Black News Channel, which launched on Feb. 10 and is the nation’s only African American news network, features a dynamic news set lit with Brightline L1.2 and L1.4 SeriesONE LED soft light fixtures. Designed by Devlin Design Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., the main set features a news desk, two large LED video wall areas, and a small interview set. RGB lighting elements – including hanging set pieces, walkways, and video wall backlights – created some talent lighting challenges. Lighting designer Bill Holshevnikoff said Brightline has “great control options on their fixtures, so you can make sure you’re not spilling light on the RGB elements and spoiling the color.”

Cinegy, the global leader for cloud and on-premise broadcast software solutions is reinforcing its strong support for Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) while at the same time making end-to-end workflows including for 8K and HDR, affordable. This fact is illustrated with its enhanced, new TV Pack solution for channel and studio-in-a-box applications.

Cinegy has long been a champion of SRT as it is essential for cloud operations and remote production providing inexpensive, secure delivery of IP video over the public Internet. SRT support is now an integral part of all Cinegy software products.

Cinegy Lewis Kirkaldie said, “SRT enables the development and deployment of many new applications, and makes the use of existing applications much easier because it eliminates any bandwidth limitations to using them. In effect, SRT opens the application floodgates.”

Anevia, a leading provider of OTT and IPTV software solutions, will introduce the latest version of its NEA-CDN® content delivery network solution to Middle East broadcasters and media channel managers attending the CABSAT 2020 exhibition and conference in Dubai, March 31st – April 2nd. NEA-CDN v5 makes it easy for operators to scale their OTT services for peak viewing within minutes by simply adding nodes to their CDN – and then removing them when they are no longer required.

As the first cloud-native CDN solution, NEA-CDN v5 – based on the Kubernetes infrastructure – provides operators with a centrally orchestrated, hardware-agnostic, and elastic private CDN. It makes it easy to deploy – in just one click – and comes with a centralised management and analytics platform that makes it easy to operate.

“Traffic fluctuations are huge in OTT video streaming,” comments Anevia NEA-CDN Product Manager David Tencer, “and operators will most of the time only use 6% of their available CDN capacity – meaning that 94% of the capacity is usually being wasted. With this elastic CDN solution, OTT operators can ensure a high-quality experience even during peak traffic, without having to build in over-capacity.”

When Guns N’ Roses’ successful ‘Not In This Lifetime’ tour switched to disguise for its North American leg, it opened up new creative possibilities to enhance the already visually spectacular rock show.

The tour wrapped last November with two shows at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The three-year world tour played 158 concerts selling more than 5 million tickets and grossing $584 million. The ‘Not In This Lifetime’ tour that started in 2016 marked the first time that Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan played together since 1993. Screenworks-NEP Live Events was the disguise rental partner for the tour.

Jeremy Leeor, Managing Director and Dan Potter, Creative Director, at disguise studio Creative Works London, coordinated the creation, execution and delivery of the Ghostrain and traditional show walk-in opening sequence using the new disguise and Unreal integration, currently going through Beta testing.

"A lot of what we created for the Guns’ tour visuals was built similarly to the way triple-A game assets are made using highly creative and flexible 3D tools like Cinema 4D, ZBrush, 3Ds Max and Substance Painter to create high-quality assets that can then be moved into real-time render engines like Unreal Engine,” explains Dan. “This is how we’ve always done it, and it makes a lot of our content stand out for its depth, texture and richness."

He points out that, “the rendering process on any project, in a conventional sense, presents many render engine and creative compositing options, and is central to how we achieve the diverse range of visual styles in our work. With the introduction of real-time render engines, you’re shifting the focal points of stages when you are developing a look to different points in the project timeline. This can be quite liberating if you’re working on something that plays to the strengths of the look you want to achieve and using the right tools to do it."

IABM-member PBT EU is delighted to announce that Auvi Translator Pro’s film and TV subtitler Riccardo Mimmi selects SubtitleNEXT as his subtitling system of choice to support leading film and television subtitling and localization projects

Riccardo has an impressive portfolio and has been translating and subtitling well-known movies, TV series, and documentaries from major Hollywood studios, broadcast networks and online streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon over the course of his career. Some of the many titles he has worked on include ‘Klaus’, ‘Salvation’, ‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘Vikings’, ‘American Hustle’, ‘The Americans’, ‘The Office’, ‘Easy’, the thriller film ‘Hold the Dark’, ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ and others.

Using SubtitleNEXT and proprietary online cloud platforms, Riccardo Mimmi’s role as a localization specialist and subtitler entails complex projects that involve translation and adaptation of content, where he has had to recreate the tone in documentaries, TV series and movies to suit the target audience.

“Subtitles have to abide to very strict requirements in my line of work,” Riccardo explains, “So I chose SubtitleNEXT which is a reliable professional subtitling software to ensure 100% accuracy, and it supports all popular formats like .stl, .srt, .dfxp, .pac, Digital Cinema and more.”

Grass Valley’s cloud-based video production and distribution solution was central to AKK TV’s live streaming of the Miss Germany 2020 competition, held on February 15 at the Europa-Park Arena near Freiburg. GV Alyve, allowed the German OB company to leverage one-click distribution of the live HD event stream to Facebook and the dedicated Miss Germany YouTube channel.

Using GV Alyve, the AKK TV production team was able to quickly and easily create digital broadcasts from within a web browser, switching seamlessly between live streams to create the final feed. Integrating seamlessly with AKK TV’s existing Grass Valley workflow, GV Alyve also allows graphics to be added to the live stream and provides a straightforward interface for managing social interactions across multiple platforms. The system was supplied by Grass Valley’s German reseller, LOGIC media solutions.

John Sturm, Managing Director of AKK TV commented: “We looked at a number of different solutions on the market and GV Alyve exceeded our expectations both on functionality and ease of use. We’ve worked with the Grass Valley and LOGIC teams in the past and they really understand our requirements. The added capability GV Alyve brings to our workflow allows us to grow the live streaming area of our business without adding complexity to our OB set-up.”

Pete Semerak, Grass Valley’s vice president, production, added: “We’re very pleased to see a successful first deployment for GV Alyve with AKK TV. In today’s live productions environment fast and smart ways of working are central to our customers’ needs. GV Alyve gives broadcasters and production companies a simple way to integrate online and social delivery, allowing production staff to distribute media to viewers with a single click and ultimately satisfying consumer demand for always-on content.”

Dalet, a leading provider of solutions and services for broadcasters and content professionals, today announced that TV Azteca, Mexico’s leading multimedia conglomerate, has deployed Dalet Galaxy five to reinvigorate the company’s content supply chain and deliver robust programming options faster to its audiences across all traditional, digital and social platforms. The highly popular media group offers a wide range of entertainment programming including, series, live musicals, thematic programs and sports. In addition to the diverse schedule, TV Azteca delivers news 18 hours per day through a network of local stations across the country.

“The goal of TV Azteca’s ambitious transformation was to connect the digital content traffic for TV with the digital platforms and deliver to our audiences programming options that encompass the breadth and depth of our news reporting, and the entirety of our outstanding media catalog. Dalet Galaxy five gave us the technical capabilities to build this innovative media production ecosystem, with the workflow acceleration to engage with our audiences in real-time,” explains Pedro Carmona, CTO of TV Azteca. “The project execution was remarkable and the resulting impact immediate. The TV Azteca operation went from a manual process, where on average it took 10 minutes to get content on-air, to near-instant and often automated real-time delivery of content and programs. The benchmark for improved performance was undeniable and provided us the efficiency required to expand program options for our viewers.

OTT and IPTV software solutions provider Anevia has appointed Alexandre Nitu as Vice President Operations. In this role, he will be responsible for leading and growing Anevia’s Operations teams, guiding them with his technical vision to identify areas for improvement to maximise quality of deployments and ensure customer satisfaction. He will also be a key member of Anevia’s Executive Committee.

With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Alexandre Nitu brings strong leadership and team management skills as well as significant experience in project management and operational support. Prior to joining Anevia he was VP Customer Operations for eServGlobal, a software company serving mobile operators, where he led teams of software and systems engineers in charge of designing, deploying, and providing operational support for the company’s electronic recharging, voucher management, and mobile money solutions.

“We are excited to welcome Alexandre to Anevia,” says Anevia CEO Laurent Lafarge. “His proven track record of leading operations teams towards continuous improvement and innovation will be a great asset to Anevia.”

“I am delighted to join Anevia, a company whose values of ambition, innovation and transparency are dear to me,” says Alexandre Nitu. “I look forward to working with the already excellent Operations teams and helping them sustain their success when facing the challenges of the future.”

QCommunications is a leading engineering, project management and installation vendor specializing in The Spectrum Act (REPACK project). According to Tony zumMallen, QComm President, data analytics support a higher allocation than expected.

“As of February 17, 2020, ~95% or $142M could be attributed to 825 Eligible and Non-Determined stations,” expained zumMallen. “If the trend holds this would be a much higher than expected allocation and a sigh of relief for hundreds of LPTV and translator licencees.”

“So many LPTV broadcasters are inexperienced in the complexity of the application procedure required to determine their eligibility for reimbursement,” zumMallen continued. “At QComm, we not only assist with the entire REPACK process – from needs assessment to transmitter installation to coverage verification - we help broadcasters navigate the paper path and meet all the requirements for reimbursement. We’ve already helped process many millions of dollars and 95% of our LPTV clients have been deemed eligible. And one of the best parts is that our REPACK services are covered for reimbursement, so there is little risk to the broadcaster!”

The Spectrum Act, or REPACK as it is more familiarly known, was designed to re-align the use of broadcast airwaves to suit rapidly evolving consumer demands due to the emergence of divergent entertainment and communications platforms, such as mobile data and the Internet. The shift to new territory allocations and channel assignments has resulted in the need for stations to upgrade, change or redistribute transmission equipment causing significant expenditures that the FCC is relieving with the appropriation of reimbursement funds available to broadcasters that comply with the FCC’s requirements. As part of its service offerings, QComm will assist the customer through the entire process, ensuring they meet eligibility guidelines to receive reimbursements, which could be 100%.

The transition to ATSC 3.0 is underway, and simulcasting will be a requirement as broadcasters migrate to NextGen TV. At the 2020 NAB Show, Triveni Digital, an industry leader in digital TV data and metadata management and service quality assurance solutions, will demonstrate its full-fledged support for ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0. Offering operationally efficient, cost-effective solutions for channel sharing, the repack, and dual-standards broadcasting, Triveni Digital is leading the charge for better TV. Utilizing Triveni Digital's solutions, broadcasters can simultaneously deliver ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 services with a coherent architecture.

Stop by the 2020 NAB Show booth to see how Triveni Digital is empowering its customers to deliver innovative service guides, addressable content delivery, interactive program enhancements, and data broadcast applications.