WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced a sweeping election preparedness initiative designed to provide broadcasters with the critical resources, tools and training needed to navigate the complexities of the 2024 election cycle. 

“This is a critical time for our nation and our democracy. Broadcast journalists serve a pivotal role in educating voters on the candidates, the issues and the electoral process, and NAB is here to support them in these efforts,” said NAB president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “As bad actors increasingly use advanced technologies to create and spread disinformation, the role of local broadcasters as custodians of the truth has never been more important.”

The NAB described its election preparedness initiative as being built around these three core elements:

• Digital Resources: NAB's Election Toolkit highlights voter engagement strategies, trust-building with audiences, field safety and best practices from leading broadcasters. NAB’s Hispanic GOTV Toolkit provides targeted resources aimed at increasing voter participation and engagement within the Hispanic community. These and other tools can be found on the Broadcast Resource Hub.
• Virtual Learning Event: On September 9, NAB, in partnership with the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), will host a free online session, Building and Maintaining Trust in Election Coverage: An NAB Virtual Learning Event, to equip broadcasters with strategies for building trust with their audiences and combatting disinformation during the 2024 election season. Learn more and RSVP here.
• Election Coverage Summit at NAB Show New York: On October 10, NAB will host an in-person summit at NAB Show New York inside the Javits Center just ahead of the pivotal 2024 elections. Key topics will include improving trust in political coverage with a deep dive into RTDNA’s research and best practices to address skepticism about media bias. The summit will also tackle ensuring verified news in the age of AI and social media, discussing how stations are combating misinformation and the rise of deep fakes. Also important is how journalists prepare their audience for the aftermath of the election and stay safe while covering political events. The Election Coverage Summit is an essential forum for those committed to delivering trusted news during this critical time. Register today for NAB Show New York and use promo code ELECTION1 to get a free Exhibits Pass and complimentary access to the Summit. Members of the media covering NAB Show New York can attend the event free of charge. 

CUPERTINO, Calif.—TVU Networks will mark the North American debut of its ONE compact, full-featured 5G cellular transmitter at NAB Show New York, at the Javits Center Oct. 25-26. Weighing in at just 1.79kg and 200mm tall, the ONE incurs latency as low as 0.3 second using cellular connectivity and can also switch to REMI production within minutes for synchronized, multicamera live event coverage for up to four video sources, according to the company.

In addition to the ONE, TVU will demonstrate the latest updates in its full line up of 4K-supported, cloud-based solutions for live video production, including TVU Search, TVU Producer, TVU Grid and TVU Channel.

The ONE uses the latest generation Sub 6GHz, 3GPP Release 16, 5G embedded modems. With multiple antennas per modem, it offers the most advanced antenna array on the market, and also supports MIMO uplink. This ensures transmission with wider coverage, better range, increased data transfer rates, and the assurance of future compatibility of 5G network deployments.

The ONE includes the latest version of TVU’s patented Inverse StatMux transmission technology fully integrated into the unit. The newly developed ISX protocol provides the most reliable and efficient transmission protocol even in the most challenging transmission environments, ensuring the full utilization of available bandwidth, superior video quality, and extremely low latency.

TVU Search features content search capabilities based on advanced AI algorithms and automation, allowing users to locate live or archival feeds or clips for immediate playout, download, or sharing, the company said. It features a plug-in integration with Adobe Premiere Pro, giving users access to TVU Search directly from within the interface of the editing application. With TVU Producer, users can natively ingest live video to the cloud from virtually any IP video source or VOD content and fully produce the content in 4K. This includes switching sources, accessing graphics overlays, and custom PIP configurations to name a few. TVU Grid delivers highly scalable point-to-point and point-to-multipoint switching, routing and distribution of live video over commodity internet according to TVU.

TVU Channel doesn’t operate on customary infrastructure, but instead enables the user to schedule live and VOD programming from a browser. The cloud-based TVU Channel can be deployed in minutes to schedule and manage one or hundreds of live content channels including OTT, websites, apps and social media. It supports live and pre-programmed content, dynamic ad insertion with SCTE decoration, and can be set to operate continuously 24/7 with no downtime, TVU said.

“Since last year’s NAB NY, we’ve continued to expand the capabilities of the TVU cloud ecosystem in support of the Media Supply Chain with an emphasis on our microservices and AI-assisted offerings,” stated Matt Keiler, VP of North America Sales, TVU Networks. “With the addition of the ONE, plus the integration of our AI-driven TVU Search with Adobe Premiere Pro, and a new version of our ISX protocol for unparalleled cellular transmission, broadcasters can capture, produce, and distribute content easier, faster, and more cost effectively than ever before.”

TVU Networks will be in Booth 542 at the show. To schedule a demonstration or meeting, please visit TVU’s NAB NY page: https://info.tvunetworks.com/nabny-2023

CUPERTINO, Calif.—TVU Networks has joined the Adobe Video Solution Partner Program and released a new Premiere Pro plug-in that gives users access to TVU Search from within the editing application, the company said today.

Live and archived video sources are directly available for import into a Premiere Pro editing session with the new plug-in, which the company will demonstrate during NAB New York 2023, Oct. 24-26, at the Javits Center in Manhattan, TVU Networks said. 

Rather than requiring time-consuming manual searches, editors can use the plug-in to locate desired video content in seconds, easily clip it and transfer it immediately to Premiere Pro without leaving their creative canvas or application, it said.

TVU Search, a cloud-based tool, relies on AI-driven algorithms and automation to transform the process of searching for the right content. Able to ingest nearly any live video source, TVU Search analyzes and indexes video content in real-time upon ingest and enables users to pinpoint the specific content needed using an intuitive interface, it said.

The plug-in presents Premiere Pro users with an extensive array of tools, including speech-to-text transcripts, integrated player tools with shortcut keys, quick transcript export and easy mark-in/mark-out timecode configurations, to create video clips. Multiple users in multiple locations can use TVU Search to access the same content at the same time, it said.

The ability of TVU Search to reduce content search time dramatically offers an advantage to news and sports producers of broadcast, OTT and social media content who require quick turnaround times to build audience and ultimately revenue, the company said. 

Having already transformed many live ingest newsroom workflows, TVU Search as a plug-in for Premiere Pro offers users of the Adobe editing solution the same ability to search for the very latest live content to drop into their editing timeline, it said.

“Adobe Premiere Pro is recognized as the industry standard with it comes to video editing,” said TVU Networks CEO Paul Shen. “Users of the program will now be able to find exactly the content they need for their video projects and bring it directly to their production without ever having to leave the Adobe Premiere Pro interface.

“In addition to saving time and effort, TVU Search will expand content discovery for users allowing them to crate more compelling video projects faster and easier using AI and automation technology.”

See TVU Search at NAB NY booth 542.

More information is available on the company’s website.

WASHINGTON D.C.—NAB will honor CBS sportscaster James Brown with the 2023 Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, the association said today. 

Brown will receive the award at the NAB Marconi Awards Dinner, presented by Xperi, Oct. 25 at the NAB Show New York. 

The NAB Distinguished Service Award is presented to a broadcaster who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the American system of broadcasting.

Brown, a three-time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, has served as host of “THE NFL TODAY" on CBS since 2006. This season, he will serve as the host for CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LVIII, a record-setting 12th time serving in that role during his career. Previously, he hosted “Inside the NFL” on Showtime and Paramount +, “Thursday Night Football” on CBS and The NFL Network and co-hosted “Fox NFL Sunday,” as well as hosted a nationally syndicated radio show on Sporting News Radio.

The sportscaster also serves as a special correspondent for CBS News, contributing across all platforms, including programs such as “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Evening News.”

Starting his broadcast career in his native Washington, D.C., Brown worked for Home Team Sports as a play-by-play announcer for the NBA’s Washington Bullets and then as a sports anchor for WUSA-TV.

Brown is the recipient of numerous honors, including The Jackie Robinson Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism by One Hundred Black Men of New York in 2022 and “The Uncommon Award” from Tony Dungy for “Uncommon Leadership through Character and Faith” in 2014. He was named Best Studio Host of the Decade by SI.com and was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2021. He received the 2016 Pete Rozelle Award for Excellence in Broadcasting from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Brown supports several charitable organizations, including the Ron & Joy Paul Kidney Center at The George Washington University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and GENYOUth, an organization committed to child health and wellness in the school community, for which he serves on the board. In addition to his charitable work, Brown is an ordained minister and speaks at churches and conferences around the country.

More information is available on the NAB website.

PRINCETON, N.J.—Triveni Digital will showcase its end-to-end NextGen TV solutions for broadcasters at NAB Show New York, Oct. 19-20, in New York City.

“Broadcasters moving to ATSC 3.0 want to deliver new revenue-generating services, such as advanced emergency alerts, program guides, targeted advertising and datacasting applications in the most efficient way possible,” said Ralph Bachofen, vice president of sales and marketing at Triveni Digital. “At NAB Show New York, we’ll highlight how Triveni Digital is simplifying the transition to NextGen TV with end-to-end ATSC 3.0 solutions that support a wide array of datacasting services to boost revenues.”

The company will feature its:

• SkyScraper XM Datacasting System, a scalable, efficient solution for delivering advanced revenue-enhancing datacasting services. SkyScraper XM enables standard content distribution and private NRT distribution applications via ATSC 1.0 and 3.0, offering optimized data delivery such as Forward Error Correction (FEC), Opportunistic Data Insertion and statistical multiplexing through hybrid broadcast and broadband delivery systems.
• StreamScope XM ATSC 3.0 Monitor, a pro monitoring, auditing and logging system that allows broadcasters to increase the efficiency of their operation and enables delivery of a high-quality NextGen TV service. Long-term monitoring for post-mortem analysis is supported.
• StreamScope Enterprise platform, a centralized QoS management solution that can perform nationwide or regionwide QoS monitoring to manage a collection of quality assurance elements, view overall system status and launch problem-solving sessions for specific faults detected. The enterprise platform connects to the StreamScope XM ATSC 3.0 Monitor. It is also integrated with the Avateq AVQ200 RF signal inspector.

See Triveni Digital NAB Show New York booth 830.

More information is available on the company’s website.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Oct. 15, 2019 – Cobalt Digital is pleased to announce the appointment of Ciro Noronha, Ph.D., as executive vice president of engineering. Noronha joined the Cobalt team in 2016 when ImmediaTV was acquired. He will work closely with Ryan Wallenberg, vice president of engineering, and Kyle Wilken, vice president of firmware, managing the engineering team and providing valuable resources for Cobalt Digital as the company continues to offer the highest quality, latest technological solutions to meet the needs of the broadcast industry.

Noronha was responsible for the development of ARQ technology, which was instrumental in enabling a cost-effective means of live, low latency contribution and distribution of broadcast content over the internet. As a result, Cobalt was one of the companies selected to receive the Emmy® Award for "Pioneering Reliable Transmission Method for Live Contribution and TV Links."

“Dr. Noronha has extensive engineering knowledge and management experience that will assist in guiding Cobalt to an increased successful future,” added Gene Zimmerman, president and CEO of Cobalt Digital. “We are pleased to have him on board to strengthen our engineering management team."

Contact Noronha at 217-344-1243 or via email at ciro.noronha@cobaltdigital.com.

About Cobalt Digital
Cobalt Digital Inc. designs and manufactures award-winning edge devices that help live video production and master control clients transition to IP, 4K, HDR, the cloud, and beyond. As a founding partner in the openGear® initiative and proud member of SMPTE, Cobalt also offers a best-of-breed interoperability platform that simplifies technological adoption. Distributed through a worldwide network of dealers, system integrators, and other partners, Cobalt Digital products are backed with a five-year warranty. Learn more at www.cobaltdigital.com.

Cypress, CA, October 8, 2019 – FOR-A will demonstrate its focus on comprehensive product integration with a showcase of its range of signal processors, encoder/decoders, video production switchers, video servers, and graphics systems at the company’s booth at NAB Show New York. FOR-A® will exhibit in Booth N530 during the show which runs from October 16-17 in the Javits Center in New York City.

FOR-A’s NAB New York booth lineup includes the FA-9600 multi-purpose signal processor, the IP-HE950 encoder/decoder, HVS-490 HANABI switcher, Variant Systems Group’s Envivo Studio production suite and Envivo Replay sports and live event replay solution, ClassX content creation and graphics playout solution, the CG-Portable compact character generator, and the ODYSSEY Insight video server.

Aside from its NAB New York appearance, the FA-9600 multi-purpose signal processor is featured at other high-profile events, including October’s 2019 world rugby event, the 2020 Tokyo summer games, and the start of the new professional football leagues in Europe. The FOR-A FA-9600 dual channel signal processor is gaining attention from premiere broadcasters looking for the highest quality, image conversion technology for these prestigious events.

Fujitsu’s IP-HE950 real-time H.265/HEVC encoder/decoder units employs the latest compression tools and image processing algorithms to provide best-in-class video fidelity. The IP-HE950 supports real-time 4K contribution, as well as SD and HD. The IP-HE950 utilizes new H.265/HEVC technology, which can provide a two times compression ratio over H.264/AVC technology. FOR-A is a distributor of Fujitsu’s high-performance encoders and decoders in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as select regions in Latin America.

The compact HANABI HVS-490 opens the door to more affordable 4K production. HDMI 2.0b specification support provides 4K output to a multi-viewer. Offering exclusive features, including MELite™ technology, which extends the switcher’s 2 M/Es to offer 6 M/E performance, the HVS-490 is designed for use in any live environment, including mobile shoots, events, and in-house corporate productions. The switcher provides users with event memory and macro functions, as well as integrated frame synchronizers and multi viewers.

Just introduced at NAB 2019 in April, Variant Systems will showcase the new Envivo Studio to NAB New York attendees. Envivo Studio is an all-in-one live production system that includes a clip player, still store, shot box, live switcher, internal keyer, coaching review tool and powerful capabilities including VDCP control, 24hr loop record inputs, and slow motion replay.

Envivo Replay offers a complete replay solution packaged in an intuitive user interface with continuous multiple iso-channel recording capabilities, simultaneous clip storage of multiple angles to clip bins, playlists for highlights playback, built-in branding capabilities, direct publishing to social media platforms, and support for high speed super slow-motion cameras. At NAB Show New York, both Envivo systems will be shown with a Dante audio interface, enabling the systems to support uncompressed, multi-channel, low latency digital audio over a standard Ethernet network. Studio and Replay also support NDI (Network Device Interface), a free protocol for Video-Over-IP.

A demo of the latest ClassX solution of 2D/3D character generation and live motion graphics and playout software integrated with FOR-A video switchers will be on the FOR-A booth. ClassX’s graphics suite of solutions is popular with universities, digital signage, live event, and sports production applications. FOR-A is the exclusive distributor of ClassX in North, Central and South America. The agreement provides broadcasters and live event producers with the ability to create and play out ClassX real-time broadcast graphics integrated with FOR-A video switchers.

The compact and low-cost character generator CG-Portable with Brainstorm software will be introduced for the first time in the U.S. during NAB New York. The unit provides a wide array of text and graphic functions, including two independent text overlays, static and animated logo insertion, timer overlay with up/down count, and fill/key mixing over live background video or uploaded graphics. With a rich feature set at an affordable price point, this unit is perfect for a variety of CG applications.

ODYSSEY’s Insight Production Server is a multi-channel playout system, available in a two- or four-channel configuration. Offering a Web interface for control from any device with a web browser (no installation required), the video server provides a wide range of supported wrappers and codecs for media contribution and video play out with time delay playback.

About FOR-A

FOR-A, a worldwide, industry-leading manufacturer, offers a wide range of broadcast and production products with a focus on cutting-edge technologies, including: HD, 4K and IP products. FOR-A continues to offer future-ready, cost effective, advanced technology solutions. Products include: video switchers, routing switchers, multi-viewers, full 4K high-speed cameras, IP encoders/decoders, multi-channel signal processors, 8K/4K/HD test signal generators, color correctors, frame synchronizers, file-based products, character generators, video servers and much more.

For a full range of HD and 4K production and processing solutions, as well as IP-based products, visit our web site at www.for-a.com.

# # #

FOR-A CORPORATION OF AMERICA, 11155 Knott Ave., Suite G&H, Cypress, C.A. 90630 Phone: 714-894-3311, Fax 714-894-5399 Web site: www.for-a.com 

NAB Show New York 2019, 16-17 October, Booth N359: Leaders in intelligent storage solutions, GB Labs, will showcase its FastNAS storage systems with the introduction of new 25 GbE connectivity at NAB Show New York 2019, taking place at the Jacob Javits Center from 16-17 October.

GB Labs CEO-CTO Dominic Harland said, “The current fiber link standard is approximately 10 GbE. To fully exploit the speed and power of our FastNAS storage system, we have developed connectivity that delivers a proven 2.3 GB/s from server to desktop, which is more than enough to handle 4K workflows.”

The 25 GbE FastNAS advances, designed by GB Labs, can use existing LC fiber channel cabling infrastructures, which means that no additional devices or technologies are required, nor is it necessary to rebuild an infrastructure.

The FastNAS range is now shipping in 25 GbE configurations, with optional dual-25 GbE port versions available for most models. Media production storage systems are available in FastNAS F-8 Nitro Studio; FastNAS F-8 Nitro; FastNAS F-16; FastNAS F-16 Nitro and FastNAS F-16 Nitro MAX configurations.

GB Labs will also feature Dynamic Bandwidth Control, a proprietary process only available from GB Labs, that enables system clients to prioritize the use and capacity of available bandwidth. Client storage with most systems is capped to preserve capacity for priority users, irrespective of whether it is being used. Storage that is reserved but not used restricts the performance of others who could make beneficial use of the additional capacity.

GB Labs’ Dynamic Bandwidth Control quickly identifies and selects high, medium, and low priority users to constantly balance performance. This guarantees that the entire system is operating at peak performance at all times.

Harland said, “Dynamic Bandwidth Control is dedicated to maximizing the use of all storage at all times to accommodate changing priorities, whether the storage is in use by an entire workgroup or just one person.”

Also on show, is the Mosaic automatic asset organizer and Analytics Centre. Mosaic integrates AI tagging to automatically scan inbuilt metadata to quickly identify and categorize content without having to manually enter metadata. Analytics Centre provides network visibility that identifies exactly how data is being used and by whom, thereby providing detailed, high-level analysis of system-wide usage, plus optimization recommendations.

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About GB Labs
GB Labs is the global leader in Intelligent Media Storage, creating a shared storage ecosystem for the media industry. By understanding real-world industry problems, cutting-edge technologies have been developed for the unique "CORE" software that fulfils end users’ needs. Regardless of where the production is being filmed, how big the team is or the size of budget, GB Labs can provide a solution to ensure deadlines are met and throughout the whole process, content is secure.

Find out more at: www.gblabs.com or call: USA (+1) 661 493 8480 or EUROPE (+44) (0)118 455 5000.

Company contact:
Matt Worth
GB Labs
Email: m.worth@gblabs.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 118 455 5000

Media Contact:
Kara Myhill
Manor Marketing
Email: Kara@manormarketing.tv
Phone: +44 (0) 789 9977222

TVU Networks, the global technology and innovation leader in live IP solutions, today announced the company showcased several breakthrough technologies for news production during NAB New York. Highlights in the booth included: TVU Producer for cloud-based multi-camera video production; newly established integration between TVU Networks and major media asset management (MAM) providers; and the TVU MediaMind set of solutions for AI-based automated video content management.

With TVU Producer, video content can be cost-effectively produced for different platforms or even audience groups completely in the cloud. Non-professionals can easily manipulate graphics, scoring and text overlays during production, thanks to its WYSIWYG interface. TVU Producer can handle multi-camera production from virtually any location. It supports simultaneously output directly to major social media platforms and virtually any CDN platform. SDI delivery is supported through a TVU transceiver. It also offers a multi-channel IP video switcher and slow-motion replay. 

The TVU Contribution Automation Solution (CAS), TVU AI Engine, TVU Real Time Search Engine, and TVU Workflow Engine comprise the TVU MediaMind platform. MediaMind simplifies and improves the process of transporting video to the studio, through the TVU Contribution Automation solution automating the planning, resource management, acquisition, transmission and routing as well featuring integrated metadata and contribution management.  

TVU CAS simplifies and helps efficiently manage the flow of media content from story creation to production. Featuring integration with leading MAM systems, TVU CAS allows broadcasters to easily search through metadata indexed content to allow for the creation of stories faster. CAS bypasses the need for inefficient and time-consuming search term logging done manually. 

At the heart of MediaMind is an AI real-time search engine, which from the start of the video production process, indexes all video. Using an entirely cloud-based model, complete with voice and object recognition, live and pre-produced video clips are located and indexed down to the exact frame and are instantly sharable. MediaMind automates the ability for different production groups to find the right content.  

“Since our first announcement of TVU MediaMind during April’s NAB show in Las Vegas, we’ve seen tremendous interest in MediaMind’s game-changing ability to automate and use AI to effectively create a story-centric workflow,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “It turns the emphasis from the labor-intensive mechanics of production where one video is distributed to many into a customized story creation process where individualized versions of video are distributed automatically. 

“We’re thrilled to get another opportunity to showcase our MediaMind platform and other new solutions during NAB New York, which we always look forward to exhibiting,” Shen continued. “It gives us a chance to connect with our existing and prospective customers in the Northeast who were not able to attend NAB in Las Vegas or the IBC in Amsterdam. We can’t wait to demonstrate the synergy and power of our combined technologies for the NAB New York audience.”   

Aside from TVU MediaMind and TVU Producer, other innovations on display at NAB New York will be: 

- TVU RPS (Remote Production Solution) transmitter 

- TVU One mobile IP transmitter

- TVU Nano with Router ultra-compact, lightweight IP transmitter for high-speed network access

- TVU Grid IP-based video switching, routing and distribution solution