ATG Danmon announces the completion of a broadcast-quality production facility for the London headquarters of That Lot, one of Europe's leading providers of social media content production support. Core of this project is a multi-camera studio plus a fully equipped control room including lighting, vision and audio mixing, routing, recording, monitoring and archiving.

"Working with ATG Danmon, we have been able to create the most flexible possible system for use across our wide range of creative services," comments Ben Forder, Head of Video at That Lot. "The new studio and its control suite enable us to offer our clients versatile resources for creating broadcast-quality content for a wide range of media applications."

"A full-colour back-lit LED cyclorama, which we believe is the first of its kind in Europe, provides sharp chroma-key superimposition onto on any background. Lighting is from a ceiling-mounted rig which can be adjusted to get the exact style of illumination we need for live-streaming or recording sketches, scripted videos, interviews, podcasts, vodcasts and social media photoshoots. That includes 360 degree surround video and audio capture if specified."

Blackmagic Design today announced that Grid VFX relied on Fusion Studio throughout its in house compositing pipeline to deliver newly released children’s animated feature, Latte & The Magic Waterstone.

Directed by Regina Welker, the team’s latest project ‘Latte & The Magic Waterstone’ involved the completion of more than 1,200 visual effects shots, including the complex compositing of background and foreground plates and CG render layers for 3D assets, lighting, procedural effects, and more.

“Latte was a huge project for us. It’s a feature animation with a limited budget, so we knew we had to work as efficiently as possible,” begins compositing supervisor at Grid, Laurens Bekaert.

“Fusion’s GPU accelerated render engine was amazing at being able to handle geometry and 3D space compared to alternative compositors. We could add smoke and particles behind our characters and see a good representation of how they would look in 3D instantly, without needing to re render.”

Driven by growing market demand for 4K production, leading UK Outside Broadcast specialist Cloudbass has become the first company in the world to create a truly end-to-end, multivendor UHD IP HDR Outside Broadcast vehicle based on the ST2110 standard and with Axon’s Neuron signal processing technology at its core.

OB9, a 20 camera truck built from the ground up with help from systems integrator ES Broadcast, brings together best of breed products from many different manufacturers including Arista, Evertz, GVG, Ross, Calrec, Reidel and Sony. It uses Axon technology to seamlessly integrate them into a fast and highly flexible workflow that is perfectly suited to live sports. The sophistication of Axon’s technology also allows Cloudbass to future-proof its facilities and stay at the top of its game.

OB9 features 21 Neuron units, each packed with a plethora of processing features such as edge synchronizers and converters. Every unit offers an impressive 200 Gb/s and 64 1080p signals or 16 UHD channels with up to 80 SDI connectors, all in a single 1RU.

LiveU today presents its annual ‘State of Live’ report based on data gathered from its global customer base of thousands of users. The findings reflect the substantial growth in IP news and sports broadcasting with a 50% increase in the number of LiveU units used to stream live events and 250% increase to around 20 million in live sessions overall.

HEVC continues to play a key role in live transmission, which is pivotal for live sports productions. This is due to the higher quality video performance and bandwidth efficiency enabled by HEVC technology. LiveU reports a 65% growth in HEVC units deployed worldwide and over 400% growth in HEVC-based sessions. Nearly 50% of the field units used to stream sports are HEVC-based with almost 80% of sports sessions transmitted in HD.

The increasing deployment of cellular bonding technology for live sport coverage has been evident worldwide. Following the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™, Kevin Callahan, VP, Field Operations & Engineering, Fox Sports said, “We always get energized if there is a huge buzz at home and this World Cup surpassed all our expectations with the success of the US Women’s soccer team. LiveU’s LU600 HEVC portable transmission unit provided the backbone for our ENG shoots that were not at the stadium, enabling us to increase the number of live feeds. We also sent content to multiple locations simultaneously using LiveU’s Matrix IP cloud video management platform, making the content available to Fox TV stations that wanted to integrate live shots into their newscasts.”

ATEME, the emerging leader in video delivery solutions for broadcast, cable, DTH, IPTV and OTT announced that TV CULTURA, the Brazilian public broadcaster recognized worldwide for producing educational and cultural content, and part of Fundação Padre Anchieta, successfully implemented ATEME TITAN to realize 4K-UHD benefits for the first time during the live broadcast of the grand finale of Prelúdio 2019.

High-quality video content from the Prelúdio grand finale, a reality show dedicated to discovering talented classical musicians, was broadcast live on 11/24 in 4K-UHD from “Casa Sao Paulo Concert Hall” using ATEME’s TITAN UHD solution. The live event was transmitted via satellite to a dedicated 4K channel of the major local cable TV operator as well as to TV CULTURA’s YouTube channel.

Thanks to ATEME’s expertise in software video compression solutions, TV CULTURA successfully transmitted the event with premium video quality, full flexibility and future-proofing.

Nelson Faria, Engineering Director, TV CULTURA commented: “Our customers were given access to outstanding picture quality, with four-times more pixels and an enlarged color range, which made the picture more true to life.”

Catalonia's public broadcaster Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals or CCMA) has chosen Leader's LV7300 rasterizer as the master reference instrument as part of an upgrade to HD-HDR at its Audiovisual Production Centre in Barcelona. The CCMA's primary channel is TV3 Catalonia which is transmitted to viewers in Catalonia, Andorra and the Balearic Islands.

Supplied by Leader distribution partner SetUp Electrónica, the LV7300 will be used to check video and audio signal quality in a newly equipped studio equipped to support 4K, HD and super slow motion. The studio's primary role will be to create high quality HD-HDR content.

"Sourcing from 4K-native Sony cameras with  IP connectivity and ITU-R BT 2020 color gamut will allow us to capture images with very rich colors, greater than ever contrast and high detail," says TV3 Area of Exploitation director Ramon Sangrà.

"Leader's LV7300 rasterizer gives our operators all the tools they need to ensure that these enhancements are carried right through the production process from capture, post and archiving to actual transmission. The instrument's ability to handle 4K helps to safeguard our investment as the broadcast industry embraces ever higher standards."

Magewell will launch a powerful new model in its Eco Capture family of ultra-compact, power-efficient, M.2 video capture cards at the upcoming ISE 2020 exhibition in Amsterdam. The high-performance Eco Capture SDI 4K Plus M.2 captures one channel of 4K video up to 4096x2160 at full 60 frames per second over a single-link, 12G-SDI interface. The new card will make its global debut in stand 8-G475 at the event, taking place February 11-14, 2020.

Ideal for use in small and embedded systems where full-sized PCIe slots are not available, the cost-effective Eco Capture family offers systems integrators and OEM developers a robust capture solution with low power consumption for space-constrained applications. The low-latency Eco Capture devices feature a high-speed PCIe 2.0 bus interface with an M.2 connector and measure just 22x80mm (0.87x3.15in), matching the M.2 2280 size specification.

The new 4K 12G-SDI model joins four existing Eco Capture M.2 configurations: a single-channel model that captures 4K video at 30fps via an HDMI interface; dual-channel models that capture HD and 2K video over HDMI or SDI; and a quad-channel HD/2K model with SDI inputs. All five Eco Capture products also support up to eight channels of embedded audio per input.

Middle Atlantic Products, a brand of Legrand | AV, is building upon its commitment of delivering more solutions and support in the E.U. with local inventory and shipment of region-specific power plugs for its High Power DC Power Distribution Series. The versatile, higher-power-capacity solution was first introduced at ISE 2019 and provides maximum power to support more devices while also eliminating messy, space-consuming power supply units, also known as wall warts, from the AV design.

"Since we introduced our family of High Power DC Power Distribution options last year, the demand and customer requests in the E.U. have been amazing," said Robert de Jong, director of product marketing, EMEA at Legrand | AV. "Now, all of our E.U-specific DC Power Distribution models are available from our warehouse in Weert, Netherlands. With this product inventory availability, integrators in the region can complete installations with much shorter lead times. This is all part of ensuring our customers can solve today's AV challenges not only efficiently and quickly but also with maximum reliability."

Blackmagic Design today announced that South African music festival, Rocking the Daisies, was powered by an end to end Blackmagic Design workflow, featuring Blackmagic URSA Broadcast and ATEM Constellation 8K.

Held at the Cloof Wine Estate in Cape Town and incorporating comedy, music, art and film, Rocking the Daisies (RTD) is one of the country’s biggest festivals. Live production for the three day event’s diverse international lineup, which included The 1975, Russ, Tash Sultana and Nasty C, was delivered by production company Bad Weather.

The main stage featured three central LED screens, making up one canvas, the middle being a 6 x 6 meter square and each outer screen 3.6 x 6 meter high. There were two 5.4 meter wide by 8.4 meter high IMAGs stage left and right. “With both side screens essentially being portrait, we had to be careful with how we framed our shots, making sure that everything was centered,” reveals live director Simon Wilkes.

“We used the URSA Broadcast for acquisition; front of house we had a single camera with a very long lens and a supplementary Micro Studio Camera 4K locked off just next to the sound desk,” he explains. “In front of the stage we had a jib mounted URSA Broadcast, and another on a dolly. On stage was a roaming camera op and a handful of the micro cameras positioned in key positions for additional cutaways.”

Bad Weather’s Jonathan Bandli adds: “The image quality of these cameras was something that the festival had never experienced before; good in low light and they handled the dynamic range of a large stage with heavy contrast so elegantly. Our solution just completely changed the perception of the festival organizer’s previous experience with live camera systems.”

Riedel's Artist-1024 digital matrix intercom system and Bolero wireless intercom system are supporting state-of-the-art communications capabilities within Videe SpA's innovative new 4K HDR OB van, OBX VIDEE. The Riedel systems provide the power, density, and flexibility critical for pioneering remote production operations.

"Videe SpA is well known for its ability to leverage cutting-edge technologies to achieve the performance and functionality essential to demanding remote productions," said Giuseppe Angilello, Italy Sales Manager, Riedel Communications. "With Artist and Bolero, we've delivered on both counts to bring clear, flexible, and reliable communications to Videe's new OB van. As a true, native 4K unit, OBX VIDEE has the power and sophistication to support the most challenging projects — and the ease of use, compact size, and straightforward configuration of our intercom systems make them an ideal fit."

OBX VIDEE is a triple-expanding mobile production unit that can support up to 30 cameras. Based on client requirements, the van can be configured with dual control rooms or as one large, 75-square-meter production area that can accommodate up to 36 onboard team members. The OB van was engineered for the future by Videe and systems integrator Chromaline, with a design that meets each and every production demand with the best, most intuitive, and most efficient technical solution. As a top-end OB production system, OBX is ideal to provide host broadcasting services for major live sporting, music, cultural, and entertainment events worldwide. Integrating smoothly into the van's IP infrastructure, the Artist and Bolero systems along with 36 RSP-2318 SmartPanels, on board OBX VIDEE play a critical role by enabling clear communications tailored to the requirements of each production.