarter, more agile contenders to take up the pace, and these will take their share of the audience in ways which in some cases we don't even understand yet.

Back in the '70s, record companies used to put a warning on LPs (that is- those black vinyl discs that went out of fashion for a while-) "home taping is killing music", referring to the availability of the Compact Cassette recorder. Well, the reality is that it didn't. Home taping augmented the record business, and although the number of albums or singles might now be a lot smaller than in the glory days, the fact is that even today, quality content will find it's audience, on whatever platform it's delivered. And yes, vinyl is the biggest growing sector of the music business.....

The future is likely to remain a hybrid one, with both linear and on-demand services, and viewers using each service for specific content types. But the days of broadcasting being a licence to print money are long gone. At the same time, the bulk of the population still expects to see a quality service from the networks, and good content is the driving force, regardless of the platform. Just as the Hollywood film industry had to adapt to smaller numbers in the cinema, and embrace the advent of the DVD, so TV companies will have to adapt to a world where the consumer dictates the medium, not the provider.

And consumer choice is a harsh critic, but will reward the innovator. Ultimately this has to be a good thing, whatever service it's delivered by.

Kevin Moore is Managing Director of Eurotek Ireland Ltd., a leading broadcast systems integrator and technology provider based in Dublin, Ireland. www.eurotek.ie

HD-SDI- the end is nigh?

Among the many new product launches and announcements at NAB this year, there were a couple of things that struck me as interesting indicators of up and coming technology that are well worth keeping an eye on. 

Sony showed the production version of the  NXLIP55 IP Live Production Unit, which enables multiple video data streams to be transmitted over an IP Local Area Network (LAN). The unit enables multi-camera shoots with up to 3 video streams. The system maintains broadcast quality full HD video over the IP network, equivalent to the picture quality of the traditional HSC-300 and HXC-100 HD cameras, though it works with any video signal.

 As well as transmitting three camera signals, the IP55 handles up to 10 audio channels, including intercom, control signals, Tally, General Purpose I/O and genlock. Sony claim it is the only product that supports genlock across IP, and they say the delay from the encode to decode across the network is about 1/2 frame. 

What I felt is significant about this is not that they could stream video across an IP network- that's not rocket-science these days- but that they are proposing this as a workflow going forward to enable remote production across a wide-area network. For instance, they discussed the ability to bring one encoder to a remote location, and bring all the signals back to a control room located at HQ- potentially saving the expense and complexity of sending an OB truck to an event- depending on the event size of course, and depending on having suitably reliable links! 

Another example might be on a golf course, where you could locate one box at the green, with three cameras connected via the NXL box, so you would only need to send one fibre (or network) cable out to the green, potentially providing a significant saving in cable costs and manpower. There's a good article on Sony's web site, http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/article/broadcast-nxl-ip55-1301 worth a look. 

Taken with the recent announcement of a joint task-force on networked media from the  EBU/SMPTE/VSF to establish a set of standards for the exchange of professional media across networks, and developments from manufacturers such as Snell, it's clear that the future direction of professional broadcast equipment lies in the IT domain, and the days of dedicated hardware for media processing may well be numbered. Will we still be using HD-SDI and other dedicated signal transmission technologies for video infrastructure in the future? Once clear protocols, standards, and topologies are established, with sufficient quality and latency, it's hard to see why you'd develop dedicated hardware for any but the most specialised applications. TVB Europe have a good article describing the objectives of the task force in their May issue, (see it here http://content.yudu.com/A20m01/May13/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvbeurope.com%2F ) and the Press Release from the EBU is available here- http://www3.ebu.ch/cms/en/sites/ebu/contents/knowledge/technology/news/201304/call-for-participation-in-networ.html

There are many challenges to be overcome before this could become a reality, but it's fair to assume that it will only be a matter of time before these are sorted out and we start to see systems built around networked systems. 

Whilst file-based workflows have become the norm for post-production, graphics, and playout, live production has to date not been a practical candidate for networked media, due to bandwidth, latency, and usability. TV studios and OB trucks have had to rely on the real-time dependability of HD-SDI to transmit and mix the video signals of cameras, and Presentation Suites have been built around traditional signal types with all the attendant dedicated hardware associated with HD-SDI. However, once live signals can be carried across IP networks with sufficiently low delay, and once vision mixers, audio processors, and other infrastructural elements are developed to handle networked signals, the potential to completely redefine the broadcast facility becomes inevitable. 

Imagine a broadcast facility where the studio cameras are networked, rather than tied to a particular gallery control room, and where the traditional video router becomes a data router- albeit maybe a specialised one- and the possibilities start to become intriguing. For instance, imagine a studio complex where all the studio floors are located conveniently at the back of the block, with all the control rooms built in a central office space, with dynamically-assigned facilities. 

Or a remote studio might have the cameras on robotic heads, with the vision control operated from a central studio control block located at a headquarters building located anywhere Whilst this is possible now with adequate links, it's not hard to imagine a scenario where a standard national IP network replaces the dedicated links network. Similarly, and as shown in Sony's trials on the NXLIP55, it would be likely that OB facilities would build central control areas back at base, and just send a minimal crew with cameras to the location, rather than the existing marathon logistical task of send trucks, with all the associated costs. Not of course for every event, and its hard to see it working for major sporting events, but maybe for smaller events, concerts and so-on it would be perfectly practical.

When the day comes that you can use a low-cost network card to connect broadcast equipment in place of expensive dedicated video cards, then the cost of the specialised hardware system are numbered. The major manufacturers are of course tuned in to this, and at NAB, several were showing future technology that could show the way forward. Snell and Harris showed prototype routers with data routing for broadcast, Sony had the NXL as described earlier, BBC Technology showed their Stagebox IP-based  camera back, and even smaller companies such as Broadcast Pix were showing the integration of cloud-based media with live camera feeds in their switchers.

Sp what does all this mean for those of us in the business? Well for the TV studios & OB companies,  I think it points to a future where the cost of entry to the major league is likely to fall dramatically, and as has happened in the post-production market, rates are likely to tumble as new lower-cost players enter the market. For broadcasters, the new architectures should provide a degree of nimbleness and flexibility that might help counter some of the pressures they are under from the new media competitors, and maybe help them provide live programming at lower cost.

However, having said all that, I don't think this is all going to happen tomorrow- as with any new shifts in fundamental technology, it's going to take a while to iron out the bugs, agree the interconnectivity, and replace relatively recent infrastructure, so my best guess would be it's a 4-5 year timescale at a minimum for most facilities, since they'll also need to recoup their current investments,  though I'm sure pockets of users will appear in the meantime.

And as always, I am looking at this with the eye of a systems integrator and distributor- what does it mean for us and our industry colleagues? Well, we need to keep on top of the developments, learn the new standards, and educate our customers, and help them transition to the brave new world as it appears. It will be more about providing consultancy and design, rather than making our money on the hardware as in the past.

As for 4K? Well networked media, given sufficient bandwidth, doesn't care, so it could well be a driver in both directions.... take a file from the 4k camera, into the networked switcher, through the networked Presentation desk, into the networked encoder, out to the transmission network, and into the set top box in the home, without ever converting to baseband- there are a lot of attractions to such a chain.

Till next time, as always comments are welcome.

twitter - @kevineurotek
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TV V3.0- where next?

It's been an interesting week for me. I started a new evening course on social media and digital marketing on Tuesday, to try to understand not just how to use the various communications channels, but to get some insight into how others are using them, and what impact all these channels have on the business we are in- there's no doubt that broadcast and online have both a symbiotic and adversarial relationship, and its fascinating to see how this relationship is developing, ever more quickly it appears to me.

So one of the side-effects of my new-found social-media awareness is that I've been spending a fair amount of time reading articles, blog posts, online newsletters, online magazines, and other communications- including press releases!- relating to our business, no doubt much to the annoyance of my colleagues who've been getting "this is interesting......" Comments from me all week! And although of course you can't believe everything you read, there is a common thread running through the stuff I've been reading, and it points to some interesting times coming down the tracks.

Every industry goes through a major upheaval periodically in its history, when the rules of the game change, and a new -sorry to use the word but can't think of another one- paradigm - emerges. Think of the introduction of motorised transport and its effect on the work-horse trading business, or the invention of the steam loom on the clothing manufacturing business. Closer to our industry, look at the effect desktop publishing had on the print business, not to mention of course the Internet itself- in fact this blog wouldn't exist without the emergence of DTP and the Internet - though some might argue that would be no bad thing!

It seems to me that the broadcast media business is undergoing one of these paradigm shifts now, and its going to take a while to figure out the new model. With ever more methods of distributing content, and ever more content creators making content, in some ways we should be entering a golden age for quality TV, movies, and other moving picture content. The challenge is to find a way to get this in front of the viewer, whether via traditional broadcast, subscription service, or online service. Or maybe via some other channel that we haven't thought of yet!

One of the interesting snippets I read in the course of my "research" was that Netflix streamed over one billion hours of programming per month over the past year! That's a phenomenal amount of programming, and that's just one provider, with content that's mostly re-used from traditional broadcast channels. Their newly launched original programming indicates that they appreciate that viewers do want new and interesting, quality content, and by commissioning their own, it seems they are in some ways emulating elements of the existing broadcast business- where they realise that viewer loyalty has more to do with the quality of the content than the brand of the channel.

How much of their revenue will go into original programming is an interesting question, but I think it points to an optimistic future for the production community, especially when taken with YouTube's recent announcement of their intention to commission content, and Amazon's similar announcement.

So traditional broadcasters are looking at many options to try to retain the viewers, and I think we're starting to see the bones of how the broadcasters of the future might operate. Of course, catch-up services are pretty much universal at this stage, and we are starting to see some interesting second-screen deployments- especially around sports events- designed to enhance the viewing experience and hold onto the eyeballs. The potential move to higher resolutions, such as 4K, may not happen for a few years yet, but in the meantime, improvements in HD picture quality are being made through improved production kit, better compression technology (the HEVC demos at NAB were stunning!), and probably just more experience on the part of the producers in squeezing more quality out of the production chain.

The major networks- think the three US FTA networks, HBO, BBC, ITV, and other major content commissioning companies- are among the major providers of content to the new-comers, and they are the ones predominantly funding the cost of series such as the Sopranos, Breaking Bad, David Attenborough's many nature series, and so on. I'm not saying that without these networks, this content wouldn't be produced- but I think it's fair to say that the quantity and perhaps quality might reduce. However, the number of hours that need to be filled isn't going to reduce, so somewhere in all this, it's reasonable to expect that an accommodation will be reached that enables the content production companies to find commissioning organisations, and the content distribution companies to find producers to produce the ideas, pilots, and series. 

So maybe there might be a parallel in the way cinema has developed over the past few years. The emergence of videotape was touted as heralding the end of the cinema, since we could all stay at home and watch the movies, and at lower cost. But in reality, the amount of new and interesting movies available to rent was pretty poor in the main, and renting a movie was pretty much a Friday or Saturday  night takeaway activity- people still went out to the cinema for both the experience, and the quality of the show. But the cinemas had to change too, and they improved their facilities and enhanced the customer's experience, and something similar is likely to happen to the traditional broadcast networks. Maybe not as easily defined as with the cinema market, but by becoming the go-to place for quality first-run content, and enhancing this with improved facilities- be it eventually moving to 4K (as no doubt the major manufacturers would love!), or offering enhanced second-screen experiences, or maybe by tying in additional services to take on the newcomers at their own game, such as with the success of the BBC iPlayer. 

It may be that viewers would be willing to pay a subscription to the traditional broadcasters if they offered the same types of services as the Netflix, Hulu, Amazon type organisations. And the broadcasters have a huge advantage- they are available to everyone in their region, and aren't dependent on someone finding them online. They also have the advantage of being able to offer live programming in a meaningful, timely way- especially sports programming, news programmes, and other time-critical content. And the trend towards using the various social media channels to build community around a programme helps tie the viewer to the scheduled run of the programme, rather than watching it time-shifted, or online. 

So, the shape of the broadcast landscape may be changing, and the view may not yet be well defined, but through the fog, there is the first glimmer of a new dawn for the broadcast industry,  and so long as they are willing to keep pushing the boundaries, and to innovate at the same pace as the startups, then the long and rich heritage, and viewer loyalty they've built over the decades, should enable them to prosper and grow in the future.

It's an exciting prospect, and  I for one feel optimistic that quality -both technical and content- will help the emergence of the Golden Age I referred to earlier.


Meantime, back to my Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest......


As always, comments welcome!


Kevin


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NAB 2013- Final Thoughts

NAB 2013 - wrap up.

 

The show finished with its usual gentle grinding to a halt on Thursday lunchtime, and its clear that most of the exhibitors were relieved to have a chance to rest their feet, and maybe take some time to catch up with their colleagues around the show. I'm pretty sure the shopping malls also saw a big increase in footfall, we spent some time ourselves at the Fashion Show Mall to pick up the all important presents for the family, and bumped into lots of NAB shoppers! Closely followed by a relaxing hour and a half by the pool, the first time I got to see it since we checked in!

 I thought I'd take a little bit of time in this post to discuss the Eco-system of the industry we all work in, and the inter-dependence of the various strands of the business. I thought of this as we were discussing the latest digital cinematography cameras over a Mojito in a bar on Wednesday night- often when the best ideas come!

Anyway, one of the guys we were talking to specialises in the rental side of the business, especially camera and grip rental. I asked how he saw the breakdown between the various cameras in the marketplace, and what impact the advent of very low cost products had on his business. He explained that his clientele are driven predominantly by the director and his expertise or knowledge, couple with the budget of course. If its a high-end drama or cinema project, it's likely to be a Sony F65, if its a commercial or other TV drama, it's likely to be Arri Alexa or Red Epic. Anything below that tends to be more budget driven, although he did say the Sony  F55 &  F5 are making an impact. 

So this got me thinking about the  business, and the food-chain from manufacturer through  production company, to end client- whether TV station or cinema or any other outlet.   Of course all elements of the business are struggling and having to cut costs wherever they can. The advent of the digital cinema camera has revolutionised the business in the same way as videotape revolutionised the TV production and news businesses many years ago, and it's an open debate as to which drives which- does lower-cost kit drive down the cost of production, and therefore the budget available, or do lower-cost productions demand lower cost kit, and this in turn force manufacturers to produce kit to suit?

In the past, the cost and complexity of 35mm or 16mm film production meant that only the most worthy projects were shot on film, maybe those with international sales potential, or some other justifiable reason  for the expense.   

But, as with the videotape revolution, the new digital cameras- especially the DSLR models- has opened the market up to a vast increase in the number of producers pitching to TV stations for productions shot on digital. This of course is a good thing, and from a cultural standpoint, the democratisation of content creation helps to promote the diversity of views that a healthy society needs. There is, and should be, a place for these productions in the broadcast landscape, and may exciting and original ideas have been brought to fruition on DSLR cameras.

However, because there are many more production companies shooting lower cost programmes, it gets difficult for the high-end productions to hold onto their share of the programming budget. Not that the commissioning editor would choose to have a production shot on a lower quality system, but the overall environment and cost base tends to be driven lower, which feeds into the time spent refining the production, and leads at times to a more hurried production with less attention to detail.

At the same time, the breadth of technology, especially at the content creation end of the food chain, has fuelled a proliferation of programmes of all genres, from drama to lifestyle, to reality TV and more.

The advent of virtually unlimited TV channels, not to mention online services, has created a huge and hungry beast to consume the content that's produced, with channels dedicated to virtually any interest group. These channels will often repeat programmes endlessly, but even so still demand huge amounts of fresh content on a regular basis. Would these channels exist if the lower cost of production (and of course distribution) didn't enable the quantity of content needed to fill the schedules?

  

We can argue the quality of much of this programming,  but the fact remains that there are many more people employed in the industry now than at any previous time, notwithstanding the loosening of the old labour regulation environment.

And, as resellers, this broadening of the base feeds down to us, with increased markets for the hardware and software that enables the content creation.   So the symbiotic relationship between the broadcaster and the production company, to the facilities house to the systems supplier and manufacturer, creates an Eco-system in which all are dependent on each other.

Without the manufacturer introducing innovative, low cost products, the facilities house or camera person, couldn't offer the services at the cost base they can now. The production company couldn't produce the programme at the same budget. And the broadcaster would have to pay more for the content, and this in turn would  mean fewer channels (which some might argue is a good thing!) and higher advertising costs.

The exact inverse is also true, if you start with the broadcaster, and follow the trail down. So the interdependence of all the various elements of the industry is much deeper than we'd all think on first glance. We truly are an Eco system, with total interdependence on each other.

And nowhere is this more apparent than at a major trade show such as NAB, where you have all the elements coming together- from broadcasters to programme makers to manufacturers to distributors. All getting along splendidly!  It is probably the biggest single reason why NAB and IBC, along with the other major shows such as CABSAT and Interbee have survived so long.

People deal with people, and at the end of the day, a show like NAB is all about the people you meet and the relationships you build. Ours is a truly sociable business, and no matter it's trials and tribulations, there are really very few of us who'd choose to work in a different industry.

So that's it for this year. We'll be producing a review of highlights from the various manufacturers once we're all back at the grindstone, but for now I hope you've enjoyed reading my first blog- it's been an interesting experience, and I've enjoyed it, and the feedback and comments I've received. So thanks to all those who took the time to read and respond, and until next time, remember you can keep in touch via the following:

Twitter- @kevineurotek

Facebook- Kevin Moore

LinkedIn - Kevin Moore

And of course the Eurotek contact details.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin

NAB 2013- Day Three

So, it's the 3rd day of NAB 2013, and despite weary bodies and minds, the Eurotek team are continuing to tramp the halls to see what's new and what the hot topics are. At least the sun is shining today so that's a big plus already!

As I've said in my previous blog posts, the buzz here is all 4K and HEVC. Add to that, broadcasters are talking about Second Screen. We've taken a lot  of time to talk to customers, suppliers, friends, and colleagues to get their views on these issues.

Underlying all the hype on these new technologies, of course is the requirement for manufacturers to sell what's deliverable today, and on the show floors, you can often see a divergence of views between the corporate line promoting  the new technology, and the guys on the ground who have to meet monthly sales targets!  But it's not necessarily a bad thing, and a touch of realism is no harm amidst the hype.

My impression is that 4K for production will most likely become a reality in the near future, fuelled in the same way as HD production was- basically it's not much of a premium in terms of cost for new hardware  and software, so why not future-proof your assets.
With 4K cameras from all the main players coming in both low cost DSLR form factors, (think Canon, Blackmagic etc) to proper production camera types from the traditional manufacturers, acquisition at 4K should be straightforward, and most file based graphics and editing platforms are resolution agnostic.

With high quality cameras from manufacturers such as Sony's F series, Arri's Alexa, and Red's Epic, I think we'll see serious directors insisting on using this level of camera rather than compromising on low cost options. And with studio accessories being shown, the practicality of using these on live events is a step closer- especially as most of the leading vision switcher manufacturers are showing 4K versions of their switchers.


However, as with anything, there is a caveat- 4K images do demand a higher level of quality control, and it remains to be seen if the lower cost solutions will hold up well through the production process. In particular, signal to noise becomes an important measurement, since the high data rates mean that any increase in S/N will be magnified at the processing, and this will show up in keying and compositing operations. Also in transmission, but more of that later.

The delivery of this content to the consumer is a whole other ball-game, and any of the broadcast customers and manufacturer salespeople we spoke to felt the additional costs associated with 4K were probably not justifiable in the current business climate.

So this is potentially where HEVC becomes interesting. With at least double the efficiency of H.264, a 4K Programme could be delivered with not much more bandwidth than an existing HD stream requires, and its possible that premium channels will see 4K as a differentiator- especially for drama and sports. And,  as I said in my first post, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube have all stated their intention to support 4 K in the future so broadcasters will need to keep up to compete in some way.

The efficient transcoding of the 4K images to HEVC (or H.265 as its being referred to) will require a high quality master to work at its best. So back to the argument I made earlier about source quality and in particular S/N. compression systems rely on being able to dump pixels in frames and this in turn depends on being able to re-use pixels from preceding and following frames. Where the signal to noise ratio is poor, the compression system has to work harder to compress the picture, and this leads to a higher bit rate compressed file for a given target quality. So to maximise the quality of a 4K compressed image (whether compressed to H.264 or H.265) the originating material needs to be as good as possible. So while there are a lot of lower cost solutions being shown, time will tell if these have the performance to produce the pristine pictures that the compression systems will demand. The encoding process will be critical, but even the best compression technology will need to have a good signal to work with at the outset. So a move to higher quality content creation system (whether cameras or post/graphics systems) could be on the cards, and a well-defined QC process will need to be adopted by broadcasters and content delivery organisations.



So, in summary, I guess the 4K hype will become a reality- first for feature film production, then general post and production, and eventually for broadcast- but there's a way to go yet. Interestingly, a couple of people I spoke to said 4K could well become very popular very quickly in the corporate conference display and medical markets, where high picture quality is essential! So maybe that will be its first home.

Talking to broadcasters and vendors, it seems that second-screen is a more urgent topic for them, and there's a lot to chew on in that topic, so maybe that will be the subject of my next post...

As always follow me on Facebook, kevineurotek, and Twitter- @kevineurotek- feedback welcome!

Kevin

Sunday- Partner Meeting Day!

Sundays at NAB are madness for resellers and partners such as ourselves! There are many more meetings to try to get to than is humanely possible, and even with four of us here you still end up missing a couple!

Anyhow, having distilled the collective wisdom of the industry's great and good, there are some common themes arising. Of course, as I said in my first post, 4K is the flavour of the month. Haven't gotten into too many specific products yet- I think we'll probably do a roundup after the show- but I think its interesting to see where the consensus lies in future production formats.

Secondly, clouds are everywhere! If you don't have a cloud strategy, your just not at the races! Now I, like a lot of people, would tend towards the sceptical side of this debate- are the broadcasters of the world going to trust their facilities to a remote, anonymous site? I would have said not a chance, but I'm starting to re-evaluate that viewpoint. It's not that I think that we're going to see everyone move to the cloud today or tomorrow, but I think I can start to see a real practical future for centralised media centres with the broadcasters being the content & schedule publishers.

It's already a reality, and has been for years, with service providers such as Technicolor and Arquiva, but I'm beginning to see the potential for a SaaS model for companies which doesn't require the long term commitment to contracts and bespoke centres. With the arrival of services such as AWS and the development of software from companies like Harmonic, Telestream, and Snell to support "on demand" encoding, transcoding, and shortly playout management, I think we will see a model where a broadcaster can set up with relatively modest investment, and rent the technical facilities as needed, scaling up or down to meet demand. So we could, for instance, see a broadcaster set up a dedicated channel for a short period- say around a major local cultural event- and run it for a couple of weeks just. Regulators equally will have to find a way to regulate this environment, and we all know how long that could take!

This presents a lot of opportunity for new players to enter the market, and equally presents a challenge for traditional broadcast models. It's not that we'll see the demise of the BBC's and RTE's of the world, but they will have to change their model to remain competitive in the new world order.

Having said all that, the old truism that content is king remains valid, and no matter the cost base, if the content is rubbish, then the viewer won't stick with it.

So, where does that leave us looking into the future? Well it's still anyone's guess, but I think if we project forward 4 or 5 years we will see a very different landscape to the one there today, and the forward thinking organisations will start to dip their toes in the water of experimenting with maybe niche content delivery via the new services as they come on stream.

Our job will be to help ensure these new services maintain functionality and quality, and we're looking forward to learning and participating in the developments as they happen

That's my thoughts for the end of Day One (I know the show doesn't officially open till Monday, but us workers have been at it all day Sunday- honest!)

Hopefully tomorrow will bring more insight, and I'll try to keep you all posted with my observations and thoughts as we see more announcements and presentations.

I'm deliberately staying away from straight product announcement posts- there's a million bloggers, PR companies, and newsletters doing that- and I think there's maybe more to be learned for delving beneath the business case for our industry across its various sectors. I hope you agree with this strategy, and if you think I'm on the right track, I'd welcome any feedback.

Till tomorrow (hopefully - but no promises!)

Kevin