Beyond Productions turned to EMG/Gravity Media Australia to deliver the broadcast technology and production services for Cold Chisel’s recent live performance at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.

The concert production is at the heart of “Cold Chisel: The Big Five-0,” a feature documentary that premieres May 11 on Australia’s Seven and 7Plus. EMG/Gravity Media deployed one of its state-of-the-art outside broadcast (OB) trucks, 12 cameras and a crew of 48 to deliver a front-row seat at the concert.

The documentary celebrates 50 years of iconic anthems burned into Aussie culture, including songs like “Khe Sanh,” “Flame Trees,” “Choirgirl” and “When The War Is Over.”

With exclusive interviews, archive footage and rare photographs from the band, “Cold Chisel: The Big Five-0” helps explore the lasting impact of the band. “Cold Chisel: The Big Five-0” is a Beyond Productions feature documentary produced in association with the Seven Network. Writer/producer Paul Clarke is a renowned filmmaker with previous award-winning and celebrated work.

“We approached this production in a non-conventional way, using film cameras around the stage, OB long lenses, IMAG cameras, lots of Steadicam shots in the audience, fly cams and drones and the latest minicams around the band,” Clarke said. “From the start to the end, Gravity kept solving all the problems. Their team was incredible, and we have a Cold Chisel moment in a bottle that will last for decades.”

More information is available on the EMG/Gravity Media Australia website.

SYDNEY—Fujinon has announced that the Seven Network has selected its 4K lenses as part of Seven’s Sydney-based news operations planned relocation to a high-definition television production facility at the Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh.

The Seven Network is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia and the largest commercial network in terms of population reach. 

“Many of Seven’s lenses used in the field have provided over twenty years’ excellent service. The initial aim of the new lens purchase was to ensure the same extended life of reliability with the same excellent results,” explained Seven Network head of broadcast engineering and development, John Albiston. “The new lenses also had to be 4K, extremely high quality and work seamlessly under robotic control.”

After a comprehensive assessment and evaluation Albiston and the Seven team chose multiple Fujinon UA14x4.5BERD-S10, UA18x5.5BERD-S10 and UA23x7.6BERD-S10 4K lenses.

“We purchased Fujinon 4K models with an S-10 drive specifically designed for these lenses to be used with robotics,” Albiston continued. “The S-10s have well and truly fulfilled our requirements and worked seamlessly both in the field and in our metropolitan studios under robotic control.”

The new S-10 drive unit and Fujinon 4K lenses used by Seven offer perfect compatibility with major robotics systems such as Shotoku, MRMC, Ross Video, Vinten/Radamec, Telemetrics and KXWELL, the companies said. 

They provide improved focus and zoom operability and include breathing compensation technology (BCT) as standard. This compensation mechanism synchronizes the zoom movement with the focus movement to automatically correct for changes in the angle of view, thereby minimizing breathing and keeping the image size constant. This function also eliminates the need to reset the angle of view after focusing, providing a high level of operability.

The S-10 also enables the user to change a 2x extender remotely by using an ECU-2C Extender Change Unit and thus, is ideally suited for crane use in a studio, Fujinon said. 

Seven’s new S-10 drive units and Fujinon lenses are also effective for CG synthesis and come with a 16-bit encoder, capable of making a high-resolution output of lens data including zoom and focal position information. They can be linked with various other systems such as a virtual studio system for combining CG images with live action footage.

“Our Fujinon 4K S-10 capable lens field application involves general news acquisition where they give us robust service and superb operational features including great zoom range and speed,” Albiston concluded. “The Fujinon 4K glass is, notwithstanding the many HD applications in which they are used. These new lenses also excel in the studio under Mosart control room automation where high accuracy digital servos eliminate any discernible dither when zooming. These lenses are a major step forward for our crews. All in all, the Fujinon UA14x4.5BERD-S10, UA18x5.5BERD-S10 and UA23x7.6BERD-S10 4K lenses with S-10 drives are excellent and the best lenses in the market for our requirements.”

MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND—Seven Networks provided full court coverage of the 2017 Australian Open—which took place in January—and with the help of Yospace was able to monetize its online coverage.

Seven Networks provide online streaming coverage of action from all 16 courts in play during the annual tournament, but in the past had encountered some problems with ad insertion for its live streams. Some issues included the performance of mid-roll advertising and the integrity of the stream. Using Yospace’s Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) platform, Seven was able to insert advertising before the stream is delivered to the platform/device, which it says is more in line with viewers broadcast television expectations.

The DAI platform translates established systems to an OTT environment, ensuring frame-accuracy and seamlessness to online advertising, while also being able to create customized streams for particular viewer requirements or interests. The Yospace system offers a server-side stitching approach designed for modern, multi-platform broadcast advertising strategy by allowing a single stream, with ads already stitched in, to be delivered across multiple platform/devices. The DAI system can also track ads through an SDK embedded in the player.

“Yospace offered great flexibility and really understood the broadcast workflow,” said Damian McNamara, head of digital video, infrastructure and operations for Seven West Media. “The platform excels at delivering a custom experience for each user, and that enabled a seamless delivery to premium and non-premium viewers.”