Digital Alert Systems, the global leader in emergency communications solutions for media providers, today announced the availability of Version 4.2 of its Emergency Alert System (EAS) software. Now supporting the company's award-winning DASDEC™-II or One-Net™ SE EAS devices, Version 4.2 includes important new features and improvements that expand the security measures already built into the software. Version 4.2 is available at a reduced price through Digital Alert Systems' Price Relief Program, which has been extended through Sept. 7.

Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA), part of the Ministry of Media in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is replacing the playout technology for its main channels with an integrated solution from Imagine Communications. SBA, one of the most prestigious broadcasters in the Gulf region, is seeking to boost daily operational efficiency and eliminate human error for reliable and professional broadcasting.

To meet the requirements of SBA, Imagine Communications was able to propose a coherent end-to-end system covering network infrastructure, routing, monitoring, ingest, asset management and playout under ADC™ automation control, to replace the current system based on hardware from multiple vendors. The Imagine Communications proposal is largely based on software solutions running on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, using industry-standard workstations from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). It includes a Platinum™ IP3 router to switch SD, HD and 3G signals, with the capability of adding real-time IP switching to support SBA’s development plans. Additionally, the IP3 router provides integrated multiviewer functionality to ensure all monitoring is handled in a space-saving frame.

Densitron, the global leader in innovative Human Machine Interaction (HMI) and display technology, today introduced a novel, square format 1:1 aspect ratio 4.0’’ Industrial Rugged TFT Module with exceptional features designed for operation in challenging environments.

Aimed at instrumentation; handheld test and measurement applications; and niche security products, the module’s in-plane switching (IPS) glass uses automotive grade fluid capable of operating from -30°c to +85°c, ideal for use in harsh environments with extreme temperatures.

On the back of their recent announcement of the new Integrated Services Monitoring (ISM) model, Bridge Technologies has demonstrated the value and robustness of their approach with technology collaborators Appear, in a setup which facilitates end-to-end delivery and monitoring of data, uncompressed to compressed, from production to end user.

ISM seeks to bring together the Bridge Technologies portfolio of products into a turnkey, easy-to-install media monitoring system.

It represents Bridge’s recognition of the increasingly merged and hybridized nature of the industry, where single entities may now operate on multiple layers of the broadcast and media cycle; from production through signal acquisition, contribution streams, picture archiving, OTT/streaming media, to traditional broadcast distribution with DTT or Satellite.

The advanced IP-based production and distribution setup – which would have also been demoed at NAB this year – is a successfully tested proof of concept for a full-length monitoring solution from production to end user, using standards SDI, SPTS, MPTS and OTT. The setup has been fully tested with four cameras with SDI outputs feeding an IP network processor to seamlessly bridge SDI and IP networks.

GB Labs, the leader in intelligent storage solutions, has announced that the latest version of its Analytics Centre, a dashboard that runs seamlessly in GB Labs’ SPACE, ECHO, and VAULT intelligent storage devices, will now include full access traceability.

Of interest to everyone that requires storage, Analytics Centre continuously analyses how data handled by the storage system is being used. The display provides a highly accurate and easy-to-interpret look at crucial network and storage usage, including real-time speed and data consumption. With full traceability, file access history is logged giving a complete picture of data usage.

GB Labs CEO-CTO Dominic Harland said, “Analytics Centre gives GB Labs users the visibility they need to ensure their workflow is fully optimised at all times. It takes all the time-consuming, and often incorrect, guesswork out of blindly shopping for storage in hopes that it will improve a workflow.

“Analytics Centre automates the system analysis process with carefully designed algorithms that identify not just potential problems, but precisely where to find and fix them. Moreover, it now includes a significantly updated interface that includes full data logging and full, detailed tracking capabilities that we’re excited to demonstrate for the first time.”

Mo-Sys Engineering, a global leader in real time camera tracking and camera remote systems, can now remotely operate cameras on the other side of the world, without perceived delay, with the launch of TimeCam.

TimeCam represents a triple benefit to production companies. First, there is the saving in cost and environmental impact in sending camera operators to site. Second, it means that the most in-demand operators can be much more productive, providing excellent coverage at a live event each day rather than losing time through travel. Third, it means that you can add cameras to your coverage without adding headcount: for instance, a downhill ski race might have eight cameras along the course, with one operator controlling cameras 1, 3, 5 and 7 and a second controlling 2, 4, 6 and 8.

“’Traditional’ remote production puts the control back at base, but still needs camera operators to travel to the location,” explained Mo-Sys CEO Michael Geissler. “By compensating for latency in transmission and compression/decoding, TimeCam means that operators too can stay at base and be much more productive by operating on several events, when normally they could only be on one.”

As well as unveiling TimeCam, Mo-Sys will also demonstrate its flagship virtual studio technology StarTracker, which uses a constellation of dots on the studio ceiling as a camera tracking system. This is now extensively used by many prestige broadcasters to provide the tracking for augmented reality studios and is increasingly being built-in to studio cameras.

Whereas most virtual studios use a proprietary graphics system which in turn uses the Unreal gaming engine from Epic Games, StarTracker Studio (in a 19” rack) now features the plug-in Mo-Sys VP which we like to call Unreal Unleashed, a direct interface between the camera tracking and the UE4 render engine. Through the plug-in, control is direct, and no other software layer is wrapped around the Unreal Engine allowing full access to the latest UE4 features.

“Both TimeCam and StarTracker with Unreal Unleashed are transformative technologies, capable of bringing new creativity and productivity to the broadcast and movie worlds, allowing sophisticated productions around the globe,” Geissler said.

www.mo-sys.com

CABSAT 2020, Dubai, 31 March - 2 April 2020, Stand G3-24: Leaders in intelligent storage solutions, GB Labs, will showcase its award-winning Mosaic automatic asset organiser and the new CORE.4 Lite operating system during CABSAT 2020 at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 31 March – 2 April.

The Mosaic asset organiser makes it far easier to quickly search for, retrieve, and view video assets. Mosaic automatically scans all inbuilt metadata and integrates it with AI tagging enabling the ability to store, catalogue and access assets with no need for manual intervention, making it a substantial time and money saver.

GB Labs new CORE.4 Lite operating system is a custom OS specifically designed to serve media files. Its high degree of speciality guarantees stable performance for every user, whether as workgroups or individuals, while maximising the efficiency of every disk.

A powerful new feature included with CORE.4 Lite is Analytics Centre, a dashboard that runs in the background of GB Labs intelligent storage devices and continuously analyses the network, providing complete visibility of exactly how, and by whom, data is being used.

GB Labs CEO-CTO Dominic Harland said, “Read/write speeds are usually compromised by a misconfigured network, which wastes resources. But configuration issues can be difficult to locate and resolve manually. Analytics Centre automatically analyses the read/write process through the network with specially designed algorithms that identifies, locates, and suggests how to resolve any issues, often before they occur, thereby eliminating the need for painstaking manual intervention.”

GB Labs will also demonstrate how its proprietary Dynamic Bandwidth Control identifies and selects high, medium, and low priority users to guarantee that the storage system automatically adjusts to operate at peak performance for all.

According to Harland, “Dynamic Bandwidth Control makes storage malleable to ensure it can flexibly respond to changes in usage priorities without breaking. This is unique to GB Labs and can be implemented whether storage is in use by one user or an entire workgroup.”

For backup and archiving, the exhibition stand workspaces will be coupled with GB Labs EasyLTO, an easy-to-use, cost-effective, all-in-one, high-speed solution.

Finally, the company will also discuss the success of recent GB Labs deployments to new customers including M for Media; Qatl Al Youm TV; Polimer TV; Craft; Kalvi TV; and Madha TV.

NINETNINE, the leading content provider to Cable and OTT platforms, has partnered with Samira TV, an Arabic channel available in Middle-East, North Africa and France, which specializes in cooking TV shows focusing on local cuisine. The two companies have produced the first French-Arab TV show, ‘Ezawj Errahal’ presented by French travel and food social media influencers Salim and Linda, known as “the traveling lovers” (Les Amoureux Voyageurs).

The 13-episode series launches on 14th February on Samira TV and will also be available on-demand and via OTT on Le Bouquet Maghreb, the leading Arabic TV package in France. The unique format will deliver an exciting, new TV cooking concept that will take viewers on a culinary trip around the world, allowing them to learn simple, original and mouthwatering recipes created by Salim and Linda while on their adventures.

Salim and Linda were the winners of the French popular TV competition format Pékin Express, which aired on M6 and attracted multi-million daily viewers. They became social media superstars and decided to travel the globe to meet people, discover new cultures and share their stories.

Medialease has won best ‘Asset Finance Intermediary’ at the Leasing Life 2019 awards, which brings together the most successful and innovative businesses throughout Europe in the leasing industry. 2019 has been a busy year for Medialease and the company was delighted to have been recognised for this award by industry-leading panellists.

The award judges commented that Medialease showed excellent growth and had a highly-targeted asset/industry focus, providing strong value to a very specialised end user. Medialease were also deemed to have very clear empathy and support to its chosen market, which is reflected in its exceptionally-high repeat customer statistics.

Medialease arranges asset funding tailored to the needs of the broadcast, film, television, AV and live events markets. Its relationships with many of its customers go back several years, with broadcasters and post-production companies returning to Medialease at each phase of their business plans to upgrade equipment or improve facilities. With a deep understanding of audio and video-based industries, the company supplies editing, grading and audio equipment for post-production facilities, along with the latest 4K cameras and location playout equipment for the world’s biggest sports and motorsports broadcasters. For further information, please contact us on 01327 872531 or visit www.medialease.com.

Cinematographer Si Bell and Director Anthony Byrne move crime drama series to a more cinematic look and feel

For four seasons, Thomas Shelby, his family and his gang — Peaky Blinders — have been captivating audiences around the world with this crime drama set in 1920s Birmingham, England in the aftermath of World War I. But the fifth season would mean a total change in how the series was to be shot, moving from Cooke S4/i spherical lenses (used since season three) to anamorphic with Cooke Optics' Anamorphic/i prime lenses as well as 4K for this season’s Netflix full-season distribution in the US, which became available on 4 October 2019 (UK distribution on BBC One began in early September with one episode per week).

One of the challenges for cinematographer Si Bell and director Anthony Byrne — both big fans of the series — was maintaining continuity with the four seasons that came before them, regardless of the new production changes.

“Anthony and I had wanted to do this series for a number of years, having watched all of it and always talking about it,” explained Bell. “When we got the gig, we both watched the entire series again and paid special attention to the things we loved, things we thought could be different and things we thought could be better. But we obviously had to keep continuity.”

Cobalt Digital today announced Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co., which owns and operates stations in nine markets in addition to MeTV and other digital multicast networks, is using Cobalt’s software defined 9922-FS-DSP platform for openGear® frames to provide microservices for Emergency Alert System local insertion and CALM compliance for its terrestrial stations. Most recently, the company purchased five cards in March for KTLN, a Heroes & Icons and MeTV affiliate serving San Francisco (DMA #8).

“It’s one of the few cards of its kind that is flexible,” explained Kyle Walker, vice president of technology for Weigel Broadcasting. “It’s the Swiss Army Knife of cards. This card can literally do it all at the right price point.”

Weigel has deployed dozens of 9922-FS-DSP cards, which offer a combination of rich broadcast connectivity and flexible microservices that make them cost effective options for many applications. The +EAS option allows Weigel to key EAS text crawls into active video and insert station logos. Some stations also add the +TTS option, which provides Text-To-Speech conversion of EAS text.

Clear-Com® has appointed two new Regional Sales Managers (RSM) in North America. William Elliott takes over responsibility for the Southeast Region and Caribbean, while Vic Lombardi will handle the newly established North Central Region covering Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Pat Hamp, formerly RSM for the Southeast Region, has been promoted to a Sales Training Role focused on training Partners.

Leaders in intelligent storage solutions, GB Labs, will join its new partner, Chennai-based NCS Techno Systems, to showcase the advantages of GB Labs’ award-winning Mosaic automatic asset organiser and new CORE.4 Lite operating system during Broadcast India at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, from 17-19 October.

Argosy, a leading international supplier of broadcast cables and infrastructure products, has announced that it has relocated its Dubai office to the city’s Oudmetha area in order to hold more stock and deliver faster and more efficient services to its Middle East customers. The larger facility enables Argosy to locally stock higher volumes of its expanding product portfolio, such as racking and mains distribution units, video audio and data cabling, connectors and patching, SMPTE and fibre assembly equipment, along with KVM and network switches.