Custom Consoles announces the completion of two studio control desks and MediaWall monitor displays for a new UHD production facility at the London headquarters of Fidelity International. Supervised by systems integration specialist ATG Danmon, the project formed part of Fidelity's relocation to new premises in the centre of the city's financial district. The studios will be used for a range of applications including participation in finance-related broadcasts.

"We recommended Module-R and MediaWall on the basis of long experience with both product ranges," comments ATG Danmon Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "Their inherent modularity allowed us to specify exactly the required parameters in the full knowledge that the results would be robustly built, ergonomically sound, attractively styled, accurately sized and easy to install."

Largest of the two desks is a six metre wide in-line unit positioned along the main wall of the Studio 1 production gallery. This is configured for use by up to six operators including camera shading, robotic camera control, lighting control, graphic effects, vision mixing and control room to studio talkback. Sloping 3U high equipment pods run almost the entire width of this desk. All equipment above and below the main worktop remains easily accessible.

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."

Ikegami UHK-430 and HDK-99 cameras have been chosen for a recently completed 4K OB vehicle, designed and built by Milan-based broadcast system integrator Aret Video & Audio Engineering. The vehicle was commissioned in time to cover the Qatar National Day festivities celebrating the country's foundation in 1878.

"The Ikegami cameras were selected both for their high signal quality and for the proven excellence of Ikegami post-sale support," comments Aret's Vice President Alessandro Asti. "Eight UHK-430 models have been purchased plus two docking-style HDK-99. All 10 cameras can be tripod or pedestal mounted to achieve steady long-zoom closeup capture of fast-moving action while retaining the freedom to operate in free-style over-the-shoulder mode. The HDK-99 can be configured to feed directly from the camera control unit into any 4K periphery."

Ikegami’s Middle East office, located in Dubai, assisted in the customer’s decision-making by providing consultation support and product demonstrations.

Ikegami observers were present to offer assistance over multiple days during the ongoing festivities," adds Asim Saeed, Business Development Manager – Ikegami Middle East. All the equipment worked perfectly and the production went flawlessly.

Leader Electronics announces a new addition to its portfolio of broadcast test instruments and signal generators. Designed for use in both SDI and IP infrastructure, the LT4611 is a 1U full-rack-width generator producing analog video sync, audio word-clock signals and SMPTE ST 2059-2 profile.Based on the established and proven LT4610, it has a lower entry price point giving broadcasters the freedom to select the features they need as the industry progresses from SDI to an increasingly IP-dominated world.

As well as providing both a 10 GbE and 1GbE PTP interface, the LT4611 comes as standard with three independent synchronized analogue black and burst outputs. This overcomes the challenges of requiring both IP and SDI timing references. The LT4611 also supports a stay-in-sync function which maintains the phase when GPS reference is lost, plus a slow-lock function to reduce quality-of-service issues that occur when genlock is restored.

All LT4611 functions can be managed from the front panel or remotely. Up to 10 preset configurations can be saved within the generator. The LT4611 can be started with the same settings each time. Logo data and preset data can be written to and recalled from plug-in memory devices via a front-panel USB port.

The current global health crisis has given rise to rapid growth in network traffic, resulting in strain across global broadband networks. In order to address the recent surge and to support its many customers during these unprecedented times, Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced it will provide its EyeQ™ content-aware encoding (CAE) technology free for the next 90 days to help alleviate the current network constraints.

Harmonic's EyeQ technology leverages artificial intelligence to reduce streaming congestion on broadband networks by up to 50% without impacting quality. It serves as a highly effective tool to combat the recent surge and a step above recently utilized methods, such as resolution and bit rate reductions. EyeQ CAE is available on all Harmonic media processors, through a software license, and the VOS®360 Live Streaming Platform.

"Due to the nearly global lockdown, the demand for high-quality streaming services has exploded and as such has led to excessive constraints on broadband networks. Adding our EyeQ technology to the mix can greatly decrease bandwidth consumption for high-quality video and alleviate strain on local and national broadband networks," said Shahar Bar, senior vice president, video products and corporate development at Harmonic. "By offering free licenses for the expected lockdown timeframes, Harmonic is providing an effective tool to help both media companies and broadband networks alike."

Leader Electronics announces the introduction of enhanced IP measurement for the LV5600 waveform monitor and its LV7600 equivalent rasterizer. The video over IP measurement function specified in SMPTE ST 2110 and SMPTE ST 2022-6 now provides nine extra tools:

1: Buffer measurement based on SMPTE ST 2110-21.2; Packet error and packet jitter insertion to the IP test signal generator; 3: Addition of lip-sync test pattern to the SER32 option; 4: IP to SDI conversion insertion of payload ID; 5: Simultaneous display of ports 1 and 2 packet jitter and PTP measurement; 6: Event log displayed in PTP time; 7: PTP grand master clock information is displayed from the PTP announcement message; 8: Graph data such as packet jitter and PTP are output as a CSV file; 9: Audio and ANC can also be displayed on the ST 2110 packet jitter graph. The toolset is available as a freely downloadable upgrade.

Enhanced measurement of SDI is being introduced for all five models in the ZEN series. The SDI measurement function specified in 12G/6G/3G/HD-SDI now provides two new extra tools. First of these is a BT.709-compatible vector scope scale. UHDTV (ARIB STD-B66) and HLG color bars (ARIB STD-B67) contain BT.2020 and BT.709 colors. A scale has been added to allow the vector coordinates of BT.709 color bars to be checked easily. This feature is intended for use in BT.2020 and BT.709 video content production. Second of these two new features is enhanced support for EIA-708/608 close-caption data in 4K, with support for both 3G-SDI quad-link and 12G-SDI. This too is available as a freely downloadable upgrade.

Also new is plug-in module SER31 for the LV5600 and LV7600, providing enhanced measurement of 12G/6G/3G/HD-SDI. This allows operators to check chroma levels beyond the BT.709 or DCI-P3 gamut. The new feature simplifies the task of identifying the reproduction errors which can occur when transmitting video content produced in BT.709, DCI-P3 or BT.2020 wide color gamut or when converting content from BT.2020 to narrow color gamut. With the colorimetry zone feature switched on, chroma signals exceeding the legal gamut are made immediately apparent using a false-color substitute.
 

A Leader LV5900 HD/4K/8K multi-standard waveform monitor was chosen by BT Sport to monitor the signal feed from the UK's first public demonstration of live 8K sport. The UEFA Europa League match between Arsenal and Olympiacos (round of 32) on the 27th February was transmitted live by BT Sport and its partners using the LV5900 to check signal quality in a BT Sport 8K broadcast production truck located just outside the venue.

BT Sport Ultimate, launched in 2019, was the world’s first service to feature regular programming in high dynamic range as well as 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos. BT first demonstrated its 8K capability with an hour-long live relay of a Premiership Rugby Sevens match from Northampton, England, to the September 2019 Amsterdam IBC.

"We are pleased to have partnered with BT Sport at these two events," comments Leader Europe Business Development Manager Kevin Salvidge. "8K HDR is the pinnacle in terms of television production quality, creating a picture 16 times sharper than HD. Our LV5900 waveform monitor is a highly compact instrument designed for checking video and audio signal parameters at any point in the production and delivery chain, from studio right through to transmission and reception."

DHD Audio GmbH, a leading manufacturer of professional mixers and audio devices, announces a new addition to its management team. Anne Philipp is promoted to General Manager, reporting to Managing Directors Joerg M. Deubner and Sven Hoffmann.

Graduating in 2006 with a Business Administration degree from the University of Leipzig, Anne Philipp joined DHD in January 2007 as an executive assistant responsible for materials procurement and accounting. She later also took on production planning. In 2010 she left to work on public tender preparation for a municipal organisation, returning to DHD in 2016. Since then she has resumed her former roles within the company as well as supervising DHD's human resources.

"Anne Phillip is a highly efficient and effective administrator who has proved her management skills within DHD over many years," Joerg Deubner comments. "Sven and I are still deeply involved in hardware and software development so fully appreciate having a colleague of her competence in charge of general company operations."

Custom Consoles has completed a twin-desk project for the Geneva offices of a globally active service organisation. Designed and supplied in partnership with Swiss broadcast systems integrator Visuals, the desks comprise an L-shaped Module-R for use by up to five production gallery operators and a rectangular Module-R Lite configured for two operators.

"The desks form a core part of a new television studio," says Peter Sullivan, Visuals' Broadcast Systems Project Manager. "These will be used for a wide range of productions which can be live streamed or recorded for later viewing."

"Custom Consoles' Module-R and Module-R Lite series have proved a successful choice in earlier projects we have completed for major broadcasters such as RTS and more recently for Switzerland's National Equestrian Institute, allowing robust and operator-friendly desks to be produced from our initial draft designs."

"The L-shaped Module-R desk is a seven-bay straight section combined with a four-bay and twin-bay corner unit situated alongside a soundproofed window into the studio. A camera control unit embedded in the corner desk surface is used to control multiple robotic cameras."

"To the CCU operator's left is a ColourSource console which controls the studio's LED-illuminated cyclorama.

Arena Television has purchased four Leader LV5350 waveform monitors for its new OB17 vehicle which operates from Arena's Redhill Aerodrome headquarters in Surrey. One of Europe's largest and most capable HD trucks, OB17 is a 16.5 metre long 32 tonne articulated vehicle with twin full-length expanding sides.

Primarily operating in HD-SDI SDR and HDR, with Quad HD as an option, OB17 incorporates an IP layer in key areas to add extra flexibility. Onboard features include a 240 square foot production gallery, 16 camera channels, an 80 input Sony vision mixer, a Grass Valley hybrid router with 365 video inputs and 798 video outputs, a monitor wall with up to 180 configurable video preview windows, and a Calrec Artemis Beam audio console.

"OB17 is a powerful HD-HDR/SDR truck built for assignments such as light entertainment," says Dafydd (Daf) Rees, Deputy Director of Operations at Arena Television. "Its first job was for ITV's coverage of the Royal Variety Performance last November. HD-SDR is still the dominant production format but we are seeing a steady increase in demand for HD-HDR. We chose Leader LV5350 waveform monitors for the shading suite because they support both standards."

Leader Europe has provided two LV7300 rasterizing waveform monitors to the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. They were chosen as part of an extensive UHD/HDR upgrade carried out to the facilities used to relay stage performances for live viewing by cinema audiences in Europe and for distribution to other venues around the world.

"We needed instruments that would operate reliably in our current HD-SDR production environment and in the 4K-HDR standard to which we aspire," comments ROH Media broadcast engineer and production mixer Mark Thackeray. "The Royal Opera House in London has been broadcasting live to cinemas in 5.1 surround sound for 10 years. In any one season we transmit 12 or more productions."

"Our first 4K-HDR project was a documentary in 2017 for NHK. Leader lent us an LV5490 portable waveform monitor for that production as we needed the ability to capture, monitor and deliver Rec. 2020 wide color gamut video. The instrument functioned well both as an engineering reference and with its intuitive CINEZONE and CINELITE toolsets which are particularly useful during live production.

"For permanent installation, we decided on two LV7300 rasterizers which provide a full set of 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI measurement facilities that our production staff can view on a larger display screen. The instruments are useful both to ensure accurate color matching of camera channels and for ensuring that we are delivering the best possible signal quality right through the production chain."

Ikegami representatives head to the Dubai World Trade Centre in March for CABSAT 2020, the largest broadcast media show in the Middle East region. The exhibition together with its supporting conference and workshop will be held from March 31st through April 2nd. Highlights of the Ikegami exhibit on stand C4-20 will be the UHL-43 compact HDR camera which was shown in prototype at CABSAT 2019 and is now fully deliverable, the UHK-430 system camera with IP interface and the HQLM-3125X master grade video monitor.

The Ikegami UHL-43 is a compact HDR camera designed for applications such as robotic studios, outside broadcasting of live events, parliamentary television and point-of-view image capture.

Ikegami's UHK-430 is a 4K-native studio camera system with simultaneous HDR/SDR processing. Its three 2/3 inch CMOS sensors provide full 3840 x 2160 UHD resolution plus the depth of field needed for studio and outdoor production. The camera is equipped with a B4 bayonet mount compatible with 2/3 inch UHD and HD lenses. An optional SE-U430 expander accommodates large studio or OB lenses.

Ikegami's recently introduced HQLM-3125X is a 31 inch 4K-UHD master-grade monitor with 4,096 × 2,160 pixel 10-bit resolution and high brightness (1,000 candela per square metre).