TVT: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2016 NAB Show?
Mo Goyal
GOYAL:We anticipate that the three most significant technology trends at the NAB Show this year will be: Uncompressed Video Over IP, Ultra HD (4K) HDR and Cloud Services. With uncompressed video over IP, the discussion will be focused on the varying options that are available and what makes sense today. Throughout the Evertz booth this year, we will be highlighting Adaptive Sample Picture Encapsulation (ASPEN) and its interoperability with members of the ASPEN Community. ASPEN is an open-format, standards-based transport protocol, which offers a flexible method of transporting video, audio and data over a scalable IP network. Based on previous deployments and the maturity of the technology, we believe that ASPEN is the only viable choice to deploy IP in the live production environment today.
The topic of Ultra HD has been discussed at the NAB Show over the past two years, however, with the addition of high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG), we expect Ultra HD services will excel this year. Both HDR and WCG create an immersive image, which will appeal to the end viewer. Hence, the increased interest from our customers to move from the proof-of-concept stage to a full-time Ultra HD channel as soon as possible.
This year, there will be more conversations around cloud services and the viability of it for our customers. Both public and private cloud services offer customers a way to provide content more effectively without the large capital expenditures in a physical infrastructure. We expect a lot of interest in this space, as customers have started to launch mainstream channels using cloud-based services.
TVT: What will be your most important product news?
GOYAL: We will have a lot of product announcements around the major technology trends mentioned earlier. For uncompressed video over IP, we will be demonstrating the new features and capabilities of our Software Defined Video Networking (SDVN) solutions. One aspect is interoperability with other ASPEN Community members’ products and the other transporting uncompressed Ultra HD over IP. In each case MAGNUM, our SDVN orchestration and control software, is an important component of the demonstration. MAGNUM is the most advanced SDVN orchestration and control software on the market today, and it is the core of over 40+ global SDVN installations.
In addition to transporting uncompressed Ultra HD over IP, we will highlight other Ultra HD products, such as DreamCatcher for Ultra HD production, OVRT-LIVE-4K for integrated channel playout, and 3080UEP and 3482TXE for contribution and distribution compression of Ultra HD.
We will also be highlighting our cloud-based platforms for both media asset management and channel playout. Both Mediator-X and OVRT-LIVE-VM will demonstrate to our customers the viability and reliability of these services for their mainstream channels.
TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
GOYAL: At Evertz we always take an innovate approach to every new product or feature we introduce and our customers recognize this. This year we’ll continue to demonstrate this mindset with new features on products such as MAGNUM SDVN and OvertureRT LIVE platforms.
MAGNUM SDVN is the software control and orchestration layer for our leading SDVN solutions. Although having a large portfolio of media gateways and high-capacity switch fabrics is important, it is the control system that will win the business. MAGNUM SDVN really sets us apart from the competition. MAGNUM SDVN provides seamless (and complete) control of hybrid SDI IP facilities while maintaining a simple source, destination and take operation. This year, we’ve added new features (like topology and path view) that enable our customers (the broadcast engineers) to configure, manage and maintain the hybrid (or purely) IP solutions with tools that “look and feel” like their SDI world.
With the OvertureRT LIVE platform, we’ve created a completely virtual integrated channel playout called OVRT-LIVE-VM. The key differentiator from other products in the market is that the virtual platform offers the complete feature set of the physical version of OvetureRT LIVE. There’s no compromise or sacrifice of features. This is extremely important for media companies and playout service providers as they look for cost-effective private/public cloud service models for disaster recovery and short-term channels.
TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
GOYAL:The NAB Show is the biggest event for our industry. As manufacturers, we use the NAB Show as a major milestone for our product development process and it is the best platform to showcase new technologies that address today’s issues such as ASPEN and Ultra HD HDR. The show gives us the opportunity to engage customers for their feedback on our new product ideas and development. Lastly, it enables us to educate the industry on upcoming trends and the future of technology.
