Multi-instrumentalist and multi-platinum Music Producer and Songwriter Erik “Blu2th” Griggs has become one of the most upwardly mobile producers in the game. A musician for “as long as he can remember,” Griggs is most well-known for writing and co-producing “No Air” by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown, as well as for his work on the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack. Over the past six years, Griggs has relied on a variety of KRK Systems studio monitors and subwoofers to take his music, sound and creativity to the next level. His love for the brand recently evolved when he upgraded to KRK’s latest generation 10-inch three-way powered mid-field studio monitors, the ROKIT 10-3 G4s.

Matthews introduces a full 40”x40” line of Flags and Floppies. Offering the multitude of benefits for which Matthews is known, this practical size answers the need for gear that’s portable enough to travel in a hatchback car like a Prius and compact enough to work in nooks and crannies of a tight location like a bathroom corner. When it comes to cargo, the 40”x40” dimension easily fits standard shipping limits.

As Matthews’ resident Grip Martin Torner explains: “With the popularity of our 40”x40” Flag, we have added more flavors to this wonderfully dynamic dimension, including Full Silk, Floppy and the new Matthbounce Floppy. Like the 48x48”, the 40x40 is still a good size flag when it comes to usability, but less bulky.”

Like the larger versions, the new frames are built with the same rugged 3/8” stainless steel tubing that’s securely welded for long life. The Flags, Floppies and Silks are meticulously sewn in Matthew’s Southern California headquarters.

Mo-Sys Engineering, a global leader in real time camera tracking and remote systems, today announced the launch of U50. Designed and manufactured during the lockdown period, the U50 is a heavy-duty remote head that enables camera operators to safely return to work and control the biggest box lenses and heaviest broadcast camera set-ups remotely.

Offering the ultimate for camera remote control and remote production, U50 combats the current challenges and unique requirements in the Covid-19 affected world. Making it possible to operate large box lenses and cameras remotely, U50 achieves the same precision and agility when camera operators are controlling manually and on-site. With no other remote head capable of smoothly and quickly operating box lenses and with on-site production crews dramatically decreasing, this innovation offers a new solution to tackle current challenges.

Danny Zemanek, Freelance Camera Operator explained, “Previously remote production technology was an additional cost for broadcasters, but now it is essential to ensure camera operators can work safely. The U50 remote head from Mo-Sys represents a new way that operators can control big box lenses with the same precision and agility that we have come to expect.”

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.

With Partyline from TVU Networks call participants can achieve a unique level of communication and interaction from remote locations as though they were in the same physical studio while producing live and pre-recorded programming. Partyline enables production personnel, talent and tools to collaborate remotely in real time with full HD video quality and perfectly synchronized audio and video. Partyline is making its debut as an integrated part of award-winning TVU Producer, a simple and scalable cloud-based solution for broadcast quality production and will also be incorporated within the TVU ecosystem for use with other TVU solutions.

“The global COVID pandemic has shifted the dynamic of TV production collaboration, requiring talent and technical staff to produce programming from their living rooms,” explains TVU Networks’ CEO Paul Shen. “Professional broadcasters require the ability to interact in real-time while producing programs in fully synchronized and broadcast quality audio and video. When achieved, that’s what we’re calling social production. It should be as close to in-person communication and interaction as possible. Producers shouldn’t have to settle for something that makes creating their important work more cumbersome.”

DejaSoft has launched Version 3 of its media file synchronising tool DejaEdit.

DejaEdit is an essential application for productions enabling Avid editors to work together from any location. It ensures media and bins are copied securely in the background, between each remote editing station or Nexus / EditShare storage system.

Version 3 enhances editors' user experience, provides improved workflow management, efficiency, and additional reliable security features. These new developments are crucial toolsets that support producers and post supervisors in simplifying complex media file sharing activities across the entire production process.

Highlights in DejaEdit 3 include the option for users to use their own S3 account for Cloud media storage; upgraded “Private and Public” bin sharing abilities; sophisticated “Folder Support”; “Notifications”; partial media downloads to each editor; License key safeguards; and the brand new DejaEdit Manager feature.

DejaEdit uses an intuitive “email” style interface, presented within the Avid environment, where bins and metadata can be shared with other users by simply dropping it into the Outbox, ToSet or ToVFX folders. Version 3 now allows editors to add subfolders to these pre-set folders to further organise shared media assets. A new notification system now alerts editors to available content and location. 

The Switch, the platform for the production and global delivery of live video, has launched MIMiC, an on-demand cloud-based production-as-a-service offering that gives broadcasters, streaming services, rights holders and enterprises access to remote production capabilities for live and virtual events of all sizes. Content producers can now leverage The Switch’s unique combination of agile cloud production capability and global network reach to cost-effectively meet increasing demand for efficient and flexible broadcast quality production and for social media engagement for any live event. 

Blackmagic Design today announced that Singapore based Echo Entertainment used URSA Mini Pro G2 cameras shooting in Blackmagic RAW to capture the first season of Mediacorp Singapore’s upcoming TV dramedy “Classmates.” Echo Entertainment also used DaVinci Resolve Studio for color correction and VFX work, with the DaVinci Resolve Fairlight page used for audio editing.

Echo Entertainment, established in 2010, is a Singapore based motion picture company that handles television dramas of all genres, corporate videos, commercials and other multi camera productions. They provide all aspects of production and post production, from storyboarding to shooting and post production.

KitchenFish LLC, the video production company responsible for the nightly broadcast coverage of the South Carolina Education Lottery, is using a new FOR-A HVS-390HS video switcher for its productions. Located a few blocks from the state capitol, the KitchenFish studio hosts the nightly lottery drawings, and also supports live shots of state and local officials for national news outlets. The switcher was installed on April 14 and used for that evening’s production.

“We need to show all these graphics and video inserts simultaneously, and the new FORA switcher gives us a lot of flexibility,” said Jim Simmons, chief engineer for KitchenFish. “Price made a difference, but reliability is the one thing that has to be foremost, because we don’t have a second chance.

Bubble Agency, the global PR, marketing and events specialist for the media and entertainment technology and services sectors, today announced the appointment of Melanie Webb, as a PR and marketing consultant. Melanie brings to Bubble over 15 years of experience working in the production and distribution end of the broadcast sector at agencies including Premier PR and Franklin Rae.

Melanie has held various positions within production, including TV producer, further exemplifying her strong expertise in managing and delivering corporate publicity for TV, film, media companies and brands, as well as consumer programme publicity for a range of broadcasters, independent production companies, distributors and content providers. Her client experience includes: Rough Cut, A&E Networks, Edinburgh TV Festival, Independent Films, Women in Film & Television Awards, DRG and more.

CJP Broadcast announces a new addition to its range of products and services with the introduction of a fully integrated transportable live sports production system. Comprising the Streamstar production unit, InPlayer video-on-demand paywall and JW Player streaming service, it provides the core resources needed to create complete programmes for live streaming or VOD distribution.

Available in several versions supporting up to eight camera inputs, the system can ISO-record multiple source feeds simultaneously, plus the live output stream, to a 1 terabyte internal SSD for live mixing or offline postproduction. It is intended for use with a combination of unmanned remote-control broadcast HD pan/tilt/zoom cameras, goal cameras and traditional-style manned ENG tripod-mountable cameras, wireless drone cameras or auxiliary sources such as Skype-TX-connected guests.

Anna Knochenhauer is a well-respected Stockholm-based film producer/ post-producer with impressive titles to her name which include the likes of “Euphoria” featuring Alicia Vikander; “Welcome to Sweden” season 2 starring Jason Priestly and others.

Carving a successful career of VFX-heavy feature films and drama series, she declares DejaEdit is a revolutionary film tool that should be included in every production as industry standard. She uses DejaEdit in all her productions now, including recent films “Alone in Space” (2018), “White Wall” (2020) and “We Got This” (2020).

DejaEdit is a media file synchroniser that gives editors the ability to collaborate super-efficiently between multiple remote Avid editing platforms. “I depend on DejaEdit for all my productions because it ensures that the media files and timelines that we have created or imported in one connected system are shared and mirrored to the local or network storage of other connected systems. It all takes place quickly, securely and automatically in the background... 
The fact that DejaEdit ensures all media is pushed automatically to all connected Avids means that the Assistant Editor (AE) or Editors don’t ever have to search for any missing media files. DejaEdit has saved us a lot of time and headaches."

Intinor Technology, Sweden’s leading developer of products and solutions for high quality video over the internet, will be demonstrating how to do remote production in a series of live webinars with Danish company Skaarhoj, manufacturers of universal broadcast control panels. The aim is to showcase how the remote production tools from both Intinor and Skaarhoj complement each other to give a flexible, secure workflow for live production using a variety of different content sources and locations.

Interest in remote production workflows (or REMI) has been on the increase for some time now already. Even before the current global social distancing requirements created an added incentive for broadcasting companies to seek an alternative to the traditional travel-dependent methods of production, the economic and productivity benefits that REMI offers enables companies to more easily meet the rising demand for live content.

RUSHWORKS, provider of cool technology for production, playback and streaming since 2001, provides remote production systems and streaming solutions to customers ranging from government agencies, television broadcasters and houses of worship. During the unprecedented era of social distancing and remote communications brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic the Company has responded to a cross-section of organizations requests to maximize their systems and boost remote capabilities with its easily adaptable technologies.

Cinegy, the global leader for broadcast playout software in the cloud has announced a new partnership with New Hampshire-based US Broadcast, a broadcast distributor that uses its channel marketing and technical skill sets to tailor sales for the North American market.

US Broadcast CTO Eric Pratt said, "US Broadcast is currently busy aiding resellers and customers with the technical challenges of connecting video and audio workflows, using our expertise in IP video and remote production to solve their problems. Lately, we’ve had an increase in enquiries with customers looking for help bridging the distance between contributors and production and we’re finding Cinegy’s software-based solutions are particularly relevant at this time.”