Whether it’s a live sports or entertainment production, an episodic TV show or some other program, color management is an essential component of ensuring shots from the multiple cameras being used to capture content match and convey what the producer has in mind.

The emergence of high dynamic range (HDR) creates even more complexity with respect to the production pipeline as the audience is split between those watching standard dynamic range TVs and those viewing HDR sets.

Tim Walker, senior product manager for color management products and HDR solutions at AJA Video, sat down with TVTech contributing editor Phil Kurz, to discuss color management, look management and other color-related issues during a 10-minute Executive Q&A video.

Today’s mixed SDR-HDR production environment isn’t the only development affecting the production pipeline when it comes to color and look, however. Producers seeking to create specific moods and emotions among their audience members develop unique looks that must be maintained carried accurately forward throughout the pipeline.

The rise of Cine Live—a live production approach that brings cinematic techniques to video—is another factor. It requires its own set of color and look management considerations as digital cinema cameras with cinematic lenses with different color requirements are introduced into live video capture workflows, said Walker.

Even the use of specialty cameras and drone cameras are creating new color management challenges for broadcasters and producers as they work to match these camera sources with the other more conventional video production cameras used to capture events, he said.

During the interview Walker described how AJA Video’s ColorBox and other tools are being used to assist producers as they address the color and look management issues these and other productions developments are creating.

Watch the full video here.

Click here to get all the information on TV Tech's future and past webinars, live and on demand.

Increasingly, traditional linear broadcasters are augmenting their distribution strategy by including streaming content delivery to reach the growing number of audience members who are just as likely to watch content on their smartphones and tablets as they are on their living room TVs.

Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) channels and Broadcast-Enabled Streaming TV (BEST)—aka BroadcastIP—are but two of the avenues broadcasters are pursuing to reach additional viewers, drive higher revenues and compete more effectively with digital rivals.

Broadcasters looking to cash in on these opportunities must first develop effective strategies touching nearly every aspect of their operation—from sales and marketing to content prep, traffic and playou tand master control.

Join TV Tech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz and sponsor TelVue for this informative webinar Dec. 12 at noon ET to explore the latest developments in streaming services, advertising opportunities and FAST and BEST channel deployments.

TV Tech is teaming up with TVBEurope and Avid to host a webinar looking at the impact of artificial intelligence on the media industry.

With so much being written about the technology, how does the industry actually see it? What advantages and challenges does AI offer to broadcasters, and how confident are they about using AI in their workflows today?

The free session on Nov. 26 will take a deep dive into the key findings of an industry survey on the confidence in AI, conducted by Caretta Research on behalf of TVBEurope and TV Tech.

Topics under discussion will include what challenges lie on the road ahead to adopting AI, and where AI is currently making the most impact on broadcast and media workflows, and where it could in the future.

Speakers include Caretta Research co-founder, Robert Ambrose, and Seth Hallen, president of the Hollywood Professional Association and AI expert.

A second session hosted by TVBEurope and Avid on Dec. 3 will focus on the reality of AI today for broadcasters and how it can increase workflow efficiency and creativity. It will include discussions on the ways in which AI can help journalists get their stories to air faster than ever before, and the importance of security when considering the implementation of AI.

Speakers include Avid product evangelist Craig Wilson and Danijela Horak, Head of AI Research, BBC R&D.

Don’t miss out on these webinars with leading experts sharing their knowledge on artificial intelligence. Register for free now.

Simply sending an OB vehicle to a remote venue to produce coverage of live sports or entertainment is no longer the only game in town.

Developments over the past several years have helped to drive a rethink about how best to implement technologies and supporting workflows to maintain production excellence, adopt advancements in resolution and High Dynamic Range and work more efficiently--all while controlling costs.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, at 12 noon ET, join our panel of remote production experts, Stephen Repass, vice president at Ross Production Services; Deon LeCointe, director of networked solutions at Sony Electronics; and Laurent Masia, director of product line management, managed switches at NETGEAR.

You’ll learn:

• Where REMI, virtualized production and other workflow advances stand.
• How more efficient compression schemes are opening up new contribution possibilities
• Whether or not private and public 5G networks will prove to be real production game changers.
• How cloud-based alternatives to on-prem OB trucks are transforming workflows.
• The latest workflow developments including distributed production.

Register for this free webinar here.

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Eric Ott, CEO of Mediaproxy, who will be exhibiting at Stand 5.D72 in the show's Content Everywhere Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Eric Ott: The Content Everywhere zone has become central to our key competences. The IBC halls are well-structured to provide customers and vendors with zones of interest. A lot of our partners are also in the hall, providing everyone with a kind of symbiosis platform. It’s also physically located in a central spot, making it easier for customers to get to meetings. The ‘Content Everywhere’ label also resonates with what we are providing to the industry as our technology has become very versatile, providing tools across a wide range of formats.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
EO: We are showing the latest incarnation of our LogServer platform. After almost 25 years, it is well-established as the global standard for regulatory compliance, but also straddles across multiple disciplines of the monitoring chain. This nowadays includes best-of-breed SCTE-104/35 ad insertion monitoring across the playout chain to OTT and cloud-native monitoring.

Another growing part in the portfolio is our Monwall IP multiviewer. We have taken a modern approach to what IP monitoring needs to look like these days, especially at scale. The traditional methods only provide a certain amount of, mainly passive, functionality. For Monwall we have taken a more interactive approach to reduce the time it takes for operators and engineers to resolve incidents. We look forward to introducing more broadcasters to that concept.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
EO: The current trend with bleeding more AI into products will be proving a lot of the novelty. This conversation will certainly continue at the IBC Show. AI does have a great deal of potential in being able to learn and repeat common or more basic operational tasks in broadcasting, which has particular applications in monitoring. It will be interesting to see how the legal implications around this will determine more widely spread uptake in the short term.

After the Olympics, HDR would also have to creep up on everyone’s interest or to-do list. It looks like 4K has become less of a target as civilians appear to be responding to the extended colour range more than resolution. As an upsell, it seems to make more sense at this stage at least. Also, the migration from SDI to IP is progressing. I guess we all remember when the ‘SDI is dead’ posters lined the passage between halls 7 and 8 at IBC a few years back. The then amusingly provocative proclamation, has clearly not yet materialised. However, with a finally growing ecosystem of products and more cost-effective glue equipment surfacing rapidly, we should see this tip in IP’s favour now.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
EO: Certainly not the taxi queue at Schiphol airport! On a more serious note, IBC provides us with the opportunity to bring our global teams together and meet with both existing and new clients to discuss their needs. Nothing beats face to face and on stand demos are key to the work we do (and what we achieve) at the show.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Jean-Christophe Perier, CMO of Globecast, who will be exhibiting at Stand 5.C75 in the show's Content Everywhere Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Jean-Christophe Perier: We felt that the Content Everywhere Zone was more in line with our initiatives for media integration and orchestration, hybrid cloud solutions and content monetization than the other areas of the Show. We also find value in the speaking and stage opportunities on the Content Everywhere stages on the show floor.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
JCP: We will be highlighting the latest in advanced transmission and connectivity capabilities and end-to-end hybrid cloud solutions as well as OTT and media management updates. Globecast has significantly broadened its acquisition, remote production, media management, playout and distribution solutions.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
JCP: We expect to see advances in media integration and managed services, and the implementation of AI for streamlining of workflows. We are excited to hear about the sustainability initiatives that are being undertaken in the industry and learn how we can benefit from implementing and discussing these initiatives with our colleagues.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
JCP: IBC is must-attend event for our category of services to customers. As a global company based in Paris, we can interact with attendees from all over the world, and we believe IBC is the gold standard for technology events.

The partnerships and connections we have made during IBC over the years have enabled us to continue to grow, learn and stay ahead of the most current advances in the broadcast industry. Lastly, and not any less important, are the relationships fostered and the comradery we enjoy during the Show.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Stefan Lederer, CEO and co-founder of Bitmovin, who will be exhibiting at Stand 5.H48 in the show's Content Everywhere Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Stefan Lederer: Bitmovin was founded to shape the future of video, creating best in class video development solutions that enable customers to create memorable digital experiences, worldwide. This makes the Content Everywhere Zone our natural home at IBC, as it is the go-to-place for the latest trends and innovations in OTT streaming and the monetization of content.

Being in the Content Everywhere Zone not only puts us in the right place for current and potential customers looking for ways to play, encode and analyze video content simply, efficiently and with the highest quality imaginable, but it also gets us close to our partners covering a whole range of solutions across the OTT video space.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
SL: As always, we will be presenting our latest innovations. This year, this spans a few key areas:

Live, live, live: In the past 18 months, our live encoding team has made huge advancements to our live encoder, and we already have a number of new customers successfully using it. OneFootball is a great example of this. OneFootball is using our live encoder on Akamai Cloud Computing to deliver high-quality live streams at scale to its millions of viewers. You can read more about this in the press release and case study. We will have further developments to our live encoder that we'll be sharing at the show.

Our presence in the sports industry: We announced a brand new feature called Multiview that provides a more compelling experience for audiences by enabling them to watch multiple streams simultaneously. Bitmovin’s Multiview is designed for use cases such as sports, esports, and live events, where it’s advantageous to provide the audience with the option of staying immersed in the content they want by removing the need to flick between different channels. We know this is a feature that a lot of sports customers want. We already have a number of sports customers, including ORF (which was a broadcaster for the 2024 Euros), Sportall, OneFootball and Globo.

AI will naturally continue to be a big talking point and our Bitmovin Analytics AI Session Interpreter will make its IBC debut. Launched ahead of NAB, it is a new feature for Bitmovin Analytics that aims to simplify data analysis and provide concise text summaries accessible to users with varying degrees of technical knowledge. It's an innovation we're proud of as it's making video streaming more accessible by presenting video analytics in a more accessible way so users can troubleshoot any streaming issues faster.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
SL: AI will certainly remain a huge topic as we head into this year’s IBC. We have already seen significant advancements in this area over recent months and I’m certain that the show will be awash with vendors launching solutions and services related to AI. Indeed, our most recent Video Developer Report found that over 90% of developers plan to use AI/ ML to improve the video experience for viewers. And it certainly makes a lot of sense when you consider the cost and resource efficiencies afforded by AI. Of course, we are no exception here. The Bitmovin Analytics AI Session Interpreter leverages the power of AI to help users better understand playback sessions with explanations and recommendations for improving their service.

Monetization will remain a big talking point. The industry has faced a number of challenges over the past couple of years. The global economic climate has led to a decrease in spend on video services, which in turn means the industry is focusing on cost-reduction. However, that won't drive growth. What we need now is to focus on new ways to create additional monetization opportunities to promote growth. This is beginning to happen with many video services introducing ad-funded tiers, for example. I believe we will see further innovation in this arena, with more technology and solutions emerging that make it easier than ever for video providers to diversify revenue streams.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
SL: Each year, IBC drives thought leadership, innovation, best practice and diversity across the 250,000-strong global community. As the flagship media and entertainment conference and trade show in Europe, IBC is one of the most important events in our calendar and a must-attend for us.

While the world has gone a lot more online, it is clear that face-to-face meetings remain invaluable. IBC delivers a unique opportunity to meet customers, prospects, and partners under one roof, helping us continue, or in some cases start, meaningful conversations and ultimately forge better relationships.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with
Rick Young, senior vice president and head of global products for LTN, who will be exhibiting in Stand 5.A76 in the show's "Content Everywhere" Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Rick Young: LTN sees the Content Everywhere Zone as the heartbeat of the show. The Content Everywhere Zone aligns with our vision to give media companies more control over their content distribution. LTN is empowering media companies to transition to an IP-based distribution model. The zone spotlights the very latest emerging technologies for multi-platform delivery, OTT, and the monetization of content. We are looking forward to showcasing how LTN technology is powering high-quality live events and customized streaming experiences at scale.

There are also several engaging panels and seminars that take place in this zone, encompassing a range of key themes and topics. LTN is looking forward to being involved in some of these panels at the show. This includes our panel with IMAX, where we will discuss our live event versioning solution LTN Arc and its role in bringing the biggest live events — including the Paris Olympics opening ceremony — to select theaters across the US and around the world.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
RY: In addition to the panels LTN will be involved in, visitors to our stand (#5.A76) will discover a range of innovative solutions that drive cost-efficient linear channel creation and live event customization at scale through IP distribution. This will include hands-on demos to spotlight how LTN workflows give media companies greater control over their content.

LTN Lift is empowering customers to automate the creation of new digital linear channels for tailored audience experiences across FAST and other digital platforms.

LTN will also highlight how LTN Wave is providing a more flexible, cost-efficient, and reliable IP-based alternative to legacy fiber and satellite distribution for tier-one media companies. LTN is delivering greater flexibility and scale in multi-platform content distribution.

Finally, our LTN Arc solution empowers sports organizations and streaming companies to acquire, version, customize, and deliver premium live sports events for global audiences.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
RY: Navigating the complex world of content distribution has evolved significantly in recent years, and we expect this trend to continue. Media companies are asking how they can overcome these distribution challenges without spending a lot of money and resources. The need for better content distribution means media companies need to adopt IP-first initiatives that give them the tools to reach more audiences at scale. IP distribution technology empowers more creativity that resonates with today’s content-hungry viewer. There has been a lot of experimentation in this space, and LTN has been at the forefront of innovation.

As media companies strive to deliver more tailored content experiences to global, multi-platform audiences, we are excited to explore advancements in live linear channel creation and content versioning for full-time channels and live events. A key talking point will be the accelerated adoption of intelligent IP-based distribution solutions, which are rapidly replacing outdated satellite and fiber methodologies. Additionally, the fast-evolving live sports landscape will be an important focus.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
RY: IBC brings together the industry’s most innovative thinkers and media organizations to share ideas and drive key discussions about how to future-proof live content distribution workflows. It is the perfect platform to see how we have all evolved in the past 12 months and what opportunities and challenges we are navigating.

LTN also sees IBC as an opportunity to meet with key global customers, partners, and industry peers. IBC provides a platform for LTN to engage in many face-to-face conversations with customers and industry leaders to learn about their current pain points and how we can all progress across the innovation roadmap together.

The connections you can make at IBC are invaluable, as are all the opportunities that future-ready technology can bring.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Paolo Cuttorelli, senior vice president of global sales for Evergent, who will be exhibiting at Stand 5.F86 in the show's "Content Everywhere" Zone.

TV Tech: Why did Evergent choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Paolo Cuttorelli: Content Everywhere is the hub for innovation in new streaming subscriber experiences and future-ready monetization — both of which are at the core of our business Evergent prides itself on helping media companies champion data-driven strategies that boost profitability and maximize customer retention across any platform..

At our booth in Content Everywhere – and across our speaking engagements, we'll showcase how leading media brands and direct-to-consumer sports streaming services can harness evolving AI tools and predictive analytics to not only prevent churn, but also unlock new revenue opportunities that are far too often overlooked by streaming providers. Want to hear about the avoidable revenue leaks and untapped monetization streams that can improve your bottom line? Stop by our booth for a quick discussion.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
PC: We’ll highlight a number of practical, high-impact strategies for driving profitability and subscriber retention, specifically for major media companies and direct-to-consumer sports streaming services. We'll showcase how new GenAI tools are transforming churn prevention through advanced behavioral analytics, offering richer consumer data that fosters deeper personalization.

This personalization is key to enhancing subscriber loyalty, coupled with dynamic, flexible pricing capabilities. We’ll also share more on how our latest partnership with Irdeto helps drive strategic service bundling to increase revenues and platform loyalty, as well as revealing a few quick fixes across global payments and subscriber interactions that deliver important revenue benefits.

Away from our stand, our team is delivering important insights across speaking sessions with the likes of Paramount, Google, Think Analytics and MediaKind. We’re also supporting an IBC Pride Happy Hour with our friends at Quickplay, Caretta Research and Google Cloud Platform on Friday, September 13th, 5pm CET. We’d love to see many TV Tech readers across these sessions and networking breaks – make sure to stop by.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
PC: Profitability and the strategies to optimize revenue are always high on the agenda. The spotlight will be on data-driven subscriber management techniques that enhance retention and customer lifetime value. Frankly, many streaming companies are starting to realize that their existing customer management and billing systems aren’t up to scratch in today’s digital-native environment. Many businesses are using unsophisticated tools — and some are still figuring out where to even start. We expect to have a busy few days offering valuable perspectives on how new technologies and simple changes can lead to substantial revenue gains and reduced churn.

Additionally, hybrid monetization models will be a hot topic, focusing on blending subscription and ad-supported strategies while exploring new e-commerce opportunities. For FAST platforms, improving the acquisition funnel and finding innovative upsell tactics will be crucial for converting free subscribers into paid customers.Sports rights distribution will also dominate discussions, with an emphasis on using data-driven D2C strategies and ultra-flexible fan experiences to maximize content value and deepen subscriber touchpoints.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
PC: We return to IBC year after year because it's where things happen. Big business decisions, dynamic customer conversations, new ideas, and lots of valuable networking. IBC helps us connect with industry leaders and fellow innovators — and it’s the ideal environment for us to showcase our expertise and play an active role in driving the industry forward.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Peter Gibson, vice president of product and marketing for Comcast Technology Solutions, who will be exhibiting in Stands 4.C15 and 5.C80 in the show's "Content Everywhere" Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Peter Gibson: Thematically, the Content Everywhere Zone aligns with the core mission of Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS). We are focused on helping streaming providers, broadcasters, and advertisers to manage and monetize everywhere—reliably, securely, and at scale.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
PG: In Hall 5, Stand C80, Comcast Technology Solutions is showcasing our solutions for streaming, broadcast, entertainment, and connectivity experiences. Featured services and demos will include Managed Channel Origination, VideoAI™, Sky Glass & Entertainment OS, Connected Living, and the newest innovations in Cloud TV.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?PG: This year especially, companies across the premium video landscape are seeking ways to simultaneously limit costs, reduce duplicative efforts, and monetize more effectively. They also need to deliver differentiated viewing experiences with the quality and uptime performance that today’s viewers demand –especially for live sports and events. In this new age of Cloud TV, today’s Tier 1 broadcasters, sports leagues, content owners, and distributors are re-evaluating the best ways to achieve all these objectives. We believe Comcast Technology Solutions is in a unique position to help them deliver, based on our proven capabilities and scale.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
PG: IBC provides an almost unparalleled networking opportunity to connect personally with our customers and technology partners, in a time efficient way. Not only does it give us the opportunity to share what’s new from Comcast Technology Solutions with the world, but it also helps us keep a pulse on the latest innovations from across the industry. That’s why IBC remains the signature European conference for Comcast Technology Solutions every year.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere

In advance of the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-17 at the RAI Amsterdam, TV Tech spoke with Jon Finegold, CMO for Signiant, who will be exhibiting in the show's "Content Everywhere" Zone.

TV Tech: Why did you choose to exhibit in the Content Everywhere Zone this year?
Jon Finegold: The Signiant Platform connects more than 50,000 businesses and more than 1 MM end users from every corner of the globe. Our platform enables creators to collaborate anywhere and distribute everywhere. It is the perfect place for Signiant to exhibit.

TVT: What will you be highlighting at your exhibit?
JF: We will be highlighting many new capabilities on the Signiant Platform with a lot of emphasis on our Media Engine services which enables customers to find, preview and interact with media assets across their diverse and distributed storage. Specific use cases include partial file restore from both cloud and on-prem storage, federated search across storage the ability to play a wide variety of professional media formats without having to pre-generate and store proxy files along with many new enhancements on our core file transfer products.

We will also be highlighting our partnership with TMT Insights – a collaboration which enables intelligent ingest of content from diverse partners directly into your title hierarchy preventing costly errors, reducing manual processes and providing a single pane of glass across all ingest operations.

TVT: Which trends do you expect will be most important at the show this year?
JF: While content creation is coming back from a slow 2023, content consumption is at an all-time high. We expect to see a lot of customers continuing to find ways to monetize their content libraries across a huge array of distribution platforms.

TVT: What brings you back to IBC every year?
JF: Signiant is a global company, and our platform connects the global media supply chain. IBC is a great opportunity to meet face to face with our customers, new prospects, thought leaders and media technology partners.

For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/content-everywhere.

The NAB Show in Las Vegas unveiled cutting-edge technology trends shaping today's Media and Entertainment (M&E) landscape and provided insights into future developments.

With a pervasive presence of cloud technology and discussions revolving around AI, notably Generative AI in media, the event highlighted advancements enhancing professional workflows.

Noteworthy developments include solutions for high-resolution content (e.g., 4K and 8K Ultra HD), HDR for richer color depth, and immersive audio experiences. Additionally, improvements in SDI and IP protocols were evident, underscoring the continued relevance of on-prem operations alongside cloud integration for scalability.

These trends, among others, were explored in this free TV Tech Talk with TV Tech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz and Simon Hawkings, director of Sales Strategy and Business Acceleration at Ross Video. 

It’s no secret change is afoot in Media & Entertainment Industry production workflows.  The lineup of single-purpose products that formed the building blocks of an integrated technology solution are being replaced rapidly by COTS computers and networks as well as the cloud. 

In this Q&A with TVTech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz, Matrox Video Product Marketing Manager Angus Mackay discusses this “IT-ification” of the industry and how his company is helping organizations with these changes. Mackay also looks ahead to the 2024 NAB Show, April 13-17, in Las Vegas (Booth SL5073) and discusses what to expect from the company at the annual gathering.

About Matrox Video

Matrox Video is a global leader in video technology. Featuring a complete portfolio of best-in-class hardware, software, APIs, and SDKs, Matrox Video enables OEMs, system integrators, value-added channel partners, and end users to push the boundaries of video innovation. Serving the AV/IT, broadcast, and emerging markets for over 45 years, Matrox Video is synonymous with quality, performance, interoperability, and support. Matrox Video’s legal entity is Matrox Graphics Inc., part of the Matrox Group. More information is available at the company website. 

Register to view the virtual summit on demand here. 

The free half-day virtual summit highlights the newest technologies that are transforming the business and revolutionizing how television is produced, managed and distributed.

During the Summit, our editors and reporters will be interviewing industry leaders for their insights and practical advice on such subjects as news and sports production, AI, NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, 5G Broadcast, streaming/OTT, remote production and cloud-based workflows. Learn from the experts about everything you need to know to keep up with viewers' increasing demands.

TV Tech's virtual Fall 2023 TV Tech Summit is now available on demand. 

Check out the half-day virtual event where TV Tech editors talked with industry experts in tech and programming for their insights and practical advice on such subjects as live news and sports production, AI, NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, remote production, cloud-based workflows, 5G broadcast, streaming video and building better, more diverse tech teams.

On Thursday, Nov. 16, TV Tech will highlight how the newest technologies transforming Media & Entertainment are revolutionizing how television is produced and distributed in 2024 and beyond. 

Join us at this free half-day virtual TV Tech Summit, where our editors and reporters will talk with industry experts in tech and programming for their insights and practical advice on such subjects as live news and sports production, AI, NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, remote production, cloud-based workflows, 5G broadcast, streaming video and building better, more diverse tech teams.

Keynotes will feature David Burke, CTO of Gray Media, the nation's second largest TV station group and well-known expert and pundit Mark Schubin.

Learn from the experts about everything you need to know to build your business and attract larger audiences!

Register for this free event here. 

TV Tech has gathered broadcast industry experts from Dell Technologies and NVIDIA, along with the International Trade Association for Broadcast and Media (IABM) to discuss the  M&E tech trends and buzz from the recent IBC23 show.  

Tune in to this live webcast, Tuesday Oct. 17 at 2PM ET  as we unpack the hype and discuss the transformation happening in the world of broadcasting.

IP allows broadcasters to scale and adapt easily, quickly spin up new services to meet changing audience demands for content, and flexibly configure and manage devices and workflows. This webcast will explore how broadcasters are using advances in IP to upgrade their plants to realize the potential of next-gen technology and leverage long-term cost savings. 

Join us for this dynamic discussion with our moderator, Phil Kurz and sponsors Telos Alliance and swXtch.io on Thursday, Oct. 19th at 2pm EST. 

Click here to register for this free event!

On Friday, September 15 Matrox Video is hosting Live Production Unlimited: Making Time with Matrox® ORIGIN at IBC 2023.

This seminar will take place in room G 106 at IBC and discuss how to make scalable, low-latency, and frame-accurate broadcast operations for tier-1 live content, while effectively overcoming the challenges of using software in live production.

Matrox ORIGIN is a brand-new media framework technology that enables:

Developers to create products and services that run on single hosts or distributed systems—be it on-premises or in the public cloud

Broadcasters and integrators to optimize on-premises resources while offloading peak demands to the cloud, migrating to the cloud at their own pace

Native interoperability so that broadcasters are free to choose their preferred solution

Register to attend the seminar here.

Internet Protocol networks have thoroughly permeated the world of professional audio production. Recent advances have improved interoperability between different technologies such as AES67, ST 2110, DANTE and other formats. In addition, advances in IP-based intercom systems have pushed IP formats into every niche of production audio today. 

Join TV Tech Talks Moderator Wes Simpson, Stephen Brownsill with Ross Video and Greg Shay from Telos Alliance as they discuss recent advances in audio tools and techniques including:

• Ultra-low delay audio production workflows
• Increased flexibility of audio production systems
• Enhanced interoperability between popular audio formats
• New advances in audio production consoles

Click here to register for this free webcast.

TV Tech is partnering with sister brand AV Technology and Systems Contractor News to discuss the synergies between AV and broadcast at the UBS Arena during the 2023 AV/IT Summit at UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 2. 

In today’s modern sports arenas, fans have come to expect the latest in audio-visual spectacles. From high-resolution ribbon wraparound video boards to immersive audio and XR graphics, today’s AV specialists are using the latest video production tools to dazzle young and old. Many of these techniques were honed by live TV over the years as broadcasters adopted advanced technologies to bring all the sports action to viewers at home or in a bar. 

Whether it’s inside the stadium or on the big screen at home, there’s a lot more in common in the tools AV professionals and broadcasters use when it comes to producing today’s live sports coverage. 

In the panel “UBS Arena: Technology on Ice,” join TV Tech Content Director Tom Butts as he leads a panel of media tech professionals to examine the technology behind the facility’s media production center and the techniques AV professionals and broadcasters need to produce the highest-quality live sporting events.

Register for the event here: https://www.avitsummit.com/

Live production benefits from a long list of new technologies that have simplified workflows and enabled a wider range of creativity in content production. Plus, these technologies are enhancing the ability of nontraditional organizations to produce and deliver live content to an expanding range of viewers. 

On Tuesday, June 27 at 2 PM EDT, join industry experts from Dell Technologies, Matrox, Ross and Remote Control for the latest TV Tech Talk on remote production and hear about the latest developments and what to expect in the future across topics including:

• Innovations in SDI and ST 2110 live production facilities
• Increasing affordability and use of virtual sets
• The growing role of cloud-enabled services in live events
• Breakthroughs in processing and storage technologies

Click here to register for this free event. 

The 2023 NAB Show was filled with product announcements and new technology advances, including major advances in AI, broadcasting, cloud production and virtual workflows. 

In the May 25th webcast, TV Tech moderator Wes Simpson and experts from Ross Video and AI Media discussed their visions of how the media playing field is evolving to support improvements in creativity and increase viewer engagement.

The free webcast is now available on demand. 

The 2023 NAB Show was filled with product announcements and new technology advances, including major advances in AI, broadcasting, cloud production and virtual workflows. 

Join TV Tech moderator Wes Simpson and experts from Ross Video and AI Media who will share their visions of how the media playing field is evolving to support improvements in creativity and increase viewer engagement. Topics include: 

• AI Applications in the real world 
• Live Production innovations
• Evolution of Streaming and Distribution 
• New Technologies to watch 

Click here to register for this free event at 2 PM on May 25. 

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2023 NAB Show?

DAN MAY: We anticipate that the 2023 NAB Show will showcase technology that enhances efficiencies across studios, newsrooms and productions of all shapes and sizes, resulting in faster and more engaging content for audiences. Virtual production and virtual sets will again be at the forefront of this year’s show with solutions like our Ultimatte 12 real-time compositing processors, which offer greater creativity and versatility while reducing the cost and need for physical sets.

Remote collaboration will also be a focal point, with tools like Blackmagic Cloud and Blackmagic Cloud Store, Cloud Store Mini and Cloud Pod network storage solutions streamlining entire post workflows, allowing creators to work together more efficiently while unconstrained by one fixed studio or location. From collaborative tools that enable the next wave of remote production, to virtual technology that creates dynamic and visually appealing on-air environments, this year’s NAB Show will highlight exciting displays of innovation and progress across the industry.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

MAY: We are excited to be showcasing our recently announced new models of Ultimatte 12 real-time compositing processors. Designed at lower cost while retaining the same high-quality processing for incredible edge handling, greater color separation, amazing color fidelity and better spill suppression, the line includes: Ultimatte 12 HD Mini ($495), an advanced real-time keyer with HDMI connections, perfect for use with Blackmagic Studio Cameras, Pocket Cinema Cameras and ATEM Mini live production switchers; Ultimatte 12 HD ($895), an advanced chroma keyer in an affordable HD model; Ultimatte 12 4K ($2,495), an advanced chroma keyer with 12G-SDI connections for HD and Ultra HD work; and Ultimatte 12 8K ($6,995), an advanced chroma keyer with Quad Link 12G-SDI for HD, Ultra HD and 8K.

Designed for the next generation of broadcast graphics, Ultimatte 12 enables newsrooms of all sizes, from massive sets to at-home studios, to present weather, sports, news and entertainment in a cinematic-quality environment with real-time photorealistic composites.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

MAY: Ultimatte 12 revolutionizes the broadcast industry, offering innovative features within four unique and affordable models that set it apart from traditional composting solutions. All models of Ultimatte 12 include built-in frame stores for keying using stills for backgrounds, eliminating the cost of external equipment. With its advanced real-time compositing capabilities, Ultimatte 12 allows users to create high-quality and visually interesting virtual sets—without the need for a larger physical space. This is because Ultimatte 12 allows users to load pre-rendered still frames from a 3D modeled broadcast set, enabling massive sets to be created in smaller spaces with frame stores. Additionally, Ultimatte 12 features one-touch keying technology that analyzes a scene and automatically sets more than 100 parameters, and Ultimatte Software Control app for Mac and Windows lets you control all Ultimatte 12 models without the additional cost of a hardware control panel. A low-cost solution, Ultimatte 12 helps to democratize virtual workflows, providing productions big and small with access to photorealistic composites and virtual sets. 

TVT: NAB is celebrating its centennial this year. How many NAB Shows have you attended and do you have any particular standout memories of past shows?

MAY: I’ve been to 18 NAB Shows, and each one is full of good memories. My standout memory has to be NAB Show 2012 when we announced our first camera, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. It was an amazing experience to not only announce a camera and share our innovations with the industry, but also the response to it was incredible. We are so thankful to all our customers who have supported us over the years as we’ve continued to develop our cameras to where they are today; from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera to the URSA Mini Pro 12K, we’ve come a long way.

On March 29, Join TV Tech for our first Virtual Summit of 2023. During this free half-day event, we'll take an in-depth look into how advances in technology are creating new opportunities for broadcasters in the exploding array of video services—all from the comfort of your home or office.

As the industry prepares for the run-up to the NAB Show in April, we'll also be highlighting the newest technologies that are transforming the business and revolutionizing how television is produced and distributed.

The Summit will feature interviews with industry leaders sharing their insights and practical advice on subjects including: 

• News and sports production
• The use of AI in media
• NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0
• Remote and virtual production
• Cloud-based workflows
• 5G
• Metaverse

Learn from the experts about everything you need to know to keep up with viewers' increasing demands!

Register for this free half day virtual summit here.

Want to hear about the latest tech trends in the TV industry? Catch up on all discussions that took place with industry leaders at the 2022 Fall TV Tech Summit, which took place on Nov. 17. 

During the half day virtual event, attendees heard about the latest developments in cloud, IP, news tech, NextGen TV and remote production. During the summit, we spoke with BIA Advisory Services on business and viewer trends, got a sneak peek at WWJ's new state of the art news facility in Detroit and wrapped things up with a look at the technology behind NBC's Olympics production, talking with NBC Olympics CTO Dave Mazza, (who is retiring at the end of the year), and his successor Darryl Jefferson. 

You can watch all of the discussions free and on-demand here.  

In recent years, remote production has taken on added importance in how media enterprises plan and execute their live production strategies. 

Join TV Tech Talk Moderator Wes Simpson and Steven Bilow from Telestream, Dan Maloney from Matrox and Dan LaCointe from Sony as they discuss the opportunities and best practices that make a successful and cost-efficient remote production.

Click here to register for this free webcast.  

In our latest TV Tech Talk, TV Tech moderator Wes Simpson and Martin Dyster of Telos Alliance and Chistopher Kelly of Ross Video discussed the media cloud ecosystem and how such services can optimize production techniques.

Click here to watch this free webcast on-demand.

TVT Tech sister brand TVBEurope and InterDigital are joining forces to host a free webinar to discuss how existing and new forms of audiovisual projects can harness the advances in 5G networking technology.

The webinartakes place at 3pm BST (10 am ET) on Tuesday, July 19 and is free to join.

A recent report by Futuresource Consulting and commissioned by InterDigital, examines the roll out of 5G networks worldwide and considers the potential intersect between 5G and new video coding standards.

The higher bandwidth available over 5G is expected to unlock higher resolution video services and new forms of media, such as volumetric content and enable new audiovisual experiences for audiences at live events and for virtual participants.

Speakers include the report’s author, Simon Forrest, principal technology analyst at Futuresource Consulting, with more tba.

Don’t miss out on this webinar with leading experts sharing their knowledge of how 5G will impact video and TV transmission, create opportunities in extended reality (XR), and lead the transition to new video standards.

Register for free here.

The free virtual TV Tech Summit-LA took place on June 8 and is now available on-demand. 

The TV Tech Summit LA on June 8, 2022 is a virtual half-day event focusing on technology advances and new opportunities for broadcasters in the expanding array of video services. We'll be joined by experts in the fields of cloud, NextGen TV, sports, scripted programming and news production to discuss how the events of the past two years have impacted how television is produced and distributed.

Want to know how your colleagues are adopting the latest techniques in remote production and using AI, 5G and IP to create, manage and deliver content? Join us to learn everything you need to know to keep up with viewers’ increasing demands.

Sponsorships are available by contacting Adam Goldstein. Click here to see the full agenda and to register for this free event.

This week’s 2022 Spring TV Tech Summit provided an opportunity for our industry to discuss the current state of M&E tech as well as take a peek into trends that will shape the future of television. In a series of keynotes and panels, the lively discussions from industry experts covered a range of topics, from NextGen TV to AI, news production and the cloud, and how it is revolutionizing live and remote production. 

Del Parks, President of Technology, Sinclair Broadcast Group
The summit started off with a keynote conversation with Del Parks, President of Technology for Sinclair Broadcasting Group. Parks, a long-time veteran broadcaster, talked about how the company is adapting and diversifying its content offerings and expanding its reach.

Ruminating on how the pandemic of the past two years has impacted Sinclair’s operations, Parks said the company was well-prepared.  

“We were in a pretty good position, and ready to adapt,” he said. “COVID affected all of our communities and so viewers and customers were experiencing the same constraints and limitations as broadcasters were, so I don't think it was a big surprise when our viewers saw our meteorologists reporting from their homes or our reporters were using Skype or Zoom to interview newsmakers. 

“I think the overall lesson it taught us is that innovation and adaptability can be embraced with reasonable solutions that can get the job done. And under these circumstances, I think our viewers have accepted it,” he added.

Adoption of the cloud for broadcast has been a major trend for a decade but that trend was accelerated due to the demands of ramping up remote production operations over the past two years. Sinclair was an early adopter of the cloud and has expanded its capabilities beyond just storage and distribution, Parks said. 

“We began with the playout of a kids’ programming block from the public cloud in 2017,” he said. “Today we play out all of our diginet feeds from the public cloud and distribute to our affiliates using our LTN IP network. Additionally, in the last year, or so we've built a media content management, storage and distribution system that services our sports and broadcast users across the Sinclair family and that also operates out of the public cloud. Interestingly, enough, the pandemic accelerated the development and implementation of that.”

Security is top of mind among broadcasters and Parks talked about the cyber attack that hit Sinclair’s media operations last fall. “Our IT department and our broadcast engineers, everybody, worked together and we recovered from it pretty well and in the process, strengthened our systems,” he said. 

Catherine Badalamente, President of Graham Media Group
Catherine Badalamente, the new president of Graham Media Group, and the second keynoter of the day, discussed the evolution of today’s TV station groups where broadcast is just one of a range of distribution platforms. 

Badalamente, who previously headed up GMG’s digital operations, discussed the importance of a robust digital division. “We  position ourselves as being at the forefront of the digital side, especially in broadcast,” she said. “We were one of the first groups to actually have OTT apps in the marketplace and we’ve really leaned heavily into streaming. We have also pushed hard on NextGen TV and have itin all of (six of) our markets.”

Badalemente said GMG learned a number of lessons over the past several years, and the experience with the pandemic reminded her of how broadcasters are driven by innovation to adapt and remain relevant to their viewers. 

“There were a lot of things that were done that frankly, for years, people would have said were impossible. We were forced to create new ways of doing things and it was amazing how the station stepped up,” she said, referring to how stations ramped up their remote production capabilities in response to lockdowns. 

“In terms of being able to create frictionless processes for people to work from home, we were able to look at new ways of delivering our message, new ways of communicating with our audience,” said, adding that the silver lining was that “there were things done within that first year of COVID that I think would have taken five years if we hadn't had a pandemic.”

Badalamente discussed how the decline of local newspapers has further illustrated the importance of local broadcasters in their community. 

“I think that we are really in a unique position like we've never been before,” she said. “We take our position in our communities very seriously. Frankly, there's not a lot of competition coming from the newspaper side in our markets, unfortunately. And that means that we have to actually pick up the slack and make sure that we have that level of coverage so we can make sure that we are protecting our communities, making sure that we're being able to serve them the right way.” 

Eric Hutto, President, Diversified
The final keynote of the summit was from Eric Hutto, the new president of Diversified, one of the world’s largest media technology and system integration companies.

Hutto comes to Diversified after serving in executive roles at tech giants such as Unisys, Dell and KPMG and TV Tech Senior Content Producer George Winslow asked him how his experiences prepared him for his new role heading up a large M&E tech and IT firm. 

“Let's start with just where the world's going—it's all about an experience and creating energy, and providing services,” he said. “So this particular industry was already bouncing up against IT services. A lot of the ways that IPTV is going to evolve is going to be through cloud—and we’re going to have to have a really high level of security knowledge because it's just getting more complex and sophisticated. 

“And really the intent of broadcasting is to communicate—to get information out and to let people create content and share,” he added. “So I think when I looked at this industry, it was intriguing to me because services are right in the midst of this conversation.”

Hutto also commented on the changing nature of systems integration, going from a hardware-intensive operation to more software-based systems and how Diversified has adapted to this trend by establishing a media workflow group, for example. 

“One of the things I think that Diversified were already leaning into is workflows, and that's really what business is all about these days,” he said. “It's not so much about infrastructure and applications—it's about the workflows, and the things underneath it.”

Helping media companies integrate next-gen technologies such as AI, machine learning as well as augmented intelligence are also important trends to watch in M&E tech, Hutto said. 

“Looking back, you've heard a lot about machine learning and artificial intelligence in the IT space, but over here (in media), it's augmented intelligence,” he said. “Companies just can't afford to raise all their staff to be able to do all the different things that they have, including traditional broadcasting and IPTV, for instance. So how do you use augmented intelligence to do a lot of things that people were doing so that they don't have to do anymore? I think that involves staff balancing and letting your expertise go to where it is. 

“In terms of streaming, we all can do it,” he added. “But that's not why a company like Netflix is successful. It's their engine that allows them to generate content specific to me, that they're the curator of the content that makes them special.”

New Life for Live Production Tools
The panel “New Life for Live Production Tools” delved into new technologies and workflows that have allowed broadcasters and media enterprises to expand and improve live coverage. 

Michael Davies, senior vice president of Fox Sports, discussed how the network created a new look for its NASCAR coverage when it broadcast the “The Busch Light Clash At The Coliseum” in February.

“It was a NASCAR race that was done in the LA Coliseum and that's never been done before. So we had no idea what that would really look like,” he said. NASCAR and Fox Sports worked from a rendering of the Coliseum as a race track, which gave the network a much better idea of what the race was going to look like in terms of camera placement, Davies added.

Zero Density, a provider of virtual studio, augmented reality and real-time graphics technologies has worked with Fox Sports on its NASCAR coverage and Onur Gülenç, territory manager for the company, explained how the use of VR, AR and xR tech is expanding in the media and broadcast space. 

“We’ve worked with The Weather Channel’s 24/7 virtual weather presentation, MLB on Turner Sports and NEP is a partner as well,” Gülenç said.

Daniel Pisarski, VP of engineering for LiveU, discussed the role that bonded cellular companies have played in helping broadcasters adjust to the realities of keeping operations running smoothly during the pandemic.

“A lot has been said about how the pandemic took workflows that users were curious about, but accelerated things and forced the industry to adopt them—and part of that definitely is ground-to cloud—you're out there shooting this content and you need to get it back to a centralized control room,” he said. “And then during the pandemic, a lot of people tried it out. Our customers said ‘we need to get it back to a virtual control room in the cloud and have our team distribute and interact with the cloud from the locations we’re in,’ and bonded cellular makes a great fit for that.” 

Casper Choffat, SVP, Global Product for NEP Group explained how the mobile production giant is adapting new centralized production methods to work with new remote production scenarios.

“All of our truck and flypack deployments will eventually have our NEP platform control system, which we are calling TOC,” Choffat said. “And that control system basically ensures that for the operator or for the clients, the experience inside of the control room remains the same if you step into an OB truck, or if you step into facility, or if you use a flypack, because eventually our vision is that everybody will use that control system when they use NEP capabilities.”

The Future of Cloud Technologies
In “The Future of Cloud Technologies,” panelists discussed the vital role of cloud technology in today’s broadcast media environment. 

Kate Tempelmeyer, media services director for Nebraska Public Media, discussed how the network’s early adoption of cloud evolved into a hybrid setup. 

‘We actually started working with Avid a number of years ago, when we virtualized our first stack of servers,” she said. “And as time went on we morphed into kind of a hybrid solution—living on premise and being able to edit in the Nexus cloud and it's proven to be a good solution for us.” 

David Rosen,  VP, Cloud Applications and Services for Sony, explained how the role of the cloud in media has changed. 

“From an application standpoint, we're starting to see a migration away from the overall use of the cloud for distribution purposes,” he said. “In terms of content creation, getting the content that’s actually going to play out is now starting to move into the cloud as well. And I think there have been some pretty cool applications that we've been seeing from a live production standpoint, people actually starting to do switching of certain events. And I think we're going to start to see that begin to encroach upon some of the larger events as people become a bit more aware of what some of their limitations are.”

Karl Paulsen, CTO for Diversified, said for facilities transitioning to the cloud, a number of questions need to be asked. 

“How much of the cloud do you use? Do you use more than one cloud? How do you move from one cloud to another? We've got the opportunities now to do a lot of thinking about where this is going, particularly in facilities that are still maybe a year or more away before the physical construction goes on,” he said.

John Footen, managing director, M&E for Deloitte Consulting predicted that the cloud will provide enormous capabilities in enhancing how viewers watch live events.

“When we reach a point where all of the cameras in a sporting event are in cloud and all of our customers are in the cloud, all the viewers are all meeting in one place—one ‘bucket’ of video that is in one place with the most incredible computing power ever brought to bear, in theory and in practice, we can then make different versions of the content for every viewer, he said. “We no longer have to have one version of the show. And the future implications of that are quite interesting.”

New Services and Tech for NextGen TV
During the “New Services and Tech for NextGen TV,” Anne Schelle, managing director for Pearl TV provided a progress report on where the transition to ATSC 3.0 currently stands. 

“We ended 2021 in a great place with over 40 markets launched, representing over 45% of U.S. households, this is during a two year pandemic, so I give the broadcasters a lot of credit for launching and being able to keep up, even when sometimes they couldn't get into TV stations,” she said. “The other piece of this is TV manufacturers; they put out over 70 models last year from Samsung, LG and Sony. Sony has incorporated NextGen TV technology in every single one of its models—the lowest priced television out there during the holiday season was around $544. The CTA announced that over three and a half million TV sets were sold already. And that's just starting out with those three manufacturers.”

Fred Engel, CTO for PBS North Carolina, discussed the networks’ work on facilitating ATSC 3.0 technology with first responders. The network received a grant from the NAB PILOT Innovation Challenge in 2017 to develop the system, partnering with Capitol Broadcasting Company in Raleigh.

“In 2018 we did the first testing where we routed 911 dispatch information over an ATSC 3.0 transmitter and captured it on a computer,” he said. “In 2019 we launched our ATSC 3.0 lab that includes all the encoding, all the processing gear that you need to have for that. We have a Ch. 20 TV exciter operational, so we can look at all the receiving devices and do a lot of testing on public safety and other efforts that we're working on.”

On the audio side, John Schur, president of the Solutions Group for Telos Alliance, discussed the important role of immersive and personalized audio in the ATSC 3.0 environment.

“For many years we've helped broadcasters develop their workflows around ATSC 1.0,” he said. “ATSC 3.0 has so many new and exciting features when it comes to audio, and it's really designed to enhance the listeners’ experience for both the video and audio. One of those is immersive audio—more channels, more speakers. But to me the exciting thing is that with the new codecs like Dolby AC, they can create a presentation that's rendered for the listener’s environment. There’s also dialogue enhancement which is another feature that's built into the codec so the broadcaster doesn't have to do anything special to take advantage of it.” 

Streamlined Content Delivery to Multiple Platforms
During the “Streamlined Content Delivery to Multiple Platforms,” panelists discussed how media companies are managing the myriad services that come with the explosion in OTT. 

“It’s no surprise  to anyone in the two years of COVID that it's really been a game changer in all the aspects of the video chain,” said Stéphane Cloirec, Vice President, Video Appliance Product Management for Harmonic. “We have seen on the user side, the explosion of streaming adoption, but also for all the professional video professional companies that have been forced to work from home. And one main consequence we have seen out of those changes is that cloud adoption as a result has been accelerating at a pace that was never seen before. It has really been a key driver.”

Geoff Stedman, CMO for SDVI, discussed the challenge of creating efficiency in a media supply chain. 

“What I think of efficiency, it’s this idea of being able to get more done with the same or even fewer resources,” he said. “We hear a lot about the pressure that companies are under to support the changes that are happening with their business and not necessarily getting more resources in order to deal with that. So this drive to make my operations more efficient is absolutely a big challenge that we hear customers facing. On the other hand, another big challenge is what I call ‘responsiveness’ or being able to adapt quickly to changes in the business needs.”

David Klee, VP Strategic Media Solutions for A&E Networks, noted that unlike its counterparts, it has not launched a “plus” version of its library.

“A&E’s focused on delivering content to many of those [plus] platforms to enable them to supplement their libraries, provide additional content and value to their subscribers as they're launching these new platforms,” he said. “So we have to be very good at multiplatform delivery. With the ‘acronym soup’ that is today's AVOD, SVOD, FAST,  MVPD world, we make sure that we're able to get each of those partners, the media metadata that they need in a timely basis to support not only the ongoing crunch of daily content flows, but also new launches and new deals and new opportunities in the marketplace.”

Speed to Air, ENG and the New Newsroom
In the final panel of the day, “Speed to Air, ENG and the New Newsroom,” panelists showcased the rapid changes taking place in news acquisition and delivery. In addition to the cloud, panelists discussed the changing role of satellites in ENG operations. 

“I have been talking more about satellites this last week than I have done in the last 10 years,” said Jon Landman, VP of sales for Teradek. “These new satellites are basically a million dollars to launch—not $100 million—and eventually it will come down to a news organization owning their own satellite network.”

Landman added that these low earth satellites will reinvigorate satellite’s place in the broadcast news landscape. 

“I think that we have to look at that as the future for connectivity because they're really bringing them down to a cost that organizations will love,” he said.

Jeffrey Liebman, Director, Network News Operations for Telemundo-NBC noted that there are still certain challenges that go with incorporating satellites for news coverage. 

“With K-band we found that it works great if you're in, let's say, Texas or the center of the United States, but it really doesn't work well on the periphery in Mexico,” he said. “And that becomes my concern—if we do launch these low earth orbiting satellites, one of the things that we're always going to be dealing with or grappling with is, are they in the right position in the right place?”

Jim Ocon, president of Ocon Solutions & Chairman, OConsortium, summed up the panel discussion with some thoughts about how the technology is secondary to its overall application.

“If you look at the products that are out there, and how robotics are now incorporating artificial intelligence and smart resourcing and sim connections, ENG is about technology, but technology is always changing. And so we always have to be looking at where that sun rises and what's going to help our folks in the field. The last year and a half with COVID has just amplified things, but for me the technology isn't the sticking point. It's the application.”

Sponsors of the summit include:

• Platinum: Harmonic
• Gold: LiveU, SDVI, Sony, Telos Alliance, Teradek & Zero Density

The TV Tech Summit is available on demand at tvtechsummit/march.

The deadline for submitting nominations for the TV Tech Best in Market and Best of Show Awards for spring 2022 has been extended to April 18.

“We're looking forward to the likelihood of an in-person event in April,” said Editor in Chief Tom Butts. “People want to return to some semblance of normalcy in our industry and we're hoping the 2022 NAB Show will bring some of that back, giving attendees the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and expanding their network of industry connections.

“TV Tech is proud to bring back the Best in Show and Best in Market awards that recognize technology excellence, allowing us to honor advances from companies that exhibit at the show or choose to participate through the Best in Market option.”

The Best of Show awards, from TV Tech and other brands at its parent company Future, are chosen from companies that exhibit at the NAB Show in April and that submit nominations. The Best in Market is open to any company.

Participating brands include TV Tech, TVBEurope, NextTV, B&C, Radio World, Mix and Sound & Video Contractor. Each publication announces its own winners’ list.

All nominees and winners will be featured in a post-convention Program Guide distributed to our readers. (Here’s a look at last year’s guide.)

The nomination page includes answers to frequently asked questions. Deadline for entering is April 18.

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2021 NAB Show?

MICHAEL GEISSLER: We anticipate that technology to support virtual production in all its variations—virtual studios, LED volumes, augmented reality, mixed reality and full CGI—will be a hot trend at the 2021 NAB Show. Interest in virtual technology has been rising and continues to rise exponentially, for movies and particularly for television. The key driver is the huge amount of content now being produced, with new players in the market like Amazon and Apple joining Netflix in investing very large sums in high-quality programming.

Mo-Sys is looking to help the creative world understand the possibilities and practicalities of virtual production with remarkable tools like Cinematic XR Focus, which allows a director and DoP to use the visual language they have grown up with, directing the viewer’s eye through the use of focus on different parts of the frame. This is the way that movies have worked for a hundred years, and technology must support it rather than work against it. 

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

GEISSLER: We’re looking to bring our cinematic and broadcast experience and innovations to the virtual production industry with new features to showcase for our Cinematic XR initiative that will revolutionize the way cinematographers and directors can seamlessly merge virtual and real worlds.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

GEISSLER: We were able to release VP Pro 4.27—the latest version of our complete solution for virtual production with a full suite of creative tools, which embed directly in the real-time graphics engine with some stunning new functionality—on the same day as Epic released Unreal Engine 4.27. That is because we have a very close relationship with the developer who gives us great insight on what they can offer. We combine that with our equally close relationship with the creative community, so we tailor our developments to meet real-world demands.

A good example is the way we now calibrate the virtual graphics software to match the individual lens. We offer our users an online portal to a lens database, so they can very quickly set up accurate lens calibration—a real time-saver on set.

The big news in VP Pro 4.27 is our NearTime cloud-based re-render engine, which is so impressive it won a highly coveted Engineering Excellence Award from the independent Hollywood Professional Association, the authoritative voice for technology in the creative industries.

NearTime allows directors and DoPs to enjoy all the practical benefits of final pixel shooting so the actors and cameras know what the final result will be. To that end, it adds uncompromised image quality at 4K Ultra HD, with the automated re-rendering starting the instant at “turn over” from the beginning of the shot. Everyone on set is happy; all the speed and throughput advantages of final pixel shooting are retained, which is that there is no post production required, but with the added benefit of maximized image quality. The method is completely against the current trend of filming and rendering in real time.  Productions immediately see the benefit. We see this becoming mainstream soon.

TVT: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your company's business over the past year and half?

GEISSLER: Having enjoyed a boom during the pandemic thanks to immediate necessity, virtual production shows no sign of slowing down, offering cost efficiency, reduced environmental impact and creativity. Mo-Sys is leading the way in technology-led innovation in this field and so the company has been able to expand during the pandemic at a time when many have scaled back activities, furloughed staff or made redundancies.

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the NAB Show?

STEVE REYNOLDS: I can tell you what many of the visitors to the exhibition will want to talk about, and that is remote production and playout operations, as well as how to enable cross-platform delivery. They will want to know how to create great content with a minimum of staff on set or on location and how they can run those operations with remote staff and virtualized systems. They will also want to know how to package and deliver it to the widest possible audience across very many platforms.

That puts front and center the things we have been talking about for a long while: IP connectivity, in and through the cloud; high levels of automation, backed up by increasing use of machine learning; software-centric systems, allowing access for management and control over the internet;  distributed operations of virtualized systems that seamlessly combine on-premise and cloud with streamlined workflows and user interfaces.

Of course, broadcasters and production companies have been forced to find solutions for an incredible range of challenges over the last 18 months. I see the NAB Show as being the time to share knowledge and experience, and to refine workflows and architectures to create stable, secure systems that are cost-effective across the lifetime of the technology.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

REYNOLDS: It will be the first chance for many to see Nexio NewsCraft, our new all-in-one news production solution. Remote production and management are core values of the system, but the overwhelming need―our customers tell us―is to be first with an accurate telling of the story. We have designed NewsCraft with mission-critical resilience, but with the performance to capture the story, package it, repackage it for multiple platforms and get it out fast.

Imagine has a wealth of experience in news production, so we built a solution around proven, best-of-breed components, in a highly integrated, virtualized software architecture that can be fine-tuned to the specific needs of any broadcaster or publisher.

The virtualized architecture means it can be implemented on premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment. Remote working is an absolute fundamental, not an add-on, reflecting the need not just for editorial access from anywhere but to recognize that if you are going to be first with the story, you need to put all the content creation tools wherever the journalist is.

We will also highlight the latest advancements across Imagine’s playout and networking portfolio. Our Versio Master Control product will be attractive for broadcasters and stations looking for a cost-effective, software-based alternative to traditional hardware-only master control. This offers better upgradability and maintenance in a solution that more natively adapts to modern infrastructure. Also highlighted are new features in our Versio modular playout and Nexio platforms and our ADC and D-Series automation platforms, to support the latest UHD and OTT technologies. We will also spotlight the latest updates to our Selenio Network Processor (SNP), which continues to outperform any other offering on the market in terms of flexibility and power. We will be extending the SNP’s capabilities for contribution, processing and advanced multiviewer monitoring.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

REYNOLDS: Nexio NewsCraft is a new generation of newsroom production, so it incorporates the latest capabilities in the service of great storytelling. Our open architecture enables the addition of new features like artificial intelligence, where it can add value. Intelligent speech-to-text transcription means that every word of every story will become searchable metadata, and richer metadata means more engaging, more informative, more challenging stories.

AI will also allow video analysis, again to enrich the metadata. Not only will it identify people and places, but it will also suggest moods, using things like facial expressions. Because a news broadcaster’s archive is its greatest asset, batch processing tools—ideal for the cloud—will analyze all the content already stored to add more detailed metadata.

This is not a technological sideshow. Journalists want to focus on the story, and editors want them out there gathering the facts. AI can take the repetitive functions like preparing material for the archive, or even creating keywords for the website, away from the journalist, saving time and effort as well as improving results.

TVT: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your company’s business?

REYNOLDS: The need for social distancing and restraints on travel has affected us on two levels. Our product development teams were organized around a collaborative working environment and agile processes. However, they quickly adapted new disciplines in remote working. Our slate of new products and enhancements has been delivered, and our development priorities have shifted in response to the rapid shift in market demands.

We have also delivered large-scale, paradigm-shifting solutions for our customers worldwide, with a minimum of face-to-face contact from the Imagine team. Imagine’s transition to software-based and virtualized platforms was a key technical enabler for this.  Look at the cloud-based channel launches that we did with Sinclair Broadcast group using our Versio platform. That included high-profile networks like Bally Sports, as well as pop-up channels in the cloud for major events like the Miami Open for The Tennis Channel.

Another example is the migration of Discovery Sweden and Finland to our Landmark Sales platform, hosted by Imagine’s Managed Service. That boosted their financial performance, unified airtime sales across multiple platforms, and gave them the inherent ability to have remote working and processing.  Because Discovery opted for a cloud-based platform hosted by Imagine and AWS, we were able to quickly deploy using our global team of technical resources in an entirely remote posture.

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2021 NAB Show?

KEVIN JOYCE: I think the events of the past 18 months will continue to drive technology toward remote operations and live production in the cloud. Which also leads us to streaming and OTT. We were well on our way there, but COVID-19 accelerated the journey.

Another big trend is anything to do with esports. It’s amazing how this has taken off, and manufacturers and service providers must be sure their technology can be adapted/utilized in this sector.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

JOYCE: We are consistently adding features and functionalities to our monitoring and visualization platform, plus we’re always adding support for the emerging technologies and formats that are driving the industry further into the cloud for live and remote production, and post production as well.

At the NAB Show we will be showing the platform enhanced with support for several additional protocols. First, we’re excited to announce support for AWS Cloud Digital Interface (AWS CDI), a highly reliable, extremely low-latency network technology for transporting high-bitrate uncompressed video, such as ST 2110 or JPEG XS, inside the AWS Cloud. This is especially important to our clients that need to create an ecosystem or a workflow to implement production or post-production environments on the cloud.

We will also be demonstrating support for SRT (Secure Reliable Transport), a secure, reliable, low-latency open source means of delivering content over unpredictable, unreliable networks like the public internet.

And we will be showing the platform with support for NDI 5 (Network Device Interface) for the first time. NDI 5 is the latest version of the widely implemented royalty-free, software-defined IP standard that enables any device in any location to connect. Content can be transmitted over a computer network in a high-quality, low-latency, frame accurate manner, regardless of where it originates—in a physical studio, in the cloud or in a remote production facility. 

In addition to all the support enhancements the shining gem of the show will be our new monitoring control system, an outgrowth of our Zer0 Friction philosophy that is focused on providing customers with the most agile, practical and valuable business model possible. This new future-proof tool serves a dual purpose. First it allows users to easily manage multiple instances or physical servers as one logical system—clustering a large number of servers that are running a large number of channels—all at the same time. The second is its openness, which leads to an unprecedented learning experience and opens opportunities for vast improvements. Our system gives users the ability to leverage best in breed tools in the market to collect and analyze information, learn from it and evolve based on that knowledge. The new TAG Monitoring Control System collects the data from the different probing points of the workflow and connects it to external database, statistics and graphic UI tools such as Elasticsearch and Kibana. With this knowledge in their pocket, there is no limit to what our users can learn about their workflow. It’s something they need to confidently move into the future armed with access to the highest level and most useful information possible.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

JOYCE: Our platform is unique in the industry. Founded in 2008, TAG is the first monitoring and multiviewer solution to be 100% SW, 100% IP operating on 100% COTS and in the cloud.

Another industry first, though, and one that sets us miles apart from anything else available on the market is our Zer0 Friction business strategy, and in turn the new monitoring control system I just described. Zer0 Friction is the next generation approach to deploy, operate and acquire broadcast technology and take it to the next level. TAG’s unique ability to handle both compressed and uncompressed formats and support all major industry standards such as SMPTE 2110, 2022-6/7, JPEG 2000, MPEG TS, DASH, HLS, CMAF and even JPEG XS allows it to be applied to all four major broadcast applications: Live production, Playout/Master Control, Distribution and OTT.  Clients reap the benefits of being able to manage the software across applications and locations for stunning operational agility and maximum asset utilization.

With Zer0 Friction customers aren’t restricted in how they use TAG’s multi-functional applications, where they use them across their ecosystem, or when they use them. Broadcasters can use a multiviewer for live production in London and then apply the same license to probe for errors in an OTT facility in New York. As the industry transitions to cloud based IP workflows, clients will find they are unrestricted operationally and financially to deliver the best possible content to consumers. The approach is an industry first and is leading the way to how broadcast applications will be deployed in the future. 

In addition to all that, we want to be sure our clients are comfortable and confident, so we offer a zero-commitment trial of the TAG system to ensure 100% satisfaction before they buy.

TVT: How has the Covid pandemic affected your company's business over the past year and half and how will it impact how you exhibit at this year's show?

JOYCE: We didn’t see it coming, but we were ready for it. Since we are a 100% software only company, TAG’s technology is deployed quickly with customers up and running in minutes. We, and they in turn, weren’t impacted by equipment shortages and delivery delays. They didn’t need a member of the TAG team onsite, in fact, they didn’t even need to be onsite. The system could be operated remotely, support is handled remotely, and all software upgrades are delivered remotely on a continuous basis. 

TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2021 NAB Show?

CIRO NORONHA: The big thing for the last 18 months has been remote work. Everybody wanted to work from home, and that includes broadcasters. In this context, “at home production” means “producing from people’s actual homes.”  A lot of the technology pieces required to make this happen existed already. What was missing was the drive to make it happen, and some “glue” to put the whole thing together. Any modern device is already managed through a network connection, typically a web interface—as long as you have connectivity, you can be at home, in another city or even across the globe and still configure/monitor it. Besides that, you need to be able to see what is happening in real time. A combination of low-latency encoding and decoding, widespread decent network connectivity, and advanced network protocols such as RIST give you this.

Another trend that is coming to fruition is moving baseband video to IP using SMPTE ST-2110, including 4K flows using 25G interfaces. Over the last few years, many have declared that “SDI is dead.”  Well, it isn’t, and it is still mainstream, but it is getting long in the tooth. New deployments are seriously looking at being all-IP. It is still more expensive, but we are getting there, and more native ST-2110 functions are appearing in the market.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?

NORONHA: Cobalt Digital will have numerous exciting new products and upgrades on display at the NAB Show. We are unveiling an openGear-based SMPTE ST-2110 solution with 25G interfaces and 4K support. This solution can operate either as a standalone bidirectional gateway or can be coupled with the award-winning 9904-UDX-4K card for additional native processing functions, including up/down/cross conversion, audio processing, 3D-LUTs and SL-HDR support. 

We will also highlight our new 9905-MPx multichannel processor, which can handle up to four independent 3G signals in a dense cost-effective package with optional 2110 support using 10G interfaces. This multipath design offers four channels per card with flexible AES and MADI embed/de-embed for each path. When used with our own HPF-9000 20-slot chassis, it provides up to 24 channels (6 cards) of processing in a single frame, representing a new level of openGear packaging density and resulting in unprecedented multi-input support and flexibility.

On the compression side, the 9992-ENC/DEC software-defined line provides professional-grade support for compressed audio and video. The cards, designed to meet the stringent requirements of today’s broadcasters, provide an ideal platform for transitioning to state-of-the-art encoding and decoding capabilities. The range will be shown with a number of new exciting features, including support for decoding Dolby AC-4 and Dolby E, as well as transport protocols such as SRT and Zixi. 

And if you’re looking to take it with you, Cobalt’s BBG-1300-FR enclosure can transform any openGear card (from any vendor) into a portable, standalone device.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

NORONHA: Our ST-2110 product is unique in its feature integration: the same device can do scaling, color correction, static and dynamic HDR processing, and many other features, with native ST-2110 interfaces and 4K support (no gateways needed). This is offered in the openGear form factor, which allows customers to mix and match functions in the same chassis or achieve higher densities by using multiple cards—in a platform that ticks all the boxes, including hot-swappable cards and redundant power supplies. On our compression line, our 9992-DEC has the highest feature integration in the market, including audio and video decoding features and protocol support.

TVT: How has the COVID pandemic affected your company's business over the past year and half and how will it impact how you exhibit at this year's show?

NORONHA: At first, we were concerned, and we had a slow month or two at the beginning of the pandemic, but we’ve experienced several record-breaking months over the past year-and-a-half. We attribute that to our total dedication to finding out what our customers needed through constant communication in various new ways and adapting to meet the new types of requirements including changes in the manufacturing area. 

We did scale down our booth size a bit to adjust to the event’s overall downsize but will still have a very significant presence. We have lots of exciting new solutions to share with the industry and we sincerely look forward to seeing our customers, friends and colleagues in person.

IBC 2021 is being pushed back.

Last month the show’s organizers had said they planned to have the event in September as scheduled, but also that they had plans in place to allow the option of pushing back to December if necessary; and they’ve now triggered that option.

So the show at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre will take place Dec. 3 to 6.

IBC CEO Michael Crimp said that, against a background of optimism about the pandemic, the show board met yesterday. “We’ve pleased to announce we’ve decided to hold IBC 2021 in December. The reasons are mainly safety and readiness to engage.”

Crimp said it was important for participants including exhibitors to have a final decision as soon as possible.

"As we reported earlier, this year’s event is expected to have more of a festival feel, with a large perimeter to the site that will enable attendees to move around more freely. Attendees are to have their temperatures checked, and there is to be no physical onsite registration."

Crimp said those plans are still in place, though they could be eased if the health environment improves further in the interim.

Crimp said surveys of the show community showed sentiment for the December date.

He said the decision will allow “more vaccinations, clearer systems and more confidence.” He characterized the later date as the “strongest of two [schedule] opportunities.”

“We also had to consider the ability of the supply chain to deliver a high-quality event. We believe that key services such as airports and airlines, and hotels will have established smooth operations and be able to provide a more streamlined service by December.”

WASHINGTON—The 2021 NAB Show, which will mark a return to the in-person Las Vegas conference after a year of forced virtual events, is now accepting registrations. 

The NAB Show is less than five months away, scheduled for Oct. 9-13, and will be co-located with the Radio Show and NAB’s Sales and Management Television Exchange, which are also taking registrations.

“We look forward to delivering the first live, major domestic industry event following a long hiatus for all events,” said Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president and managing director, Global Connections and Events. “NAB Show represents a significant annual business catalyst for the media industry, which is eager to get back to doing business face-to-face, according to recent trade show attendee research. With momentum building toward the show in October, we continue to prioritize health and safety with a sound plan in place to deliver a safe experience for our community.”

The events will kick off Oct. 8-9 with SMTE, a conference focused on innovative revenue generating strategies for small and medium market TV stations. The NAB Show gets underway on Oct. 9, with NAB Show floor access open to all registrants from Oct. 10-13. The Radio Show, co-produced by the Radio Advertising Bureau, is set for Oct. 13-14.

Dual-site sessions, including partnerships with SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo, will take place throughout the conference.

NAB is offering multiple registration packages and tiered options for creating personalized experiences. Information about the different packages are available on the NAB Show website. 

WASHINGTON—Future announced the winners of the first-ever Tech Leadership Product Awards in March, and now the 2021 Tech Leadership Product Awards digital program guide is available for more information on participating products.

The program guide highlights not just the winning products, but all nominated products from the 2021 awards, which were officially announced at the Tech Leadership Series.

The Tech Leadership Product Awards honored outstanding product introductions that serve the media and entertainment industry across various categories. The program guide has the company tell you in their own words what makes their product noteworthy.

A logo in the top corner of a page will distinguish which products were award winners.

The 2021 Tech Leadership Product Awards digital program guide is available for download online. 

NAB Show New York is ready to take center stage for the broadcast industry, lining up a slew of press conferences and events to fill out its 10-day virtual conference schedule, starting on Oct. 19 and going through Oct. 29.

Here is a rundown of the events that you should be looking out for during the virtual NAB Show New York:

“Charting the Uncharted—Exploring the New Technologies & Business Models in the Broadcast Media Industry”
Oct. 20

The IABM-led session takes a look at the challenges and opportunities in this new media ecosystem, including the latest research and analysis from IABM and an expert panel discussing what new technologies and business models will bring to the industry. Find out more here.

MESA’s Media & Entertainment Day
Oct. 20

MESA hosts a series of general sessions and presentations covering the latest in entertainment data, cloud, security, artificial intelligence and more. Breakout sessions hosted by M&E vendors will also take place. Find out more here.

TV2025: Monetizing the Future
Oct. 20-23

A three-day series sponsored by The Weather Company and TVNewsCheck will have C-suite broadcasters, financial analysts and investors gather to explore the profit potential of emerging opportunities, the impact of COVID-19 and forecasting how to capitalize on digital, cloud and evolving revenue streams.  Find out more here.

NYSBA Digital Leadership Academy
Oct. 20-23

Open to New York State Broadcasters Association pass holders, these sessions will discuss the latest trends in the broadcast and digital marketplace, while also teaching new sales techniques that work in the COVID-19 environment. Find out more here.

“The Diverse Narrative: Influence, Culture and Inclusion in Media Content”
Oct. 21

Ever-changing demographics and, more recently, societal demand have increased the call for move diverse representation on every platform. This NAB panel will highlight some of the current practices that companies are taking to meet this call to action. Find our more here.

“The Challenge of Producing Live Emmy Award Programming During a Pandemic”
Oct. 21

NAB's panel on how the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences accomplished producing the Emmy Awards broadcast during a pandemic. Find out more here.

“100 Years of Broadcast News: Challenges Met, Challenges Anew”
Oct. 21

In recognition of the centennial of broadcasting, this one-hour special produced by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation features accomplished TV and radio journalists reflecting on the long history of electronic news and share their thoughts on the challenges it currently faces. Find out more here.

“The Deepfakes Dilemma: How Broadcasters Must Manage Deepfakes Disinformation During Election 2020”
Oct. 22

McAfee’s Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Steve Grobman will join NBC News’ Director of Social Newsgathering Jareen Imam in this NAB Show panel to explore the potential for deepfakes to mislead journalists and drive voter disinformation in the 2020 election. Find out more here.

NATPE Analytics & Addressability
Oct. 22

NATPE will discuss data analytics and addressability in what it describes as an unusual and timely way. Find our more here.

Post|Production World Online
Oct. 25-29

The P|PW Online training session returns to NAB Show New York with new sessions; coffee breaks for Q&As with speakers; Bootcamp Training Day; a dedicated event app for networking directly through attendees phones; new speakers, training sessions and keynotes; Taking the Lead: Women’s Career Accelerator Workshop; and Adobe ACP Certification Prep & exams. Find out more here.

ATSC 2020 NextGen Broadcast Conference
Oct. 26

Get the latest information on deployments, new markets for and future capabilities of ATSC 3.0, and the capabilities of the standard that brings over-the-air together with over-the-top content sources from ATSC. Find out more here. 

LONDON—By 2024, it’s estimated half of the global population, or 3.4 billion people, will be gamers.

But, does the gaming industry have the technology to cope with that kind of demand? And what parallels can it draw with the world of media and entertainment?

Those questions will be among the discussion during TVBEurope’s upcoming webinar looking at the hope and hype of gaming in the cloud.

Among the topics set to be discussed by our panel of experts is whether broadcasters can tap into that exponential growth. During lockdown, the amount of people watching others play games has seen a significant increase, and it’s particularly popular with the young who don’t watch traditional TV. Could that be an untapped market for broadcasters who are desperately trying to capture the attention of younger viewers?

Plus, can the gaming industry cope with the increasing bandwidth needed to keep so many viewers happy? And what about latency? Could 5G be a possible option, or will that lead to even further growth?

Other topics likely to be discussed include the use of gaming engines in film and TV productions, Disney+’s "The Mandalorian" being just one example; could gaming companies look to TV platforms for examples of bundling content; and what can the media industry learn from gaming and vice versa?

The panel of experts will include Laurent Depersin, research and innovation home lab director at Interdigital; Olivier Avaro, CEO of gaming company Blacknut; Microsoft’s industry lead for media and technology Stuart Almond; and Amir Ghodrati, director of market insights at AppAnnie.

The free webinar will take place at 3 p.m. BST on Thursday, Sept. 24.

As news organizations work to cover one of the most unusual and highly anticipated elections in the history of television, this year’s News Technology Summit, produced by Multichannel News, B+C and TV Technology (Sept. 8-11), will be paying particular attention to strategies for streaming news content and the deployment of newer technologies that can improve news operations in a digital world.

As part of the summit, representatives from major news organizations, digital operations, researchers and technology providers will speak, including executives from Axios, ABC Owned Television Stations, ABC News, the Associated Press, the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN), CBS News, CNN, Fox Television Stations, Gray Television, HBO, Meredith, NBC Owned Television Stations, News-Press & Gazette, Newsy, PBS, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tegna, TikTok, Vice and Vizrt.

In the opening keynote, Christy Tanner, executive VP and general manager of CBS News Digital, will discuss how the streaming service CBSN has boosted the CBS audience by creating localized versions and focusing on fact-based reporting, social justice issues and longer-form investigative stories.

The streaming service has also been expanding internationally to take advantage of the enormous interest in the upcoming U.S. elections, Tanner noted. “About a month ago, we announced that our CBSN app is live on various platforms in 89 countries,” she said. “We know that the global audience is watching the U.S. election and we will be able to deliver in-depth coverage to them.”

Susie Banikarim, executive VP and global head of newsgathering at Vice News, sees similar opportunities. “At a time when other news organizations have been cutting back on international coverage, we have really been leaning into it with a new initiative Vice World News,” said Banikarim, who will speak on an election-focused panel at the summit. “There is a lot of interest in what is happening in the U.S. among global audiences and a lot of interest in what is happening around the world from U.S. audiences.”

The agenda will also feature Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond and "Axios on HBO" directors and producers Matthew O’Neil and Perri Peltz discussing their successful move from digital to TV.

NEW HABITS, NEW MEDIA

The move towards streaming has highlighted the growing importance of platforms and apps in aggregating news content. In the opening panel, Ryan Kadro, head of news, daily programming at Quibi, will discuss some of the original news content the platform is putting together from networks like BBC News, CBS, NBC and Telemundo, and explore some successful strategies for attracting younger audiences on mobile devices.

A separate research panel will present original data on how Americans are getting their news and information, with presentations designed to help news organizations craft successful strategies for delivering such content.

In addition to changing consumer habits, the summit will focus on how COVID-19 is changing the way news organizations operate. Patrick McCreery, president of Meredith Local Media Group, who will be speaking about election tech in the COVID-19 era, noted that the pandemic has significantly changed the way they produce news in ways that could have a long-term impact on the business.

One major trend has been the move to cloud and IP-based technologies, which provide more flexibility and make it easier to quickly spin up or down new services. CNN Washington, D.C., bureau chief Sam Feist noted that the network’s recent push to deploy newer cloud and IP-infrastructures allowed it to have people running control room operations from home when the pandemic hit.

“It’s been a monumental undertaking by engineering and operations teams that has allowed production teams to work from home, but that has been how we’ve been producing our coverage since the end of March,” he said.

Feist will be speaking on the opening panel, “News Tech Under Fire” with senior executives from ABC News, the Associated Press and Quibi, discussing some of the major trends in the news business that are prompting a reexamination of the traditional technologies used to produce the news.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

The summit will also feature case studies designed to offer practical discussions of newer technologies and some of the opportunities these technologies offer news operations.

Nick Evansky, VP of technology and operations at NBC’s WCAU/WWSI Philadelphia, noted that the October 2018 completion of a new facility based on an internet protocol network has given the NBC and Telemundo stations a leg up in covering this year’s election. “Having things on a network with an IP address gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of configuring things differently or quickly adding new technologies or services,” he noted.

During the summit, executives and engineers at the NBCU Boston Media Center, which opened in January 2020, will discuss the new facility and explain how the deployment of an IP infrastructure and other new technologies are improving their operations.

The summit will also offer practical advice on coping with some of the problems created by digital media. For example, Hari Sreenivasan, anchor of "PBS NewsHour Weekend" and host of public television’s YouTube series "Take on Fake," will offer practical tips and ideas for journalists trying to fact check information on social media and the web.

“We have a polluted information ecosystem where disinformation and misinformation were algorithmically elevated by social media platforms,” Sreenivasan said. “So we wanted to create some smart content [with the "Take on Fake" series] that can give people some tools to grapple with this information overload.”

Learn more about the latest developments on delivering today's broadcast news at the 2020 News Tech Summit: Building the Newsroom of the Future, Sept. 8-11. 

INDIANAPOLIS—The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced that its 56th SBE National Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Liverpool, N.Y., from Sept. 22-23, has been changed to a virtual event because of restrictions related to COVID-19.

The annual meeting was to be held in conjunction with SBE 22 Broadcast & Technology Expo, a regional event that would have included a media equipment and services tradeshow, as well as a series of technical sessions. While the national meeting will still take place, the tradeshow has been cancelled.

The virtual version of the event will combine the SBE Annual Membership Meeting with the awards ceremony that would have been part of the Annual SBE National Awards Dinner, with the new date set for Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. ET. The will include the induction of officers and directors that are expected to be elected in August, the presentation of individual and chapter awards, and the induction of two SBE Fellows, James Leifer, CPBE, and Ralph Beaver, CBT.

The SBE Board of Directors will meet virtually on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. ET.

In addition, the annual Fellows Breakfast will be held virtually on Sept. 23 at a time to be announced later.

Details on how to watch the virtual events will be shared on the SBE website, SBE-news email newsletter and social media. 

The 2020 College Broadcasters Inc. National Student Electronic Media Convention (NSEMC) will be held online Oct. 28–30. This decision was made by the CBI Board of Directors with the safety of CBI members and guests in mind.

 CBI is planning presentations, access to the latest technology and expert vendors and opportunities to network with peers and special guests. There also will be modified versions of CBI’s Swag Swap Social and National Student Production Awards Ceremony.

 The $100 registration fee for this year will be per media outlet member; so members may include as many affiliated attendees from their organization as they would like.

 CBI also will be producing online sessions twice a month between now and the convention, featuring workshops with tips on training, programming and recruiting new members at the onset of the fall semester.

 Information for member and non-member attendees, vendors and guests is online. Email for information on programming. For information about vendor and sponsorship opportunities, send an email here.

LENEXA, Kan.—The National Cable Television Cooperative and ACA Connects said Wednesday, July 15, its 2020 Independent Show will be a virtual online event.

NCTC said the “reimagined” virtual Independent Show will take place Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 and will feature national, industry and political speakers. The theme of the six-hour, three-day event is "Trailblazing in a Digital World," and will bring together nearly 1,000 industry professionals from across the country, the NCTC said. 

"The goal is to help independent providers better understand the changing landscape of broadband internet, advanced video and other technical and policy issues in a post-COVID-19 world, including in the marketplace, on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission," NCTC  said in a press release.

The 2020 Independent Show event was originally scheduled for July 26-29 in San Antonio, Texas, but was changed due to restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re very excited to bring our members together once again for our 15th annual Independent Show, and while this show will be different from all of the others it will be the same in delivering the best information that will help our members meet their communities’ broadband and video needs in our new normal,” NCTC CEO Rich Fickle said in a press release.

CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein will lead a keynote session on politics today in America and the upcoming 2020 election. A full schedule of speakers and sessions will be announced soon, including political, regulatory and industry leaders, member presentations and breakouts, and a review of the key business and policy issues facing NCTC and ACAC Members.

“Our members have delivered the broadband promise during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the political and regulatory stakes are higher than ever, and that’s why we’re glad to meet at #TIS20 to cover these important issues,” said ACA Connects CEO Matt Polka in a press release.

Registration opens July 20. More details are available at The Independent Show website. 

CLEVELAND—Telos Alliance has scheduled a new webcast that will discuss workflows for file-based audio processing, “Save Money, Increase Efficiency and Automate Your Audio Workflows With AudioTools Server.”

The webcast, which is part of Telos’ 2020 Virtual Showcase series, will take place on July 15 at noon ET.

Telos’ AudioTools Server team will host the webcast and discuss how file-based audio processing can increase efficiency and save labor costs. Attendees will be instructed with real-world examples of AudioTools Server clients’ success stories; how to future-proof for next-generation audio formats; how to incorporate quality-first audio processing into an existing orchestration system; and when to stay on-prem and when to push workflows to the cloud.

Registration is available online. 

ARLINGTON, Va.—The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society has announced a virtual event will take the place of its annual Broadcast Symposium this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IEEE BTS conference will take place from Oct. 6-8, covering key industry topics like 5G and ATSC 3.0.

There will be an entire session dedicated to 5G broadcasting chaired by Peter Siebert, broadcast industry advisory. The sessions will strive to answer the role of 5G in the future of DTT broadcast and whether or not 5G will replace or complement DVB or ATSC broadcast.

The NextGen TV standard will also be a point of interest, with ATSC President Madeleine Noland leading another session reviewing the ATSC 3.0 implementation and rollout. Topics covered will include rollout status for ATSC 3.0, who will deliver the devices, how NextGen TV will entice end users and if the spectrum repack is an obstacle or opportunity for ATSC 3.0.

The final session will be chaired by Guy Bouchard, director of transmission systems at Tele-Quebec, and focuses on broadcast disaster preparedness. Up for discussion will be lessons learned during the pandemic, reviewing whether broadcasters were ready, how radio broadcast can be a vital emergency solution and if there can truly be a disaster resilient infrastructure.

The virtual event will enable attendees to earn multiple Continuing Education Credits or Professional Development hours, per IEEE.

For more information, visit bts.ieee.org.