File delivery dominates IBC

With the move from tape to file-based delivery of programmes only weeks away, tools to support the Digital Production Partnership (DPP)-led change received a lot of attention at IBC.

On Saturday, the first companies to have developed file delivery tools that have passed criteria in the DPP and Advanced Media Workfl ow Association (AMWA) Compliance Programme were announced at the show.

These were: Telestream’s Vantage transcoding and fi le-based workfl ow software; Root 6’s workfl ow management and automation tool ContentAgent; Cinegy’s Air Pro and Player playout tools; and Dalet’s AmberFin transcoding platform.

With 23 initial members of its certification programme, more products from other companies are expected to be ratifi ed in the weeks ahead, the DPP said.

The DPP is now turning its attention to a roadmap for UHD standards, as well as the “tricky” issue of fi le storage, which DPP digital storage and distribution workstream lead

Helen Stevens described as “the greatest need for producers as they move to fully digital workflows”.

The potential for manufacturers to profi t from the shift away from tape and the need to deliver content to multiple platforms was underlined by the Inter national Association of Broadcast Manufacturers (IABM) chief exec Peter White.

During the IABM’s ‘What future for broadcast technology?’ session, he questioned whether R&D spend is aligned to market needs.

“If you are not into workflow management, managing assets and providing that sort of service, you are likely to be missing an opportunity.”

DEALS

If any confirmation was needed that storage is a particular area of growth for the broadcast technology market, it came on the fourth day of IBC when IT giant Oracle announced it had agreed to acquire Front Porch Digital.

The latter offers cloud and on-premise systems, including Samma, DivaArchive, DivaDirector and Lynx, which enable organisations such as BBC Studios and Post Production to manage their content.

Oracle, which has some 400,000 customers and last year amassed £23bn ($37.2bn) in revenue, said it would “optimise Front Porch’s products with Oracle technologies while maintaining the technologyagnostic profi le for Front Porch’s offerings”.

Separately, it may not have taken up much room on Blackmagic Design’s stand, but the company’s acquisition of Eyeon Software could prove to be significant for the post industry.

Eyeon’s Fusion compositing, visual effects and motion graphics software was showcased at the event. It has around 30,000 users and has been used on shows such as Breaking Bad, by Prime Focus for its stereoscopic conversion work, and to produce GFX for TV New Zealand’s coverage of sporting events.

Blackmagic chief executive Grant Petty drew a comparison with the fi rm’s 2009 acquisition of DaVinci Systems, the developer of the Resolve grading software, which Blackmagic has since developed into a non-linear editing system.

Blackmagic director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Stuart Ashton said it was too early to say exactly what the company had in store for the software because the deal only closed 10 days before the show.

“[Fusion] could be kept independent or integrated into Resolve. All options are open to us at the moment,” he said.

On the first day of the show, UK systems integrators TSL and IPE announced a merger, with IPE’s Colin Judge set to become managing director of the combined systems integration company.

TSL’s Chris Exelby will head up its combined products division.

Other deals, in the form of kit sales, were also announced in Amsterdam.

Gearhouse Broadcast agreed a multimillionpound deal to buy the fi rst 50 of Hitachi’s SK-UHD4000, 4K UHD camera systems, which were launched at IBC. Gearhouse expects to take delivery of the first batch of cameras by December, in time for use at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup international football tournament in Australia in January.

PRODUCTION

Before IBC had even closed its doors, Sony announced it had received 200 UK orders from the likes of CVP and Visual Impact for its PXW-FS7 camera, which it unveiled at the show.

Unlike NAB earlier in the year, there wasn’t a glut of camera announcements at IBC, with most of the manufacturers exhibiting in Amsterdam opting for European debuts and tweaks to their ranges rather than full-scale launches.

For those in need of a new hardware fix, Sony obliged with the launch of the FS7, which the manufacturer said completes its line-up of 4K cameras.

It is also Sony’s first 4K XDCam camera to feature a Super35 CMOS sensor.

Also new for the show was the company’s PXW-X500, a solid-state memory shouldermounted camcorder that will replace the PMW-500 model for ENG, sport, live productions and documentaries.

Arri’s announcement a few weeks ahead of IBC that it is to release software upgrades for its Amira, which will allow the camera to shoot ProRes UHD footage, ensured a steady stream of delegates eager to cast an eye over footage shot with the camera.

Blackmagic Design’s focus was on other parts of the broadcast chain, but it did add PL versions of its Production Camera and Cinema Camera, which seems to complete the range of lens mounts offered by its suite of cameras.

AJA’s Cion and Panasonic’s Varicam, both unveiled in Las Vegas in April, were shown to a European audience for the first time.

Panasonic’s super 35mm, 4K Varicam 35 and 2/3-type highspeed HD Varicam HS are set to ship in October, while AJA’s Cion is still “coming soon”.

AUDIO

The move to IP infrastructure was apparent among some audio manufacturers, with the AES67 standard for audio-over- IP, which was published by the Audio Engineering Society last year, present in some of the kit launched in Amsterdam.

Studer announced AES67 integration for its Infi nity Core processor, which drives the company’s flagship Vista X and Vista V digital audio consoles.

Riedel Communications released Tango TNG-200, its first fully net worked intercom platform based on the AES67 audio-over- IP protocol and audio video bridging (AVB) standard.

Lawo also launched its mc36 mixing desk, which is equipped with Ravenna IP standard and AES67 functionality.

POST

Adobe released a series of updates for its Creative Cloud apps, including new project management tools for Premiere Pro.

Aside from changes to the software’s user interface, the main focus was on boosting its ability to handle multiple projects and collaborative workflows.

“One of the biggest requests we get from people switching from Final Cut Pro 7 is multiple open projects,” said Adobe Premiere Pro product manager Al Mooney.

As well as the ability to open several media browser panels, improved ability to browse Premiere Pro projects and grab sequences has been added.

“We didn’t just add what works in Final Cut, but looked at particular use cases and solved them in a way that is meaningful to customers,” said Mooney.

The updates will ship in the “coming weeks”.

Avid introduced Resolution Independence, a new architecture for its NAB-launched Media Central Platform, which it said would allow users to edit, manage and deliver native 4K content.

“Media Composer is the first product to support [Resolution Independence] but as time marches on, more of our products, such as Interplay, will support it so we will be able to offer a complete end-to-end workflow,” said Avid vice-president, segment and product marketing, Dana Ruzicka.

Avid also unveiled the DNxHR codec.

“Customers can work in native 4K but it uses a lot of storage and is bandwidth intensive,” said Ruzicka.

“They can now flip into DNxHR for visually lossless compressed versions and link back to native material.

That will help people to work collaboratively.”

Meanwhile, Autodesk added support for Shotgun’s production management software to the latest version of Flame.

Autodesk acquired Shotgun, a cloud-based production tracking, review and asset management platform, in June.

CONFERENCE

Google UK boss Matt Brittin took to the stage on the second day of the conference to reassure the industry that the search giant is a “partner not a predator”.

He also pledged that Android TV will drag big-screen TVs into the 21st century.

In his keynote speech to a packed auditorium, in which he revealed that Doctor Who was his favourite show, Brittin compared today’s TVs with “a mobile phone from 2006”, and claimed that the Android mobile operating system, which Google is extending to TVs, will transform consumers’ multi-screen experience.

Google has agreed deals with manufacturers including LG, Philips and Sony to embed the operating system, which will allow consumers to access a suite of apps, and seamlessly switch video viewing from mobile to TV.