Leading manufacturer of video conferencing solutions AVer Europe is enabling small businesses to survive and thrive during lockdown. Surrey-based personal training company Marek’s Fitness is utilising the premium quality and wide angle capability of AVer Europe’s CAM 340+ camera to provide training and group classes, which has enabled the company to maintain and grow its client base internationally.

Marek’s Fitness made all personal and group training classes virtual a few days before lockdown to ensure the health and wellbeing of clients. It quickly became apparent that a laptop camera or a typical USB web camera was inadequate, both for sound and vision.

Dejero, an innovator in cloud-managed solutions that provide Emmy® award winning video transport and Internet connectivity while mobile or in remote locations, has joined a consortium of technology providers delivering a range of broadcast technology to media partners and Dejero customers, to facilitate the coverage of NASA and SpaceX’s historic May 27th launch of the first US astronauts from the United States since 2011.

Dejero’s technology will enable the worldwide distribution of feeds from multiple pool cameras positioned to cover the launch to the International Space Station. The request to support the broadcast came from a group of news organizations looking for a solution to provide dynamic launch coverage while following social distance guidelines at the NASA press site.

SugarHill Recording Studios, one of America’s best-known music recording facilities, has upgraded its Neve Genesys Black console by installing the GenesysControl plugin.

Designed to future proof analogue workflows, the Neve GenesysControl plugin provides the final link to total integration between Genesys and Genesys Black consoles and Digital Audio Workstations. With the GenesysControl plugin on board, recording professionals can mix traditionally using the console, work in-the-box, or combine both approaches in a highly effective hybrid workflow.

Based in Houston, Texas, SugarHill has been helping internationally acclaimed artists create hit records since it first opened its doors in 1941. It has played host to artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins, the Big Bopper, Freddy Fender, Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Destiny's Child.

SugarHill’s Genesys Black console is used for recording and mixing projects. It was originally istalled in 2018 and has been used on many sessions for artists such as Chance the Rapper, George Thorogood, Kevin Gates, 21 Savage, Maxo Kream and North Mississippi Allstars. 

Capturing the sound of hand-built instruments is the sole remit of the Global Sound Movement (GSM), an organisation established in 2015 by lecturers and researchers from the University of Central Lancashire. GSM samples unique instruments in their natural setting. In addition to natural ambient recordings, GSM also creates high resolution, broadcast quality virtual instruments and sound libraries that can be integrated with music production software. 

Postproduction for GSM’s recording projects is carried out at the University’s Media Factory in a professionally equipped recording studio that has a Neve Genesys Black GB32 console as its centrepiece. 

Phil Holmes, a producer and lecturer in Music Production at UCLAN, is one of the co-founders of GSM. He says: “The Neve Genesys Black is the ideal console for tackling GSM postproduction because it has such a wonderful, warm analogue sound. The fact that it is digitally controlled is also invaluable because we were able to automate the consoles analogue features, processing the samples in real time, keeping up a fast paced in-the-box workflow while maintaining absolute analogue sonic quality throughout. No other console I have worked on can achieve this. The total recall of the board meant that we could work on large sessions while compiling the thousands of samples we had collected, process them and then come back to the console session at a later date when more recordings were sent back to the studio from subsequent GSM trips.”

Documentary television cameraman Jonathan Young has relied on Peli cases to protect and transport his valuable camera kit for over 20 years. He has travelled with Peli cases to the most inhospitable and sometimes downright dangerous locations throughout the world, including war torn Afghanistan and Gaza.

He has embarked on his latest adventure with several new Peli Air cases; these have been designed and engineered to maintain the same level of durability, but reduce the weight of each case by up to 40 percent. Air cases are waterproof and crushproof and offer additional sizes to the Peli Protector and Peli Storm case lines.

Jonathan explained “I am shooting the new series, the South America leg of The America’s with Simon Reeve for BBC. This is the first leg of the journey across the Guyana Shield; Southern Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana.

These pictures were taken at the top of a Tepui. A Tepui is where the indigenous people’s gods live. They are sacred spaces that are 2800m above sea level. When working and camping at that altitude in such a rugged terrain, you have to be able to rely on the equipment you bring with you. To protect that equipment from the elements - sand, rain and the rough handling in transport to the top of the mountain in a cargo net slung under a helicopter, there is only one choice that ticks all the boxes…Peli cases.

The new Air range has taken every single journey I have made across various remote parts of the globe, housing my camera kit in its stride. I had worried at first that the cases might be too thin. My fears were unfounded. The cases I have used, they have taken every beating and battering baggage handlers, airports, rough tracks in pickups and the exposure to the elements. They have done exactly what they were supposed to do.”

The Peli Air range is now available in 16 sizes with more colour choices for many models. Deep cases and a long version, the 1745, have recently been added to the range.

Black Box, a global information technology solutions provider, is expanding its award-winning Emerald® Unified KVM platform with the release of Emerald PE high-performance, IP-based KVM extenders tailored to the demands of applications including HD video and audio editing, live production, broadcast playout, 3D and graphic design, and medical imaging.

Emerald PE transmitters and receivers enable extension and matrix switching of pixel-perfect HD DVI video (up to 1920x1200 at 60Hz), transparent USB 2.0, and bidirectional analog audio — over a dedicated or existing IP network, or even the internet — between any number of users and computers, servers, or virtual machines. The IP-based KVM solution features built-in system redundancy with dual network ports and can be deployed as a point-to-point KVM extender connecting the user to a remote computer or, when scaled up, can serve as a managed KVM matrix switching system.

Black News Channel, which launched on Feb. 10 and is the nation’s only African American news network, features a dynamic news set lit with Brightline L1.2 and L1.4 SeriesONE LED soft light fixtures. Designed by Devlin Design Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., the main set features a news desk, two large LED video wall areas, and a small interview set. RGB lighting elements – including hanging set pieces, walkways, and video wall backlights – created some talent lighting challenges. Lighting designer Bill Holshevnikoff said Brightline has “great control options on their fixtures, so you can make sure you’re not spilling light on the RGB elements and spoiling the color.”

Media Links®, manufacturer and pioneer in Media over IP transport technology, announces that its MDP3020 IP Media Gateway now includes support for JPEG-XS compression.

JPEG-XS (extra speed extra small) achieves high quality compression ratios of up to 10:1 and beyond. This makes it ideal for the edge of the IP network where bandwidth is typically quite limited and where the transport of uncompressed high quality video is just not feasible. JPEG-XS ISO/IEC 21122) provides visually lossless quality with sub-millisecond (<1 video frame) delay and is especially designed for latency-critical applications such as live remote event production over wide area networks.

As with all of Media Links’ technology, solutions and professional services, the company offers broadcasters and network providers an agile IP migration path. This ensures that facilities have the benefits that include support for all existing and future formats and standards, overall cost reduction, as well as the ability to launch seamless workflows that support their current and evolving IP networks.

At Booth SL13316 at the 2020 NAB Show, Black Box will feature a robust array of switching, extension, control, and visualization solutions that interoperate smoothly to enable greater workflow optimization and management, provide support for more advanced formats, and ensure exceptional security. Demos will address the industry's need for convenient and intuitive real-time access to multiple computers from multiple locations, whether across rooms, floors, buildings, sites, or even cities. Black Box also will unveil a new addition to its Emerald® line of solutions for state-of-the-art KVM extension and switching.

AMS Neve’s Exclusive Dealer for Italy Funky Junk Italy has installed the country’s first Neve Genesys Black G64 console in LG Studio Modena, bringing the number of Genesys consoles installed in Italy in 2019 to four. The studio, which is owned by producer Gabriele Ferrini, already had a Neve Genesys Black G32 console but upgraded to a G64 by adding a 16 channel extension.

There is also huge Italian demand for AMS Neve’s 1073DPA Dual Mic Preamp, which is easily the most successful piece of outboard equipment in Funky Junk Italy’s catalogue. This cost-effective, 1U stereo rackmount solution features two legendary 1073 microphone preamps and exclusive Neve Marinair™ transformers on the input and output stages.

At the recent NAMM convention in California, Funky Junk Italy Director Paolo Orizio placed an order for a 20 AMS Neve 1073DPA units, which will be distributed among pro audio dealers throughout Italy.