Part 2 of 2

In my last column I focused on ATSC 3.0 measurement gear at the 2022 NAB Show. This month I’ll review some of the other items I found interesting at the show and look at the Broadcast Engineering Conference’s discussion on using drones for tower inspections. 

Transmitting—5G for Broadcast?
I wasn’t expecting any breakthrough technology in high-power UHF transmitters in Las Vegas but I did find time to visit three manufacturer’s exhibits and saw some interesting products. Rohde and Schwarz (R&S), which has been promoting the use of 5G for broadcast in the United States, featured its 5G transmitters for broadcasting. I wanted more details as I really didn’t understand how U.S. broadcasters would use 5G transmitters.

Since the ATSC 3.0 standard allows signaling different types of waveforms in the bootstrap signal, I thought R&S might be looking at using 3GPP 5G standards in the UHF TV band. It turned out R&S envisioned using these on existing UHF 5G wireless bands licensed to wireless operators in the U.S. One idea was that broadcasters—with their high-power, high tower sites—could provide low-cost, wide-area coverage. 

A more likely scenario is wireless carriers will roll out their own 5G broadcast system and compete with broadcasters for content delivery. It will be interesting to see how this develops. For an example of how 5G and ATSC 3.0 could co-exist, Google the HP Enterprise business white paper “The Convergence of 5G and ATSC 3.0 Opens a New Era of Communications.”

Hitachi-Comark had a new compact, all-in-one transmitter built on their successful Parallax series. The transmitter uses liquid cooling with dual pumps for both the amplifiers and in-cabinet mask filter. Maximum power output for the EC700HP-BB3 is 13.2 kW. Installation is simple as it only requires hooking up power and running hoses to the outdoor heat exchangers. If that’s too much work, an air-cooled E-Compact transmitter line does not require an outdoor heat exchanger, but obviously sufficient air flow (and perhaps cooling) is required.  

The simple installation of these transmitters could make them ideal for disaster recovery or backup, although the mask filter would have to be tuned to the desired channel if shared between stations.  

Anywave also had more powerful UHF amplifiers, with a 4.5 rack unit “Marble” series transmitter providing outputting 2,200 watts. It uses the latest Ampleon BLF989E ninth-generation LDMOS chip, rated at a peak power of 1 kW and average power of 180 watts per device. Proper cooling will be essential for these compact devices.

What I found most interesting was Anywave’s chart showing a new gap filler design using a reference antenna. This is used to characterize the booster’s transmitter reflections from the surrounding environment. Anywave claimed rejection of the transmitted signal into the gap filler of up to 50 dB, allowing higher power. Download http://anywavecom.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Anywave-Gap-Filler-Indoor-Flint-Series-Product-Specification-4-22.pdf for more data. I expect low-power gap fillers to become more common as ATSC 3.0 is deployed.

Innovation from South Korea's ETRI
The Korean booth at the NAB Show usually has some interesting ATSC 3.0 technology and this year was no exception. ETRI described a system using MIMO and a 1024QAM constellation to transmit over 100 Mbps in a single ATSC 3.0 RF channel. The design requires separate transmit antennas (one for horizontal and one for vertical polarization) and a receive antenna with separate outputs for horizontal and vertical polarizations.

This is obviously incompatible with existing receive antenna installations, so I asked if LDM could be used to provide a robust non-MIMO layer at reduced bandwidth for viewers without the outdoor dual-polarized antennas. I was told it was possible, but greatly increases complexity. 

A more likely scenario would be a station provides only high-data rate service, requiring a special receive and likely professional antenna installation. A pay-only service might be possible if FCC subscription TV rules used by analog for-pay OTA companies like On-TV apply to digital broadcasts as well. Google “ETRI ATSC 3.0 MIMO” for a number of articles on the technology, many in Korean (use Google translate). 

Inspecting With Drones
In a Broadcast Engineering Conference presentation at  the NAB Show, Paul Shulins with Shulins Solutions showed how he uses drones to examine the thermal characteristics of antennas and transmission lines. TDR (time-domain reflectometry) measurements with a vector network analyzer can reveal major issues with transmission line connections but are less useful pinpointing problem areas inside antennas or heat-related problems that don’t change the line impedance. 

Shulins uses a drone outfitted with a special IR camera able to detect minor temperature differences in the line. This is more complicated than it may sound at first because the outer on copper transmission line, particularly new line, tends to reflect IR and hide internal heating. Measurements are best made before the sun has had a chance to heat the line. This IR imaging as proven it's worth in several cases, which Shulins outlined.

All it takes is one bad transmission line connection to eventually take a station off air and potentially cause expensive damage to many sections of transmission line. In Fig. 1, a thermal image shows the hot spot in a line due to a bad “O” ring that resulted in damage to 150 feet of transmission line. In Fig. 2, the arrow on the visual image provides a higher resolution view of the line. 

Due to the time of day when the visual image was taken there wasn’t much light. I stretched the contrast on the images to make the less illuminated and heated parts of the line and the tower more visible. The fault was not visible in a ground-based TDR sweep of the line. I’m now recommending IR inspections on new line installations to avoid future problems. For more information, visit https://shulinssolutions.com/drone-tower-inspections for more information.

Jason Schreiber, CEO of RF measurement provider SixArms, presented a paper on using drones to measure antenna patterns. I’ve covered drone antenna measurements in previous columns, so I won’t repeat the details. He noted measurements found several antenna patterns that didn’t match the expected pattern. In about 80% of the cases, they were due to installation errors, a common problem being the antenna rotated by one bolt hole. Manufacturers’ defects were less common. 

Of course, tower reflections result in measured patterns from side-mounted antennas being quite different than the free-space patterns. While ground measurements were enough to find that error, drone measurements would be required to discover more subtle discrepancies. SixArms also had some new measurement equipment at the NAB Show (for more information, visit www.sixarms.com). 

Testing NextGen TV on the Road
For ATSC 3.0 reception on the road, I have an early Airwavz Redzone receiver using the original LG demodulator.The SiliconDust ATSC 3.0 IP HDHomeRun gateways use the new Sony chip and in my limited testing seem to perform better than the old Airwavz tuner. 

The problem is the SiliconDust tuner requires an IP connection. Just hooking it up to the laptop’s Ethernet port results in complaint about no Internet access. I have found a way using NetworkManager in Linux to configure a shared connection between a wireless Internet link and the device and the laptop, but it is complicated. 

A much simpler solution was to buy the small TP-Link TL-WR902AC AC750 wireless travel router that connects to the hotel WiFi, provides an Ethernet port for the SiliconDust tuner, and a wireless connection to the laptop for both. The device may also come in handy when working on equipment in the field that requires an Ethernet connection as the equipment could be connected by cable to the router and accessed anywhere in the room on a laptop using WiFi—no need to string an Ethernet cable across the floor. 

As always, I welcome comments and questions. Email me at dlung@transmitter.com. I try to answer all emails promptly, but if I’m busy and the email gets buried, I might miss it. If you don’t get a response within a week or so, email me again.

With its long hiatus in the rearview mirror, the NAB Show returned in April to Las Vegas, conveying an upbeat feel and a sense that things are returning to normal—or, at least a new normal where COVID is just an inconvenient part of life. (One need look no further than the COVID testing stations at the LVCC and the proof-of-vaccination/negative-COVID-test admittance policy for evidence of that.)

As is tradition, the president and CEO of NAB and chairperson of the FCC held a fireside chat at the start of the show—the first time for both Curtis LeGeyt, who took charge of the association in January, and Jessica Rosenworcel, whom the Senate confirmed as chairperson in December. 

Regarding ATSC 3.0, Rosenworcel made four important points broadcasters would be wise to consider: 

• The FCC chairperson recognizes the need for special temporary authorities to address 3.0 “bumps in the road” and commended Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer for “sitting down with any broadcaster who comes in and says, ‘You know, I’ve got a problem with my 3.0 signal in the way I need to work in my marketplace’” and making sure broadcasters have the “space to experiment and innovate.”
  
• Rosenworcel acknowledges that rule changes may be necessary to advance 3.0 and expressed a willingness to work with broadcasters on finding solutions. Pointing to those who have sought rule changes to address 3.0 and multicasting as an example, she told broadcasters to “come to us, tell us what you’re seeing. Tell us what’s working and where there might be a hurdle in our rules that we should figure out how to fix.”
  
• The chairperson views current period with 3.0 as an “experimental” phase. Referring to the FCC’s “framework” for NextGen TV in which 1.0 continues and broadcasters voluntarily work together to put 3.0 on air in local markets, she said, “…[W]hat that does is it gives broadcasters the opportunity to experiment with this technology, develop use cases, try to figure out what services work at scale.”
  
• Rosenworcel also wishes to deal with the inherent incompatibility of 3.0 and 1.0. “You know, the standard is still not backwards-compatible with existing receivers and televisions, and that’s going to be something we need to address.”

From where I sit, these are the important takeaways from the fireside chat. Rosenworcel gets high marks for expressing the agency’s desire to work with broadcasters on STAs and rule changes needed to advance NextGen TV deployment. 

The broadcast industry needs to do a better job of conveying where it is with the 3.0 rollout. In my mind—and likely the minds of the consumer electronics manufacturers onboard the NextGen TV bandwagon with 100 or more 3.0 models, the industry is transitioning, or has transitioned, from the “experimental” phase to deployment. The word “experiment” makes it seem like packing it in is a possibility.

Lastly, is backwards compatibility really on the table? I thought that was settled. If I were a pessimist, I might view that comment as a red flag that could be used as an excuse to extend the 1.0 sunset timeframe indefinitely or even as a reason to end the “experiment.” If I were an optimist, I could see it as a hint that someone in Washington is toying with the idea of a coupon program for 3.0-to-1.0 set-top boxes for all of those existing DTV households. 

But I’m a realist, hoping for the latter, concerned about the former and, at the end of the day, cautiously thinking the chairperson may have misspoken or been jetlagged. Time will tell. 

Future US is proud to announce the immediate availability of the 2022 NAB Show Best of Show/Best in Market Guide.

This Program Guide takes you on a tour of new products introduced for TV, film, video, streaming, radio and pro AV professionals. The Best of Show Awards are for products introduced at the 2022 NAB Show in April. The Best in Market Awards offer an award platform for companies unable to exhibit at trade shows this year.

This digital guide features all the nominees and winners that participated in the Future awards program. It offers an excellent sample of new technology on the market today and allows companies to tell you in their own words why they believe a certain product is noteworthy. 

Seven Future publications participated in the awards programs: 

• TV Tech
• TVBEurope
• B&C
• Next TV
• Radio World
• Sound & Video Contractor
• Mix

Manufacturers paid a fee for each entry and could enter multiple products. Winners were selected by panels of professional users and editors based on descriptions provided via the nomination form as well as on judges’ inspection at the convention. 

LAS VEGAS—Closing the NAB Show in Las Vegas last week, The Broadcasters Foundation of America honored several industry leaders at its annual breakfast Wednesday morning.

The Leadership Award is presented annually to industry leaders who have made an impact on the broadcast industry and in their local communities.

This year’s honorees are:

• Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Allen Media Group
• Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer, Cumulus Media
• Ralph Oakley, Retired, President and Chief Executive Officer, Quincy Media
• Christine Travaglini, President, Katz Radio Group
• Dennis Wharton, Retired, Executive Vice President, Media Relations, National Association of Broadcasters

Gordon Smith, former U.S. Senator and Special Advisor to the NAB, was honored with the Lowry Mays Excellence, which is presented annually to a broadcast luminary who has made an impact on the industry through innovation, entrepreneurship, issue advocacy, community service, and philanthropy.

TV Tech has announced its Best of Show/Best in Market Awards for spring 2022. The awards are judged by a panel of industry experts on the criteria of innovation, feature set, cost efficiency and performance in serving the industry.

“This year's awards prove that—despite the constraints imposed by the past several years—the M&E tech industry continues to be driven by innovation and creativity,” said Tom Butts, Content Director for TV Tech. “We are proud to recognize these companies for their excellence.”

The winners will be featured in TV Tech magazine, read by thousands of broadcast professionals in the United States, around the world and online. In addition, all nominees will be featured in a Best of Show Program ebook.

The Best of Show awards, from TV Tech and other brands at its parent company Future, were chosen from companies that exhibited at the 2022 NAB Show and submitted nominations. The Best in Market category was open to any company.

Best of Show

Adobe - Auto Color
Apantac - SDM-MicroQ-12G
Audio Design Desk - Audio Design Desk
BB&S Lighting - Compact Fresnel Lights
BirdDog - Adobe Cloud Plugin
Bitcentral - Fuel + Powr.tv Video Streaming Platform
Boland Monitors - X4K27HDR5-OLED Broadcast Monitor
Canon - Canon EOS R5 C Full-frame, 8K Cinema EOS System Camera
Cinedeck - CD2
Core SWX - Maverick
Dalet - Dalet Flex for Teams
Dejero - EnGo 265
Digital Nirvana - MetadataIQ 4.0
Evertz - NATX 32/64 100G Network Address Translation Router
EVS - NeuronPROTECT
FOR-A Corporation of America - FA-1616 Software Defined Multi Purpose Signal Processor
Grass Valley - AMPP Live Solution Packages
Hitachi-Comark - E-Compact EC700HP-BB3 Series High-Efficiency Air-Cooled Solid-State UHF DTV Transmitter
IHSE USA - DP 4X1 KVM desktop switch
Interra Systems - Interra Cloud Services (ICS) – BATON Captions
LG Business Solutions USA - LG UltraFine OLED Pro Monitor Line
LYNX Technik - yellobrik IDC1411 Instand Dialog Cleaner
Marketron - Marketron Integration Suite
Marshall Electronics - Micro Global Sensor Camera With Genlock
Matrox Video - Matrox ConvertIP SMPTE ST 2110 Converter
MediaKind - MediaKind Engage
Quantum - H4000 Essential
SSIMWAVE - SSIMPLUS Video Quality Dial
Tedial - smartWork—Cloud Native Media Integration Platform
Telemetrics - reFrame Server
Telestream - Stanza
Telestream - Wirecast Gear 3
Teradek  - Prism Flex
TVU Networks - TVU Channel
VoiceInteraction - Audimus.Media
Zeiss - ZEISS Supreme Prime Radiance Lenses

Best in Market

Actus Digital - Intelligent Monitoring Platform V8
Avid - Avid Media Composer
disguise - disguise xR
Edgecast - Channel Scheduler & Syndication
Evoca - Pilot Set Top Box
LiveU - Air Control
OWC - OWC Flex 1U4
Ross Video - Ross Production Cloud
Videon - LiveEdge Compute
Zixi - Zixi Software-Defined Video Platform

LAS VEGAS—On the heels of the public release of Unreal Engine 5, executives from the Unreal Engine team at Epic Games announced at the 2022 NAB Show some of the ways that Unreal Engine is being used by broadcasters and some of the partnerships they are forging with a wide variety of technology providers. 

“Sports, news, award shows, and weather broadcasts have been boosting audience engagement with use of AR, and we’re now increasingly seeing Unreal Engine being used beyond that for real-time motion graphics as well,” explained Bernt (BK) Johannessen, UE business director, broadcast and live events, Epic Games. “The Unreal Engine team first came to NAB in 2017, and at the time had about a dozen partnerships in the broadcast space. Since then we’ve seen a massive uptick and now have more than fifty broadcast ecosystem partners who have invested heavily in real-time workflow integrations powered by Unreal Engine.”

Unreal Engine announced that some of the companies servicing the broadcast industry with planned or existing Unreal Engine integrations include: Accuweather, Adobe, AJA Video Systems, AMD, AOTO, ARRI, ARwall, Aximmetry, Autodesk, Black Magic Design, Bluefish, Boris FX, Brainstorm, Brompton Technology, Chyron, Disguise, Dreamwall, Grass Valley, HP, HTC, Leyard, Matrox, Maxon, Megapixel, Mo-sys, Ncam, NEP, NVIDIA, OptiTrack, Panasonic, Pixel Power, Pixotope, Planar, Red Giant, ROE Visual, Ross Video, RT Software, SMT, Sony, Stype, Trackmen, TV-Graphics, Ventuz, Vicon, Vizrt, Weather Channel, WeatherMetrics, WTvision, Zeiss Lenses, Zero Density, Zlense and more.

Top broadcasters have also recently deployed Unreal Engine to achieve remarkable achievements in both live events and produced programming, the company said. The deployments include: BBC Sports built an entirely virtual environment for the winter Olympics in Beijing; The Weather Channel is using augmented and mixed reality to deliver groundbreaking weather reports; Karate Combat created dynamic virtual environments for martial arts competition shot entirely on a stage; Fox’s Alter Ego brought live virtual avatars to life for a high concept singing competition; the Atlanta Braves are boosting fan engagement in the metaverse; the Carolina Panthers executed an augmented reality in-stadium spectacle; and NBC’s The Voice featured a live volumetric captured performance of the Coldplay x BTS hit song “My Universe”.

The company also reported that the recently released Unreal Engine Sample for broadcast and live events illustrates how to design, develop and play out numerous animation elements in a live broadcast scenario leveraging the power and flexibility of Unreal Engine.

The sample, called “Hype Chamber,” is a tested and proven project developed for the Rocket League Championship Series esports broadcast with prebuilt rigging that can be adapted to any team sports production. The sample provides broadcast producers and motion graphics artists with a template for building a real-time broadcast package with the ability to quickly swap out logos, high-quality assets, modify color palettes, and repurpose assets for immersive spaces, live events or any additional needs outside of broadcast.

More information on how Unreal Engine is transforming broadcast, live events, film and television is available here. 

The Hype Chamber broadcast sample project can be downloaded here. 

LAS VEGAS—Atlanta DTH, a leading developer of cable, satellite, terrestrial and IP media related applications, will debut two major additions to its product range on Booth W7903 at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

Developed in partnership with Tolka, a globally active specialist in broadcast media software, the new ATSC 3.0 Gateway TV receiver and DGI-NexGen-Solo ultra-compact USB-powered plug-in ATSC 3.0 digital TV receiver offer TV audiences access to the advanced transmission standard on compatible home or mobile display devices.

The ATSC 3.0 Gateway TV Receiver allows ATSC-standard free-to-air television programs to be viewed on any IP-compatible TV receiver or portable device. Designed to fit beneath or alongside a home TV display panel, the ATSC 3.0 Gateway comes with a control app which provides on-screen access to a wide range of features. TV channels can be selected via a grid-style electronic program guide and watched live, paused for up to 60 minutes or rewound for up to 5 minutes. Closed caption subtitles can be activated to support viewers with impaired hearing. Dual tuners plus a built-in Wi-Fi 5 transmitter enable simultaneous viewing of the preselected channel or a second channel on mobile computers, electronic notepads or smartphones.

Designed for connection to Android TV, Android set-top-boxes, and Windows and Linux operating systems, the ADTH DGI-NexGen-Solo is a USB 2.0 plug-in ultra-compact digital terrestrial television tuner which provides full access to all locally receivable free-to-air channels. It is fully ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 compatible and has a form factor of only 93 x 27 x 12 mm. Power is sourced directly from the USB port. Antenna connection is via an integral screw-thread coax input. Included software enables the plug-in to turn a computer or Android device into a gateway to platforms such as iOS and Roku. It also offers compatibility with third-party streaming media services including Plex.

LAS VEGAS—America’s Emergency Network, LLC has launched an Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) network using ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV. With the introduction of AEN, authorized alert originators such as the National Weather Service, ShakeAlert and local emergency managers will be able to send actionable, geo-targeted rich-media messages even when power, cellular and internet fail. 

AEN Alert is a rich-media-capable emergency notification system that rapidly delivers secure, emergency messages to residents, schools, hospitals, and commercial and industrial facilities, providing timely warnings before disaster strikes. These alerts will deliver actionable information, such as evacuation routes, flood maps, and video snippets from authorized and trusted originators (such as sheriffs and emergency managers). AEN will help save lives and reduce injuries by giving people the information they need to take protective action. 

AEN marries ATSC 3.0 to the existing Alert FM, which uses the Radio Data System in 12 states. (RDS delivers call letters, song and title information to car radios.) Alert FM serves an extensive network of local alert originators, which is their current customer base, and distributes through FM radio stations. Alert FM is licensed by USGS to deliver to deliver ShakeAlert earthquake warnings on the West Coast in five seconds or less. The integrated FM/ATSC 3.0 system will provide multiple redundant backup transmitters connected by satellite to provide secure transmission of a single point-to-multipoint messaging, layered by geo-targeted groupings. 

“We are excited to leverage proven technology to deploy AEN Alert to deliver actionable emergency messages across the U.S.,” says John Lawson, co-founder and president of AEN, LLC. “As a long-time advocate of geo-targeted, rich-media emergency notifications for tornados, fires, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes, AEN Alert will be a tremendous benefit for increasing public safety in all our communities.” (Through his consulting firm, Lawson also serves as executive director of the AWARN Alliance, a coalition that promotes and advocates for the use of NextGen TV for AEI, the industry term for the range of ATSC 3.0-enabled emergency messaging from alerts to on-going information.) 

Protecting California citizens during emergency situations can be enhanced with rich-media alert solutions leveraging NextGen TV, says Joe Berry, president/CEO of the California Broadcasters Association. "The recent advanced alerting roundtable in Santa Barbara has provided a path for NextGen TV to enhance broadcasters’ vital role in communicating emergency alerts throughout California and across the U.S.," he said. 

“AEN has provided valuable insight into the emergency notification delivery industry,” adds Alex Day, business development director for Tolka TV, a producer of cable, satellite, terrestrial and IP media related applications, which recently announced a partnership with Atlanta DTV to develop ATSC 3.0 products. “We are pleased to be co-operating in creating the software and hardware technology required to deliver rich-media and actionable emergency alerts. 

"Tolka will be the signaling server and middleware partner, providing the link between the AEN Alert service and broadcasters to insert the signals. We also will be developing supporting apps," he continued. "Additionally, we will work together with AEN to deliver mobile, battery-operated devices that will operate even when power, cell, and internet fail.” 

At the NAB Show, Tolka will be demonstrating the AEN Alert hybrid RDS and ATSC 3.0 receiver dongle at the Altanta DTH booth (W7903) in the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall. 

In the coming months, AEN will launch several pilots across the U.S. and build out the AEN product line. Besides enabling AEI with NextGen TV and selling alert receiver devices, AEN is developing two other revenue streams: 

• AEN TV: C-SPAN- type linear, reality programming from emergency managers for distribution over NextGen TV and streaming – ad supported.
• AEN Archive: library of licensed emergency manager-generated content – fee-based.

At the NAB Show and in days after, AEN says it will be meeting with potential strategic partners in the broadcasting, infrastructure, and receiver industries. 

CINCINNATI—GatesAir has announced that it will soon be shipping a new timing and signal reference solution for broadcast and telecom facilities that speaks to modern navigation technologies used in second-generation Global Navigation Satellite Systems. 

GatesAir will be demonstrating the new solution, the Maxiva GNSS-PTP, at the 2022 NAB Show between April 23 to 26 at Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W7426.

“GatesAir has strong experience in the area of timing and synchronization for video, audio and telecom networks, and the Maxiva GNSS-PTP represents a major step forward in timing reliability, network redundancy and cost reduction,” said Keyur Parikh, vice president of engineering, GatesAir. “Our Intraplex SynchroCast solutions have long provided timing and frequency reference generation to synchronize SFN networks, and the GNSS-PTP product builds upon that capability to provide precision timing to broadcast and telecom networks. Our customers can rest assured that they have a proven solution that will work in any broadcast studio, RF plant and telco facility worldwide with the rock-solid reliability they expect from GatesAir.”

The new Maxiva GNSS-PTP is a standalone 1RU solution with a sophisticated switching algorithm that assures high-precision 10MHz and 1 PPS reference signals to mission-critical components in the signal chain, including transmitters, networking, and studio equipment, the company said. 

Each GNSS-PTP device feeds up to twelve 10 MHz and 1 PPS references in the technology infrastructure, removing the need to integrate a standalone timing source in each component. This substantially reduces equipment costs and installation timelines while providing a single, yet highly redundant, point of failure for engineers, the company reported.

Precise timing and frequency generation is assured because of the product’s high level of redundancy. The product design includes redundant AC power supplies with built-in battery back-up for “always-on” protection, and diverse timing sources including redundant GNSS receivers. The GNSS receivers include OCXO temperature control to prevent frequency changes, and support all major global satellite constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS). Timing sources also include a hardware-based PTP module and an external 10 MHz and 1 PPS reference. Built-in switching control logic ensures reliability and flexibility for selecting the highest priority source as a reference at all times, the company said. 

Support for the Precision Time Protocol v2 (PTP) adds further reliability and flexibility for customers. Available as a modular option, users can prioritize PTP as a facility’s primary source, or configure PTP as a backup to one of the GNSS receivers. The PTP module can function as a master or slave and, same as the unit’s GNSS receivers, provide reliable timing and frequency reference to 12 external devices.

GatesAir has further simplified the user experience with an integrated web interface that allows users to easily and flexibly select frequency bands for each GNSS system and configure timing source selection in automatic and manual modes. The user interface also offers useful visual aids, including detailed tracking maps and tables, satellite status and signal quality. 

LAS VEGAS—Dejero will unveil its new EnGo 3 and EnGo 3x 5G-native mobile transmitters with integrated internet gateway at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 24-27. The new additions to the EnGo family combine superior 5G performance, multicamera support and 4K UHD resolution with unparalleled video quality for broadcast and media production markets, the company said. 

EnGo 3 and EnGo 3x feature a completely redesigned RF and antenna architecture to unlock the full potential of 5G connections unlike other solutions in the market. “Our team worked with world-renowned RF and antenna experts to maximize cellular signal quality and performance on 5G networks,” explains Yvonne Monterroso, director of product management at Dejero. 

“We’re quadrupling the number of antennas per modem and diversifying the antenna types. It’s incredibly complex to add so many antennas to a small, portable device without compromising performance and reliability, which we’ve achieved. It’s just not as simple as replacing 4G modems with 5G modems,” she added. 

The new 5G EnGo transmitters feature 4x4 MIMO antennas to achieve greater reliability, lower latency and faster speeds. Dejero made modifications to the EnGo to ensure optimal antenna isolation. “We’ve seen other 5G mobile transmitters in the market using 4G antenna design principles where interference by antennas placed too close together negatively impacts reliability, especially in areas where cellular signals may be weak, or where many cellular devices are competing for network bandwidth,” continued Monterroso. 

Diversity of cellular bands was another key design consideration. For EnGo 3 and EnGo 3x, Dejero selected modems that support a broad range of cellular bands to enhance 5G performance. Monterroso explains its importance for global use: “We support additional bands used by carriers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, China, Korea, and Latin America that other 5G mobile transmitters can’t connect to. It can make a huge difference for reliability.”

EnGo 3x provides multicamera support for up to four fully frame-synced HD feeds. Dejero’s new remote production transmitter can capture feeds from multiple cameras in a single unit, reducing the cost and complexity of multicamera sports and live event productions, Dejero said. The additional camera inputs can be licensed when needed.

The ability to transmit in 4Kp60 10-bit HDR with eight audio channels delivers unparalleled video quality at extremely low latencies providing viewers of sports and major live event viewers to watch in the highest definition possible. Furthermore, 4K live feeds can greatly benefit film, television and commercial productions to make it easier for distributed teams that are not located on set to monitor and detect lighting and color balance issues in real-time, allowing customers to  avoid expensive reshoots, the company said. The 4K UHD feature does not require a separate license, unlike competing solutions, according to the company. 

EnGo 3, designed for newsgathering in locations where 5G networks have been widely deployed, incorporates all of the new features of the EnGo 265, introduced in December last year. It reliably transports broadcast-quality live video from remote locations whilst also providing resilient, high-bandwidth internet access, all in one single device. With glass-to-glass latency as low as half a second over bonded cellular connections, it also delivers greater security with AES 256 encryption, a security-hardened Linux OS and a cryptoprocessor to authenticate the hardware. 

The 5G networks bonded by EnGo 3 and EnGo 3x transmitters can be combined with other wireless networks including Wi-Fi and GEO/MEO/LEO satellite, and fixed line (cable/DSL/fiber) wired networks thanks to Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology, which intelligently manages the fluctuating bandwidth, packet loss, and latency differences of the individual connections in real-time, providing enhanced reliability, expanded coverage and greater bandwidth.

The new EnGo mobile transmitters also feature built-in Hybrid Encoding Technology with the latest generation of Intel processors with customized firmware. The units can adapt to real-time feedback on the complexity of the content being encoded, such as the amount of motion. It works in tandem with Smart Blending Technology to analyze the throughput capacity and latency of all the connections. 

LAS VEGAS—The Advanced Television Systems Committee has announced an array of events focusing on ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV)—including a chance to win a NextGenTV—at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 24-27.

ATSC President Madeleine Noland and the organization’s major sponsors who will showcase new developments in NextGen broadcasting will be featured in a YouTube Premiere of “NAB Show 2022:  Full Steam Ahead,” Monday, April 25, streamed for free on www.ATSC.org at 9:30AM Eastern time.  A live question-and-answer element in the online presentation will give viewers the opportunity to interact with Noland, who will participate from Las Vegas.

(Read: 2022 NAB Show to Highlight Expanding Array of Products to Deploy NextGen TV)

Separately, dozens of ATSC members have provided their latest ATSC 3.0 updates for an online Spring 2022 Progress Report (available at www.atsc.org/progressreport) that details specific developments in advanced emergency messaging, advocacy and outreach, station deployment, consumer receivers and equipment, datacasting, mobility, and professional solutions and services.  Previous editions of the online Progress Report have proven to be among the most popular resources for visitors to ATSC.org

A “Guide to ATSC 3.0 at the Show” is now available for those coming to Las Vegas, and conventioneers attending a special ribbon-cutting ceremony at the ATSC booth on Sunday morning, April 24, at 10:30AM Pacific time will be eligible to win a NextGenTV courtesy of ATSC Platinum Sponsor LG Electronics.  In all, some 40 exhibitors at the NAB Show will feature some ingredient of ATSC 3.0, with nearly 30 educational sessions staged by the show itself and by ATSC in its West Hall booth.

“Next-generation television broadcasts now reach more than half the viewing public in the U.S. with almost 60 markets now on-air with NEXTGEN TV.  We’re very pleased with the status of deployments across the U.S. and equally excited that countries like Jamaica and Brazil are either rolling out ATSC 3.0 broadcasts now or well along in their planning for IP-based broadcast upgrades,” said Noland.

Since NextGen TVs hit the market in late 2020, television manufacturers have designed over 120 models of receivers and U.S. consumers, alone, are expected to snap up some 4.5 million NextGen TV sets this year – more than 10% of annual TV sales, the ATSC said.  

New options in set-top and USB-style receivers, reference platforms, and receiving antennae will be featured at the ATSC Pavilion in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (W9022) throughout the show that opens Sunday.  ATSC Platinum Sponsors Gaian Solutions, Pearl TV, and Sinclair Broadcast Group will each feature extensive demonstrations in the ATSC booth and additional displays are planned by ATSC member organizations AWARN, CeWi Networks, Fincons, and Mediathand.

In addition to the seven demonstrations and 11 educational presentations scheduled in the ATSC booth, industry receptions sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, American Tower, MadHive, and ATSC’s Brazil Implementation Team will welcome visitors during the first three days of the show. 

The schedule for ATSC in-booth presentations and events includes:

SUNDAY, APRIL 24

10:30AM:  Ribbon-Cutting Event and NEXTGENTV Door Prize Drawing – Your chance to win an LG NEXTGEN television!

12 Noon:  Monetizing Audiences with the RUN3TV Application Platform, presented by Pearl TV

3 PM:  Consumer Insights on NEXTGEN TV Marketing Campaign, presented by Pearl TV

5 PM:  Welcome Reception sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise

MONDAY, APRIL 25

10:00 AM:  ATSC 3.0 in Your WiFi? - Here’s Why, presented by Mediathand

11:00 AM:  NextGenTV Experiences in the Industry 4.0 Era - A TAIC-SIMO Model Perspective, presented by Gaian Solutions

12 Noon:  Advanced Emergency Information Services Consumer Facing Research, presented by Sinclair Broadcast Group

1:00 PM:  Linear Digital Streaming Using Datacasting, presented by CeWi

2:00 PM:  Advanced Advertising Technology for NextGen TV, afternoon coffee and presentation by MadHive

5 PM:  Reception sponsored by American Tower

TUESDAY, APRIL 26

10:00 AM:  HDR in Today’s Market, presented by Sinclair Broadcast Group

11:00 AM:  What is Your ATSC Spectrum Value Today? Tools and Protocols to Unlock Its Potential, presented by Gaian Solutions

12 Noon:  Rebuilding Emergency Manager-Local Station Relationships with Advanced Emergency Information, presented by AWARN

2:00 PM:   NextGenTV: Success Stories, Future Trends and Priorities, presented by Fincons

5:00 PM:  Reception to Celebrate the SBTVD Forum’s Progress on Its TV3.0 Project, presented by ATSC 3.0 Brazil Implementation Team

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Interra Systems, a major provider of content QC, monitoring, and analysis solutions to the digital media industry, has announced that its BATON Captions automated captioning solution is now available to broadcasters and other media professionals as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution on the company's Interra Cloud Services (ICS) platform. 

"SaaS-based Captions allows media companies to perform the critical function of caption management in the cloud, simplifying the process while retaining the ability to accommodate constantly varying media workloads," said Sanjay Mittal, executive vice president — product development, at Interra Systems. "Our BATON solution, a leading ML- and AI-enabled automated QC platform, is already available in the cloud as SaaS, and now our SaaS-based BATON Captions is too. Interra is committed to making all its solutions available to customers in the cloud, providing multiple use models to adapt to customer needs. SaaS-based Captions is yet another step in this direction."

Designed to help drive the globalization of content, BATON Captions provides advanced capabilities that allow media professionals to QC captions and subtitles, auto-correct errors, translate captions from one language to another, and regenerate captions to match different video deliveries. 

The solution utilizes automatic speech recognition technology for faster and more efficient caption generation; provides multilingual support for QC, captioning, and subtitling of media files; and supports all embedded and sidecar formats, major text and document formats, and an array of content locations, the company said. 

On the QC side, the SaaS-based BATON solution allows critical QC tasks to be performed remotely from anywhere, offering multiple built-in test plans — such as Amazon, Hulu, DPP, and iTunes — for setting up QC checks based on industry standards. All customer data, including project folders, reports, and thumbnails, is preserved in the cloud for a specified period of time to simplify data management and provide protection against possible data loss.

Interra Systems will demonstrate its QC, monitoring, and AI-/ML-based solutions at the 2022 NAB Show, April 24-27, in Las Vegas at booth W5516. 

More information about Interra Systems demos at the 2022 NAB show can be found at: https://www.interrasystems.com/mailer/NAB2022/.

AJA Video Systems has announced the launch of HELO Plus, a new H.264 streaming and recording device that includes a pair of openGear 12G-SDI to fibre converters for transporting high-bandwidth signals up to 10km.

According to the company, the device is designed to “help video professionals achieve a higher production value with greater cost efficiency and a smaller gear footprint.”

Dual streaming outputs allow users to create assets with different parameter settings per output (bit rate, GOP length, frame rate, picture geometry, b-frame cadence, etc.), and feed each into one of two destinations, making it easier to create assets with different parameter settings from a single input or layered imagery from both inputs with built-in graphics abilities.

HELO Plus enables users can to select either of the encoders to drive USB, SD card, or NAS recording, and can include the output of the graphics layout compositions, said the company. Additional features include SRT support, improved scheduling options and device operation, and group control for triggered start/stop operations with Ki Pro Ultra 12G.

AJA has also unveiled updates for a number of other solutions, including FS4 v3.0 with advanced HDR workflow support; BRIDGE LIVE v1.13 with synchronous multi-channel transport for SDI backhaul or cloud contribution; BRIDGE NDI 3G v1.5 with new NDI 5 support; and Diskover Media Edition v2.0, featuring new plugins for the Telestream GLIM and Vantage software.

AJA will demo the new products at the NAB Show, April 24-27 in Las Vegas.  

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Bitcentral will debut its new Live Guide To-Go and Fusion Hybrid Storage Solutions (HSS) at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

Live Guide To-Go is a channel management tool and application SDK for creating an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) in third-party applications. Publishers can build linear TV experiences that augment their current VOD offering using a simple SDK across web, mobile, smart devices and connected TV.

The Live Guide To-Go solution makes it possible for them to scale up their distribution to reach new audiences, drive longer average viewing session times and create new revenue opportunities through advertising, the company said.

A turnkey channel management solution for digital linear feeds from Bitcentral’s FUEL platform or Free Ad-Support TV (FAST) channel vendors, Live Guide To-Go offers a software development kit (SDK) and CMS suite originally developed by Powr.tv, which recently was acquired by Bitcentral, it said.

Fusion modernizes the methodologies used to deliver the broadcast content services of Bitcentral’s on-premise Oasis solution, including archive, asset management and sharing. has been Built from the ground up in a microservices architecture to leverage the scaling and cost efficiencies of cloud-based resources, Fusion provides an availability capability not easily provided in a typical station environment, the company said.

Fusion HSS extends the capabilities of on-premise storage and gives increased scalability and federated access to content for distribution. It adds to the cost efficiencies of scale offered by Bitcentral’s suite of cloud-based services.

See Bitcentral in NAB Show booth W5100.

More information is available on the company’s website.

WASHINGTON D.C.—Pearl TV has launched RUN3TV, a web platform for broadcasters to offer a new hybrid TV service to over-the-air viewers, and announced it will unveil the platform to the broadcast community at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

Built on ATSC 3.0, the NextGen TV platform brings two-way web interactivity to television. The platform’s architecture enables TV stations to develop, innovate and differentiate at the application services layer, making possible consistent viewer experiences across all NextGen TV devices, Pearl said.

With RUN3TV, broadcasters control product vision, audience engagement and customer experience. They can choose their own technical partners as well as leverage contributions from the RUN3TV developer community, it said.

The fruits of RUN3TV development will make it possible for viewers to engage more deeply with content, spend additional time viewing and create several new revenue opportunities for broadcasters while viewers watch live broadcasts. Among the opportunities are advanced advertising for live and streaming content, gleaning greater insight about the audience and premium content distribution, Pearl said.

“NEXTGEN TV is scaling rapidly on connected TVs, creating a new advanced advertising marketplace. Display, lead-gen, and dynamic ad insertion capabilities will be game changers for broadcasters and help level the playing field among other digital providers,” said Kerry Oslund, vice president of strategy and business development at The E.W. Scripps Company, a member of the Pearl TV cooperative.

“RUN3TV creates an underlying framework that puts broadcasters in the driver's seat on what they create and how they provide content that matters to viewers," he continued. "RUN3TV has just scratched the surface of what is possible for the broadcast community.”

The new platform is being launched through ATSC 3.0 Framework Alliance LLC, a subsidiary of Pearl TV. Development partners include Kineton, MadHive, IBM Weather, Freewheel and Google.

Gray Television, The E.W. Scripps Company, Graham Media, TEGNA, Hearst and Howard University’s WHUT have launched broadcaster applications in more than 30 markets, Pearl said.

“An industry first, RUN3TV gives broadcasters the ability to leverage the new ATSC 3.0 A/344 Interactive Content broadcast standard to create television applications that enhance over-the-air viewing with interactive and on-demand content delivered over broadband,” said Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV. “With NEXTGEN TV and RUN3TV, broadcasters can now bring the OTA environment into the digital world.”

Demonstrations will be available in NAB Show booth W9022 in the ATSC Pavilion.

More information is available on the coalition’s website.

LEUVEN, Belgium—The HESP Alliance has announced that its members will showcase their High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP) solutions at NAB Show 2022. 

HESP can bring sub-second latency live and interactive streaming experiences at scale, ideally suited for use cases such as live sports and betting, e-sports, virtual events, online gaming and e-learning. High efficiency streaming additionally enables operators to bring a lean-back TV experience over OTT to their viewers, as HESP can provide for fast channel change, as low as 100ms, in addition to its ultra-low latency capabilities, the group said.

The HESP Alliance will demonstrate these solutions during its new HESP Alliance Walking Tour at NAB Show 2022. This tour is intended for both media companies and vendors.

Participating in this event is free, but registration is required. The full schedule and registration form is to be found here. 

The tour will be followed by an HESP Alliance networking event.

“This tour embodies the increasing adoption of HESP. Our members brought five solutions to the prestigious NAB Show to demonstrate that HESP is not just alive and kicking, but also a mature standard,” explains Steven Tielemans, president of the HESP Alliance. “This tour is a great opportunity for everyone to discover the outstanding capabilities of HESP, and to access the shared knowledge base of the HESP Alliance.” 

During the tour attendees will see HESP Alliance members EZDRM, Mainstreaming, Synamedia, THEO Technologies and Videon demoing their HESP-ready solutions, covering different components of the video ecosystem, including packaging, CDN, playback and DRM. 

Participants will also be introduced to use cases such as fast channel change, secure high efficiency streaming, HESP scaling over a standard CDN and real-time streaming to any audience size. It is the first time that five Alliance members will physically gather in the same venue since its creation in 2020.

The HESP Alliance aims to accelerate standardization and large-scale adoption of high efficiency streaming through HESP. 

Alliance members can license the technology; integrate it into their video packaging and playback solutions; and develop and share HESP extensions to drive further innovation. 

A verification program for HESP solutions ensures interoperability across packaging, playback and CDN solutions and provides peace of mind for media companies deploying high efficiency streaming services, the group said. 

LYDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems will unveil the third generation of its DASDEC emergency messaging platform and preview Version 5.0 of its Emergency Alert System (EAS) software at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas. 

"Visitors to the 2022 NAB Show will see two new introductions: our latest generation of DASDEC hardware and a preview of the upcoming Version 5.0 software, both offering full 64-bit support,” said Bill Robertson, vice president of business development at the company. “We've consolidated several customer requests that stem from idiosyncrasies that have bothered them for years. DASDEC Version 5.0 is the start of a transformative change. We've been looking to do this for a long time, and now we can showcase how it is coming to fruition."

The new version of EAS software improves the user interface, making it more user-friendly, intuitive and easier for operators to interact with the software. The interface streamlines operations, reducing many of the multi-tab configurations into single pages that are easier to manage and reduce clutter, the company said. 

Version 5.0 will serve as a springboard for moving to a more contemporary and consistent user interface and for improving security, it said.

The company also will spotlight Visually Integrated Display Symbology (VIDS) developed by the NextGen Video Information Systems Alliance (NVISA). The recommended practices represent an industry breakthrough, offering a powerful and impactful new way to display emergency alerts based on easy-to-discern graphical elements, the company said.

See Digital Alert Systems at NAB Show booth W8617.

More information is available on the company’s website.

HAYWARD, Calif.—Wohler will release its newly announced iVAM-12G video and audio monitor at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The 1U monitoring solution offers a lower cost and lower height alternative to the company’s 2U iAM-12G-SDI. It is well-suited for applications in which 12G processing is needed but Dolby Atmos decoding is not.

The iVAM-12G offers all of the features of the company’s existing 3G models as well as two 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI inputs with selected SDI out, a pair of analog inputs and outputs, an HDMI output, loudness measurement and phase indication. Network capabilities for remote management of the unit, including viewing meters and other monitoring information, are also supported, the company said.

Other signal options include: AES3 inputs, MADI, ST-2110, ST-2022-6 and audio over IP. Processing options include Dolby decoding for SDI and AES3, as well as SMPTE ST-2110. An upgraded output routing feature also is available.

The new monitor offers space for any one of up to three option cards: the newly releases SFP Option Card and two additional 3G inputs to 3G products or two 12G inputs to 12G products, it said.

Other option cards provide audio over IP in either Dante or Ravenna formats. They offer ST 2110-30 primary and secondary RJ-45 Ethernet ports and enable hitless (redundant) ST 2022-7 monitoring. An analog option card offers eight additional balanced inputs and outputs on DB-25 connectors and a TOSLINK (SPDIF) connector, it said.

See Wohler Technologies at NAB Show booth N6614.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LAS VEGAS—Sinclair Broadcast Group and its subsidiary, ONE Media 3.0, have announced they will be demonstrating key enhancements to the NextGen Broadcast standard (ATSC 3.0) at the 2022 NAB Show between April 23 and 27. 

The demos include Sinclair's Hybrid TV Broadcast App and HDR broadcasts using the NextGen TV standard. 

Sinclair said those demos will highlight the baseline for Sinclair/ONE Media 3.0’s vision of a “mobile-first” offering of video and data services, the delivery of significant picture quality improvements and a more efficient merger of broadcast and broadband capabilities.

One key demo will be broadcasts of higher image quality. During the NAB Show, Sinclair’s Las Vegas TV station, KVCW, will broadcast an enhanced digital signal using high dynamic range (HDR). 

The NextGen Broadcast standard provides remarkable picture quality to viewers – substantially brighter highlights, darker shadows, brilliant colors and much more detail, Sinclair said. The signal delivered employs the single layer system (SL-HDR1) developed by Technicolor.

SL-HDR1 allows a broadcaster to deliver pictures in both standard and high definition simultaneously with TV sets automatically rendering the appropriate picture for that set. By using this technology, broadcasters can efficiently create and deliver content, eliminating the need for sending two separate streams, Sinclair said. 

This solution permits broadcasters to serve both newer HDR-capable screens and those without the capability, recognizing that not all viewers have the latest TV sets available. Sinclair announced that these capabilities will be used at all of its NextGen stations throughout the country.

Another key demo will be the latest version of Sinclair’s Hybrid TV Broadcast App. 

Sinclair noted that merging broadcast and broadband services to provide the best of over-the-air and Internet delivered content is a key ingredient of the new NextGen TV delivery ecosystem. 

To achieve that result, Sinclair has developed a Hybrid TV Broadcast App with menuing technology that allows viewers to choose content regardless of how it gets to their screens.

The demo will include content on demand, local weather, audio services and advanced emergency informing, Sinclair said. 

Sinclair/ONE Media 3.0 have announced that they will ease the process of distributing their version of the Broadcast App by delivering it both over-the-air and via broadband.

“The beauty of the NextGen Broadcast standard is its ability to both enhance the content we deliver and do it as flexibly as possible,” explained Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media 3.0,  “The hybrid nature of television today means we must make it as easy as possible for viewers to take advantage of our offerings. SL-HDR1 and a common Broadcast App delivered over multiple pipes to the user simplifies that process.”

MAHWAH, N.J.—Ikegami has announced that it will debut several new solutions at 2022 NAB Show as well as technological advances in the areas of Ultra High Definition High Dynamic Range (UHD HDR), High Frame Rate (HFR), and Internet Protocol (IP). 

New cameras on display at Ikegami’s Booth C-4426 will include the Ikegami UHK-X700, UHK-X750, and UHL-F4000. There will be a new base station and a new camera control unit in the BSX-100 and CCU-X100. In addition, the ULE-217-HDR HD monitor will be introduced.

The Ikegami UHK-X700 camera will be debuting at NAB Show 2022, offering high signal quality, versatile connectivity, and a robust build that are essential in today's multi-resolution media world, the company said. 

The flagship UHK-X700 supports HFR capture for slow-motion, and can be pedestal or tripod mounted or operated over the shoulder. It incorporates three 2/3-inch CMOS UHD sensors with a global shutter to minimize artifacts when shooting LED screens or scenes illuminated with flash or strobe lighting. 

Full HDR/SDR support is included with the UHK-700, plus the ability to choose between BT.2020 and BT.709 color spaces. HFR shooting at up to 2x speed in UHD or up to 8x in HD via the base station is possible as an option. When combined with the Ikegami BSX-100 base station or CCU-X100, the camera supports simultaneous output in UHD/HD video formats. IP interface of video, audio, and intercom inputs and outputs is available as an option at the base station or CCU.

UHD video is available with the Ikegami UHK-X700 as a 12G-SDI feed directly from the camera head, allowing it to be integrated into a wireless system. Weighing only 5 kg, the UHK-X700 comes with a B4 lens mount and has an optical sensitivity of F10 when operating at UHD/59.94p. Peripheral options include the OCP-300 control panel and SE-U430 system expander. Ikegami also offers a choice of two types of viewfinder for this model, including the VFL201D 2-inch LCD and VFL701D 7-inch full HD LCD.

In addition, Ikegami is debuting the UHK-X750 full studio camera. It has all of the UHK-X700’s advanced features except for those that apply to portable shoulder operation. The UHK-X750 offers lower center-of-gravity and easier staging compared to a portable camera with telephoto lens and supporter.  In addition, the Ikegami UHK-X750 full studio camera features a greater design emphasis on ease of service and cool operation.

Also new for NAB, the Ikegami UHL-F4000 is a compact and lightweight UHD HDR camera with low power consumption. Designed for use in applications such as aerial video capture and studio robotics, its high sensitivity sensors capture broadcast quality color video across a wide range of night or day conditions. Image adjustment capabilities of the UHL-F4000 include noise removal and digital zoom. The camera head uses three CMOS global shutter sensors capturing natural images completely clear of geometric distortion and flash band effects. 

Key features include haze reduction, image sharpening, vertical image reversal and HD-from-UHD segment selection. A 40 Gbps duplex optical fiber connection communicates between the camera head and CCU, which can be positioned up to six miles apart. The optical fiber can be integrated into one bidirectional core via an optical circulator, and passed through a single-core optical rotary joint used for a small gimbal, the company said. 

Other products premiering at the 2022 NAB show include:

• Ikegami BSX-100 UHD/HD multi-format fiber base station. The Ikegami BSX-100 is a 12G/3G fiber base station. It offers a simplified, coherent upgrade path for broadcasters and production companies as they progress from SDI to IP, from SDR to HDR and from HD into UHD, including HD/UHD dual-format workflow.
• Ikegami CCU-X100 UHD/HD multi-format camera control unit. The Ikegami CCU-X100 also debuts at NAB Show 2022. A full rack version of the BSX-100, it can be configured to operate with Ikegami Unicam HD and/or Unicam XE cameras.  It is an ideal match for the full studio Ikegami UHK-X750, extending the maximum cable distance of that camera to 3,500 meters with power from the CCU.
• Ikegami ULE-217-HDR Full-HD monitor. Ikegami's ULE-217-HDR is an affordable and energy-efficient HDR/SDR switchable monitor, designed for use where space and weight are at a premium.

HUNT VALLEY, M.D.—In what promises to be a major series of updates on developments in NextGen TV, executives from Sinclair Broadcast Group and its subsidiary, ONE Media 3.0, will be participating in the 2022 NAB Show from April 23 to 27 in Las Vegas. 

Members of the company’s leadership team scheduled to present in panel discussions during the NAB Show, while also hosting ATSC 3.0 demonstrations include: 

• Chris Ripley, President and CEO
• Del Parks - President of Technology
• Mark Aitken - SVP of Advanced Technology, Sinclair Broadcast Group/President, ONE Media 3.0
• Jerald Fritz – EVP Strategic and Legal Affairs, ONE Media 3.0
• Mike Kralec, SVP, Chief Technology Officer
• John Zeigler, Chief Marketing Officer
• Skip Flenniken, VP & GM, Technology Business Development
• So Vang, VP of Emerging Technologies, ONE Media 3.0
• Walid Hamri, Senior Director, Media Systems
• Matthew Goldman, Senior Director, Media Engineering & Architecture
• Ernie Ensign, Senior Director of News Technology
• Josh Gordon, Strategy Consultant, ONE Media 3.0

"Sinclair is a leader in the development and integration of new technologies, including ATSC 3.0, transforming the media industry. We look forward to showcasing the latest innovations and sharing the expertise of our leadership team with the NAB community, the industry's most pioneering professionals,” said Chris Ripley, Sinclair's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Sinclair will host a press conference on Saturday, April 23 from 3-4pm in the NAB Press Briefing Room N242. Chris Ripley and Mark Aitken will discuss datacasting and the future of NextGen broadcasting, among other topics.

Additionally, the Sinclair/ONE Media leadership team will participate in the following NAB Show events:

Saturday, April 23

 10:55-11:15am. What’s New and What’s Old with ATSC - Del Parks. Panel discussion in W311-W313.

3:00-4:00pm. Sinclair Broadcast Group Press Conference. Chris Ripley and Mark Aitken NAB Press Briefing Conference Room N242.

4:30–5:00pm. Devoncroft Executive Summit: The Broadcaster C-Suite: Strategic Drivers of Technology Investment—Mike Kralec.

5:00-5:20pm. Devoncroft Executive Summit: Executive 1:1 Keynote—Chris Ripley.

 Sunday, April 24  

9:35-9:55am. Interactive NextGen Broadcast TV—Mike Kralec. Paper presentation in W307.

10:35-11:35am. What’s Now and What’s Next with NextGen TV—Skip Flenniken. Panel discussion in N258-N260.

12:00-1:00pm. New Developments in HDR Transition—Press Conference presented by Advanced HDR by Technicolor, Interdigital, Philips and Sinclair Broadcast Group. NAB Press Briefing Conference Room N242.

12:55-1:15pm. A Practical Deployment of High Dynamic Range Video for Over-the-Air Broadcasting—Matthew Goldman. Paper presentation in W307-W309

1:45-2:15pm. Deployment of Advanced Emergency Alerting and Informing (AEA&I) Services: A Progress Report—So Vang. Panel discussion in W6428—Connect Experiential Zone.

2:35-2:55pm. Taking Control of Content Replacement using SCTE 224 for IP, Satellite and OTT Distribution—Walid Hamri. Paper presentation in W311-W313

2:40-3:20pm. NextGen TV: Unlocking Revenue and Value for Broadcast Television- Mark Aitken. Panel discussion in W10619—CMIP Debate Theater.

3:15-3:45pm. Cloud Production Reality and Futures – Mike Kralec. Panel discussion in C5646—Create Inspiration Zone.

Monday, April 25

10:00-10:30am. ATSC 3.0 Datacasting: Real Experiences and Future Potential of Education and Safety Deployment—Mark Aitken. Panel discussion in W6428—Connect Experiential Zone

12:00-12:20pm. Advanced Emergency Information Services Consumer Facing Research—Josh Gordon. ATSC Presentation Zone W9022

3:00-3:30pm. NextGen TV Executive Q&A/ Sip & Speak Session with Mark Aitken. LNU4—Networking Lounge

3:40-4:00pm. From Local to Live: Why TV is the Most Undervalued Marketing Channel—John Zeigler. Panel discussion in W11100—CMIP Presentation Theater

Tuesday, April 26

10:00-10:30am. How the ATSC 3.0-Enabled Broadcast App Personalizes Services for TV Users and Opens Opportunities for Stations—So Vang. Panel discussion in W6428—Connect Experiential Zone

10:00-10:30am. HDR in Today's Market—Matthew Goldman—ATSC Presentation Zone W9022

10:55-11:15am. Advanced News Acquisition Workflow—Ernie Ensign. Paper presentation in W307-W309

For more information visit https://www.nabshow.com/.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks and monetization platform InPlayer have formed a strategic partnership to offer existing and future TVU customers access to InPlayer’s pay-per-view and subscription tools, TVU said this week. TVU will highlight the partnership at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The partnership, which makes the InPlayer platform available for use with any TVU product, creates a complete production, streaming and monetization workflow, it said.

“This partnership enables our customers and prospective customers to turn content they produce into a direct, revenue stream,” said Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks. “This integration breaks down barriers for our clients and creates new business opportunities for them. Our relationship with InPlayer is at the heart of TVU – to empower content creators.”

InPlayer will enable video producers and others to generate pay-per-view and subscription revenue from fans of their content. The scalable platform manages the complete monetization process, including authentication, entitlement, payment and customer support, TVU said.

A variety of tools to help users maximize transactions, including support for discount and access codes, free trials, merchandise, syndication, live chat and fan engagement, gift vouchers and donations. API-driven, the InPlayer platform offers users customizations and white label options, it said.

“Within the sports world, it’s becoming more commonplace for content owners to take their video and other assets direct to the fan," said Edit Kovács, Chief Product Officer InPlayer. “With the TVU Networks/InPlayer combination, any owner, event or organization has a complete workflow to bring that content directly to the viewer.”

See TVU Networks in NAB Show booth W3806. 

More information is available on the company’s website.

LONDON—Brompton Technology has announced that it will be showing a number of innovations for virtual productions at the 2022 NAB Show in the North Hall, booth N7125. 

These include its powerful Tessera processors that unlock new levels of visual performance from LED panels and various innovative features in its accompanying Tessera software that provide greater creative flexibility on set.

“Our goal at Brompton is to develop virtual production solutions that meet filmmakers where they are, so that they can achieve their artistic visions without feeling limited or slowed down by the technology,” explained Sean Sheridan, regional technology manager (Americas), Brompton Technology. “We’re thrilled to exhibit at NAB for the first time this year and to showcase the latest advancements in virtual production and LED processing hardware and software.”

Brompton will be demonstrating its range of processors and features for virtual production with one full LED wall and two additional demo screens, all comprised of ROE Black Pearl BP2 panels. 

The main LED wall will be powered by Brompton’s Tessera SX40 and S8 processors and will highlight Brompton’s Frame Remapping—an industry-first feature that enables multiple cameras to shoot different content on the same LED screen simultaneously, thereby facilitating multi-camera shoots in virtual production.

Frame Remapping enables each camera to see and capture a uniquely rendered virtual background with the correct perspective, and can also allow two cameras to simultaneously capture a virtual background and a green screen. 

This gives creative teams the accurate light and shadows and believable interaction with on-screen content as afforded by virtual production, as well as the benefits of green screen, such as the freedom to add elements in post-production. While these processes used to require two separate shoots, Frame Remapping allows them to be combined all in one take, the company said. 

Brompton will also be showcasing additional Tessera software features, including:

• Live color grading on the LED wall with 3D LUT import and integrations with Pomfort Livegradeand Assimilate LiveLooks
• Previously unattainable levels of brightness and color saturation on LED panels with Dynamic Calibration
• Support for display of HDR content and for all common color spaces, including support for the ACEScg color gamut
• ShutterSync, which lets users tune the LED refresh to the camera (instead of the other way around) for the first time, giving control back to the cinematographer
• Operating Modes, enabling multiple configurations on the same panel to help filmmakers meet the unique needs of each production
• Support for on-screen camera tracking markers

More information is available here: https://www.bromptontech.com/ .

MONTREAL—Haivision will showcase the latest advancements and updates in IP video contribution technology at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The company will discuss how its recent acquisition of Aviwest will impact broadcast video contribution. Experts from the companies will show how broadcasters can use Haivision’s ultra-low latency IP video streaming technology and Aviwest’s mobile video contribution solutions to address the challenges of today’s media workflows, the company said.

The combination of the companies’ video technology for live broadcast contribution over fixed and mobile networks will be shown for live sporting event production, news live entertainment workflows. 

Haivision will showcase:

• PRO460, a bonded cellular transmitter for remote and at-home video production via 5G networks;
• Makito X4 series video encoders and decoders offering real-time quad-HD and 4K video encoding and SRT streaming;
• StreamHub platform to receive, decode and distribute live video streams;
• LiveGuest for live guest interviews with support for bidirectional video return and echo cancellation; and 
• Haivision Hub, an easy-to-use video network service for easy management of all Makito encoders and streams.

To book a one-on-one meeting at the show visit the company’s website. 

See Haivision in NAB Show booth W5205 and in the Grass Valley booth, C2107.

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Telestream will showcase its newly announced V. 15 of Wirecast, the company’s live streaming and production software for Mac and Windows, at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas. 

Offering improved 4K support, Rendezvous conferencing enhancements, interactive web page overlays and social comment moderation and new subscription options, Wirecast 15 allows users of any skill level to create professional-looking content that engages and retains viewers, the company said. 

The latest version leverages a re-architected, high-efficiency software engine that makes it possible for users to create compelling productions while using up to 60% fewer computer resources, it said.

“Wirecast 15 represents a significant leap forward in ease of use, efficient use of computer resources, and further enhanced creative tools,” said Lynn Elliott, senior product manager for Wirecast. “With its refreshed UI and subscription options, the new version allows users of any experience level and budget to easily produce broadcast-quality programs that rival most professional television productions.”

Wirecast 15 supports capture of 4K camera sources, playback of 4K media files and 4K streaming output. The Rendezvous peer-to-peer conferencing system now supports live musical instruments as high-definition audio sources in the Wirecast stream through audio processing enhancements that preserve the tonality of the music, the company said.

Web page overlays are now fully interactive in a stream when performing tasks such as live demos or tutorials. Social media comments from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook can be integrated directly into the broadcast with precise control over what gets publicly displayed. Selected comments automatically populate an animated title template enabling users to have a continuously rotating collection of comments playing over the stream, it said.

Wirecast 15 also offers a new user interface (UI). It enables users to create sophisticated content with customizable graphics, templates and stock media. Upgraded audio tools include an enhanced display of audio meters across different views so users instantly see whether audio levels are too low or too high, it said.

Telestream is now offering low-cost subscription options for Wirecast Pro. Users can choose to enroll in monthly or annual subscriptions (starting at $35 per month) and get all of the features included in Wirecast Pro and free upgrades with Premium Access support, for the duration of their subscriptions, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

See Telestream in NAB Show booth C3007.

LAS VEGAS—At the 2022 NAB Show, April 24-27, Imagine Communications will introduce Imagine Aviator, a new cloud-native platform that allows broadcasters, MVPD and digital-first providers to plan, make and monetize premium-quality linear and OTT content from a single, unified platform.

Imagine says the new platform―designed to enable media companies to extract the maximum revenue potential from their assets—was designed for an ever-evolving future, and offers flexible subscription and SaaS purchase options that suit new business models along with an agile, cloud-based design that allows media companies to continue to deliver and monetize content no matter how consumer viewing habits change.

“We understand the challenges and complexities that premium brands have in today’s fluid media landscape,” says Rob Malcolm, chief product officer at Imagine Communications. “With Aviator, we are bringing together our experience and intellectual property in a unique, cloud-native platform that maximizes monetization of content across broadcast and OTT platforms today ― and readies media companies to adapt and thrive no matter what the future holds.”

Aviator combines the critical capabilities of scheduling, rights management, channel origination, live events, VOD, ad sales, ad placement, ad serving, campaign management, and more into a single cloud platform. It creates a converged solution that delivers linear programming and video-on-demand content with ads and triggers for local and dynamic ad insertion, making it easier for media companies to successfully monetize broadcast, OTT, FAST, pop-up and VOD content. Providing fully automated operation of thematic channels, the new platform also guarantees high audio and video quality on all outlets and supports the demands of premium services.

Running in the public cloud, Aviator requires only a web browser and internet connection to securely access and operate all aspects of the platform, allowing operators to access anywhere an internet connection is available. It can run either in a media company’s own cloud account, or in Imagine’s SaaS environment, where it is monitored, managed and maintained by Imagine, allowing customers to reap the benefits of operational efficiency, while maintaining control of all creative aspects of their content.

At launch, Aviator will include all the capabilities required to solve the complex needs of delivering premium-quality, sophisticated linear channels with unified origination—originating broadcast and OTT linear streams from a single playlist supporting ad insertion. Its ability to integrate content acquisition from live streams, file sources such as video clips, audio and captions makes Aviator the perfect tool for delivering live sports, news, and scheduled and unscheduled live events workflows, the company said.

“We will continue to add functionality on an aggressive roadmap schedule,” Malcolm adds. “Later this year, we will expand the Aviator platform’s monetization capabilities to allow media companies to sell their own ad inventory rather than limiting them to only plugging in a demand-side platform to fill available inventory. This will enable media companies to maximize their yield, which in turn allows them to afford more premium content rights.” 

At the heart of Aviator is Imagine’s “audience-first” ad placement engine, which will allow media companies to sell inventory by audience, by context, or by spot―regardless of the platform or delivery mechanism. New functionality will enable media companies to maximize revenue by targeting commercials to audiences accurately; delivering CPM/CPI-style metrics across all platforms, including broadcast; and monetizing scenarios that are difficult to plan in advance, such as extra time in sporting events and breaking news programming.

Malcolm continues, “As consumers find more ways to watch, the efficiencies of cloud play an important role, making it easier for media companies to address broadening advertising opportunities and create highly impactful and dynamic channels with genuine appeal to viewers. Some aspects of the TV landscape remain uncertain, but making content available on all screens in a way that allows our customers to achieve their full revenue potential requires convergence of content planning, origination and monetization. And that is exactly what Aviator makes possible.”

Imagine will demo Aviator at its NAB Show booth, C2122

LAS VEGAS—Electronics Research, Inc. (ERI) will showcase new circularly and elliptically polarized models to its ALV Series High Band VHF Television Antenna product family at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 24-27.

The high band VHF television antennas are built for any single RF channel from 7 through 13 (174 to 216 MHz). The  lightweight side-mounted antennas are primarily designed for use as auxiliary antennas and include a fiberglass slot cover to protect the antenna from rain, snow, and ice. 

All models of the ALV Series VHF television antennas are shipped with 36-inch (914 mm) standoff brackets for mounting on poles or tower legs from 1.5-inches (35 mm) to 7.5-inches (191 mm) OD. As optional items, standoff support pipes, face mount brackets, and mounts for larger diameter poles are available from ERI. Contact ERI for a proposal for these requirements.

ERI will exhibit the antennas at Booth #W6505 at the show.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Pete Sockett, director of engineering and operations for Capitol Broadcasting Co.’s TV stations will be recognized at the NAB Show this year with the 2022 NAB Engineering Achievement Award for TV. Sockett is responsible for leading and steering the technology needs of CBC and preparing for the coming trends affecting broadcasting.

During his career, Sockett has been instrumental in a total rebuild of CBC’s HD technical plant, the launch of the first nonlinear HD newsroom, development of workflows for IP-ENG, implementation of Mobile DTV and Mobile EAS, creation of the first 4K-HDR documentary produced at a local TV station, the launch of the first commercial, simulcast TV station using the ATSC 3.0 standard and the launch of local sports channel WNGT.

Sockett sits on the board of directors for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and is the chair of the ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alerting Implementation Team. He has earned three Emmy Awards, Broadcasting & Cable’s Technology Leadership Award and an Edward R. Murrow award. He is a co-inventor of a patent for geolocation.

I had a chance to talk with Pete in advance of the show and anyone who knows Pete is well aware of how approachable and down to earth he is, which perhaps comes from his Canadian heritage. 

Pete grew up in the Toronto area and started out as an auto mechanic. Dissatisfied with his employment situation, he decided to take some electrical engineering courses at a local technical college and after graduating, started out his broadcasting career with CTV, Canada’s largest privately held broadcast network.

From there he moved on to WWJ in Detroit and WBBM in Chicago before settling in Raleigh, N.C. in 2003 to work for the Goodmon family, owners of Capitol Broadcasting Co.    

When he arrived at CBC, he was put in charge of operations at WRAL-TV but as time has gone on, his responsibilities have expanded to cover so much more, including OTT, DTV subchannels and college sports. 

Jimmy Goodman—junior and senior—have been the driving force behind WRAL for decades and Pete says they’re always wanting to do “the next great thing.”

“And it’s basically been my job to get it done,” he said.

Pete describes himself as a “relatively average good engineer, not particularly genius by any means,” and attributes the technical success of WRAL’s expanding media services to his engineering colleagues. 

“This award is for them,” he said. 

WRAL was a pioneer in launching ATSC 1.0 in the 1990s and is on the frontlines of deploying ATSC 3.0, having launched an experimental NextGen TV service in 2016. WRAL ceased that 3.0 transmission in September 2019 as part of the FCC TV spectrum repack broadcasting. Five years later, in 2021, it launched 3.0 on WRAL, WRAZ and WARZ-CD with WUNC soon to join.

Pete is optimistic about the future of 3.0 and the opportunities it affords. While it’s still early in the process, Pete and his colleagues are dealing with a lot of moving parts and trying to figure out what the “killer apps” will be. He also hopes that the industry will widely embrace the standard. 

“I really hope that everybody keeps working at it—across the industry, not just in small pockets,” he said. “The whole industry, in general, needs to pick up and run with it.” 

Pete will be recognized along with Ashruf El-Dinary, senior vice president of Digital Platforms for Xperi, recipient of the Radio Engineering Achievement Award, by NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt during the “Hollywood’s ‘Binge Times’ OTT Battle and NAB Engineering Awards”  session,  Sunday, April 24 at 3 p.m.

LOS ANGELES—Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) has announced that it will showcase its next-generation AI-led supply chain automation solutions at the 2022 NAB Show between April 23 and 27 in Las Vegas. 

"We couldn't be happier to see our customers and partners in person again and share our latest product innovations that address key challenges in the industry currently. We've been working hard to re-imagine supply chain automation driven by AI in the last two years. We deployed it within our media services and our customers successfully", said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, founder and global CEO of PFT. “We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved with CLEAR Media ERP software & Vision Cloud AI platform and are excited to showcase these at NAB this year.”

In response to the move to remote postproduction workflows, the company is also introducing CLEAR Remote Postproduction Workflows for Adobe Premiere Pro. 

Some of the tech advances on display at the show from PFT include:  

• Access Archive: PFT has moved the application to content so users can restore and archive faster. 
• Media Discovery: AI & deep Metadata integration across the workflow helps users locate clips of interest from both new content and archive to prepare a rough edit timeline.
• Collaborate on Cloud: Editors can collaborate on projects, share media and metadata, seek review and approval regardless of where they are, ⏤ use visual mark-ups and free-hand annotation, chat & share notes.
• Render & Upload from Adobe Premiere Pro: Users can now render & upload to CLEAR MAM for review and approval without moving away from Premiere Pro, making it easier — this also helps avoid repetitive manual actions.
• Automatic One-click Backup & Restore: Automatic ONE click back up from home to the Cloud and restore to "my workspace" ⏤ to the point where users have it all broken down within their Premiere Projects folder, with different iterations every day.  
• MAM:  Run all postproduction workflows within CLEAR MAM — create work orders, tasks within the postproduction process, and more.  

Demos of CLEAR will be available at 4233MR and W3624C during the show. 

For more information, visit www.primefocustechnologies.com.

LONDON—Video compression specialist V-Nova today announced it will feature the capabilities of MPEG-5 Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC) at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The company will show the capabilities across a range of different use cases and devices, including a demonstration of a regular HD H.264/AVC channel to deliver a UHD 2160p60 stream at bitrates below those used today for HEVC deployments. MPEG-5 LCEVC also will be shown decoding on iOS and Android devices, set-top boxes, HTML5 players and VR headsets.

V-Nova is part of a growing MPEG-5 LCEVC broadcast and OTT product and solution ecosystem. Others include: AMD/Xilinx, Amlogic, Harmonic, Kynesim, MainConcept, NETINT, NVIDIA, Oregan Networks, Qencode, Red5 Pro, Resi, SBTVD Forum, SEI Robotics, Simplestream, SOUTHWORKS, Steinwurf, THEOplayer, Videon and Visaic.

“The first MPEG-5 LCEVC showcase is a great example of the growing ecosystem of solutions available to operators and service providers to equip their video delivery with the latest MPEG standard,” said Guido Meardi, CEO and co-founder of V-Nova. “The technology is ready for broadcast and OTT services and now products are coming to market.”

The company also will make two presentations at the NAB Show. One will cover deployment of MPEG-5 LCEVC using commercially available solutions and focus on specific use cases for live 4K streaming. The second will examine the growing use of HDR video content and how LCEVC can be used to enhance performance when working with existing SDR H.264/AVC services, the company said.

V-Nova has set up a webpage with more information on its booth demos, the presentations how to book an NAB Show appointment.

More information on LCEVC is available online. 

See V-Nova at NAB Show booth W9407.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—This year at the 2022 NAB Show, the NDI ecosystem will be on full display with 14 NDI partner companies participating in the NDI Pavilion located in the North Hall at the Vizrt Group booth, N2619. 

This selection of top global NDI developers will display innovative new NDI-enabled products and solutions during the show between April 23 to 27 in Las Vegas. 

“NDI is now the globally standardized video-over-IP technology,” says Suso Carrillo, NDI marketing lead. “We have seen exponential growth for NDI over the past two years, with it solving production challenges in more and more use case scenarios every day. I am delighted to have assembled some of our amazing NDI partners in one convenient location to share their innovations and expertise.”

The NDI Pavilion is set up to allow attendees to discover the benefits, flexibility, and possibilities of NDI from experts at such companies as AIDA Imaging; BirdDog; Broadfield Distributing Inc; BZBGear; Canon; Digital MultiMedia Solutions; KILOVIEW; NETGEAR; NewTek; Pronology; PTZ Optics; Stream Circle; SWIT; and Vizrt.

Throughout the show floor at NAB 2022, nearly 40 additional NDI ecosystem organizations will showcase a diverse array of NDI integrations ranging from hardware and software streaming solutions, live production systems, cameras, displays, switchers, and more. The companies will be easily identified by a unique, “Ask me about NDI” plaque.

“BirdDog is so excited to be back to NAB showcasing our Cloud Connect, globally scalable NDI workflow solutions on the NDI pavilion. NDI truly has become an absolute juggernaut and we very much look forward to connecting to NDI users from around the world,” remarked Dan Miall, CEO, Bird Dog.

"As one of the earliest PTZ camera manufacturers to have adopted NDI technology, we are excited to expand the flexibility and possibility of NDI to the latest PTZ cameras such as AW-UE40, AW-UE50, and AW-UE80, the IT/IP platform “KAIROS” and AV-UHS5M6G, the new NDI I/F unit for the live switcher AV-UHS500. Please visit Panasonic at Booth C3607, where we showcase the workflow utilizing the benefits of NDI, " said Carter L. Hoskins, director, Panasonic Connect North America.

"With the long-awaited return to NAB, PTZOptics is excited to help introduce content creators to the many advantages of having NDI 5 in workflows and, of course, the products that help make those dreams a reality. If you have yet to explore NDI, join in the fun and start your journey today. Let PTZOptics help you share your vision," adds Matthew Davis, director of technology and information systems, PTZ Optics.

For more information about what the NDI partners will display, or to connect with them directly, please visit: https://www.ndi.tv/ndi-central-pavilion/

LAS VEGAS—EditShare will unveil its new FLEX cloud solutions at its booth (N3008) at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 24-27. 

FLEX targets current media trends, in particular, the migration to a “work anywhere” environment, with ready access to content wherever creative staff need to be. In adopting cloud storage and processing, it also meets the move towards an OpEx financial model, with the cloud hosting and storage fees flexing to reflect the level of business, the company said.

“EditShare began leading the industry's shift to the cloud a few years ago by expanding many of its existing core product capabilities—openness, interoperability and scale—to the cloud,” commented Stephen Tallamy, CTO, EditShare. “EditShare FLEX is the result of these investments and we’re excited to show the industry how it can greatly simplify how their teams may choose to work.”

FLEX includes three components:

FLEX Cloud Edit provides media asset management, high performance software-defined storage, and virtual workstations in the AWS cloud. FLEX provides a completely open hosting environment, so users can use whatever editing software they prefer.

FLEX Cloud Edit+ adds accelerated file transfer capabilities using the CloudDat transfer software from Data Expedition Inc. It also provides comprehensive workstation management using Teradici’s Cloud Access Manager, all tightly integrated into an intuitive, single-sign on EditShare environment.

FLEX Cloud Sync provides synchronization of content between local EFS arrays and archive storage with leading cloud providers. By automating backup to the cloud, EditShare FLEX Cloud Sync makes it easy to retire LTO tape libraries and gain the huge resilience and availability that major cloud providers offer. As necessary, a FLEX Cloud Edit system can be spun up using all of the content in a customer’s FLEX Cloud sync backup.

“We continually listen to what the industry is telling us, and this is a direct response to current demands,” said Tallamy. “With FLEX, our customers can maintain full control over their working environment and the security of their content, while gaining the huge benefits of remote working and editing-in-the-cloud.

“FLEX offers turnkey bundles that allow customers to get started quickly with a known configuration and pricing profile. Our professional services team can work with customers to tailor the system to exactly meet their needs,” Tallamy added. “The customer maintains operational oversight and budgetary control, with no over-provisioning so no over-paying.”

KAWASAKI, Japan—Media Links, manufacturer and pioneer in Media over IP transport technology, has announced its new MetroXPRESS IP over fiber system solution for transporting multimedia services across metropolitan wide area networks.

The company will be showing MetroXPRESS at the 2022 NAB Show on booth W3922. 

Designed for Broadcasters, Service Providers and Content Rights Holders who have access to, or own fiber connectivity, MetroXPRESS is intended as a replacement for legacy point-to-point SD/HD video transport over dark fiber networks in local or metropolitan or regional areas. 

The company said that the core value proposition of MetroXPRESS is to more simply and cost effectively accommodate new differentiated IP-based media services while optimizing the efficiency of and visibility into overall network operation and performance. The solution also lowers the total cost of ownership over the life of the investment. 

“For service providers to offer competitive media over IP transport services to their customers, they require an agile IP over fiber network infrastructure that can be adapted and scaled as technology and media distribution needs quickly change,” comments Al Nuñez, president of Media Links Inc. “For example, traditional metropolitan distribution content models are typically nailed up for long time periods, which do not support flexibility or scalability when customers need to launch new services such as 4K UHD, hitless (i.e. uninterrupted and dropout free) media transfers, or low latency JPEG-XS compression for remote production applications. Further, they often are unmanaged with no real visibility into overall network assurance and performance. MetroXPRESS solves these such challenges.”

The MetroXPRESS solution provides real-time, low latency delivery of media (video, audio and data) from the content source to multiple destinations and back again. It includes an integrated, self-contained portfolio of edge, core and network management components necessary to directly connect to native IP networks on a fiber infrastructure for wide area media content delivery. 

A typical package consists of the Media Links MD8000 platform, MDP3000 Series IP media Gateways, MDX aggregation/core switches, and ProMD EMS network management software. These products are known for their robust reliability, stability in mission-critical environments and overall flexibility.

It is designed to accommodate today’s existing SDI-based infrastructure with the ability to gracefully transition to a more versatile, flexible IP environment with evolving media resolutions, encoding and encapsulation formats.

Media Links has created MetroXPRESS to provide an adaptable, scalable, and managed media over IP transport solution addressing SD all the way to UHD video and beyond while also supporting data services up to 100Gbps across a robust, resilient fiber-based IP architecture.  

The solution allows for remote set up and tear down, provides real-time equipment & service quality assurance, and can be securely accessed and serviced from office and field (or home) locations.

Complementing the turnkey MetroXPRESS solution, is the full suite of comprehensive Media Links Professional Services, including design, staging, turn-up, training, and ongoing field support.   

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The NAB has announced that award-winning journalist Ashleigh Banfield, host of “Banfield” on NewsNation, will interview her former MSNBC co-anchor, Lester Holt, the NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor.

The interview will occur during Banfield’s “Rising Tide: The Value in Mentoring Others” series at the NAB Show Opening Main Stage session on Sunday, April 24 at 1:15 p.m. in Las Vegas. 

The interview will precede Holt’s previously announced induction into the National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) Hall of Fame, also on the Main Stage at NAB Show.

Banfield recently founded "Rising Tide" a monthly live Zoom event for people looking to succeed in TV journalism and receive guidance from leading figures in the field.

Each month, she features guest VIP mentors in the industry who have agreed to take questions and share tips, secrets and career advice. The mentors include Bob Costas, Gayle King, Harvey Levin, Jake Tapper, Sanja Gupta, Dan Abrams, Lisa Ling, Meghan McCain, Mika Brzezinski, Savannah Guthrie, Wolf Blitzer, Deborah Norville, Donny Deutsch, Dana Bash, Shepard Smith, Elizabeth Vargas, Jesse Palmer, S.E. Cupp, Sam Champion, Thomas Roberts and Steve Wilkos.

“Banfield” airs weeknights at 10 p.m. ET, featuring in-depth coverage of the day’s top news stories and newsmakers.

Before joining NewsNation, Banfield, an Emmy, Telly, Iris, Gracie and National Headliner Award winner, served as a legal analyst and host for Court TV, and was a regular contributor to Investigation Discovery’s ID “Murder Mystery” series.

During her 34-year career, Banfield has served as host of the A+E prime-time series, “Live Rescue,” host of “Primetime Justice with Ashleigh Banfield” on HLN, anchored “Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield” on CNN, and co-anchored the CNN morning news program, “Early Start.”

She has also served as a correspondent and anchor for ABC News, reporting for “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “ABC World News Tonight,” and “Nightline.” Prior to ABC, Banfield anchored, hosted, and created three programs on TruTV. On MSNBC, she anchored “Ashleigh Banfield: On Location,” as well as “Newsfront: with Ashleigh Banfield and Lester Holt,” and “Homepage” with Mika Brzezinski and Gina Gaston. She also anchored and reported for The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Dateline.

The NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame, into which Holt will be inducted, recognizes radio and television personalities or programs that have earned a place in broadcasting history. The complete list of past inductees is available here.

More information about the 2022 NAB Show, held April 23 – 27, 2022, in Las Vegas, is available here. 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) today announced 12 educational sessions it is supporting to be presented during the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

“One of our most important goals at SMPTE is to shine a light on technological innovation and how it is shaping media and entertainment,” said Michael Zink, vice president, emerging and creative technologies at WarnerMedia and SMPTE education vice president. “Sponsoring these educational sessions led by our esteemed colleagues is one way to fulfill that goal,” 

The sessions include:

Saturday, April 23

9 - 10:20 a.m. — Keynote session: “Future of Cinema: The Immersive World of MSG Sphere.” Future entertainment promises new medium and multisensory platforms for artists. One of the most ambitious projects of this kind – MSG Sphere – will feature 160,000 square feet of interior immersive displays, groundbreaking spatialized audio and full 4D effects.

Location: Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) N262-264

Moderator: Richard Welsh, senior vice president of innovation at Deluxe

Keynoter: 

• Andrew Shulkind, senior vice president of capture and innovation at MSG Entertainment Corp. 

10:40 a.m. - Noon — “Future of Cinema: Immersive Experiences & Use Cases.”

Location: LVCC N262-264

Moderator: Michael Zink, vice president, emerging and creative technologies, WarnerMedia

Presenters:

• Sarah Ellis, director of digital development at Royal Shakespeare Company
• Michael Koperwas, supervisor of creative development and visual design at ILMxLAB/Lucasfilm
• Jenny Weinbloom, head of studio at Impact Museums

1:30 - 2:50 p.m. — “Future of Cinema: Technology Enablers.”

Location: LVCC N262-264

Moderator: Pete Ludé, consultant, Next Generation Motion Imaging 

Presenters:

• Kevin Amaratunga, vice president of engineering at Scalable Display Technologies
• Gary Feather, business consultant and lighting and display technology expert
• Jeremy Hochman, founder and CEO of Megapixel VR

3:20 - 4:40 p.m. — “Future of Cinema: Beyond the Big Screen.”

Location: LVCC N262-264

Moderator: Michael Zink, vice president, emerging and creative technologies at WarnerMedia

Presenters:

• Chris deFaria, president of Keylight
• Jon Karafin, CEO and founder of Light Field Lab 
• Ajit Ninan, director of engineering at Dolby Labs

Sunday, April 24

10:30 - 11 a.m. — “How Immersive Streaming Experiences Use Data to Enhance Mental Well-Being and Improve Diagnostic Efficacy.”

Location: LVCC W6428

Presenters:

• Christy Lamka, chief knowledge officer and vice president of engagement at Thrive360
• Megan Wagoner, senior vice president at VIMOND

11:30 a.m. - Noon — “Advanced Narratives and Multimodal Computational Content.”

Location: LVCC W6428

Presenter:

• Arvel Chappel III, vice president of advanced narratives and neurotechnology at Warner Bros. Entertainment 

Monday, April 25

10:45 - 11:15 a.m. — “Media in the Cloud and the Super User Group.”

Location: LVCC W6428

Moderator: Richard Welsh, senior vice president of innovation at Deluxe

Presenter:

• Larissa Goerner, senior director product line management of AMPP at Grass Valley 

11:30 a.m. - Noon — “What’s Up with the Metaverse – A Film School’s Approach to Immersive Engagement.”

Location: LVCC W6428

Presenter:

• Chaitanya Chinchlikar, vice president/CTO and head of emerging media at Whistling Woods International 

3:30 - 4 p.m. — “Standardizing Digital Content Delivery With The Interoperable Master Format.”

Location: LVCC 3122

Moderator: Debra Kaufman, journalist 

Presenters:

• Bill Admans, COO at Ateliere
• Carlos Carmona, business development manager at Rohde & Schwarz USA
• Bruno Munger, director of business development at Colorfront
• Randy Reck, director of product development at MTI Film

Tuesday, April 26

10:45 - 11:15 a.m. — “5G Opportunities in Media & Entertainment.”

Location: W6428

Presenter:

• Pam Allison, head of consumer strategy and partnerships in the 5G Labs at Verizon 

11:30 a.m. - Noon — “The Future of Filmmaking.”

Location: W6428

Presenter:

• Annie Chang, vice president of creative technologies at Universal Pictures 

1:45 - 2:15 p.m. — “Power of the Panel – Exploring Virtual Production.”

Location: W6428

Presenter:

• Lisa Gerber, director of media and entertainment at PacketFabric 

More information about the presentations is available on the NAB Show website. 

More information about SMPTE is available on its website.  

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks has announced that it will be demoing a multi-camera control sports app called TVU Replay at the 2022 NAB Show that enables officials to instantly review play during games and for producers to include that live video within their coverage. 

The Replay app is part of an overall modular, microservice-based building block approach from TVU Networks, with the cloud-based production platform TVU Producer providing management of camera inputs, live feeds, audience interaction and audio mixing. 

TVU Replay will be demonstrated for the first time at the 2022 NAB Show between April 23 to 27 in Las Vegas at the TVU booth W3806.

“We’re introducing TVU Replay in response to customer feedback,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “We’ve been speaking with various collegiate conferences and their need for a next-generation review solution. Everything we do is in response to solving customer challenges. With our devops culture, we quickly and easily built a solution that’s versatile for a variety of applications. We’ve created a tool set that has revolutionized the way replay is handled in terms of ease of operation and within a fully realized cloud workflow.”

Called TVU Replay, the app will have two modes – Review and Replay. 

The Review mode enables officials and coaches in game to immediately “review” any close call from their phone or tablet. Replay provides all production elements necessary to output clips to any device. The app is as simple to operate as any smart phone interface, TVU said. 

Frame speed in Replay and Review can be controlled with the user’s fingers on the touchscreen of a phone or tablet or using a video game controller for a laptop. 

“By replacing purpose-built replay hardware with a video game controller, we’re opening up the door to a new, potential talent base,” added Shen. “This is just another example of innovation through listening. We’ve heard from customers about the challenges they face and the roadblocks to doing what they want, how they want. The old way is just that, the old way. Our cloud solutions are available today.”

TVU Replay is ideal for sports teams, sports leagues, broadcasters and production companies.

In addition to Replay, TVU will be demonstrating its latest in cloud and IP solutions that are reinventing the media supply chain. Experience hands-on demos of TVU Channel, a 24/7 cloud-native broadcast solution with: full SCTE ad insertion, FAST Channels, emergency offsite remote master control and dedicated OTT Channels. TVU will also showcase REMI remote production and the latest in aggregated 5G cellular IP transmission with support for 8K, the company said. 

To schedule an appointment for a demonstration at the TVU Cloud Booth #W3806 in the West Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, visit info.tvunetworks.com/nab-2022.

LAS VEGAS—Rohde & Schwarz has announced that it will demonstrate multiple end-to-end workflows for broadcasters, highlighting clear migration paths from SDI to IP to the cloud at 2022 NAB Show between April 23 to 27 in Las Vegas. 

The company will be showing platform agnostic studio production, playout and transcoding capabilities, that delivers all the robustness that broadcasters and production companies expect from traditional broadcast workflows with added flexibility and scalability that the cloud offers, Rohde & Schwarz announced. 

In partnership with Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz is also showcasing 5G Broadcast with a full end-to-end live streaming demonstration at the show. The demonstration will deliver content to smartphone devices and highlight Broadcast/Multicast capabilities over 5G. Content will be re-transmitted using a 5G Broadcast signal over-the-air, giving show attendees a first-hand look at an advanced live mobile experience. 

“Broadcasters and content providers need solutions that support their growth strategies and allow their businesses to adapt to our rapidly shifting market,” explained Jörg Fries, vice president broadcast, amplifier and media solutions at Rohde & Schwarz. “Whatever technology they migrate to, the 24/7 capability and uncompromising quality that lies at the heart of the media and entertainment businesses must never be disrupted. Rohde & Schwarz understands this fundamental business need and we continue to deliver the rock-solid reliability that our brand is known for, combined with the futureproofing and agility of cloud and innovations like that of 5G Broadcast.” 

As part of its commitment to helping customers make their journey from SDI to IP to cloud in ways that meet their specific needs, Rohde & Schwarz will also be offering a comprehensive range of solutions that deliver on-premise and/or virtualizable workflows. 

Other key highlights of the companies plans during the 2022 NAB Show include: 

• Rohde & Schwarz and Pixel Power will together be presenting integrated workflow solutions, from ingest to playout, that include broadcast-wide monitoring, multiviewing and storage.  
• Studio Production – R&S will highlight its live, multi-camera for ingest, transcoding and studio playout functionality for studio production using existing and software solutions for storage that synchronizes content from the facility with the cloud storage. Within a single workflow, studio content being ingested could be passed straight to master control for scheduled or immediate playout. Monitoring and Multiviewing from the cloud, using SRT, brings multiviewer mosaics and monitoring content back to the studio.  
• Post Production – R&S CLIPSTER, which has for many years been the gold standard solution for mastering and distribution of feature films and episodic TV, sees a new competitive CLIPSTER MKII release. The new CLIPSTER platform brings greater functionality to a wider audience at a more competitive price. R&S also recently launched its dedicated post production storage solution, SpycerNode SC, bringing high performance computing power, speed, and reliability to post production workflows. 
• Delivery – Using AWS, directly from the show floor, Pixel Power will present Playout, Branding and Automation workflows via the public cloud as well as demonstrating an on-premise solution. With integrated, software defined, virtualizable monitoring and multiviewing, a powerful portfolio for playout and transmission suites is now available within one system. Fully embedded graphics and branding come with 30 years heritage and experience and offers workflow solutions for a range of sophisticated in-channel and cross channel branding and promotion as well as playout.  
• Distribution – Television & radio transmitters have been at the heart of R&S broadcast technology for more than 70 years. R&S presents its leading-edge software-upgradable TV transmitters as well as the new 5G Broadcast and ATSC3.0 technologies that redefine the future of content delivery on the move. Rohde & Schwarz transmitters fully support ATSC 3.0 core features, including multiple physical layer pipes (PLP), multiple subframes and single frequency network (SFN) capabilities for optimal spectrum utilization. They also support ATSC 3.0 layered division multiplexing (LDM), helping network operators maximize coverage in different reception scenarios, including fixed and mobile reception. 
• 5G Broadcast – To bring a live 5G Broadcast demonstration together, Rohde & Schwarz will use its end-to-end 3GPP compliant solution that comprises a 5G Broadcast enabled R&S TLU9 transmitter, supported by a Spinner filter, and the Broadcast Service and Control Center (BSCC2.0) acting as a core network. The 5G Broadcast solution is built on the 3GPP Rel-16 feature-set, operating in a Receive-Only Mode (ROM), Free-To-Air (FTA) and without the need for a SIM card (SIM-free reception). The 5G Broadcast dedicated mode will be demonstrated with a standalone transmitter while operating within the UHF band. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The 2022 NAB show has announced that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt will participate in a fireside chat on the 2022 NAB Show Main Stage on April 25, 2022 at 10 a.m. in Las Vegas, Nev.

The conversation between Rosenworcel and LeGeyt immediately following the NAB Show Welcome will discuss the Chairwoman’s priorities for 2022 and beyond, her thoughts about the state of the broadcasting industry and her approach to the complex issues facing the FCC.

“In today’s hyper-competitive media landscape, a regulatory framework that allows local radio and television stations to evolve, adapt and better serve their audiences is of vital importance,” said LeGeyt. “Broadcasters look forward to hearing from Chairwoman Rosenworcel about her role as the head of a critical agency and her outlook on the future of our industry.”

Rosenworcel was designated as acting FCC chair by President Joe Biden on January 21, 2021 and became permanent chair following her Senate confirmation for another five-year term in December 2021. She was first confirmed as an FCC commissioner in May 2012 after serving as senior communications counsel to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. She previously worked at the FCC for the Wireline Competition Bureau and as a senior aide to then-Commissioner Michael Copps.

LeGeyt became NAB’s president and CEO in January 2022 after serving as the organization’s chief operating officer. He joined NAB in 2011 and served as executive vice president of Government Relations from 2015-2020. Previously, LeGeyt served as the senior counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy.

More information on the 2022 NAB Show between April 23-27 in Las Vegas can be found here. 

NEW YORK CITY—Global production services and live video transmission provider The Switch will unveil enhancements to its MIMiC Cloud Video Services platform and showcase its work powering coverage of live events around the world at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas. 

The company will discuss how it enables clients, such as sports and esports leagues and news organizations, to package and deliver high-quality live coverage from any location in a cost-effective manner, it said.

“We continue to expand our live production and transmission offering and cloud services platform, MIMiC, to empower our customers to maximize their content value. The result is they can create and deliver more live content for more audiences across more platforms,” said company president and CEO Eric Cooney.

Key customer case studies to be discussed at the company’s NAB Show booth include the work The Switch did for live events such as:

• Providing state-of-the-art connectivity and global delivery for Wimbledon fans in more than 200 countries;
• Creating a custom London studio environment for connected fitness brand Echelon to livestream content;
• Enabling viewers worldwide to take part in immersive Melbourne Cup Carnival race day experiences with multiple viewpoints using next-generation gaming-style platform Aura; 
• Making is possible for cigar brand Drew Estate to livestream real-time virtual shows using MIMiC production and delivery; and 
• Delivering connectivity to the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football from 11 U.S. stadiums for live game feeds to the CONCACAR broadcast center in Florida and distribution to international broadcasters through MIMiC transmission for the 2021 Gold Cup.

The company also will showcase its end-to-end cloud video services that include everything from remote and distributed IP video production to clipping and editing for fast social media posting to transmission; transmission via its global network, offering reach and redundancy; and comprehensive remote production capabilities.

See The Switch at NAB Show booth W4600.

To book an NAB Show appointment, email the company.

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland & PHOENIX, Ariz.—NAGRA, a leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, will feature solutions from across the Kudelski Group that are designed to help content owners, producers and broadcasters securely distribute content from production to delivery at the 2022 NAB Show from April 24-27 in Las Vegas. 

“NAGRA is excited to be back in person at NAB 2022 and looks forward to engaging with clients and prospects in person to discuss new and emerging challenges they’re facing across the entire content value chain,” said Nancy Goldberg, Kudelski Group executive vice president and chief sales officer for NAGRA, which is the the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group. “The year’s lineup includes the latest innovations in pre-release and content streaming protection, forensic watermarking and anti-piracy solutions, as well as our proven, fully-featured secure streaming platform. And, with important topics such as C-band transformation, NextGen TV and cyber-security on the docket, we expect this year’s show will be exciting and informative.”

The NAGRA NAB showcase will include:

• Combatting content piracy from production to distribution: Embraced by clients such
as The Hollywood Reporter, NAGRA will showcase its collaboration with Vision Media to deliver session-based watermarking and trusted screening solutions to protect content without limits, from pre-release viewing through any point in its lifecycle.
• Active Streaming Protection to holistically combat OTT content and service piracy:  Securing content and services is never one-dimensional. Active Streaming Protection is a framework of tools and technologies designed to securely address the threat of piracy for OTT content and its underlying service – going beyond multi-DRM to secure content, service, and revenue.
• Fully-featured streaming platforms, offering the best options for content aggregation, curation and monetization: NAGRA will share the latest news for its solutions to address latest aggregation challenges as operators become digital entertainment hubs – with a focus on HISPASAT, NAGRA’s latest regional collaboration.
• The transformation of the C-Band spectrum and defining the future of satellite distribution: NAGRA and Harmonic have partnered to enable satellite delivery networks to seamlessly distribute video services with optimized bandwidth, improved quality and premium content protection. As a result, Comcast Technology Solutions has embraced the new technologies to clear the C-Band spectrum successfully while maintaining critical video services quality and resilience to their affiliate partners.
• Insights on the important topics and cyber trends driving the industry: Tapping into its NAGRA’s depth of expertise, the company will showcase the opportunities presented by ATSC 3.0/NexGen TV, as well as the emerging role of blockchain and NFTs to prevent broader cyberattacks across the content distribution chain.

More information is available at https://dtv.nagra.com/.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley will highlight its vision for the future of media production with an emphasis on how the company is helping its customers transition their workflows with IP, software and cloud-based technologies at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

“At this year’s NAB, we will present our vision for how we see the future of media production, which I truly believe will allow us to take the leadership role in transforming the media industry,” said newly named Grass Valley CEO Andrew Cross.

“I look forward to meeting our customers and partners face-to-face and demonstrate how the GV vision of the future empowers all producers to build live production environments combining on-premise and software to suite their business and technical needs—and most importantly produce amazing shows," he continued.

At its booth, the company will lay out its vision for what the future production environment will look like as it follows video content workflows from contribution via its cameras through to asset management, editing and playout with GV AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform). Various pods at the booth will host Grass Valley partners, including Appear, Flowics, Haivision and Telos Alliance, each of which will highlight its tools that integrate into AMPP to create complete video workflows, the company said.

Grass Valley solutions on display in the booth will include:

• High-performance cameras, including the LDX 150 and LCS 90 series;
• AMPP, the company’s media platform that enables integration of existing solutions into cloud-based remote production with multiviewer support, remote contribution workflows and other common production functions;
• GV AMPP applications, including AMPP Live Production, which includes full K-Frame on Cloud, replay and color grading; AMPP Asset Management with ingest support, a full workflow engine and AI integration; and AMP Playout for delivery to live linear and OTT;
• Full IP infrastructure and processing products, including GV K-Frame and GV Orbit.

See Grass Valley at NAB Booth C2107.

More information is available on the Grass Valley website.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The 2022 NAB Show has announced that more than 900 companies, including about 160 first-time exhibitors, will be debuting new products and offering first looks at trailblazing technologies through interactive exhibits and live demonstrations during the event, which will run April 23–27 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).

“As a platform for millions of dollars in commerce, the NAB Show is pivotal in ushering in the latest innovations propelling content forward and leading our community into new territory,” said Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president and managing director of Global Connections and Events. “We are excited for attendees and exhibitors to experience the curated journeys available on our reimagined convention floor as we get back to doing business face-to-face.”

Exhibitors will occupy distinct destinations throughout the LVCC’s North, Central and newly built West Hall focused on four main verticals associated with the content lifecycle. These destinations and some participating companies are:

• Create (North Hall): Blackmagic Design, Adobe Systems, Chyron, Ross Video, Wheatstone Corporation
• Create (Central Hall): Sony Electronics, Grass Valley, Canon, ARRI, Riedel Communications, FOR-A, Comrex
• Connect (West Hall): Verizon, AT&T, Bitcentral, Sencore, Xperi, RCS, Stream VX
• Capitalize (North Hall): Dell, Evertz, WideOrbit, ENCO Systems
• Intelligent Content (West Hall): Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, MediaKind, Veritone

Other NAB Show floor destinations focus on specific themes and technologies and include: 

• The ARRI and Fuse Virtual Production Stage includes live demonstrations for a compelling experience in how to take advantage of creative possibilities while optimizing workflows with cost efficiency.
• The ATSC 3.0 Pavilion will showcase deployments, consumer products and services, and the opportunity for broadcasters as ATSC 3.0 continues its expansion across the U.S. and the world.
• Connected Media|IP showcase is designed to provide solutions to creating a focused and engaged audiences through IPTV, OTT, mobile, social and the cloud.
• Future of Delivery is a new destination including an on-floor theater featuring content from industry visionaries looking at topics such as 5G, mobile video, streaming, satelliteIP, LEO satellite and any other technology impacting the future of distribution and delivery in the media broadcast space.
• Futures Park is dedicated to presentation of today’s edge-of-the-art media technologies from research and development facilities around the world. The PILOT booth will showcase an Android Automotive Broadcast Radio Interface as well as ATSC 3.0 technologies including broadcast applications running on commercially available NextGen TV sets.
• The IP Showcase is designed to guide industry professionals on the advantages of switching to IP, how to implement new infrastructure and make the shift as securely as possible.
• NextGen Now is a new attraction showcasing broadcast equipment from multiple manufacturers to help broadcasters understand the challenges and opportunities in implementing the ATSC 3.0 in local markets.
• The Streaming Experience is the largest showcase of its kind with demos of more than 50 streaming video platforms and devices. From smart TVs and streaming boxes to game consoles, attendees can test OTT services side-by-side and get their questions answered.

NAB Show will also feature new experiential zones in every exhibit hall – starting and check-in points where attendees can gain valuable insight into broader industry trends. Designed around themes of inspiration, innovation and implementation, Experiential Zones will offer a variety of activities, from free learning sessions to hands-on demos to unique networking opportunities, to prepare attendees before they dive into various exhibits on the show floor.

Startup companies, PILOT Innovation Challenge winners and NAB Show partners participating within the Experiential Zones are:

• Create: Yella Umbrella, Advanced Image Robotics, iRomaScents, Northeastern University, Spalk
• Connect: Vivoh, BEAM Dynamics, Townsquare Media, Michigan Radio
• Capitalize: tallio.io, CatapultX
• Intelligent Content: Gyrus AI

Guided tours of the show floor will also be offered to NAB members. In addition, CIM Tours will offer a series of industry tours led by industry experts. These curated tours will explore dedicated topics relevant for attendees ranging from business executives to live content creators to engineers and IT professionals.

For complete details, visit www.nab show.com.

LAS VEGAS—At its NAB Show booth, April 23-27 in Las Vegas, Fujifilm will showcase its latest lens technology facilitating virtual production and augmented reality technologies and capabilities in partnership with Mo-Sys and APG Media, as well as introduce attendees to several Fujinon cinema and broadcast lens products and accessories.

“We look forward to not only connecting with our industry colleagues in person at NAB 2022, but also exhibiting our world-class lens range with this critical group of industry experts,” said Stosh Durbacz, national sales manager, Fijifilm North America Corporation, Optical Devices Division. “We are also excited to bring attendees into the world of virtual production and augmented reality on site by displaying and demonstrating products designed to improve production workflows.”

Fujifilm’s role in the growing world of virtual production and augmented reality will be on display in partnership with Mo-Sys—renowned creator and manufacturer of advanced and innovative camera robotics and virtual production technologies—and APG Media, industry experts on LED videowall technology. 

Using Fujinon broadcast and cinema lenses with Mo-Sys StarTracker camera tracking technology and a state-of-the-art 1.5mm pixel pitch LED wall from APG Media, Fujifilm will showcase an end-to-end LED production workflow, highlighting the benefits of designing a solution specifically for cinematic and broadcast virtual production.

“More than ever, and within the last two years especially, virtual production and augmented reality have proven to be a growing, important part of our industry,” said Durbacz. “We are proud to partner with Mo-Sys and APG to educate the NAB Show community about the technology and capabilities available and required to accommodate the needs of this emerging market segment.”

Fujinon product debuts at NAB 2022 include:

• UA107x8.4AF (Auto Focus) lens for fast and accurate subject-tracking performance, placed on a Mo-Sys U50 Remote Head.
• Large Format Premista Series cinema lenses with new Chrosziel Drive Unit and ZEISS eXtended Data, a unique technology that creates opportunities to streamline and increase the accuracy of the lens data.
• Portable broadcast zooms equipped with S10 digital drive units to support modern remote and robotic shooting needs.
• UA125x8 4K-compatible broadcast lens with the world's highest zoom ratio of 125X
• UA46x9.5 portable 4K broadcast lens with Super 35 Musashi expander, delivering an incredible range of 24-1100mm at a relatively light weight (about 12 pounds), ideal for wildlife, sports and any environment where reach and portability is needed.
• Updated zoom and focus controllers for FUJINON box and portable lenses.

Fujinon will be in Booth 6127. To register for the NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022

LAS VEGAS—The 8K Association, a cross-industry group dedicated to promoting the growth of the 8K ecosystem, will be at NAB Show 2022 to demonstrate the evolving maturity of the 8K ecosystem. The organization will have a booth (W5237) in the Futures Park in the West Hall. In the booth will be three state-of-the-art demonstrations:

Benefits of 8K capture from the filmmaker’s perspective, a video created by the producer of the film MANK will showcase specific scenes from the movie to highlight the value of capturing at higher resolution. An audio voice over will clearly delineate what to look for in shots rendered at 8K vs. rendered at 4K.

8K encoding in the cloud—MainConcept will showcase the power of HEVC and hybrid encoding of 8K content in the cloud. Using a remote AWS instance running MainConcept Live Encoder, the demo will illustrate how live cloud encoding impacts system resources while maintaining consistent framerate and bitrate.

Seeing is Believing—Intel facilitated the encoding, packaging and distribution of live 8K content from the Tokyo Olympics. This demo will show some of this footage and provide details on the workflow used to distribute the content over the open Internet – even streaming to consumers 8K TVs in Brazil.

The 8K Association will also describe their recent report detailing the state on 8K codecs, encoders and decoders for live production.

The Association is also undertaking several other projects later in 2022 to help advance the 8K ecosystem, including:

To register for the 2022 NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022.

BARCELONA—NPAW, a provider of video business intelligence and predictive analytics for streaming services, has announced that it will be introducing CDN Balancer, a smart system to balance loads between content delivery networks (CDNs) based on quality of experience, as well as expanded analytics capabilities for video streaming at the 2022 NAB Show from April 23 to 27.

In a first for the multi-CDN industry, CDN Balancer is powered by NPAW’s real-time, vendor-agnostic quality of experience insights. By processing up to 15 billion video plays globally every month, NPAW is the only multi-CDN balancing provider that can detect video performance issues and consumption patterns to optimize video delivery for each user, region, and device, the company said. 

“CDN Balancer is the most powerful, advanced, and robust multi-CDN management solution for video streaming,” says Ferran G. Vilaró, CEO and co-founder of NPAW. “Thanks to our extensive quality of experience data and cutting-edge technology, it enables smart content distribution to reduce infrastructure costs while delivering unparalleled user experiences.”

From buffering to drops in bitrate, CDN Balancer takes into account everything affecting video playback and picks the best CDN accordingly. It consists of two separate tools: CDN Selector and CDN Active Switching, which can be used separately or in combination.

With CDN Selector, customers can create and enable multiple CDN balancing configurations based on a comprehensive set of rules that permit deep customization. Leveraging machine learning, it can identify the right CDN by measuring CDN performance at the end-user level to make the best choice for every single request.

Services can prioritize CDNs to deliver the best possible quality of experience. But they can also take into account pricing and service-level agreements to control costs and ensure the fulfillment of each CDN provider’s quota, the company said. 

CDN Active Switching automatically selects for every video segment the CDN providing the highest video quality. Using real-time bitrate throughput information collected locally, it detects CDN and bandwidth evolutions before they can impact video playback. It is then able to switch between CDNs seamlessly and in a transparent manner multiple times in a single video session.

During the NAB Show, NPAW will also be presenting a series of expanded analytics capabilities for video streaming. Chief among them is the company’s new Application Analytics solution, the only tool in the market combining video analytics and application analytics to offer streaming providers full visibility of their users’ journey.

With Application Analytics, streaming services can understand how users navigate their app’s different sections and features. These pre-video user behavior insights are key to optimizing UI/UX and increasing user engagement. From testing how to best promote content to identifying the main drivers for app usage, Application Analytics gives services the tools they need to enhance their end-to-end video app experience.

NAB attendees can find out more about NPAW’s new products by visiting the company’s booth (W10122) in the West Hall. Events with partners will be taking place at the booth from 4:30 to 6:00 pm PT every evening, with Setplex April 24, Ateme and 3SS on April 25, and Kaltura on April 26. Visitors will be offered a selection of Spanish tapas and drinks.

For more information, visit  www.npaw.com.

UMEA, Sweden—Swedish IP-over-video solutions developer Intinor will showcase the latest capabilities of its Direkt series products, including ultra-low latency, synchronized streams and full support for SRT and RIST and Bifrost, its own transport protocol, at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

Intinor, a participant in the new Future of Delivery Zone in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, also will show its solutions delivering greater efficiency in remote production and remote commentary workflows, it said.

The latest ultra-low latency feature for Intinor’s Direkt series delivers less than half a second end-to-end delay for complex contribution links. Latencies are almost as low as WebRTC, which is used by Zoom, but with no compromise on audio and video quality. With Direkt it is possible to conduct two-way interviews without people talking over each other. Broadcasters now have a plug-and-play solution to support remote production without compromising operational flexibility or on-screen quality, the company said. 

Now a member of RIST Forum, Intinor will show how it supports multiple open source transport protocols, including SRT, RIST and its own Bifrost Reliable Transport (BRT) protocol. Optimized for live video via public internet, BRT combines adaptive bitrate streaming with error correction and network bonding offering redundancy for internet connections with the highest possible robustness to ensure streams are delivered without a single point of failure, it said.

The company also will feature stream synchronization with fixed end-to-end delay on multiple encoders from different cameras, enabling precise frame sync between cameras on the receiver, thereby supporting REMI applications with a single unit equipped with multiple SDI inputs or multiple units, it said.

Planned for an April release, new support for AES67 as part of its intercom solution used for remote production and remote commentary will be featured.

“Our Direkt series has the power and flexibility to send video streams to receivers from multiple vendors – as well as our own. We are looking forward to sharing the latest enhancements and showing customers exactly what they can achieve with our solutions at NAB Show 2022,” said Intinor regional sales manager Daniel Lundstedt, who will deliver a session on interoperability in the CMIP Presentation Theater (W11300), April 24, at the show. “We are also excited to return to engaging with customers and partners face to face after so long.” 

More information is available on the company’s website.

See Intinor at the NAB Show Future of Delivery Zone in the West Hall of the LVCC.

LAS VEGAS—Pliant Technologies will be presenting High Density mode for both its CrewCom and CrewCom CB2 wireless intercom systems at the 2022 NAB Show (Booth C7118). High Density mode is a selectable mode of operation that greatly increases user densities. 

For CrewCom, this new software-selectable mode supports up to 32 Radio Packs (RPs) on a single Radio Transceiver (RT) while dynamically allowing any four of the RPs to communicate in full-duplex across four available talk paths, the company said. 

For CB2, the High Density mode supports up to 16 Radio Packs (RPs) on a single BaseStation. 

In addition, users of both systems will have the flexibility to simultaneously deploy “Normal” mode-enabled RPs and RTs (synced BaseStations for CB2) along with High Density mode-enabled hardware, providing adaptability for application-specific setups, Pliant reported. 

“We are excited to showcase High Density mode for both our CrewCom and CB2 intercom systems to those in attendance at NAB 2022,” says Gary Rosen, vice president of global sales for Pliant Technologies. “With this new firmware update that can be downloaded at no charge to all new and existing users, both the flagship CrewCom (firmware v1.10) and CrewCom CB2 (firmware v1.1) now offers our users a truly amazing value in professional wireless intercom.”  

The latest member of the CrewCom family, the new full-duplex, install-friendly and feature-packed CrewCom CB2, is an ideal solution for small to mid-level applications requiring a reliable, great sounding wireless intercom with excellent RF coverage and range, the company said. 

Available in both 900MHz and 2.4GHz frequency options as well as 900MHz Oceania and 2.4GHz CE compliant models, the system includes the CrewCom CB2 base station and up to six normal mode or 16 High Density mode CRP-12 radio packs to create a powerful but economical wireless intercom system. This latest solution from Pliant provides customers with two intercom channels as well as interconnectivity to all industry standard two- and four-wire intercom systems.

CrewCom is an professional wireless system featuring excellent 7KHz voice quality with 4-conference or 2-conference full-duplex Radio Packs, Seamless Roaming, the highest density of users in the industry, and a host of user features. CrewCom is based on a versatile decentralized, highly scalable network platform. CrewCom wireless products easily put dependable RF coverage where needed, all while employing a consistent user interface throughout the system, the company said. 

Also at NAB 2022, Pliant will be showcasing its MicroCom line of intercoms (MicroCom M and MicroCom XR), including the new 4-Wire I/O Interface and Two-Way Radio Headset Adapter (PAC-MC4W-IO) for MicroCom XR. This small-but-mighty solution adds additional users by connecting a MicroCom XR system to a variety of wired and wireless intercom systems that use an industry-standard 4-wire connection. In addition, it also offers a direct intercom interface from the MicroCom XR to many two-way radio devices. 

More information about Pliant Technologies is available at www.plianttechnologies.com.

OSLO, Norway—Nevion, a Sony Group Company, will feature newly added broadcast control functions for its Video|Path media orchestration platform at the NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

New functions include tally, distribution, salvos, alias naming, endpoint grouping, destination monitoring, a soft panel application for operators and other enhancements to the Video|Path GUI. This initial enhancement is part of a larger plan to provide a consistent system for both broadcast control and network orchestration that supports the complete production lifecycle, the company said.

The additions make the system simpler and more cost-effective to deploy and upgrade workflow control, it added.

Sony and Nevion are working together to leverage Sony’s experience in broadcast control to enhance the product. First up is broadcast control functionality for IP-based broadcast facilities, master control rooms, OB production trucks and other mobile production units, the company said. 

The new release also adds Sony’s NS-BUS IP-based management protocol to the list of supported equipment interfaces, thereby allowing Video|Path to work with Sony hardware panels (MKS-R1620 /R1630/R3210/R4020) and offer connection management to Sony’s SDI-IP converters (NXLK-IP51Y and NXLK-IP50Y) and XVS series switchers, it said.

Sony and Nevion remain committed to maintaining VideoIPath as an open and vendor-neutral platform that allows integration with third party systems and devices, including broadcast control, to provide customers with choice, the companies said.

Nevion Video|Path simplifies video, audio and data routing across both SDI and IP networks (IGMP and SDN), connecting locations, equipment and functionality. Deployed by broadcasters and telecom service providers in local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) applications worldwide, Nevion Video|Path manages underlying complexity and resource capacity to enable incremental transition from SDI to IP, it said.

See Nevion at NAB Show booths C10901, N101LMR and N102LMR.

More information is available on the Nevion website.

LAS VEGAS—The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced today that the affiliate boards of directors of ABC, CBS, FOX Television and NBC will meet in-person during NAB Show, April 23 – 27, 2022, in Las Vegas.

While interrupted in recent years by the pandemic, this marks the 12th year the ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliate boards have met in conjunction with NAB Show.

“As the premier destination for media and entertainment, we are excited to once again host at NAB Show the broadcast television executives who are shaping our business,” said NAB Executive Vice President of Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp. “We look forward to offering them a platform for a hands-on, in-depth exploration of the products, innovations and ideas that are revolutionizing the content landscape.”

To register for the NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Mediaproxy, a developer of software-based IP compliance solutions, will return to Las Vegas for the 2022 NAB Show between April 23 and 27 to demonstrate the latest upgrades to its flagship LogServer logging and monitoring system. 

The updates include extended support for SMPTE ST 2110, NMOS, advanced SCTE Ad-Insertion trigger monitoring and configuration across pooled clusters of distributed systems.

"Compliance is now an intrinsic component of both engineering and business," explained Mediaproxy chief executive Erik Otto. "Modern multi-channel broadcasting and streaming calls for ever more sophisticated and reliable systems that can scale across IP networks and cloud. With over 20,000 channels deployed, LogServer has become the global standard for compliance monitoring."

LogServer is a software-based compliance platform that has been developed over the past 20-plus years to reliably log and monitor broadcast and OTT sources. It is able to integrate seamlessly into any operational environment, whether on-premises, virtual or in the cloud, and supports video, audio and real-time data from a wide range of current broadcast sources, including 4K, HDR, 10-bit, HEVC, TSoIP, SMPTE ST 2110/2022-6/2022-7, Zixi and SRT, the company said. 

The proliferation of channels and explosion in streaming over recent years has demanded more sophisticated monitoring as media services and playout facilities have had to accommodate a wide range of distribution platforms and technologies, including Next Gen TV, IP-driven workflows and cloud migration. 

To help clients address those changes, Mediaproxy has continued to develop new functionality for LogServer to offer the most efficient and comprehensive monitoring technology available.

These improvements, which will be displayed on Booth W7409 at NAB 2022, include advanced clustering of decentralized systems on IP networks, including the cloud, plus a new pooled interface platform that provides highly optimized systems configuration at scale. 

This feature marks a new era in distributed access, set-up and configuration across entire organizations that have both extended local and global footprints across both on-prem and cloud, the company said.