LAS VEGAS—TV Technology issued its Best of Show award winner list for the 2015 NAB Show on Friday. Here, we relate what the products were and why our team of judges liked them.
Accelerated Media Technologies of Auburn, Mass., won for the Genesis TDD AdderLink Infinity Manager ENG Microwave System, which offers bi-directional ENG microwave using TDD, as well as full time IFB, telephony, ASI and IP connectivity.
“Patent pending, new way to transmit LTE (bi-directional data) on 2 GHz BAS channels… game changer new technology, making better use of spectrum. Can channel share.”
Adder Technology of Cambridge, England won for its AdderLink Infinity Manager, a control suite that uses standard IP infrastructure to route any user station to any computer attached to the network and share multicast of video without diminishing video quality.
“AdderLink Infinity Manager delivers a highly flexible and powerful digital matrix solution.”
AEQ USA of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., won for CrossNET, a digital intercom AEQ Crossnet matrix that supports AoIP multi-channel connectivity for broadcast-quality audio and is compatible with the AES67 standard.
A “digital intercom matrix, supporting a high number—168 x 168—of ports, 128 of them via Dante…. A really nice system.”
AJT Systems, Inc. also of Fort Lauderdale, won for its third-generation LiveBook GFX, a portable scorebug system that features separate preview and program windows, full animation HD templates, a stats interface, a go-to break graphic, AJT LiveBook Clock-DVE and a customizable generic scorebug for multiple sports.
“An excellent, low cost sports graphics system on a laptop, priced so even a large High School could afford it.”
Arvato Systems of Gütersloh, Germany, won for Adstore, a joint sales platform for TV, Web, mobile and VOD. Adstore Cross Media can launch ad campaigns across multiple channels using one single process.
“Well designed and implemented.”
Arvato Systems also won its Video Production Management System, a media asset management system designed for all aspects of digital media management in broadcasting and other industries.
“Appears very well conceived and designed, complete with an impressive list of big-name users. … installations are tailored to meet the needs of each facility, including interfaces to third-party capabilities, such as transcode engines.”
Pipeline Reporter Lighting KitAvid of Burlington, Mass., won for its scalable and fully customizable Interplay | MAM 5, a media asset management system that allows for access to content across multiple tiers of storage.
“MAM 5 enables organizations to ingest, import, manage, locate, edit and deliver media in a vendor-agnostic environment, whether on a departmental or global level, as well as analyze media usage and automate processes for maximum cost-efficiency. The platform is open, extensible and highly customizable; it integrates with Avid InterPlay and iNEWS for easy access to scripts, rundowns with associated video assets, and archived content. It also facilitates collaboration across divisional and geographic boundaries.”
BBS Lighting of Copenhagen won for the Pipeline Reporter Lighting Kit with remote phosphor LED fixtures delivering modeled lighting with a high CRI, to an on-camera reporter under a wide range of ambient lighting conditions. The footprint of each fixture is less than the computer mouse.
“Perfect, flexible addition to your lighting equipment, at popular prices. Guaranteed to become a favorite.”
Blackmagic Design of Melbourne, Blackmagic Mini Studio Camera Australia won for the Micro Studio Camera, a tiny Ultra HD camera designed for live production and includes built-in color correction and microphones and is fully controllable from a switcher. It will ship in July for $1,295.
“This is a very innovative concept, in that it is the world’s smallest fully functional studio camera. It connects via SDI to Blackmagic’s ATEM switcher, which allows control of iris, focus, color adjustment and zoom. It can be use as an auxiliary studio camera in multi-camera setup, or it could be used in a set to create a fully functional studio in a small space. It accepts Micro Four Thirds lenses.”
Blackmagic Design also won for its lightweight, miniaturized version of the URSA camera. The URSA mini offers 4.6K Super 35 image sensor with global shutter and 15 stops of range.
“More than just a line extension, it adds usability features of real value to actual users... and then there’s the price value.”
Bridge Technologies of Oslo, Norway, won for the Gold TS Reference, which monitors digital services and provides fault-tracking and goes beyond testing for critical conditions as required by the ETR290 standard.
Canon XC10
Canon U.S.A. of Melville, N.Y., won for the XC10 4K digital camcorder, a compact, lightweight camera capable of both 4K/full HD video and 12 Megapixel digital still photography.
“For the price and size this is a very high performing 4K camera. It’s equipped with a 12 megapixel sensor, has an almost incredible 12 stop dynamic range and allows users to extract and deliver 8 megapixel stills from video; 12 megapixel sensor, 10:1 zoom w. 2x digital teleconverter,12 stops of dynamic range; ideal for ENG and EFP.”
Melvile, N.Y.-based ChryonHego’s VistaCam is a new broadcast graphics technology offering a 180-degree in-studio video display.
“It was specifically developed for action sports coverage sets, as it’s based on the company’ s TRACAB optical player tracking system for covering playing surfaces from multiple angles. It also includes the ChyronHego’s Lyric64 graphics creation and playout platform.”
Clear-Com Agent-ICMClear-Com of Alameda, Calif., won for the Agent-IC, a mobile app that enables Eclipse-HX Matrix users to access from an iPhone or iPad over 3G, 4G or WiFi/IP networks, providing an intercom panel to connect studio and OB staffers.
“This is not the first product to turn an iPad type device into an intercom panel, but it does it without a separate server.”
Decimator Design DMON 16
Decimator Design of London won for its DMON-16S 1-to-16 channel multiviewer with SDI and HDMI outputs for 3G/HD/SD and custom layouts.
“Includes custom layouts, audio meters, graticules, dynamic UMDs and tallies.”
Editshare XStream EFS
EditShare of Boston won for the EditShare XStream EFS distributed scale-out file system developed for media intensive workflows to support large-scale workgroups requiring high-bandwidth, high-volume media ingest, transcoding, online collaborative editing and multiplatform distribution.
“One of the most cost-effective shared storage systems, includes built-in media management. Works with any NLE.”
Elemental Technologies of Portland, Ore., won for its Elemental Unified Linear TV Delivery software-defined video solutions that allow broadcasters to implement linear broadcast and multiscreen OTT services within a unified head-end supporting advanced system management and end-to-end redundancy.
ENCO Systems HotShot 2
Southfield, Mich.-based ENCO Systems won for HotShot 2, an instant audio playback package that allows users to access assets anywhere via a searchable database that supports all audio files and types.
“This version adds pre-labeled buttons on the control panel, much more storage—2 TB—and optional surround sound support. Sure to continue to be a standard in broadcasting.”
Ericsson of Stockholm, Sweden won for its Video Storage and Processing Platform, which integrates and virtualizes the storage and processing capabilities of COTS servers into a unified, software-based cloud infrastructure.
“Allows for seamless augmentation and replacement of legacy TV services with new cloud-based services. This crucial consumer application is powered by the Ericsson Video Storage and Processing Platform, a high performance, software-based infrastructure. Priced according to custom implementations.”
Evertz of Burlington, Ontario, Canada won for the DreamCatcher Advanced Replay System and Production Suite, an IP-based replay system with rapid editing capabilities combined with enhanced production workflow.
“Though the DreamCatcher is two years old, it has seen tremendous advances over the past year. For instance, it can be scaled much larger to allow a team of operators to work with many channels of materials.”
Evertz 7881 IRDEvertz also took a BoS for the EXE28-VSR offering 23 Tbps of switching capacity and 1,152 ports of 10GE signal processing per single chassis.
“This product provides incredible throughput. There seem to be no competing products that touch it.”
Evertz took a third BoS for its 7881IRD Platform, which receives, demodulates and decodes digital DVB-S/S2 satellite signals with support for MPEG2 and H.264/AVC, SD or HD encoded signals.
Florical Systems of Gainsville, Fla., won for its acquisition and distribution platform, which allows stations to acquire, QC, and catalog assets with complete metadata from a centralized location and distribute air-ready media.
“Places content acquisition, QC and related workflows into a network center (hub) for distribution to subordinate facilities—client hardware and automation system agnostic—in order to reduce individual manpower and technology requirements at the local facility level.”
Fluendo won for LongoMatch, a cross-platform that allows users to perform real-time analysis on video feeds of sport games. Fujinon UA80X9 LongoMatch is now available for download. Fluendo is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, with U.S. offices in New York.
“This is a software package that allows sports teams to dissect and analyze their performance using recording, tagging and drawing features. Specialized use for sports training, but sophisticated and valuable to its target customers. It’s a small start-up. Price is by subscription, $500 per year or lifetime purchase.”
Fujifilm/Fujinon won for its 4K Ultra HD Premiere Series Lens line, which includes the UA80X9 field lens and the UA22x8 zoom lens. Both lenses will be available by August of 2015. Fujifilm is headquartered in Tokyo, with U.S. offices in Valhalla, N.Y.
“They developed a whole family of 4K lenses…quite an accomplishment.”
Grass Valley LDX 86 Universe Montreal-based Grass Valley won for its GV Convergent SDN, a control system that manages facility routing, maintaining familiar control interfaces as well as introducing new GUIs for configuration, management and control for the migration from SDI to IP infrastructures.
“Makes sure all IP signals are checked throughout a broadcast facility.”
Grass Valley won for its LDX 4K/6X HD Switchable Camera and K2 Dyno Universe Replay System, as well. Both combine to offer a 4K/XS-HD camera/replay chain, enabling any camera or replay position to be set up for regular HD, 4K or extreme-speed acquisition/replay.
“From a simple three imager 2/3-inch 4K camera last year, GV not only delivered a usable 2/3-inch 4K camera, but also gave it the ability to do high-speed HD, giving great flexibility to the mobile truck and other rental people.”
Harmonic of San Jose, Calif., won for Spectrum X Advance Media Server,which combines file, baseband and transport stream ingest with comprehensive integrated channel playout capabilities for production and playout applications.
“Simple broadcast playout server based on proven technology and can be upgraded to UHD.”
Imagine Communications of Dallas won for its LandmarkOSI 8.0, a cloud-based system that offers sales, CRM, traffic, billing and data analytics to broadcasters, networks and content distributors to manage station inventory and increase revenue.
“A next-gen cloud-based evolution of their existing traffic and ad sales and workflow modules; more streamlined, fewer keystrokes and w/refreshed HTML5 GUI to help facilities optimize revenue from their content inventory through all the various distribution channels—OTT, mobile, etc.”
Interra Systems won for Baton and Baton+ multiplatform, automated content verification systems for file-based SD, HD and mixed workflows. Baton is on its sixth version, while Baton+ adds workflow QC capabilities and data analysis. Interra Systems is housed in Cupertino, Calif.
“Very impressed with the depth of the products functionality and detail in its interface.”
iZotrope RX Loudness ControliZotope won for RX Loudness Control, designed for audio/video postproduction and broadcast workflows to comply with global loudness standards. The RX Loudness Control is currently available for pre-order from the Cambridge, Mass.-based iZotope.
“Really easy to use—it seems to essentially be a two-button-push process—and also generates a log as a .CSV file. Offers compliance with all current global loudness standards… ideal for audio novices.”
Matrox Monarch HDXMatrox won for Matrox Monarch HDX, a dual-channel H.264 encoder for broadcasters and webcasters that offers 3G-SDI and HDMI inputs with frame-synchronization. Matrox is located in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.
NewTek TalkShow VS-100 “Low cost even though it has selectable 3G-SDI and HDMI inputs accessible through a Web-based interface.”
NewTek won for TalkShow VS-100, a video calling production system that enhances Skype calls’ video and audio for use by television studios and live event producers. San Antonio, Texas-based NewTek is currently shipping TalkShow VS-100.
NNuvyo TabloNuvyyo of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada won for the Tablo OTA DVR.
Ooyala of Santa Clara, Calif., won for Ooyala IQ, a video analytics product that provides a complete view of video usage and profitability.
PESA Blade System Huntsville, Ala.’s PESA won for the PESA Blade System, an encoding and decoding system for streaming video, housed in a 2RU chassis that holds up to 10 cards and is controlled through PESA’s Cattrax for integrating IP-based video into baseband environments. The PESA Blade System, and the specifically designed C22 cards, will be available in the second quart of 2015.
Phabrix Qx Phabrix of Thatcham, England, won for Phabrix Qx, a complete solution for testing new UHDTV formats, which offers video and audio support with 12G physical layer analysis to test UHDTV1 and UHDTV2 infrastructures.
“Handles very high bandwidths. Awesome.”
Quantel and Snell, headquartered in Newbury, England, won for Media Biometrics, an intelligent monitoring by exception technology, allowing playout centers to automatically know they are sending the correct content across every channel.
“This is an interesting system that uses a watermarking-like technology and allows users to inspect content at virtually any point in the playout/transmission chain and determine such things an incorrect commercial, providing users with confidence that the correct content is being delivered where it has to go.”
Quantum of San Jose, Calif., won for Q-Cloud Archive, fully integrated into StorNext 5 for on-demand access to cloud storage with no additional hardware or software required.
“Primarily a hardware-centric storage solutions provider–offering a path to taming the cloud conundrum by integrating it as one component of a hybrid, application-driven infrastructure. The public cloud is treated as an off-site tier within a Quantum StorNext 5 environment.”
ScheduALL of Miami won for the ScheduALL Portal, an online platform for selling transmission feeds, managing transmission sales and automatically integrating online bookings into the ScheduALL financial management system, as well as providing real-time access to inventory.
Sennheiser AVX Sennheiser of Wedemark, German won for its AVX, a wireless microphone system for video recording with a self-configuring digital transmission system that automatically finds an interference-free channel to operate on and optimizes audio levels to match the sound source and camera input sensitivity. The AVX will be available in May 2015.
Small HD Sidefinder “Operates in the license-free 1.9 GHz range, with pretty much fully automatic operation—auto-pairing of mic device and receiver, auto frequency finding, auto interference avoidance. Aimed at videographers and DSLR (there’s an adaptor) users.”
SmallHD of Cary, N.C. won for the Sidefinder EVF, a fully featured HD viewfinder with a flip-out 1080p display that combines the advantages of a field monitor and an electronic viewfinder.
“A really clever fold-out LCD monitor that is affixed to an add-on optical viewfinder. Practical and handy.”
Sony HDC-4300 Tokyo’s Sony won for its HDC-4300 4K/HD Live camera system that uses high magnification wide zoom range lenses while maintaining the depth-of-field needed for sports broadcasting. It also uses three 2/3-inch 4K image sensors. A summer release is expected.
“The holy grail for broadcasters; well-executed, of course.”
Tektronix WFM 8300Tektronix of Beaverton, Ore., won for the WFM8300 Waveform Monitor, which provides flexible options and field-installable upgrade kits to monitor diverse video types, including Quad/Dual/Single link 3G/HD/SD SDI and Composite Analog Video.
“This is a new instrument designed from the ground up for 4K monitoring. This is achievable with a software upgrade, setting the device apart from other waveform monitors. The WFM8300 allows monitoring of video signals all the way from composite analog to 4K UHD, and as mentioned is field-upgradable to make it obsolescent-proof.”
Telemetrics TG4MTelemetrics of Mahwah, N.J. won for the TG4M, the latest in the line of TeleGlide Camera Track Systems and comes equipped with a newly designed, streamlined trolley and track that minimizes space requirements and supports straight and curved tracks. The system is also Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality ready.
“This systems is proving very popular and is quite a leap ahead of previous track solutions.”
Telestream of Nevada City, Calif., won for its VOD Producer DAI, which automates the assembly of CableLabs VOD content and provisions it for Dynamic Ad Insertion with fresh, relevant advertising for VOD assets in cable networks.
“The workflow is largely hands-free and cost-efficient; it also provides analytics and measurements tools to gauge the effectiveness, and is compatible with Nielsen watermarking.”
Linear Acoustic MT2000 The Telos Alliance of Clevland won for the Linear Acoustic MT2000 handheld, portable, diagnostic tool that can monitor and generate Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby E and PCM bitstreams.
“Impressive piece of kit—the Leatherman (as an alternative to the hackneyed Swiss Army Knife) of muxed audio analysis tools. Compact and eminently Triveni Digital Streamscope RM40 portable, capable of analyzing pretty much any embedded audio format, it supports a multiplicity of metering options and also houses a pair of speakers and headphone out. No broadcast tech should be without one.”
Triveni Digital of Princeton Junction, N.J. won for the StreamScope RM-40 DTV transport stream monitoring system, which allows operators to monitor closed-caption information for multiple TV services to comply with FCC regulations for closed-captions in TV programs.
“Great way to troubleshoot closed caption issues, FCC required nowadays.”
TVU Networks of Mountain View, Calif., won for the TVU Pack TM8200, a small, lightweight mobile wireless 3G/4G/LTE uplink with the ability to capture and transmit live HD video from on location, all in a backpack unit.
TVU Pack TM8200 (editor's note: This quote refers to the TVU One rather than the 8200. “An impressive < 3-pound bonded cellular module with LCD display screen, an internal battery with approximately one hour of run-time, and no protruding antennas. It features excellent specs and features in a 60 percent smaller form factor than TVU’s current model without sacrificing performance or video quality.”)
VisLink UltracoderVislink of Hemel Hempstead, England, won for its UltraCoder, a 1RU half rack H.265 encoder capable of encoding 4K, HD & SD video with up to 50 percent bit rate reduction compared to H.264.Vislnik’s U.S. offices are in Billerica, Mass., and Orange, Calif.
“There were several other encoders that did H.265, but none did 4K. Applauds to Vislink.”
Wohler iAM-MVAMWohler Technologies of Haywood, Calif., won for the iAM-MVAM, which decodes and displays MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signals via Ethernet IP or BNC ASI inputs while enabling users to browse PAT, PMT, EIT and NIT data tables for each selected streams. The MPEG series monitors also include dual 3G/HD/SD-SDI inputs and audio monitoring with on-screen level monitors.
“Wohler does things right by giving this multi-screen monitor a touch-screen fingertip control. Features the same decoded HDMI and SDI video output as Wohler’s MPEG range of monitors, and has 1 Gbps IP input with full multicast support.”
London headquartered V-Nova’sPerseus is an encoder that offers compression, picture quality and processing speed improvement while reducing power consumption.
Volicon Observer OTT
Volicon of Burlington, Mass., won for the Observer OTT, an over-the-top A/V service monitoring solution that allows broadcasters to capture content delivered over IP networks to smartphones, tablets and computers and then verify integrity of the feed.
Wheatstone of New Bern, N.C., won for the IP-6, a large-format digital mixing console designed for large, multi-channel productions and fully compatible with the WheatNet-IP audio network.
“IP-64 has been designed to be really easy to use, even for a novice operator. (The company describes it as eliminating the daunting “sea of knobs.”) Nicely laid out, very easy to understand and operate, and the screens and OLEDs are clean and crisp. This should help the company introduce networked-connected TV consoles to a broader market, especially as IP networking appears to be catching on fast in broadcast TV. The touchscreen functionality—which responds to gestures popularized by Apple’s devices—can now also be added to Dimension Three.”
Wheatstone also won for the Gibraltar IP Mix Engine IP network interface that connects Wheatstone’s line of audio consoles directly into WheatNet-IP, an AES67 compatible IP audio network with broadcast audio tools and controls integrated into one network.
“Expands Wheatstone’sIP-64, Dimension Three, D-8EX, Series Four, and Series Two digital mixing consolesto 1,024 channels of audio, all with DSP. More importantly, it enables a gateway to IP networking, bringing processing, control and other functionality to every connected device, and provides access to every source and output on the network to the board operator.”
San Francisco-based WideOrbit won for its WO Programmatic TV programmatic marketplace that provides direct access to an ecosystem of buying partners and advertising clients for local TV stations to help generate revenue and advertising monetization.
“Manages and automates processes associated with ad sales, revenue optimization, inventory availability, opportunities, orders, etc. all the way through billing and account reconciliation.”
