Manage and Monitor

Will Strauss#

Author: Will Strauss#

Published 1st November 2014

Issue 94 - October 2014

In the month that digital files become the preferred method of delivery for television programmes in the UK, it will come as a blessed relief to many in both post and production that one of the biggest bugbears of file-based delivery – how to deal with insert editing - may have been solved, just in the nick of time.

It didn’t generate a lot of attention but at IBC Root6 unveiled insert edit functionality for its ContentAgent workfl ow management system. The inability to drop changes into a fi le without re-transcoding or re-wrapping the fi le – especially for last minute editorial changes – was one of the major challenges of digital delivery. With tape, inserting a revised credit, for example, was easy. With fi les it was time consuming and costly. Root6 appear to have solved that problem.

There will be many, many post-production managers the country over rejoicing in this news. No one wants to try to persuade the creative team to fi nish programmes earlier ‘just in case’ and no one wants to have to charge for re-wrapping and going through the whole digital master process again. Hats off to Root6, and any other developers that have now made this a non-story in a month when lots of DPP news abounds.

Asset management

Transmedia Dynamics (TMD has developed an interface that links the Mediafl ex asset management system with Adobe’s Premiere Pro Creative Cloud (CC). The Mediafl ex Gateway, which includes an HTML-5 based panel, allows Premiere Pro to be integrated into broadcast workfl ows, with metadata passing in both directions. Working this way allows postproduction tasks to be defi ned in Mediafl ex, with the gateway delivering the required material and the work order to Premiere Pro.

www.tmd.tv

Monitors

Ikegami has added two new Grade 1 OLED monitors to its broadcast reference series. The HEM-2570W (25-inch) and HEM-1770WR (17-inch) both feature 12-bit display processing which contributes to true colour reproduction and deep blacks. Both monitors are designed for use as master reference displays in environments such as production facilities, master control rooms, presentation studios and playout suites. The 2570W incorporates a 1920 x 1080 native OLED panel capable of resolving 1 billion colours.

www.ikegami.de

Connectivity

Backed by 10 other manufacturers, Sony has launched the Networked Media Interface, a new AV over IP interface that delivers low latency and noise-free switching of HD and 4k video, audio and metadata as part of IP-based networking. The Networked Media Interface packetizes video, audio and metadata, enabling real-time transmission between video-production products via standard network infrastructures. Support comes from Altera Corporation, Cisco, Evertz, Imagine Communications, Juniper Networks, Macnica Americas, Matrox, Rohde & Schwarz DVS, Vizrt and Xilinx.

www.sony.co.uk/pro

Remote camera systems

Vitec Group’s Camera Corps will demonstrate its compact and remote camera systems at the Wildscreen Film Festival in Bristol later this month (October 19-24). Included will be the Q3 fully controllable remote pan/tilt/zoom/focus head and the MeerCat ultra-compact fi xed camera, both of which were introduced at NAB and are now in production. They will be demoed as part of a complete remotely controlled system that includes ancillary equipment from other Vitec Videocom division fi rms.

www.cameracorps.co.uk

Media collaboration

BT’s Media IP Nexus network will now offer Sony Media Cloud Services Ci products, it has been revealed. The joint initiative will enable producers and broadcasters using Ci’s digital workspace, collaboration WorkSessionSM applications, and MediaBoxesSM to collaborate more quickly and effectively across virtual teams. Production workfl ows can also be streamlined working this way by using the Ci cloud-based production suite to collect, exchange, review, and share media fi les in conjunction with BTs Media IP Nexus network, removing the need for expensive hard-copy deliveries and unreliable internet fi le transfers.

www.broadcast.bt.com

Systems Integration

TSL and IPE are to merge, it has been announced. IPE’s Colin Judge, who will become managing director of the united systems company, said: “The combined forces of IPE and TSL will provide our customers with an unequalled range of systems integration services, as well as providing the development of cutting edge workfl ow tools, to guarantee smooth upgrade paths and assured future-proofi ng for a multitude of existing and new facilities.” The merger will also add IPE’s line of integrated display systems to the TSL Products’ broadcast equipment portfolio. Separately, TSL managing director David Phillips has left the company.

www.tslsystems.co.uk

News media management

Technology from Dalet Digital Media Systems has been adapted so that it will dovetail tightly with Filemobile systems in a move designed to help newsrooms make better use of User Generated Content (UGC). In this new integrated set-up citizen reporters capture and upload pictures or videos via the Filemobile app while newsroom staff use the associated Media Factory to review and organize it for potential news packages. The approved material is then automatically transferred to the Dalet content catalogue and made immediately available for production alongside professionally gathered content.

www.dalet.com

Asset Management

Ross Video used IBC to unveil the Streamline media asset and order management system for its XPression Motion graphics platform. Streamline provides both a centralised searchable database of media and a set of workfl ow tools and is said to help modernize a graphics workfl ow, “making it fast and easy to get the right graphical elements ready for air.”

www.rossvideo.com

Archive and Storage

Content storage management company Front Porch Digital has joined the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) compliance programme. As a member, the soonto- be-Oracle-owned fi rm has committed to making its products adhere to the AS-11 DPP delivery standard for television programme delivery in the UK and to aiding the interoperability process. As part of this, the DIVArchive CSM system - and its cloud-based counterpart, the LYNX CSM system - will adapt media-centric features at the archive level, such as inline transcoding operations, partial fi le restore, and constant fi le monitoring and checksums.

www.fpdigital.com

Archive

At IBC Sonnet Technologies partnered with Archiware to demo a remote post-production editing system. The set-up connected a remotely-located, rack-mounted Mac Pro computer with attached storage expansion and LTO tape drive for archiving of video fi les, via optical Thunderbolt cable to a Thunderbolt dock with keyboard and mouse. The demo featured Sonnet’s xMac Pro Server Thunderbolt 2-to-PCI Express expansion system and 4U rack mount enclosure for the latest generation of the Mac Pro, Archiware’s P5 long-term archiving software and the Sonnet Echo 15 Thunderbolt 2 Dock.

www.sonnettech.com

Storage

Quantum has launched StorNext Connect, a toolset designed to simplify the installation, discovery, management and monitoring of StorNext technology. Designed for Quantum StorNext 5 appliances it is said to enable a user to deploy or upgrade their StorNext systems and identify and resolve issues quickly. Included is a self-guided interface for quick install of StorNext software and viewing storage, CPU, memory and network interconnect and their connections within a single graphical view.

www.stornext.com

Asset Management Ross Video used IBC to unveil the Streamline media asset and order management system for its XPression Motion graphics platform. Streamline provides both a centralised searchable database of media and a set of workfl ow tools and is said to help modernize a graphics workfl ow, “making it fast and easy to get the right graphical elements ready for air.”

www.rossvideo.com

Check out some of the other products from Ross in this (one of two) interviews we did with them at IBC, this one on the Acuity. EditShare unveiled EditShare XStream EFS, a new enterprise storage technology, at IBC. A distributed scale-out fi le system it is designed to support largescale media workgroups requiring high-bandwidth, high-volume media ingest, transcoding, online collaborative editing and multiplatform distribution of HD, 2k and 4k. www.editshare.com

Video infrastructure

Imagine Communications has debuted the Nexio Ingest Suite, a set of software tools for managing content ingest and storage. When integrated with Imagine Communications’ Nexio Studio Suite and its Nexio video servers, the application enables users to more easily manage video assets that have been ingested and utilize them for live and studio-based production environments.

www.imaginecommunications.com

T&M

PHABRIX has developed the technology to enable 12 Gb/s eye and jitter analysis of all HD and 4k formats on its Rx modular rack mount series. Phillip Adams, founder of PHABRIX said: “We are working with leading edge technology not yet commercially available to the market. There are serious limitations with current 4k and UHDTV product offerings. What we are demonstrating offers a complete solution supporting 4 x 12 GB/s SDI (48 GB/s) and optical interconnects based upon next generation FPGA technology. Cutting through the confusion is what we have always strived to do at PHABRIX.”

www.phabrix.com

Shared storage

Facilis Technology has adapted its TerraBlock shared storage so that it can support NewTek’s TriCaster multicamera live video production systems, as well as its 3Play integrated sports technology. TerraBlock 6.0 has been tested on the TriCaster 860 mode, and the full complement of eight capture streams of HD 4:2:2 video can be accommodated on a TerraBlock 24EX/16 or 24D system over a standard 1Gb connection. When using a 24D system, a total of 32 streams of 4:2:2 capture can be achieved with concurrent playout streams.

www.facilis.com

Legal compliance

Vidcheck, the supplier of software for automated QC and correction of video and audio media fi les, has announced that its Vidfi xer product now includes automated correction of PSE fl ashing in fi le-based video. All television content intended for broadcast in the UK is legally required to comply with specifi cations related to preventing photosensitive epilepsy (PSE), a type of epilepsy in which seizures are provoked by fl ashing or fl ickering images.

www.vidcheck.com

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