Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced the general availability of Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS), a new fully managed service that makes it easy to set up live, interactive video streams for a web or mobile application in just a few minutes. Amazon IVS uses the same technology that powers Twitch, one of the most popular live streaming services in the world with nearly 10 billion hours of video watched in 2019, giving customers live content with latency (the time video takes to go from the camera to the viewer) that can be less than three seconds (significantly lower than the 20-30 second latencies common with online streaming video today). Customers can easily configure and stream live video through their own website or mobile application, with scalable delivery that supports millions of concurrent viewers globally. With the Amazon IVS SDK and APIs, customers can also build interactive features into their live streams like virtual chat spaces, votes and polls, moderated question and answer sessions, and synchronized promotional elements. There are no additional charges or upfront commitments required to use Amazon IVS, and customers pay only for video input to Amazon IVS and video output delivered to viewers. To get started with Amazon IVS, visit https://aws.amazon.com/ivs.

Densitron, the global leader in innovative Human Machine Interaction (HMI) and display technology, has announced a new long-term collaboration with Hertfordshire-based consultancy Hawk Media Partnership. The new partnership will see the two companies actively seek joint projects in the broadcast and media environments that can fully utilise Densitron’s innovative technologies and Hawk Media Partnership’s technical expertise and on-demand availability.

Promethean TV, a digital solution to drive ROI from broadcast and interactive video, has introduced a new Sports Stats Overlay that will allow audiences to “lean in” to the match experience from the comfort of their own home, as passionately as they might in the seat of a stadium. With an immersive set of touchscreen statistics, viewers will be able to feel every second, diving deeper into a player's performance across each game.

Custom Consoles announces a new addition to its range of technical control furniture. Developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Operator Safety Screen reduces the risk of airborne infection or direct physical contact between control room personnel without restricting their forward or side view of video monitor displays.

IABM-member PBT EU is delighted to announce that Auvi Translator Pro’s film and TV subtitler Riccardo Mimmi selects SubtitleNEXT as his subtitling system of choice to support leading film and television subtitling and localization projects

Riccardo has an impressive portfolio and has been translating and subtitling well-known movies, TV series, and documentaries from major Hollywood studios, broadcast networks and online streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon over the course of his career. Some of the many titles he has worked on include ‘Klaus’, ‘Salvation’, ‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘Vikings’, ‘American Hustle’, ‘The Americans’, ‘The Office’, ‘Easy’, the thriller film ‘Hold the Dark’, ‘Oprah’s Book Club’ and others.

Using SubtitleNEXT and proprietary online cloud platforms, Riccardo Mimmi’s role as a localization specialist and subtitler entails complex projects that involve translation and adaptation of content, where he has had to recreate the tone in documentaries, TV series and movies to suit the target audience.

“Subtitles have to abide to very strict requirements in my line of work,” Riccardo explains, “So I chose SubtitleNEXT which is a reliable professional subtitling software to ensure 100% accuracy, and it supports all popular formats like .stl, .srt, .dfxp, .pac, Digital Cinema and more.”

When Guns N’ Roses’ successful ‘Not In This Lifetime’ tour switched to disguise for its North American leg, it opened up new creative possibilities to enhance the already visually spectacular rock show.

The tour wrapped last November with two shows at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The three-year world tour played 158 concerts selling more than 5 million tickets and grossing $584 million. The ‘Not In This Lifetime’ tour that started in 2016 marked the first time that Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan played together since 1993. Screenworks-NEP Live Events was the disguise rental partner for the tour.

Jeremy Leeor, Managing Director and Dan Potter, Creative Director, at disguise studio Creative Works London, coordinated the creation, execution and delivery of the Ghostrain and traditional show walk-in opening sequence using the new disguise and Unreal integration, currently going through Beta testing.

"A lot of what we created for the Guns’ tour visuals was built similarly to the way triple-A game assets are made using highly creative and flexible 3D tools like Cinema 4D, ZBrush, 3Ds Max and Substance Painter to create high-quality assets that can then be moved into real-time render engines like Unreal Engine,” explains Dan. “This is how we’ve always done it, and it makes a lot of our content stand out for its depth, texture and richness."

He points out that, “the rendering process on any project, in a conventional sense, presents many render engine and creative compositing options, and is central to how we achieve the diverse range of visual styles in our work. With the introduction of real-time render engines, you’re shifting the focal points of stages when you are developing a look to different points in the project timeline. This can be quite liberating if you’re working on something that plays to the strengths of the look you want to achieve and using the right tools to do it."

Blackmagic Design today announced that ViSo Video Solutions has upgraded its virtual reality studios, relying on Ultimatte 12 compositing processors and URSA Broadcast cameras, to produce national television commercials and shows, for clients such as Sky Italia, Mediaset, ESL and Netco Sports.

Founded in 2010, the company not only offers clients its VR services, it also creates all computer generated (CG) and 3D assets needed in house, and provides all post production which includes editing and grading in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

“Augmented and virtual studio environments bring so many benefits to productions,” begins Luigi Nino, general manager at ViSo. “We chose to develop our VR system in house so that we could control every aspect, and customize materials, lighting, animations and effects for each clients’ specific needs.”

The studio’s VR set is 130 square meters and uses three tripod mounted URSA Broadcasts as well as a dolly mounted 4.5m jib on a six meter track. An ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K, with ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, is used for live vision mixing.

Promethean, a digital solution to dynamically deliver interactive video, has introduced Donation Overlay Templates for easily collecting donations during video streams without disrupting messages. Ideal for Houses of Worship, the new Donation Overlays will connect digital congregations and encourage generosity while streaming LIVE or via VOD content. 

Users can set up Donation Templates via a new editor and easily customise their Donation Overlay appearance with unique assets, key messages and edit the layout or appearance with intuitive fields and sliders. These templates can then be assigned to Donation Overlays which are scheduled onto their stream of choice ready for viewer interaction. Without disrupting the message, viewers will be greeted at key moments with a donation widget at the top of the screen that will let them leave a donation amount set in advance, or can be variable and chosen by the user.

Middle Atlantic Products, a brand of Legrand | AV, today announced its lineup for Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2020 at the RAI Amsterdam, Feb. 11-14. At the Legrand | AV Booth 2-C50, Middle Atlantic's Forward family of installation solutions — designed to deliver greater system reliability, efficiency, and flexibility to the rack — will be making its European debut, complete with a new 3D interactive touch screen tool for demonstrations. In addition, the company will highlight its High Power DC Power Distribution Series, which is now shipping from local inventory in Europe with region-specific power plugs.

"We're committed to providing more solutions and support for our European customers, and ISE provides us with a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate that," said Tim Troast, vice president of product management at Legrand | AV — Middle Atlantic. 

VuWall, a leader in video wall control systems, will be showcasing intelligent video wall and visualization solutions that allow operators and managers to "control what they see" on its booth (15-K250) at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2020. The company will debut its new ControlVu touch panel and showcase the new security features, capabilities, and flexibility of the powerful TRx centralized multivideo wall management platform; VuScape video wall controllers with KVM support; and VuStream encoders and decoders.

"Control rooms are not only becoming a necessity for organizations of all sizes and missions, operators are also requiring on-demand access to a robust array of AV and IT sources," said Paul Vander Plaetse, CEO at VuWall. "Our ecosystem of interoperable products provides the most effective distribution of any sources to any display surface throughout entire organizations. At ISE 2020, we'll demonstrate how VuWall seamlessly bridges AV and IT for an easy and intelligent way to control and manage any video wall deployment."