LAS VEGAS—There are many different types of equipment used for news production, everything from cameras to satellite dishes to media management systems. One of the interesting evolutions in the industry is how gear that was developed for ENG applications in particular, is now used for a variety of media creation and management tasks.
This is due at least in part to Moore’s Law, the rule that doubles the complexity of electronic components every two years or so. In the television industry, this means that devices get additional features and capabilities regularly—as the price of the gear either stays the same or slowly reduces. Equipment that could only be afforded by well-paid news organizations is now available to a much bigger range of content creators, at very friendly prices.
This has led to an explosion of products and capabilities, and it gets used for programming from reality shows to sports to films. ENG is not just for ENG anymore.
Here is a brief look at what is new for news production teams at the 2022 NAB Show at press time:
Ingest & Editing
Bitcentral will spotlight its Precis news production system that streamlines ingest and editing. Precis is scalable to grow with an organization, and works with a range of editing software, ENG cameras and newsroom computer systems.
Grass Valley will feature its GV STRATUS production and content management system. Grass Valley’s AMPP Connected STRATUS solution now allows users to have access to content across multiple sites and teams by federating the content in the cloud. AMPP also gives journalists access to a full-featured web-based editor that can be accessed from anywhere on any computer and works with proxies for fast response.
Dalet will highlight its new Pyramid newsroom system, a cloud-agnostic solution that supports multiple cloud providers, and can run in virtualized environments that support remote productions.
“Dalet Pyramid enables news storytellers to incorporate diverse content from any source into the virtual newsroom, including remote camera/ENG contributions and backpack integration,” said Raoul Cospen, director of business development (EMEA and APAC) for Dalet.
IP-Based Production
Aviwest will showcase its new PRO460 4K UHD 5G/4G transmitter, designed for remote and at-home video production. The PRO460 supports 4K UHD and multicamera workflows for up to four high-resolution, fully frame-synced feeds.
“The Aviwest PRO460 addresses many of the challenges that broadcasters face in ENG and for live-event remote production,” said Ronan Poullaouec, chief technology officer and co-founder of Aviwest.
Dejero will feature its new EnGo 265 mobile transmitter with built-in GateWay mode. The two-in-one mobile transmitter and internet gateway delivers reliable wireless connectivity with the new GateWay mode offering wireless broadband internet connectivity in the field. An improved bandwidth blending algorithm enhances all latency setting and delivers glass-to-glass latency as low as 0.5 seconds over bonded cellular connections, the company said.
LiveU will show new and existing products in its large booth, which features a live stage for fireside chats, panels and workflow demonstrations with other cloud production providers including Blackbird, Grass Valley, Grabyo, highlighting the ongoing removal of traditional and restrictive infrastructure. The company will highlight its contribution and distribution solutions that include the multicamera LU800 5G production-level field unit. LiveU will also demo its Air Control solution to get remote guests and live feeds into the system and on the air.
Also new is Cloud Connect, which simplifies live productions, reduces costs, and delivers a faster time-to-air by leveraging LiveU’s automated cloud workflows.
TVU Networks will showcase a suite of cloud-based applications for remote production and new 5G-enabled transmitters and routers. Most of TVU’s technology is 5G-enabled and has been so for years. This includes the TVU One mobile transmitter, TVU Rack Router, and TVU MLink transmitter.
TVU’s cloud-native pay-as-you-go TVU Channel playout platform, introduced in late October, supports hundreds of thousands of viewers. Designed for one of the world’s largest broadcasters, TVU Channel enables a user to schedule live and VOD programming from a web browser.
Education Sessions
Off from the exhibit floor, several conferences will consider current and future trends and advances in newsgathering.
On Sunday afternoon, April 24, in the CMIP Presentation Theater, Josh Keller from the Video Call Center will answer the question, “Are IP-Remotes Causing Headaches?” During the session, he’ll discuss ways to reduce latency, dropouts and improve the overall quality of IP remote delivery, an issue that has been top of mind for news stations that have had to increase their reliance on IP remotes for the past two years.
At “Advanced News Acquisition Workflows” on Tuesday morning, April 26, Ernie Ensign, senior director of news technology for Sinclair Broadcast Group, will look at how the use of metadata can help improve news workflows from the newsroom computer system to cameras in the field.
Tuesday afternoon, during “Breaking News Barriers: 175 Years of Innovation in Factual Reporting,” representatives from the Associated Press will discuss its evolution from the days of communicating via horseback to today’s digital media technologies.
News teams will also want to check out “ATSC 3.0 as a Use Case for Public Safety Communications: Development Milestones,” on Sunday morning in the West Hall. This session will focus on how the use of advanced emergency alerting systems in NextGen TV will help broadcasters improve their reporting and public safety commitments.
With plenty of competition and constant product improvement, news production systems at NAB Show 2022 promise new features, excellent performance and the agility to get your content where it needs to go—when it needs to get there.
For more information on the 2022 NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022
