Driven by growing market demand for 4K production, leading UK Outside Broadcast specialist Cloudbass has become the first company in the world to create a truly end-to-end, multivendor UHD IP HDR Outside Broadcast vehicle based on the ST2110 standard and with Axon’s Neuron signal processing technology at its core.

OB9, a 20 camera truck built from the ground up with help from systems integrator ES Broadcast, brings together best of breed products from many different manufacturers including Arista, Evertz, GVG, Ross, Calrec, Reidel and Sony. It uses Axon technology to seamlessly integrate them into a fast and highly flexible workflow that is perfectly suited to live sports. The sophistication of Axon’s technology also allows Cloudbass to future-proof its facilities and stay at the top of its game.

OB9 features 21 Neuron units, each packed with a plethora of processing features such as edge synchronizers and converters. Every unit offers an impressive 200 Gb/s and 64 1080p signals or 16 UHD channels with up to 80 SDI connectors, all in a single 1RU.

OB9 also uses Axon’s Cerebrum Control and Monitoring software to integrate equipment from numerous equipment vendors. This guarantees an unprecedented level of control, all in one GUI.

LiveU today presents its annual ‘State of Live’ report based on data gathered from its global customer base of thousands of users. The findings reflect the substantial growth in IP news and sports broadcasting with a 50% increase in the number of LiveU units used to stream live events and 250% increase to around 20 million in live sessions overall.

HEVC continues to play a key role in live transmission, which is pivotal for live sports productions. This is due to the higher quality video performance and bandwidth efficiency enabled by HEVC technology. LiveU reports a 65% growth in HEVC units deployed worldwide and over 400% growth in HEVC-based sessions. Nearly 50% of the field units used to stream sports are HEVC-based with almost 80% of sports sessions transmitted in HD.

The increasing deployment of cellular bonding technology for live sport coverage has been evident worldwide. Following the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™, Kevin Callahan, VP, Field Operations & Engineering, Fox Sports said, “We always get energized if there is a huge buzz at home and this World Cup surpassed all our expectations with the success of the US Women’s soccer team. LiveU’s LU600 HEVC portable transmission unit provided the backbone for our ENG shoots that were not at the stadium, enabling us to increase the number of live feeds. We also sent content to multiple locations simultaneously using LiveU’s Matrix IP cloud video management platform, making the content available to Fox TV stations that wanted to integrate live shots into their newscasts.”

Catalonia's public broadcaster Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals or CCMA) has chosen Leader's LV7300 rasterizer as the master reference instrument as part of an upgrade to HD-HDR at its Audiovisual Production Centre in Barcelona. The CCMA's primary channel is TV3 Catalonia which is transmitted to viewers in Catalonia, Andorra and the Balearic Islands.

Supplied by Leader distribution partner SetUp Electrónica, the LV7300 will be used to check video and audio signal quality in a newly equipped studio equipped to support 4K, HD and super slow motion. The studio's primary role will be to create high quality HD-HDR content.

"Sourcing from 4K-native Sony cameras with  IP connectivity and ITU-R BT 2020 color gamut will allow us to capture images with very rich colors, greater than ever contrast and high detail," says TV3 Area of Exploitation director Ramon Sangrà.

"Leader's LV7300 rasterizer gives our operators all the tools they need to ensure that these enhancements are carried right through the production process from capture, post and archiving to actual transmission. The instrument's ability to handle 4K helps to safeguard our investment as the broadcast industry embraces ever higher standards."

Matthews Studio Equipment, offers yet another smart solution that makes life on set a bit more convenient. New Panel Stand https://vimeo.com/348274238 answers the need for a quick set-up stand that aptly supports today’s panel and balloon-style lighting fixtures, LED monitors, screens, overhead frames and backdrops. What’s more, convenient wheels add on-set mobility especially combined with the low profile legs to maximize leeway and maneuverability, even with low hanging equipment.

This heavy-duty wheeled crank support offers a maximum height of 11’ and a minimum of just 55”. With a load capacity of 70/80 pounds, it is an ideal mate for popular panel lights as well as 45” to 85” monitors that it supports either horizontally or vertically, so it is handy when creating content for mobile mediums and vertical advertisement aspect ratios. Built for low clearance, Panel Stand’s main column can be adjusted and lowered at the leg base while its shallow wheelbase facilitates rolling underneath furniture, vehicles, or other obstacles.

Rugged yet compact, this versatile wheeled carrier also comes equipped with premium Tente® caster wheels, pins to hang a door rack for truck storage, a 1-1/8" Junior receiver, a 5/8" Baby pin, and a built-in ergonomically balanced carrying handle for transport. The tough black powder coat finish provides a professional look that blends in well on set. The Panel Stand is ready for action in a moment, then quickly folds up tight, ready for its next use.

Like their full complement of industry leading stands and other equipment, Panel Stand is available through Matthews Studio Equipment dealers. For more information visit www.msegrip.com

Coinciding with Apple’s launch of the latest Mac Pro workstation, Colorfront (www.colorfront.com) – the Academy, Emmy and HPA Award-winning developer of high-performance dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, broadcast, OTT and commercials – today announced a new, annual rental model for Colorfront Express Dailies that dramatically reduces the cost of operating the software.

Launching in Q1 2020, Colorfront’s subscription service enables users to rent Express Dailies 2020 for an annual fee of $5,000 USD, including maintenance support, updates and upgrades. Additionally, the availability of Apple’s brand-new Pro Display XDR, designed for use with the new Mac Pro, makes on-set HDR monitoring, enabled by Colorfront systems, a more financially viable proposition than ever before.

Blackmagic Design today announced that Grid VFX relied on Fusion Studio throughout its in house compositing pipeline to deliver newly released children’s animated feature, Latte & The Magic Waterstone.

Directed by Regina Welker, the team’s latest project ‘Latte & The Magic Waterstone’ involved the completion of more than 1,200 visual effects shots, including the complex compositing of background and foreground plates and CG render layers for 3D assets, lighting, procedural effects, and more.

“Latte was a huge project for us. It’s a feature animation with a limited budget, so we knew we had to work as efficiently as possible,” begins compositing supervisor at Grid, Laurens Bekaert.

“Fusion’s GPU accelerated render engine was amazing at being able to handle geometry and 3D space compared to alternative compositors. We could add smoke and particles behind our characters and see a good representation of how they would look in 3D instantly, without needing to re render.”

Polar Graphics, a UK leading distributor for the broadcast, post and pro-AV industries, has taken a stand with one of its longest serving partners Bluefish444 for ISE, taking place at the Amsterdam RAI from 11-14 February 2020.

Bluefish444 is a manufacturer of the professional video industry’s highest-quality uncompressed 4K SDI, ASI, Video Over IP & HDMI I/O cards. Bluefish444 also offers IngeSTore Server, a recording appliance supporting SDI, HDMI, NDI, RTP/RTSP and SMPTE IP capture, suitable for any live production workflow in the AV market.

Polar Graphics Managing Director Peter Rowsell said, “Although I have been personally visiting ISE for a dozen years, 2020 will mark our first participation as a co-exhibitor. It will be an excellent opportunity to further expand our business and that of our valued partners.

“We represent a range of products that are ideal for the AV market, and as the world’s largest pro-AV show, ISE is the ideal venue to discuss our entire product range while featuring one of our most relevant product partners.”

Alongside a focus on Bluefish444, Polar Graphics representatives will be on hand for discussions on other brands represented: Apantac, Cinedeck; Imagine Products; MagStor; Mediaproxy; Stardom; StorageDNA; and Studio Network Solutions (SNS).

Broadcast Solutions GmbH draws a very positive balance of their Broadcast Innovation Day 2019. On 28 November 2019, the system integrator invited the broadcast community to this one-day event at their headquarters in Bingen, Germany. With around 350 participants from 30 countries, more visitors than ever before came to Bingen and turned the event into an international industry meeting.

Stefan Breder, CEO at Broadcast Solutions GmbH, comments on the event: “We invented the Broadcast Innovation Days as a series of events years ago, and they have increasingly developed into a meeting place for the international broadcast industry. This year’s edition has been the highlight so far. As an international company, it is extremely important for us to show our innovation leadership and attract international visitors to Bingen. The compact size and the direct contact to and between the visitors make up the charm of the Broadcast Innovation Day.

As part of a strategy of continuing investment to track with the latest market requirements, Finepoint Broadcast, a leading UK dry hire provider of production and OB equipment to the global marketplace, has announced the further addition of a range of Canon lenses to its hire stock portfolio.

The additions include the standard Canon CJ24, plus the Canon CJ45 and large UJ90 lenses (UHD DIGISUPER).

Finepoint Broadcast Hire Manager Clive Northen said, “Finepoint has not seen the disruptive business peaks and troughs of recent years that have been so prevalent in various broadcast sectors. To the contrary, our growth has been steady and continuous, due in part to our continual evaluation and investment in technologies, such as these Canon lenses, that provide a direct benefit to our customers.”

Finepoint Broadcast Chief Engineer Andrew Mckenzie said, “The Canon CJ24 is an acclaimed telephoto lens with a 24x broadcast zoom and a focal length of 7.5-180mm that offers 4K performance that is ideal for on-the-shoulder newsgathering. The ultra-high zoom CJ45 is packed with innovative, class-leading technology that is perfectly suited to wildlife and live-sport deployments.

And with a 90x zoom, 9-810mm focal length, and image stabilisation that's fully compatible with 2/3" 4K cameras and broadcast environments where HDTV is currently in use, the Canon UHD DIGISUPER 90 lens is perfect for expanding Finepoint Broadcast’s 4K lens range.”

Today, Autodesk announced the release of Autodesk Maya 2020, bringing animators, modelers, riggers, and technical artists a host of new tools and improvements that enable faster, more intuitive CG content creation from first concept to final delivery.

Building on powerful animation features introduced in Maya 2019, Maya 2020 adds more than 60 new updates animators will notice in their day-to-day work. The release also includes Arnold 6, which can now be used for production rendering on both the CPU and GPU, as well as significant performance enhancements and new simulation features to Bifrost, the visual programming environment in Maya.

Autodesk today announced the release of Arnold 6 with Arnold GPU. From look development to final frame rendering, Arnold 6 with Arnold GPU simplifies how artists and studios create and iterate content, giving them the speed and flexibility to adapt to a fast-paced working environment and scale rendering capacity to accommodate the ebbs and flows of production. Arnold’s intuitive interface makes it easy to toggle between CPU and GPU rendering, maintaining the same settings with a single click. Arnold GPU is based on NVIDIA’s OptiX framework and optimized to take advantage of NVIDIA RTX technology.

“Rendering workloads continue to grow as content providers strive to meet rising audience expectations for content quality. Speed and interactivity have become more crucial than ever to the creative process. Arnold 6 delivers performance gains that will help lighten the load with the same high-quality render results that the CPU renderer is known for,” said Chris Vienneau, senior director, Media & Entertainment Products, Autodesk. “We’ve worked closely with NVIDIA to optimize Arnold GPU to run on the latest RTX GPUs and RTX Server, and we’re excited to get this latest update into the hands of new and existing Arnold customers.”

Frame.io, the world's leading video review and collaboration platform, announced today the arrival of Frame.io for iPad. Frame.io for iPad follows the success of the company’s 2016 Apple Design Award-winning iOS app, and, like its smaller sibling, allows users to stay up to date with what’s happening on set or in the edit suite while on the move. Frame.io for iPad is another step toward realizing a fully, globally distributed video workflow, giving creators and collaborators the ability to review or approve work in progress from anywhere in the world. Apple’s high quality iPad screen lets users view true-to-life color, while making the mobile experience more flexible and delightful. There are times when watching dailies, evaluating VFX shots, or getting a better sense of composition and color benefits from a larger display than a smartphone can offer - that’s where Frame.io for iPad comes into play.

Custom Consoles announces the completion of Module-R studio control desks and two MediaWall monitor display mounts for Cardiff University's School of Journalism, Media & Cultural Studios. The desks and display mounts form part of a full broadcast-quality news studio facility designed by UK-based system integrator ATG Danmon.

"We were invited to propose a turnkey solution based on an outline specification provided by the university," explains ATG Danmon Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "The project coincided with a relocation to new city-centre premises. It comprised a large TV studio and dedicated gallery, a smaller TV studio with its associated gallery, plus a broadcast newsroom. These will be used to train the next generation of television, radio, online and printed-media journalists. Module-R desks and MediaWalls are used in many broadcast facilities in the UK, Europe, MENA and Asia, so were a logical choice given the need to match the functionality and processes of a real broadcast environment. They are robustly constructed, ergonomically efficient for engineering staff and well as operators, and attractively styled. Both product series also gave us the freedom to match the available room dimensions from standard modular elements."

Atlanta DTH, Inc. (ADTH) announces that it has joined the SRT Alliance, a broadcast media industry collaboration created to develop an open-source protocol allowing low-latency video streaming over the internet. ADTH will provide full support for the SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) protocol.

Developed and pioneered by Haivision, the SRT protocol optimizes streaming performance across unpredictable networks with secure streams and easy firewall traversal. It accounts for packet loss, jitter, and fluctuating bandwidth, maintaining the integrity and quality of a video stream.

"With its 25 years of experience in the broadcast and telecommunication sectors, ADTH is a very welcome addition to our membership," comments Haivision CCO & EVP Strategic Alliances Peter Maag. "With increasing support from across the entire industry, SRT is rapidly becoming the globally preferred standard for low-latency video streaming."

"Efficient and effective standards are essential to the advancement of any industry, not least in the OTT streaming sector where signal delivery needs to overcome many technical variables," adds ADTH founder and Managing Director Michael Day. "The SRT Alliance's aims and objectives are in full accord with our own strategy of promoting the highest possible video quality-of-experience securely, efficiently and at the lowest possible latency. We are SRT-ready."

Altered Images, a leading UK supplier of visual communications technology solutions, has chosen Custom Consoles Module-R, M-Desk Technical and custom-designed studio furniture for a newly completed broadcast media training suite at Plymouth Marjon University.

The new resource includes a total of seven desks in an open plan configuration. Located on the former BBC South West villa site in Plymouth, it is equipped with all the facilities required for the university's courses in journalism and broadcast production. These include a four-camera TV studio, a TV news room and TV production gallery, a radio news room, radio studio and central apparatus room.

"The design brief we were given was to create a fully professional radio and TV production environment including latest-generation Dante IP networking", says Altered Images' Media and Broadcast Solutions Director Russell Butcher. "Custom Consoles desks are very widely used throughout the broadcast media industry so will be met by many students as they progress into their careers. The desks and equipment bays look good, are ergonomically comfortable and efficient, and are very long-lasting."