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.

Broadcast Solutions, a leading media technology and system integration company, announced today that it had finalised the acquisition of Videlio Middle-East F.Z. LLC, the Dubai-based subsidiary of Videlio group. This new acquisition will merge with existing Broadcast Solutions operations in the Middle-East, led by Munzer Rushdi.

EasyBroadcast, a leading provider of end-to-end streaming solutions for TV channels, OTT service providers, and enterprises, today announced that it has invested in WAW MUSIC, the next-generation digital music service set to launch in Africa. WAW MUSIC's new streaming platform, WAW MUZIK, has already signed 10 million songs with Universal Music and will have Orange as its leading distributor. Partnering with WAW MUSIC opens up a new revenue stream for EasyBroadcast and strengthens its position in Africa, a continent with an annual growth of 42 percent in the OTT market.

Burj Khalifa, developed and owned by Emaar Properties Dubai, rises 2,722 feet and 163 stories to pierce the desert skyline. It teamed with SACO on an initiative to light up the skyscraper’s east façade and provide high-resolution video capabilities for what became the ‘Light Up 2018’ New Year’s celebration. The groundbreaking show, viewed by more than one million people on site, earned a Guinness World Record for the largest laser light and sound show on a single building.