With high dynamic range rapidly becoming the new production standard, filmmakers need the proper tools to make the most of it both creatively and technically. Fueled by the talent and technology leadership at Panavision and Light Iron, Panavision's LINK HDR addresses the challenge of viewing HDR images throughout the production and post-production processes, bringing HDR and SDR viewing options to clients in tandem at every stage of the imaging chain.

TVN, one of Europe's top-performing providers of mobile television services, chose three Leader LV5600 waveform monitors as the reference test instruments for its coverage of the UEFA Europe League Final on August 21st at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne. Integrated into TVN's UE6 4K HDR OB truck, they were used to match incoming video feeds. Held behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the match was won 3-2 by Sevilla playing Inter Milan.

Leader Instruments announces that Thomas O'Neill has joined the company as Central Regional Manager. His appointment forms part of Leader's continued development of the support base for its customers and distribution network around the world. He was formerly Omnitek's VP of North American Sales & Business Development.

"Leader has lived fully up to its name over the years with innovative and reliable test instruments that meet the demands of TV and film content producers, post-production facilities and broadcasters," Tom O'Neill comments. "It anticipated the transition from the 1.5G-SDI and 3G-SDI media world to the 12G-SDI/IP hybrid environment in which modern studios operate. Leader's development team also met the challenge of creating instruments which can be used easily by non-technical personnel as well as engineers, complemented by the PHABRIX range of ultra-compact tools."

"We are pleased to welcome Tom as part of our North American sales team," adds Leader Instruments Corporation Director of Sales Pete Anderson. "He joins us with over 30 years of broadcast industry experience and will be in charge of business development across the US Midwest and Canada."

Kevin Salvidge, European Regional Development Manager, Leader Europe, will address ‘The Challenges of Hybrid SDI and ST 2110 for Live OB Production’ in an upcoming IP Showcase 2020 Summer Session (Media-Over-IP Education) presentation.

AIMs and the VSF, in cooperation with the AES, AMWA, EBU, SMPTE, and the Ultra HD Forum, have created 15 weekly sessions. Each is delivered by an industry specialist in media-over-IP workflows. The series is designed to meet the need for ongoing education in the absence of major trade shows. Emphasis is on use cases and supporting technologies.

Television production service provider HD BROADCAST, based near Mainz, has invested in Leader LV5600 waveform monitors for installation in its new UHD OB2 outside broadcast production vehicle. The instruments will be used to ensure precise matching of incoming signal feeds and to maintain the highest possible video and audio signal quality through to the transmitted output. Six units were supplied by Leader Europe distribution partner LOGIC Media Solutions.

"UHD gives content producers the ability to deliver a level of picture quality akin to the real-world live experience," says HD BROADCAST MD Constantin Novotny. "The initial challenge production teams face is to ensure every camera is fully aligned and matched to any others being used, not least in terms of colour temperature. Using the LV5600 instruments we can check those parameters quickly and accurately both in terms of signal levels and chroma vectors."

"Each LV5600 also includes a very useful tool for checking that the captured image is in perfect focus. This is especially valuable given the tremendous amount of detail UHD can resolve. The instruments also provide the measurement capabilities needed to handle additional parameters such as high dynamic range and wide color gamut."

Leader Electronics announces the addition of MaxFALL and MaxCLL HDR metadata error logging tools for production studios, postproduction suites and media laboratories working with SMPTE ST.2086 metadata to grade high dynamic range video. This new feature complements the recently launched SER31 Colorimetry Zone Display ‘real-time’ false-colour display plug-in module. It is fully compatible with Leader ZEN series broadcast test and measurement instruments which comprise the LV5300, LV5350 and LV5600 waveform monitors plus the LV7300 and LV7600 rasterizers.
With this enhancement, Leader ZEN series instruments allow operators to ensure that the MaxFALL and MaxCLL HDR metadata accurately reflect the content of their productions by specifying limits for MaxFALL and MaxCLL values. The integral Cinelite Advanced light meter can be used to locate out-of-range pixels and confirm their values both on the picture display and on the waveform monitor.

MaxFALL Metadata - Maximum Frame Average Light Level – defines the maximum average light level, in nits, for any single frame within an encoded HDR video stream or file.

Leader Electronics is pleased to announce a new addition to its team with the appointment of Neil Coles as European Regional Development Manager. Based in London, he will be working directly with customers and via the Leader network of distribution partners to extend the company's presence across the continent.

"Neil is a popular and highly respected member of the broadcast industry with a good knowledge of the creative and commercial aspects as well as the technology on which our customers depend," comments Leader Europe Managing Director Koichi Fukagawa. "His areas of responsibility will include promoting the wide range of test and measurement solutions to the existing Leader user base and helping increase our share of the broadcast, digital film and web-TV market."

"Accurate, repeatable and cost-efficient test and measurement are essential in the highly competitive sphere of content creation, postproduction, storage and distribution," Neil Coles adds. "I am delighted to be joining a company which is clearly living up to its name as a world-leading producer of innovative, intuitive and affordable instrumentation. Leader has already made significant advances in the OB market which we see as an area with considerable growth potential both into the 4K UHD domain and, longer term, into 8K Hi-Vision."

Leader LV5350 portable waveform monitors and LV7300 rasterizers have been chosen as reference test instruments for broadcast television coverage of a major football tournament scheduled to be held next year in Cameroon. The games are scheduled to take place in January and February at city venues for live transmission across Africa and around the world. The instruments are being provided by Leader Europe's Brussels-based distribution partner Studiotech SA.

"The LV5350 encapsulates in a compact and portable unit all the features OB and studio gallery colorists need for matching multiple camera channels," says Studiotech's General Manager Nicolas Tardieu. "Live stage and sports events send adrenaline levels very high for TV production teams as well as the contestants. Dependable and easy-to-navigate tools are essential. With its integral multi-view monitor screen, the LV5350 is exceptionally easy to configure and control. The LV5350 and LV7300 incorporate practically every reference tool OB technicians need for live signal evaluation plus the drill-down facilities required during initial system line-up and continuity checks."

CTV, one of Europe's longest established providers of mobile television production facilities, has chosen Leader LV7300 and LV7600 rasterizing waveform monitors as master reference instruments for its OB3 and OB12 outside broadcast vehicles.

"Leader test instruments have proved highly reliable, efficient and operator friendly right back to our first purchase of LV7770 multi-SDI rasterizers six years ago," comments Paul Francis, CTV's Chief Technical Officer. "Some of the projects we work on are massive in scale, taking in feeds from well over 100 cameras. High-precision monitoring of HD and UHD signal flow is vital, both to achieve accurate matching of incoming feeds and to ensure that we are maintaining the full available dynamic range from source right through to output. This latest purchase comprises 12 LV7300 and two LV7600 instruments. Both models can be fully operated from the front panel which, combined with their compact size, makes them ideal for use in OB suites.  The LV7300 and LV7600 have a very similar control menu structure so operators can move freely between them. The resultant measurements are precise, repeatable and can be copied off to USB memory for easy logging or sharing."

LEADER Electronics Corporation, a globally active producer of high-grade test and measurement equipment for the broadcast industry, is introducing new options for its award-winning LV 5490 4K/UHD/HS/SD multiscreen signal monitor. These provide added support for 12G SDI, high dynamic range and video over IP. The new options will be promoted at BVE 2016 in London, February 23-25.

Media Burst, the Systems Integration company of the Mediapro group, chose three LEADER LV 5490 multi-screen waveform monitors for ultra-high definition coverage of the Real Madrid versus Barcelona football match in Madrid on Saturday November 21.

LEADER Electronics Corporation, a globally active producer of high-grade test and measurement equipment for the broadcast industry, announces that it will support the ASPEN protocol in future products.

This decision forms part of LEADER's commitment to ensure that its hardware and software solutions conform to the IP-based data-exchange formats increasingly being used in the broadcast television, radio and professional audio markets.