The Future Product Innovation Awards ebook is now available. It presents the nominees and winners of our sixth annual Product Innovation Awards, honoring outstanding product introductions that serve TV, professional video and broadcast/online radio users. The PIA program recognizes excellence in manufacturing of products to serve the TV, professional video and broadcast/online radio markets.

The winners were selected by a panel of professional users, editors and technical contributors of TV Technology, Digital Video, Creative Planet Network, Government Video, Video Edge, Radio World and Radio. The list of all the nominees offers a super overview of great new technologies.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—Future’s Broadcast/Video Group has announced the following winners of its 2018 Product Innovation Awards:

TV Technology

• AJA Video Systems - AJA HDR Image Analyzer

• ENCO Systems - enCaption4 Live Automated Captioning

• ENENSYS Technologies - ATSCheduler, ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Gateway

• Flanders Scientific - XM310K - 31" 4K HDR Mastering Monitor

• Grass Valley - Ignite v 11.0 automated production control (APC) solution

• Interra Systems - BATON® WINNOW™

• MediaKind - PRISMA Advertising and Content Rights Solution

• Prime Focus Technology - CLEAR™ Vision Cloud

• Rotolight - Anova PRO 2 bi-colour LED

• Ross Video - Ross Ultrix FR5 Software Defined Routing System

• Shure - P9RA+ and P10R+ Bodypack Receivers

• Streambox - Chroma Advanced Streaming Encoder Decoder

• Telestream - iQ video monitoring and analytics solutions

• The Telos Alliance - Linear Acoustic® ARC

• Triveni Digital - StreamScope XM Verifier

• TVU Networks - MediaMind

DV

• Blackmagic Design - Blackmagic eGPU high performance graphics processor

• Sigma Corp. of America -  Sigma 40mm T1.5 full-frame cine lens

• TVU Networks - TVU Producer

Government Video

• Rotolight - AEOS

Radio Magazine

• Veritone - Veritone Attribute

Radio World

• WorldCast Systems - SmartFM Artificial Intelligence for FM transmitters

Video Edge

• IBM Aspera - IBM Aspera Streaming for Video

• Ross Video - Ross Carbonite Mosaic multi-screen image processor

All nominated products are featured in the PIA Program Guide.

Now in its sixth year, Future’s Product Innovation Award recognizes excellence in manufacturing of products to serve the TV/pro video and radio/online audio industries. Winners are selected by a panel of professional users and evaluation criteria include innovation of concept and design, creative use of technology, price value, and suitability for use in a broadcast TV/pro video or broadcast/online radio environment.

Manufacturers with new or recently introduced products for the TV, pro video and radio/audio markets are sending in their nominations right now in the sixth annual Production Innovation Awards from Future US.

With nominations due Nov. 30, we thought we'd take a moment to look back at a sampling of last year's entries. This is also a reminder to both readers and suppliers that the post-event Program Guide alone, which will be out in a few weeks, is a great snapshot of the industry's new offerings because it includes all of the nominees.

Here’s a sample of nominees in 2017:

• From ATEN Technology Inc. comes the ATEN VE8950 4K HDMI Over IP Extender. ATEN told us in their nomination that the system provides video matrix support through AP router/DHCP protocol with an unlimited transmission distance. With an intuitive, drag-and-drop web GUI that includes a source preview, the Over IP Extender is said to be easy to install and operate, even for those without an IT background. The VE8950 has an HDMI interface as well as independent stereo and audio channel transmission, supporting audio output selection by HDMI or separate stereo audio.

• From Canon U.S.A. came the XF405 Professional Camcorder, which the company highlighted for its outstanding combination of 4K UHD image quality, features and functionality in a compact portable design suited for on-the-go ENG and documentary production. Featuring a 1.0-inch 4K UHD CMOS image sensor and dual DIGIC DV 6 Image Processors, the XF405 records in MP4 format to dual SD card slots. The camcorder is capable of recording 4K UHD video at 60p, as well as slow motion recording up to 120fps in full HD.

• From LiveU — Built on LiveU’s award-winning IP-bonding technology, the Solo Plug-and-Play Encoder is an affordable, high-quality plug-and-play live streaming solution offering the best live online viewing experience. LiveU told us that Solo is easy to use, intuitive and platform-agnostic, compatible with YouTube Live, Facebook, Periscope, Wowza Streaming Cloud and other popular CDNs and OVPs.

• Shure Inc. — We heard last year about Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System, which builds on the benefits of the company’s UHF-R, ULX-D and Axient wireless systems to create an advanced wireless platform suited for professional productions and situations. Particularly in in an environment of continued RF spectrum pressure, Shure said, Axient Digital provides high-performance RF, exceptional audio quality, command and control and hardware scalability.

• The Telos Alliance — Telos highlighted the unique Axia IP-Tablet Virtual Radio Software for Windows tablets and PCs for making the virtual radio studio a reality. The IP-Tablet virtualizes control of Axia Fusion consoles and other Telos Alliance equipment on any Windows tablet or PC. It highlighted the ability to go beyond the Livewire+ AES67 ecosystem to control other gear, including HTML5-enabled equipment, allowing “unprecedented” control of multiple devices needed to create a broadcast on a tablet computer.

• From Wheatstone Corp. — Wheatstone’s LXE ConsoleBuilder digital audio control surface was in the spotlight, acting as an intuitive interface between the studio operator and the company’s WheatNet-IP intelligent audio network. While its architecture is configured y to emulate a traditional live audio broadcast console, most controls on the LXE surface also are capable of being reprogrammed in the field, by the client, for “virtually unlimited” custom configurations to suit workflow requirements.

You can read all the nominees in last year’s program guide here.

To nominate in this year’s awards visit the program FAQ page.

Presented by leading media brands TV Technology, Digital Video, Creative Planet Network, Government Video, Video Edge, Radio World and Radio magazine, these yearly awards recognize technology innovations and advances.

NEW YORK—The sixth annual Product Innovation Awards have opened up the nomination process for the TV, professional video and broadcast/online radio markets. Interested parties will have until Nov. 9 to nominate entries.

Any company that has released new and/or upgraded hardware, software or other products in these markets since Jan. 1, 2018 is eligible to enter. Product Innovation Award winners are selected by a panel of working professional engineers and managers in TV, pro video and radio. All nominated products, whether chosen for an award or not, will be featured in a special “Product Innovation Awards Program Guide” delivered as a digital edition in early December.

The Product Innovation Awards are administered by Future US publications TV Technology, Digital Video, Government Video, Video Edge, Radio World and Radio magazines.

To nominate a product or find out more, click here.