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Event Review: Broadcast Solutions Under One Roof
1 April 2006It is that time of the year when the broadcast, production and post industry is hushed in muted anticipation of “The World’s Largest Electronic Media Showâ€, better known as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Traditionally, as predictions abound for what the industry can expect from the upcoming NAB show in April, technology vendors are tight-lipped about the new products that they will be launching during the five-day exhibition-cum-conference. Such clandestine operations go on to ensure that the NAB rollouts are greeted with genuine excitement and surprise.
01: Marc Valentin; 02: An IPTV seminar in progress; 03: Paul Cheesbrough, BBC Head of Technology, presented on his company’s new file-based workflow.
Those of us who can’t wait that long, can find comfort in events like the 2006 Grass Valley Media Summit in Palm Springs. A precursor to NAB, the Media Summit provided an opportunity for the industry to convene on the hottest topics at NAB 2006 – DI and HD are neck-to neck on popularity – and preview some of Thomson Grass Valley’s most launch worthy merchandise. The company also took the chance to announce new initiatives as well as promote Canopus, a Japanese listed firm it acquired in January.
Held from 26 February – 2 March 2006, the event gathered industry leaders from the world of movies, broadcasting, post production and professional AV. As one of the Summit’s main objectives was to provide a platform for guests and delegates to share their experiences of developing technologies and workflows, several influential speakers from the broadcasting world were invited to give keynotes on their pet topics.
Paul Cheesbrough, BBC’s Head of Technology, Production, described how file-based production brings real benefits in post, whether for rapid turnaround news or in craft editing. Charles Cataldo, Senior Vice President of Broadcast and Studio Operations of HBO talked about the challenges and opportunities of versioning and delivering content for mobile devices.
Craig Porter, Executive Vice President of KRON 4 in San Francisco – an independent station with one of the largest news departments on the West Coast – gave a tutorial style presentation on desktop editing in the HDV environment using the Canopus Edius platform.
Tackling a decidedly heavier subject on the practical implementation of IP TV, Kevin Feeney, Senior Information Technology Engineer of Cornell University, left no stone unturned with his in-depth lecture.
Predictably, the camera-centered presentations were the crowd pleasers, and not least because one of the speakers hailed from Tinseltown. Underlining the importance of using technology to support the creative vision, David Stump, a leading ASC Director of Photography based in Hollywood, relayed his experiences of the Viper FilmStream digital cinematography camera on two very different movies: Red Riding Hood with director Randal Kleiser and What Love Is with director Mars Callahan.
Finally, Dave Lemmink, Director of Engineering for Nocturne Productions, talked about the increasing use of HD for displays in the professional AV arena. Lemmink is currently on tour with popular singer Jon Bon Jovi, and Kristi Ventura, an executive with leading US staging company Creative Technology.
“The entire Grass Valley team is honored that these respected leaders were able to give their time and share their valuable experiences, emphasizing the practical, technical and creative successes achievable with Grass Valley products,†said Marc Valentin, president of the Grass Valley business within Thomson.
Grass valley announces financial services program
While the interface between technology and creativity may be the de facto general topic of the day, bottom line issues continue to surface during many of the Q&A sessions; and were deliberated upon by the delegates and visitors. Addressing some of these concerns, Grass Valley announced the implementations of its Financial Services Program.
The company had announced a new capital lending service in the form of Grass Valley™ Financial Services program. Launched in partnership with National City Commercial Capital Corp., it is a customer-finance initiative that was made immediately available to customers throughout the United States —from individuals to large media organizations — and covers all Grass Valley technologies, systems, and services.
The initiative hopes to ease the transition to multi-format and multi-distribution approaches for its media and entertainment customers. Marc Valentin rationalized:
“The Grass Valley Financial Services program is a key addition to our support of customers. With it, we can enable our customers to move ahead with key shifts and expansions—such as the move to HD and implementation of multiple distribution strategies—without the added worry of limitations related to capital budgets.â€
In keeping with the open approaches and technologies that Grass Valley provides in its digital applications solutions and services, the new financial service was structured to usher customers more readily into expansion mode, particularly
those as compelled by the changes in the technological environment.
Grass Valley Financial Services features a number of financing program options which are backed by National City Commercial Capital and tailored to the dynamics of the specific markets Grass Valley serves, from broadcast and production to professional audio/visual and distribution and transmission. Each program enables a buyer to amortize their investments in Grass Valley equipment, software license packages, and engineering services over an extended period of time.
“We are very proud to partner with Grass Valley and believe this will be a mutually-beneficial relationship,†said Vince Rinaldi, president and CEO National City Commercial Capital. “As one of the leading broadcast and media equipment providers in the world, Grass Valley has an exceptional reputation for innovation and industry-leading technology. Through our extensive sales-aid financing expertise and creativity, we are confident this new program will assist Grass Valley with accelerated equipment placements while providing customers with superior end-to-end solutions that include equipment, services and financing.â€
National City Media Finance, a division within NC4, is solely focused on financial services for the U.S. media and entertainment industry. NC4, a vendor leasing finance company, is a subsidiary of National City, the eighth-largest bank in the United States. Through a series of phased rollouts, these financial packages will initially be of f e red through Grass Valley’s North Amer ican di rect sales force, and then through its reseller networks.
The canopus connection
One of Thomson Grass Valley’s pre-NAB buzz surrounds Thomson’s January acquisition of Canopus, a Japan-based company that specializes in digital video and graphics hardware and software for broadcasters, prosumers as well as video professionals and enthusiasts.
Pundits will be eager to see how the new acquisition fits into Thomson’s jigsaw of an enlarged presence in the professional fields of video broadcast, production and post; particularly in the area of news production. As it stands, Canopus’ range of effects-intensive editing software and hardware complements Grass Valley’s own suite of news editing products to create an integrated end-to-end news production workflow.
Hiro Yamada, who founded the publiclisted firm in 1983, will continue to manage the Canopus business. “I see this as a positive collaboration for Canopus, for Grass Valley and Thomson, and most of all, for all our customers,†said Mr. Yamada. “We look forward to strengthening Thomson’s presence in Asia – especially in Japan – and the global markets served by Thomson and Grass Valley.â€
Yamada is optimistic about Canopus’ contribution to the ongoing synergy between Thomson and Grass Valley, citing R&D as one of the Japanese firm’s key strengths. “Our products for editing, encoding and distribution are wholly engineered and designed by our in-house team of experts. These products not only support all formats in HDV, they are robust and technologically driven for optimum application.â€
Indeed, Thomson officials are keen to leverage on the Canopus brandname beyond that of editing products, but also tapping on its resources in the production of software transcoding devices, software conversion software, and PC board-level MPEG encoding products. Meanwhile, Grass Valley has announced yet another exciting addition to its stable of Canopus products.
Known as MediaEdge3, it is a new LAN-based video delivery solution that supports video-on demand (VOD), live broadcast, streaming, digital signage applications and pre-programmed playback of high-definition (HD) video content. The system from Canopus enables users to deliver HD video content for VOD, live broadcast and streaming media, amongst other uses.
The MediaEdge3 solution is a video distribution system that uses Canopus MPEG compression technology to deliver HD video across the enterprise. It also represents an expansion of the Grass Valleyâ„¢ ProLineâ„¢ series of products for professional audio/video (ProAV) applications and users. Its modular design distributes HD MPEG-2, as well as SD MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 video content to multiple PCs and set-top box clients.
“With the increasing popularity of HD video displays and content, MediaEdge3 provides retailers, content providers, and integrators with a flexible and efficient way to deliver their message with the remarkable clarity of high definition,†said Hiro Yamada.
The major advantage of MediaEdge3 over traditional video distribution systems is in how it facilitates an easy system to update and manage content. With MediaEdge3, information is simply updated on a server once, and all clients are updated automatically.
The total HD solution
The Canopus acquisition points squarely to the fact that integrated HD solutions have become more imperative than ever. As more broadcasters become savvy to the availability of quality and affordable approaches to multi-format acquisition and production workflows, the race will be on to provide them a holistic system that meets these requirements, from concept to delivery.
In this regard, the new Grass Valley™ Ignite™ HD solution comes as no surprise. Touted as the world’s first integrated high-definition (HD) acquisition and production platform, the expanded Ignite HD platform now includes a series of robotic cameras and an updated programmable controller.
A link between the control room and newsroom, the Ignite line combines both the hardware and software tools that equip one or two operators to perform the multiple roles normally required of a fully functional production and broadcast unit. It adheres to a single workflow and multi-distribution strategy, and allows broadcasters and video production studios to migrate from SD to HD, leveraging Grass Valley’s new Kayak™ HD compact video production switcher frame. This product falls in line with Thomson’s Two Year Plan, which includes an overall strategy to help its global media and entertainment customer base acquire, create, edit, and manipulate, aggregate, repurpose, and package their high-value content. The Ignite line is part of Grass Valley’s strategy
to deliver flexible, multi-format HD; as well as IT- and IP-based solutions to A link between the control room and newsroom, the Ignite line combines both the hardware and software tools that equip one or two operators to perform the multiple roles normally required of a fully functional production and broadcast unit. It adheres to a single workflow and multi-distribution strategy, and allows broadcasters and video production studios to migrate from SD to HD, leveraging Grass Valley’s new Kayak™ HD compact video production switcher frame. This product falls in line with Thomson’s Two Year Plan, which includes an overall strategy to help its global media and entertainment customer base acquire, create, edit, and manipulate, aggregate, repurpose, and package their high-value content. The Ignite line is part of Grass Valley’s strategy to deliver flexible, multi-format HD; as well as IT- and IP-based solutions to its global customer base.
Ignite HDC is a robotically controlled HD broadcast camera system, that was announced as part of new upgrades to the Ignite family line. Grass Valley also introduced the Ignite SDC robotic camera system for standard-definition production. Further, Grass Valley announced that its SHOT Director multicamera joystick controller supports the Ignite SDC and HDC robotic systems, allowing a single user to easily control up to 16 cameras. It provides the ability to manually control pan, tilt, focus, zoom, iris and other settings by way of joystick and rotary controls, as well as the ability to program and recall location and movement presets. It also includes a backlit LCD screen and a menu-driven system for programming and controlling all of the key parameters of the new Ignite SDC and HDC camera systems via IP protocol.
Several new accessories that complement Grass Valley’s high-definition (HD) and multi-format camera systems were also rolled out. These include the Grass Valley SuperExpander 7†viewfinder and the Grass Valley MOBox for interoperability with triax and fiber-optic cable infrastructures as well as improved triax-based performance.
Grass valley reaps DI harvest
While the 2006 Grass Valley Media Summit was essentially an informative platform that brought customers and partners up to speed with the latest product offerings and initiatives by Thomson Grass Valley, it was also an opportune time to review past performances. As part of the aggressive two-year growth strategy by Thomson, the company’s Grass Valley business announced that it has achieved worldwide digital intermediate sales worth more than €12.5 million for Q4 2005.
The sales figures were predominantly attributed to purchases made by leading post-production houses in Hollywood, France, and India. In fact, these alone constitute almost half of the worldwide installations of Grass Valley Spirit 4K and 2K film scanners and DataCine® systems, Shadow telecine systems, and Bones™ open post-production framework solutions.
Post-production momentum continues to build in India in particular, where orders from five content creators totaled. Spirit 2K and Spirit 4K systems were delivered to Prime Focus, Prasad, and Avitel. Meanwhile, Shemaroo located in Mumbai is using the Spirit 2K platform with a view to upgrading to the 4K version. These facilities also took delivery of a variety of Bones applications.
“Digital post dramatically increases production efficiency and creative power and Grass Valley’s post-production products’ momentum worldwide is indicative of the demand for this,†said Marc Valentin, president of the Grass Valley business within Thomson.
Thomson’s Two-Year Plan identifies the broadening of the company’s offering and client base in media and entertainment as a growth driver.
| Grass Valley Products Explained Grass Valley’s real-time Spirit 2K and Spirit 4K systems eliminate the traditional bottleneck of digitizing original camera negatives while delivering unrivalled image quality. Spirit 4K scanning is an order of magnitude faster than competitive products, representing a significant productivity boost. The Spirit 2K scanner is based on the same technology platform as Spirit 4K and is capable of being upgradeable in the field to full 4k functionality. The Grass Valley Shadow solution is a highly cost-effective telecine for standard- and high- definition television. Using key technologies from the Spirit family, its high level of stability and repeatability, and extremely low running costs, make it the ideal choice for all video telecine work. The Bones platform is made up of a number of resolution-independent modules running on Linux-based workstations. The solution uses a number of industry standard interfaces to manipulate and share video or film sourced media across a number of post-production processes. Bones includes modules for data ingesting and transfer, project management, image restoration, scaling, and color correction. All modules share the same look and feel enabling content creators to focus on the creative process. The LUTher color space converter is a three-dimensional look up table (3D LUT) processor which adapts different color spaces used in different formats. This technology became key with the advent of the digital intermediate workflow where creative artists and colorists perform color correction on monitors for final film output later in the process. LUTher 3D LUT Designer is an integrated software application designed to create 3D look-up tables for specific needs. |
