Rise, the membership group for gender diversity within the broadcast technology sector today announced the pairing up of mentees and mentors for its third annual mentoring scheme in the UK, and its first mentoring scheme in the APAC region.

The 2020 programme sees a variety of experienced broadcast sector industry leaders, at a diversity of levels of seniority, ready to offer expertise, knowledge and guidance to 30 women.

The scheme is made possible due the support from industry partners including:

• Gold sponsors – Avid | Sky

• Silver sponsors – Clear-Com | Audio-Technica Europe | Ross Video | Sony | DPP | Pixelogic

This year, Sports Video Group (SVG) Europe Women, a powerful network of women working in the sports media arena made up of members from across TV sports broadcasting, production, distribution and technology, joins as an industry partner. The initiative is supporting two women in the programme. SVG Europe Women will offer those women specific sports industry advice, sessions, events and additional guidance.

Turkuvaz Media Group (TMG), Turkey’s largest private media group operating in television, radio broadcasting, as well as newspaper and magazine publication and printing, has chosen Sony solutions and services to build an ambitious new media centre in Istanbul, spanning 7 studios and control rooms, as part of a multi-million Euro deal with systems integrator Teratek. This project consolidates TMG’s distributed studios into one location to improve efficiency, future-proof its capabilities for 4K broadcasting, and create a scalable system ready for the group’s future growth.

Middle Atlantic Products, a brand of Legrand | AV, today announced that its Forward family of toolless installation solutions earned a Top New Technology (TNT) Award from Commercial Integrator at ISE 2020 in Amsterdam. Built to install today's systems at tomorrow's speed, Forward is designed around an innovative new rackrail and Middle Atlantic's patented universal hole pattern that allow the family's blank and vent panels, cable management, lighting, and other rack solutions to be quickly installed without tools. With Forward, integrators can install everyday rack builds five times faster and with the reliability to ensure a satisfying and positive AV experience.

"The rack is where every AV installation begins and where installers spend a majority of their time — ensuring every screw, cable, and device is installed correctly," said Paul Dolynchuk, director of product management at Middle Atlantic. "Forward is the first solution of its kind to reinvent the rack installation experience, allowing installers to work quickly without sacrificing system reliability or industry best practices. This award reflects the passion that all the members of our talented product development team poured into creating a family that works just as much for the end-user as it does for the installer."

The Forward accessory and options line focuses on the entire system lifecycle and builds upon industry-leading products that integrators have depended on for decades.

With over 1,200 students a year enrolled on a range of courses from television and radio, to visual and animation, Salford University is well known for preparing students for the realities of the media industry. Central to this preparation are its dedicated studios, opened in 2011, which offer students practical experience and are also used by industry veterans including the BBC and ITV.

Since their opening, the studios have evolved Salford University’s capabilities substantially. Where previously they had one single older 4 camera, 4 mic system, the university now houses 3 industry compliant TV studios and a vast array of cameras, lighting and audio solutions.

“In this space we produce everything from 1 on 1 interviews all the way through to performances of 18-piece Latin bands. We have a large variety of different shows that come in and out. It’s not only for the students, it’s also for working with commercial clients like the BBC, CBEEBIES and ITV,” commented Ash Tidball, the TV studio manager.

Sony has appointed Giles Wood as its new Head of Services for Sony Professional Solutions Europe.

Giles will lead Sony’s European Professional Services division, creating and delivering a wide portfolio of professional services from systems integration and through to consultancy and full managed services. Sony’s B2B customers extend across the Media, Corporate, Education, Healthcare and Sports sectors.

Sony has seen its services business grow to over one third of its B2B revenues in Europe and sees opportunity for further innovation and significant growth, complementing its renowned product strengths.

Adam Fry, Vice President, Sony Professional Solutions Europe, said: "Giles joins Sony at an exciting juncture for our professional business as we transform towards a true solutions company offering a broad technology and services proposition to our professional customers. His passion for innovation and his impressive track record in leading business transformation will be great assets to drive the next phase of our growth."

Giles brings over twenty years of experience in the B2B technology sector, having held leadership roles in organisations including BT, Fujitsu and Nortel as well as successfully overseeing start-up technology delivery businesses.

TVN24, the largest and the most-watched 24-hours news channel in Poland, becomes the first customer to receive ten Sony PXW-Z750 4K camcorders to future-proof its infrastructure for advanced 4K/UHD output and increase the agility of its news broadcasting operations.

As an existing Sony customer, TVN24’s investment into the latest PXW-Z750 4K camcorders will help replace more than 80 PDW-700 and PMW-500 Sony shoulder camcorders currently in use. With the Z750 camcorders, the news channel’s production team will now be able to shoot in 4K, High Dynamic Range (HDR) and High Frame Rate (HFR), delivering 4K image quality with high sensitivity and vivid colour reproduction, ideal for news and live production.

Jarosaw Kielmel, Technology Department Director at TVN Discovery Polska explains: “Having invested in various Sony broadcasting solutions over the years, we were keen to work with Sony to help us future-proof our news production capabilities, ready to migrate to 4K in the years to come. We're incredibly impressed by the picture quality of the PXW-Z750, particularly when shooting in HD thanks to its 3CMOS sensors. Combined with the increased flexibility it provides us with, the PXW-Z750 is fast becoming our go-to camcorder for our 24-hour news broadcasting operations.”

Axon’s proven Neuron IP processing and Cerebrum control & monitoring technology will be demonstrated with equipment from EVS, Sony, Arista, Calrec and Meinberg during this 22-day Outside Broadcast truck tour.

The Axon PRE-NABSHOW TOUR 2020, which runs across 16 locations in eight different European countries, kicks off on March 2nd. It allows broadcasters to experience tomorrow’s workflows by getting on board today. The products demonstrated on the truck will be exactly the same as those on display at Axon’s booth at NAB, so this will also provide a perfect opportunity for people who are not going to Las Vegas to get up-close and personal with Axon’s solutions.

For further information about the tour and to access a full schedule, please follow this link: https://www.axon.tv/knowledge/axon-pre-nab-tour-2020/

Sony Professional Solutions Europe demonstrates a bold vision to create the ideal future for education and work at ISE 2020, as it reveals its latest AV and IT solutions. These include a new beamforming microphone MAS-A100 for lectures and presentations, an upgrade to the transformative workplace management solution with TEOS 2.2, and significant expansions to its laser projector line up.

The future of education:

Sony is expanding its range of advanced solutions for delivering, recording and streaming engaging presentations and video content in education environments. The MAS-A100 is a new IP-based ceiling beamforming microphone enabling flexible and creative “hands-free” lectures and presentations. 

The future of work:

TEOS 2.2 is the latest update allowing for more collaboration and flexibility. It uses the advances in IoT sensor technology to boost integration and unlock efficiencies with 20 new functionalities and features. The tailored Smart Automation is a new customisable Meeting Display interface and an intuitive Outlook integration for room booking, reception sign-in and content sharing.

The future of laser projection

From entry-level through to premium projectors, Sony offers a solution for any space and budget, whether in classrooms and conference venues or museums and churches. VPL-FHZ131L is the newest and brightest premium WUXGA projector from Sony, boasting outputs of 13,000lm. 

mediaClass, a globally active provider of OTT TV everywhere solutions, has announced its own developed AI-based recommendation Engine.

”We have been testing and measuring the success rate of the engine for some time," says mediaClass CTO Stilian Tchlakov. "For this release we have settled on two operator-selectable modes, both of which offer excellent results."

"Without giving too much away technically, mode one is based on AI analysis of personal preferences and searches; mode two is based on studying and machine learning the watching-behaviour of hundreds of thousands of anonymous subscribers” adds mediaClass Head of Research and Development Youri Kalinov. "The mediaClass AI Recommendation Engine uses state of the art technology from Liberate AI to predict and deliver viewer-specific television content recommendations. This is a step change from what has been possible in the past."

“Judging from the measurement results I have seen, the Liberate AI machine learning technology certainly gives us a significant edge," details mediaClass EVP Manelli Hosseini. "We will be providing the engine as an integral part all mediaClass deployments. We now have to decide whether to market the recommendation engine as a standalone package to offer its advantages for non-mediaClass deployments.”

Sony has launched a new set of high-grade picture monitors from its TRIMASTER range at this year’s BSC Expo in London. 

The PVM-X2400 (24’’) and the PVM-X1800 (18.4’’) monitors provide high picture quality and accurate colour reproduction thanks to specified and dedicated panels from Sony, which offer ultra-high definition with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and an impressive brightness of all-white luminance of 1000 cd/m2.