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Issue: Aug. 29, 2008
Top Stories
234 Stations Claim ‘Special’ Issues Ahead of DTV Deadline
Some 234 full-power stations have told the FCC they have special circumstances needing attention before they’ll be able to meet the Feb. 18 deadline for DTV broadcasts and the end of their analog signals.
An FCC report said that as of Aug. 18—six months ahead of the transition date—more than half of the country’s 1,798 full-power stations have completed their DTV construction, and 97 percent expect to have done so by the deadline.
Among the remainder, 56 stations will broadcast at 85 percent of audience coverage under FCC waivers. The flexibility was granted for stations needing additional time due to “unique technical challenges” such as topmounting or sidemounting antennas, weather-related issues, or coordination with other stations.
One unlucky operation—KBRR in Thief River Falls, Minn., a satellite of KVRR in Fargo, N.D.—will fall just short and expects to go dark for three or four cold winter days before starting DTV.
Among those 234 with “certain circumstances neeeding their attention and the additional focus of the commission staff,” before reaching compliance, 60 still needed a final post-transition channel assignment as of Aug. 18.
Ninety-two still have coordination issues with other stations, and 35 are citing financial hardship. Ten stations need coordination with Mexico, five need clearances from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 24 require local land-use approvals. Six others have proposed reducing their post-transition coverage.
The 35 stations pleading finincial hardship will have to be in bankruptcy or show three years of negative cash flow to get more time.
Conventions Make Television Technology History
 Some things stay the same in political conventions: The partisans cheer, the pundits hand-wring and the politicians pander.
But in 2008, the use of technology is growing even faster than the deficit.
CNN, already employing a bag of tricks with its Election Express bus and its production of both conventions from the comfort of New York City, deployed an NFL-style aerial camera to capture Barack Obama’s acceptance speech from Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday.
Panasonic, a bipartisan provider of enormous HDTV screens to the Democrats in Denver and the GOP in Minnesota, unleashed three 103-inch plasma screens for the backdrop on the Democrats’ stage.
The Democrats even provided their own HD online, with gavel-to-gavel coverage in 720p. The Republicans will also have online video, but are not claiming high-definition
Level 3 Communications Inc., which provided unprecedented HD streaming feeds from the Democratic convention floor, installed more than five miles of fiber-optic cable to connect both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field to the Level 3 network. Level 3 also established fiber route diversity from each venue, redundant video encoding facilities and enhanced network security.
Final preparations for the Obama speech included camera tests at the stadium with images encoded and cached over the Level 3 Content Delivery Network (CDN).
“Over the first two days of the event, audiences from around the world have taken advantage of the opportunity to watch the convention online,” said Grant van Rooyen, president of Level 3’s Content Markets Group. “The Internet is helping to break down barriers to access the convention and engage more people than ever before in this historic event.”
The convention spawned new HDTV of the regular, television kind as well, as ABC launched HD broadcasts of its evening news show, “World News with Charles Gibson.”
Whether because of the candidates or the technology, people have been turning in on one of the eight networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET and TV One) that have been airing the confab from about 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT.
On Day 1 (Aug. 25), they combined for a 15.1 share, or nearly 22.3 million viewers, up from fewer than 18.5 million on six networks on the first day of the 2004 Democratic Convention, according to Nielsen.
Day 2 (Aug. 26) brought a 17.8 rating and nearly 26 million viewers, up from fewer than 6 million on three networks in 2004.
Day 3 (Aug. 27) brought a 16.4 rating and more than 24 million viewers, up from fewer than 18 million in 2004.
Avid Accelerates CBS’ Convention Coverage
 DENVER
CBS News arrived in Denver to cover the Democratic National Convention less than a month after the “Tiffany network” commenced broadcasting the evening news in HD on July 28.
“We immediately started getting rave reviews for the quality of our video and audio compared to the other networks,” said Walt Leiding, technical supervisor and editor for CBS News, who worked from a multi-trailer compound in the Pepsi Center parking lot this week.
“I'm sure the reason is that CBS News is broadcasting in 1080i instead of 720p like ABC and the others,” he said, “so even when we were carrying the same pool feed as everyone else, our signal has been superior.”
Live and edited signals from CBS News at the DNC in Denver passed through Fujutsu MPEG-4 encoders for transmission by Level 3 over ten 100 Mb paths (300 milliseconds latency) directly to the CBS News control room in New York, where DNC coverage was switched live.
In New York, DNC signals were edited on an Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline system with an HD I/O card. Back in Denver, though, Leiding and others on his team sat at either the Avid NewsCutter Nitris DX or DEX systems, both supported by Avid VideoRAID five-drive storage systems working in Avid DNxHD 145 Mbps MXF to quickly turn around HD news segments for play-to-air.
“We actually had four editing systems in Denver,” he said. “Two were the SD systems we've normally carried on the road, which use MPEG 50 MXF, and the other two were the new HD systems that Avid was good enough to let us use.”
Leiding said the Avid Nitris gave him “unprecedented” abilities for controlling source and sequence. “The other day we had two HD cameras shooting Katie Couric interviewing party chairman Howard Dean as they walked through the hallways under the Pepsi Center arena. The Nitris automatically sync-ed up the timecodes from each camera, so we could get the same moment from another angle on the fly.”
He added, “Organization is the key to editing, in general, and the ability to cherry pick HD shots that I know will sync up is one of the best parts of the Avid system. It’s like driving a really responsive German sport car. The system goes wherever I point it, and it can stop on a dime. It’s a dream.”
FCC/Regulatory
White Space: Motorola Says Beacons ‘Readily Implementable’ to Protect Wireless Mics
Motorola says its demonstration of beacon technology at the FCC shows the technology is ready to implement in potential white space devices to protect interference to wireless mics, and the FCC is rapidly gaining the record it needs to move forward with a white space rulemaking.
Broadcasters and wireless mic users have panned the beacon idea as just another kind of signal sensing technology, which they say failed to perform adequately at this summer’s tests by the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. Broadcasters say use of future devices in the unused DTV white spaces could cause interference to DTV as well as to thousands of wireless mic users.
Steve Sharkey, Motorola senior director for regulatory and spectrum policy, said the tests show its regime for protecting wireless mics—a geolocation database for fixed and scheduled uses (such as at sporting events), “safe harbor” channels, and an avoid-this-channel beacon deployed by mic users over small areas during unscheduled uses such as breaking news coverage—is readily implementable and achievable.
Broadcasters and mic users complain that a beacon regime would place the burden of the beacon on incumbent users. They also say the additional signal would further clutter the DTV channels and the subchannels within them used by wireless mics.
Sharkey said beacon signals are of a distinctive form and easily recognizable by sensing devices, and would operate on separate subchannels from the mic users sending the beacons. He said security protocols would prevent a wayward beacon from shutting down white space devices unnecessarily.
Motorola agrees with broadcasters that signal-sensing alone is not enough to protect either wireless mics or DTV from white space devices. The company has demonstrated the use of a geolocation database in both cases.
Shure engineers were still evaluating the latest Motorola document and therefore had no no specific comments on it, said Mark Brunner, Shure senior director for public and industry relations.
“Our primary concern regarding beacons is that they would need to be accurately sensed by portable devices, as demonstrated through thorough testing,” Brunner said in an e-mail. “Further, they would need to occupy minimal spectrum and be cost effective and simple to deploy. Shure’s original conception of a beacon was as a third stage of wireless microphone protection for use in super-scale events, along with dedicated clear spectrum and proven dynamic frequency selection technology in all portable white space devices. We do not see beacons as practical for use with all wireless microphones, or as the primary means of interference protection.”
Silicon Valley startup Adaptrum has also submitted a device with beacon technology to protect wireless mics. The company suggests that the beacon could occupy TV channels also used by wireless mics in order to ward off white space devices, or it could occupy another channel and contain information about channels being used by wireless mics or other users.
Devices and proposals submitted by Philips Electronics and the Singapore-backed Institute for Infocomm Research do not include the geolocation database.
White Space: Google Spamming FCC
Google launched an informational Web site on white space technology that includes point-and-click activism, letting Web-surfers easily send a letter to the FCC in support of Google’s position—which is for a set of rules that would allow a major deployment of mobile, unlicensed white space devices.
Google and its allies in the White Space Coalition have maintained that their devices will have ways to protect DTV and wireless mic signals from interference that broadcasters fear could unravel the DTV transition. Google says use of the spectrum will enable major advances in wireless broadband.
It may turn out that viewers will still be able to find DTV signals among all that white space activity. But in the FCC docket on the issue, the identical letters from 1,000-plus mouse-wielding activists are burying original, substantive, technically detailed and well-thought-out comments by parties who are actually well informed on the matter, whatever their position.
Broadcasters mocked the Google campaign, called “Free the Airwaves,” with the Association for Maximum Service Television saying it ought to be called “Interfere With the Free Airwaves Campaign.”
It’s not the first time an interested party has convinced ordinary people to act as human spam servers on its behalf. MoveOn.org generated hundreds of thousands of letters to the FCC in opposition to media consolidation back in 2003, and anti-indecency warriors have deployed similar easy-activism campaigns. One brand of phone service has been even more enterprising, charging its customers a small fee to click “Send” for them on various issues.
It’s not clear what impact the stacks of form letters have on decision makers, but the FCC Web site seems able to handle a substantial amount of the traffic. As of Thursday afternoon (Aug. 28), more than 4,000 of the letters had been posted on the site, representing just two days of activity.
McDowell Snags Rosemary Harold From Media Bureau
Rosemary Harold, deputy chief of the FCC Media Bureau, will join the staff of Commissioner Robert McDowell as his legal advisor for media issues, the FCC announced.
Harold has worked at the commission since December 2005. Before that, she represented various clients before the commission and other federal bodies as a partner in the telecommunications firm Wiley Rein and Fielding (now Wiley Rein.)
She’s also been a professional journalist. She’s a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, has an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri, and got her B.A. from the College of William and Mary.
Cristina Chou Pauzé, who has served as legal advisor for media issues to McDowell, will be leaving the commission.
Sinclair Deal in Richmond Shot Down
Sinclair Broadcasting Group had its purchase of WTVR (Richmond, Va.) blocked by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, the company said.
In June, Sinclair moved to buy the station from Raycom Media for $85 million giving it a virtual duopoly in the market. It was simultaneously going to sell the assets of WRLH, a Fox affiliate, to an entity called Carma Broadcasting LLC. So Sinclair would not have owned both local stations, but would have provided sales and other non-programming related services to WRLH.
But that’s not why the Justice Department nixed the deal, Sinclair said in a statement. The denial came about because of a consent decree between the Justice Department and Raycom that stemmed from Raycom’s earlier acquisition of three stations from Lincoln Financial. Under that decree, any potential buyer of WTVR could be rejected unilaterally by the Justice Department without cause, according to Sinclair.
Raycom bought KTVR and stations in Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C. from Lincoln for $583 million last year.
Sinclair said it is continuing to explore its rights under its asset purchase agreement with Raycom.
Sinclair owns and operates programs or provides sales services to more than 50 television stations in 35 markets.
Business
Total Television Households Increase 1.5 Percent
There will be 114.5 million television households in the United States in the 2008-09 season, an increase of 1.5 percent over last year, according to the Nielsen Co.
The number of Asian TV households grew 4.4 percent to 4.74 million and the Hispanic household count grew 4.3 percent to 12.66 million, Nielsen said.
Black or African-American households increased by 2.2 percent, to 13.9 million.
Baby Boomers (those 55 and over) increased their number of TV-watching households by 2.7 percent.
There were no changes in Nielsen’s rankings of the top 20 markets. New York remains the largest, with more than 7.4 million TV homes, or nearly 6.5 percent of the entire country.
Coming in last, at DMA No. 210, is Glendive, Mont., with just 3,940 households.
Vitec Group Adds Litepanels
 Litepanels, a provider of LED lighting systems to the professional production and broadcast industries, will become part of The Vitec Group, which already includes many companies serving video production needs, including Sachtler, Vinten, Autoscript, and Anton/Bauer.
Litepanels’ LED on-camera and stand-mounted lighting systems have enjoyed broad use in recent years thanks to their low-power consumption and low heat output.
Litepanels was founded in 2005 by five partners with extensive hands-on lighting experience. All will stay with the company and continue their operational responsibilities.
Earlier this year, Litepanels increased its focus on the needs of broadcasters, including ENG and HDTV applications, with the launch of its Broadcast Lighting Division.
“We are certain that this new strategic alliance with The Vitec Group will allow us to continue to bring the most innovative products and technology to our customers and dealer network,” said Ken Fisher, a Litepanels partner.
Broadcom Acquiring AMD’s DTV Unit
 Irvine, Calif.-based semiconductor giant Broadcom is making a major move further into the DTV reception marketplace with the acquisition of the DTV business of Advanced Micro Devices, based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Broadcom, which manufactures DTV reception chips used by television and set-top box makers, will invite 530 members of AMD’s dedicated DTV team plus others to join the company. Those personnel are located in six primary design centers around the world.
Just last week, Broadcom announced a smaller digital-to-analog chip it said would provide the power needed for increasing set-top box demands.
Broadcom said the $192.8 million deal would let it immediately scale its DTV business and offer a complete product line of DTV related products. It will expand Broadcom’s existing customer base, which includes the top DTV brands worldwide, the company said.
AMD’s DTV product line includes all Xilleon integrated DTV processors and complete turnkey reference designs, as well as NXT receiver ICs, the Theater 300 DTV processor, and a line of panel processors that perform advanced motion compensation, frame rate conversion and scaling.
The boards of directors of both companies have approved the deal and expect it to close in the fourth quarter.
Broadcom’s revenue in 2007 was $3.78 billion.
U.K. Surveillance-Tool Firm Spots GMS Customers
Citing a rapidly growing market for police surveillance in the United States, a British spook-supply outfit is set to acquire Global Microwave Systems.
GMS, a maker of equipment for microwave applications including BAS, is being sold by its parent, the Allied Defense Group Inc., to England-based Cobham plc.
Based in Carlsbad, Calif., GMS employs 50 people. It will be become part of the Cobham Avionics and Surveillance Division.
GMS makes video surveillance equipment and high-definition wireless video technology primarily for U.S. law enforcement, national security and defense, “together with the broadcast market,” Cobham said in a statement.
“GMS is an excellent technological fit with Cobham’s existing business, offering complementary products and capabilities which present opportunities for synergistic growth,” Cobham said.
The deal will give it access to a wider customer base and a physical presence on the West Coast, the company said.
The $26 million deal requires the approval of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Telestream Flips for Streaming Firm Vara
Telestream, provider of FlipFactory and other content repurposing and workflow automation products, has completed the acquisition of European-based Vara Software Ltd., a privately-held company.
The acquisition expands Nevada City, Calif.-based Telestream’s reach beyond encoding-based media workflow solutions for leading media companies, moving the company into the real-time production end of the digital media supply chain.
Vara Software provides real-time production tools, including Webcasting, screencasting and rich media presentation products for a variety of applications.
“The ability to quickly capture live events, create and distribute content for Internet-based content delivery is experiencing explosive growth. We believe the live element is going to be even more important going forward,” said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream. “While Vara Software products currently target individual users and departments within larger organizations, the technology is well suited to easily migrate to enterprise-level solutions.”
Telestream released FlipFactory 6.1 earlier this summer.
Vara Software adds 3 new products to Telestream’s portfolio:
- Wirecast, an advanced live Webcasting app for Mac or Windows, combines multiple video cameras, movies, desktop output, audio tracks, images and titles. Live Earth, which delivered on-demand footage to more than 10 million simultaneous viewers on MSN.com in July 2007, was powered by Wirecast.
- ScreenFlow, a professional screencasting application for Mac users, simultaneously captures desktop screens, video camera, microphone and computer audio elements, and then allows users to add and edit recordings and publish finished videos to Web sites or blogs.
- Videocue, a toolkit that allows Mac users to write and record speeches and enables video capture of the presenter, on-screen viewing of the script, plus the ability to add movies, images and titles for rich media presentations.
Telestream will officially introduce Vara Software offerings at IBC2008 in Amsterdam.
Samsung Putting HDTV Viewers in Its NFL Ads
Samsung Electronics America is turning NFL cameras on the fans in a new marketing campaign.
Entitled “That’s How I See It,” the campaign will highlight how fans experience the games on their Samsung HDTVs.
The campaign will include a commercial to air during the Super Bowl XLIII pregame show featuring one lucky fan’s story; four agency-produced commercials about fans watching the games on their Samsung HDTVs; and a Web site with numerous interactive features, including the ability to have a celebrity (Samsung so far has mentioned Alice Cooper) call your spouse or friend in support of a viewer’s new HDTV purchase.
Fans can have their stories recorded by NFL Films inside the NFL “Super Ad: That’s How I See It” mobile studio, which will debut Sept. 4 in New York’s Columbus Circle and will visit stadiums and retail locations around the country this fall.
From Nov. 20 to Jan. 4, a group of selected fan videos will be posted on NFL.com’s dedicated Super Ad site. Fans can vote, and one of those videos will be turned into a commercial to air during the pregame show prior to Super Bowl XLIII on NBC on Feb. 1, 2009.
Products
Rohde & Schwarz to Introduce ATSC-M/H Technology in December
Rohde & Schwarz, a leading supplier of mobile TV transmitters, has announced that it will introduce ATSC-M/H technology in its transmitter line in December.
U.S. broadcasters plan to use the ATSC-M/H standard to transmit programming to mobile devices via terrestrial DTV signals. It is anticipated that a working standard will be available within the next 12-18 months. Rohde teamed with Samsung to develop the A-VSB mobile DTV system, of which certain features were integrated into the eventual ATSC-M/H system, developed by Harris Corp. and LG Electronics. Rohde said its current line of DTV transmitters are ATSC-M/H ready and that it will offer an ATSC M/H firmware option to its R&S SX800 exciter as early as December.
The R&S SX800 is a fully frequency agile exciter already used in both Rohde’s newest ATSC and NTSC air-cooled and liquid cooled transmitter systems, as well as in systems from other manufacturers. The R&S SX800 is also available as part of an exciter retrofit package to replace the exciter in existing transmitters of any manufacturer.
The new mobile TV standard also will become available in the Rohde & Schwarz line of low power transmitters, which can be used as gap-fillers or in Single Frequency Networks (SFN) to enhance coverage in problem areas. At the same time, a new multiplexer will be introduced that supports ATSC-M/H, to complement the transmitter and exciter products. This will allow the broadcasters to move to ATSC-M/H operation with Rohde & Schwarz as a one stop supplier.
“Rohde & Schwarz is committed to providing the broadcasters with efficient, high quality transmitter products for DTV and mobile TV applications, just as we were able to do on a large scale for the first operational mobile TV network in the USA.” said Eddy Vanderkerken, Director of Sales. “Our high power solid-state transmitters are by far the most energy efficient on the market today, with the smallest footprint, so these are the first true ‘green’ solid-state TV transmitters, which greatly reduce the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the product. We will continue to develop products that drive efficiency and set standards, and that broadcasters can rely upon, both for transmission products and test & measurement.”
Avid Launches Version 10 of Avid DS
Avid Technology has introduced Version 10 of its Avid DS professional video production platform. Highlights include faster performance, dual link feature support, as well as enhancements to color management, DPX and timeline functionality.
Avid DS Nitris offers multi-stream, 10-bit uncompressed HD, Avid DNxHD and SD finishing and mastering as well as HD-RGB and 2K/4K file-based editing with real-time playback up to 2K.
Version 10 is built on the HP xw6600 platform with dual-quad 3.0 GHz CPUs with 8 GB RAM, the Nvidia QuadroFX 3700 (G92 GPU) and a Dual Link I/O card with K3 rack-mountable breakbox. The GPU features a new real-time processing framework that allows the GPU to handle a majority of the systems’ processes and effects in real time.
Other new features of Version 10 include:
- Full support for 10-bit YUV 4:2:2
- Hardware support of 720p/23.98 sequences
- Enhanced color management tools that allow customers to preserve color definitions and define and manage lookup tables, as well as support for the most commonly used LUTs;
- New DPX 2.0 improvements to support RGB and RGBA formats;
- Avid Symphony-style color correction;
- New format support for HD YUV 4:2:2 formats, including 1080p/50, 1080p/59.94 and 1080p/60;
- Support for Avid Interplay
- A new interface that allows customers to build property pages to expose only some parameters of an effect tree with multiple effects;
- Stereoscopic container that allows users to create 48i sequences and set up left and right eyes with output through the 2Ke Dual Link card, and
- New timeline functionality.
Pricing for the Avid DS 10 system begins at $59,995 for a turnkey solution, which includes a CPU workstation, 30-inch monitor, 8TB of SAS storage, a Wacom tablet, one license of DS 10 software only, DS 10 RP (Remote Processing) Media Composer software and Avid Metafuze.
The system starts shipping in September.
Ross Unleashes New Mixer/Keyer, Automation Software
Ross Video has released two new products, the MDK-111ALite, an HD/SD SDI mixer/keyer; and additional features to Version 7 of its OverDrive automated live production control system software.
OverDrive’s Version 7 enhancements offer support for the new Vision QMD/X switcher family, including integration of internal MLE and Global Still Stores, mismatched panel and frame support, and several new enhancements and features for the RundownControl client application and NRCS ActiveX plug-in.
“Version 7 further extends the feature set of the market-leading production control system,” said Brad Rochon, OverDrive marketing product manager. “Our ability to offer a 1 MLE control surface with 4 MLE switcher electronics is an industry first for APC systems and will allow our News, Sports and Live production customers even more power and flexibility as they adopt new business models and further develop production revenue streams.”
Designed by Ross using the latest Java technologies and an IT class client/server architecture, OverDrive extends the reach of the operator to include control of video servers, audio mixers, robotic cameras, multiple graphic channels and more. In newsroom applications, the LiveLink MOS connection to the newsroom control system (NRCS) enables direct control of production rundowns and MOS-enabled devices.
The new mixer/keyer, the MDK-111ALite expands Ross’ openGear line and can be used for keying external devices such as character generators, graphic systems, and EAS devices into a program stream. A wide variety of openGear cards are available from terminal equipment vendors supporting the openGear platform, allowing facilities freedom and flexibility to choose the best technology for their particular application.
Azden Introduces New Wireless Mic Systems
Azden Corp. is debuting three new series of wireless mic systems, each targeted to a particular user sector. These include models for broadcasters, professional videographers and entry-level or prosumer users.
The units are classed as ENG, Professional and the 105 series of transmitters and receivers. The three ENG packages operate in the 638-661 MHz frequency range and are designed to be used with Sony V-mount cameras, Panasonic or Ikegami slot-in models, or cameras that use the Anton/Bauer Gold Mount system.
Two receivers and three transmitters are available in Azden’s Professional-level series and operate in the 566-589 MHz range. Both ENG and Professional lines provide users with a choice of 188 different operating frequencies.
The entry level/prosumer 105 product line consists of a receiver, a body-pack, a handheld and a plug-in unit. It also operates in the 566-589 MHz portion of the spectrum, with 92 user-selectable operating channels available.
Free Closed-Caption App Available From Xorbit
Xorbit, a designer and manufacturer of captioning automation, management and distribution technologies for broadcasters, cable systems and other users, is making available a free introductory version of the company’s OmniEdit FE development system for closed captioning.
Company president Steven Blumenschien said that the introductory version of the system was being launched to share its capabilities with a new group of users within the broadcasting sphere.
"With OmniEdit, we’ve significantly raised the bar for caption creation systems by eliminating the requirement for external encoder and video hardware," Blumenschein said. "OmniEdit was specifically designed with capabilities to increase transcribers’ speed and lower the overall costs of captioning.”
OmniEdit is a fully EIA-compliant captioning system and is designed to save time spent in the captioning process by allowing users to simply click and type captions onto the video content.
The Columbia, Md.-based company said that OmniEdit FE will allow users to use the full complement of the package’s caption creation, editing and distribution toolsets for 90 days without charge. At the end of that period, all captioned content can be transferred to other Xorbit products. Users will be able to purchase a license key to activate a fully licensed version of the product.
Deals & Deployments
Buffalo Bills Shoot With P2
Bills Television Network (BTN), the media outlet for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, has purchased a Panasonic P2 HD production package that includes the AG-HPX500 2/3-inch shoulder-mount P2 HD camcorder, the AJ-HPM110 P2 Mobile Recorder/Player, AG-HPG10 P2 Gear Recorder and the AJ-PCD20 five-slot P2 drive.
Panasonic recently announced the availability of its long-heralded P2 cameras.
The Panasonic P2 HD production equipment will be used to shoot game-day features that will be shown on the team’s 82-by-35-foot in-stadium HD video display. The same programming will be carried on the team’s closed-circuit cable network that airs in the facility’s suites and club areas.
According to BTN Video Production Director/Engineer Stephen Asposto, the team committed to HD acquisition for the 2008-2009 season to maximize the capabilities of the HD scoreboard it had installed last year. BTN will also use the tapeless HPX500 HD camcorder to shoot widescreen content for the team’s Web site. Ultimately, BTN will produce HD programming for its in-season television shows.
“The HPX500 package, with its variety of recording and off-loading options, is tailor-made for our production environment, with edit suites in three different buildings on our campus,” Asposto said. “The ease of the P2 workflow was a major reason for our decision.”
The P2 HD material will be edited on Avid Media Composers, and then transferred via FTP to a central Ross Video SMS server, which will feed the HD display and in-stadium television service.
Technology
Amimon Chips Bringing Wireless HDTV Set to Japan
Israel-based semiconductor company Amimon Inc. has touted its technology for wireless HDTV delivery, demonstrating the system back at CES2008 in January.
The idea was to keep fat, ugly wires from ruining a pristine visual effect of a top-flight television. Now, those chips have found a home—an HD LCD television from Mitsubishi for the Japanese market.
The companies announced the new set will come with the embedded wireless technology—a two-piece system comprised of a thin LCD panel and a separate HDTV receiver unit that connects wirelessly.
Mitsubishi has dubbed the concept its “Living Fit” line. The product is planned for release in Japan this fall.
Amimon, whose investors include Motorola uses Joint Source-Channel Coding (JSCC) to prioritize bits and enable high-bandwidth, short-range transmission. The interface delivers uncompressed HDTV with a range of more than 100 feet through multiple walls and with latency of less than one millisecond, the company says.
Harris Partners With Freescale Semiconductor For New UHF Transmitters
Harris Corp. says it will be integrating solid-state technology from Freescale Semiconductor in a new range of television broadcast transmitters.
The company announced that it will be using Freescale’s laterally diffused MOS (LDMOS) devices to produce much more compact and energy-efficient UHF transmitters.
Harris and Freescale engineering personnel have been working in collaboration on the development of the new transmitting technology for several months.
“Freescale Semiconductor’s LDMOS technology allows us to take advantage of off-the-shelf technology that ultimately helps us improve efficiency and provides an exceptionally compact solution,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. “This drives down long-term cost of ownership, and creates a new value proposition for Harris that will be passed along to our customers. Our strategic efforts with Freescale have resulted in a change in our approach to the manufacturing process, producing a far more efficient range of TV transmitters that allows us to stay competitive in the marketplace, while retaining the superior quality that is a hallmark of Harris TV transmitters.”
According to information from the companies, the use of the LDMOS UHF devices will simplify transmitter design by requiring fewer gain stages to provide desired output levels. This also results more compact transmitters and increases their reliability. The development also reduces cooling requirements and electricity costs.
Harris is headquartered in Melbourne, Fla. and Freestyle Semiconductor operates from Austin, Texas.
Dish Now Transmitting all Programming in MPEG-4
Fulfilling earlier promises, Dish Network has become the first pay television programming service provider to transmit all of its standard- and high-definition programming in the MPEG-4 coding standard. New customers in 21 designated eastern U.S. markets will be the first to take advantage of the new delivery system.
"DISH Network once again leads the pack in providing customers with an unparalleled entertainment experience,” said Jessica Insalaco, Dish Network’s chief marketing officer. “Our complete MPEG-4 solution—which will offer up to 150 HD channels by the end of the year—uses the most advanced technology in the industry to deliver the best quality picture to any television set in the home, perfect for those who have or are considering upgrading to high-definition.”
She added that Dish would be expanding the MPEG-4 delivery of SD and HD programs to additional U.S. customers in the next several months.
To fully benefit from the enhanced transmissions, new customers have to sign up for Dish’s TurboHD package which, according to the company, features 100 percent high-definition programming and is available in three tiers.
Programming
Farm Aid Harvests HD on DirecTV
Farm Aid, the down-home benefit tradition planted by Willie Nelson, will be broadcast for the first time this year in HD—on DirecTV, in any case.
The Sept. 20 festival at the Comcast Center outside Boston will run live on DirecTV’s The 101 Network.
DirecTV will also support the farmers, offering to match its subscribers’ gifts up to a total of $50,000 to the Farm Aid cause from Sept. 6 to Sept. 30.
Performers will include Nelson; Farm Aid board members Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. Coverage starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m. And it’s all in 5.1 surround sound.
Also on stage will be Kenny Chesney, the Pretenders, moe., Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nation Beat, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels, Danielle Evin, Jamey Johnson, Jesse Lenat, Will Dailey and One Flew South.
Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $30 million in support of farmers and good food.
Industry Events
October AES Convention Offers Technical Tours Program
As part of this year’s Audio Engineering Society convention, the organization will provide several “behind the scenes” visits to several Bay Area centers of significant audio development and innovation. These include Dolby Laboratories, George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic and the Sony Computer Entertainment America operation.
These were arranged by AES Technical Tours committee, chaired by David Bowles.
“As a producer, engineer and principal of Swineshead Productions, a classical recording company, David Bowles is keenly aware of the varied interests of AES members,” said committee co-chair John Strawn. “That basic foundation, compounded by his extensive knowledge of the S.F. audio industry inspired an ‘A’ list of tour options. AES ‘tourists’ should queue up early, as tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.”
The year’s convention marks the 125th AES gathering and will take place Oct. 2-5 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Tour events, dates and locations are available at the AES Web site.
Other venues on the tour itinerary include recording studios and technical and music schools. The tours will take place during the first three days of the convention.
AES celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, having been formed in 1948 by audio engineering professionals to exchange and disseminate technical audio information. It boasts a membership of more than 14,000 members around the world.
Registration information is available at www.aes.org.
DV Expo Coming Nov. 4-6
For videographers, editors, sound engineers, Web designers, and anyone else associated with content creation and distribution technology, the upcoming DV Expo will offer three days of education and information.
The event takes place Nov. 4-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and will include more than 45 conference sessions and hundreds of new products.
Highlights include Apple certification training workshops on Final Cut Pro 6; free master classes in lighting; and scores of user group meetings, networking events and screenings.
There will also be a presentation theater on the show floor with association and vendor sessions, including those from Panasonic, Sony and Avid, free to all attendees.
Registration is now at www.dvexpo.com
People
Broadcast Pix Taps Holten for Engineering
 Broadcast Pix, a Billerica, Mass.-based manufacturer of video production system equipment, recently announced the appointment of Michael “Aussie” Holten to the position of senior workflow engineer. He will be responsible for further enhancements in streamlining the company’s video production system workflow.
“Broadcast Pix has redefined the switcher as an integrated live video production studio that has broken new ground in ease of use,” said Ken Swanton, Broadcast Pix president. “Now Aussie’s hands-on know-how and innovative approach will help us raise the bar further.”
Holten is a native of Australia and for 25 years operated his own production companies in Seattle. He’s received several awards, including an area Emmy for Best Documentary. He has also been a developer of tools for nonlinear editing systems and most recently has been employed as a software engineer and video analyst at NewTek Inc. in San Antonio, Texas.
Holten expressed elation about being named to the Broadcast Pix position.
“They are a fantastic company with a unique product that provides a development path for a variety of markets,” said Holten. “Their Slate switchers already possess impressive technology to streamline live production. I’m eager to see us soar to the highest levels.”
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