Each year at NAB and IBC, Broadcast Engineering assembles a panel of working professionals to act as judges for the most prestigious technical awards in the industry. With a 24-year history (the first Pick Hit awards were conferred at NAB in 1984), it has become the most coveted technology award at IBC and NAB.
Our panel of judges remains anonymous throughout their assessment of the products and services on the show floor. The judges select products that will have a positive impact on the intended user's everyday work. The product must offer substantial improvement over previous technology. This year's top IBC products, as chosen by our panel of readers like you, are:
SGT
VEDA
+33 1 64 73 74 74
www.sgt.fr
The software suite offers workflow automation and video content management; supports content creation with Search & Retrieve, a linguistic search component to retrieve and refine results through meaning, related ideas, persons and geographic locations; reveals assets without the need for literal keywords; compatible with PC and Mac.
Miranda
Densité XVP-3901
+44 1491 820 000;www.miranda.com
The audio processor is a highly integrated module designed to synchronize, convert and process HD and SD signals into 3Gb/s, HD and SD hybrid plants; offers a dual multirate 3Gb/s, HD and SD input; provides simultaneous 3Gb/s, HD and SD outputs; allows each output to provide independent format, color space and aspect ratio conversion; will pass and delay automatically all 16 channels of embedded audio to maintain lip sync.
Sony
UWP series
+44 1256 355011;www.sonybiz.net
The microphone system offers ease-of-operation with a number of significant benefits to wireless microphone use and application, including highly stable operation by using a space diversity reception system, proven interference-free multichannel operation and exceptional audio quality.
Fission Software
HDCore
+47 4828 1000
www.fission-sw.com
The software-based SD/HD broadcast automation system designed by broadcasters provides a fully automated, tapeless, frame-accurate and cost-effective workflow for any cable or television station, regardless of its size, complexity or format; modules include Management, Insertion, Feed Capture, Capture, On Air Monitor and Archive Manager.
Digital Rapids
TouchStream
+44 1428 751 012
www.digital-rapids.com
The live video and audio streaming encoder is self-contained and portable; features software controls that users access through a touch-screen interface with integrated live video monitoring; offers a choice of formats, including AVC/H.264, VC-1, On2 VP6, 3GPP and MPEG-2, allowing users target audiences and platforms from Internet TV to mobile phones.
Comtech Tiernan Video
HMR5440
+44 1252 731 300
www.comtechtv.com
The HD/SD decoder is capable of both MPEG-2 and AVC (MPEG-4) for HD or SD; supports composite NTSC or PAL, serial digital SDI for SD, HD-SDI and component video for HD; automatically senses video processing as either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC, HD or SD; decodes up to eight audio channels (four pairs) with analog and digital outputs.
ToolsOnAir
TV Station in a Mac
+43 1 236 8665
www.toolsonair.com
The solution combines all the required hardware and software to operate an entire TV station with a Mac computer using independent vendors and solution providers, including Step2e; allows user administration of everything from editing to broadcasting; ToolsOnAir provides two essential components — LiveCut and Composition Suite.
i-Movix
SprintCam Live V2
+32 65 321 535
www.i-movix.com
Created in partnership with Fujinon and Photron, the integrated broadcast camera is designed for extreme slow-motion; records high-speed images at 250fps to 8000fps and replays the recorded image at 25fps through the SD/HD-SDI output; interfaces with the CCU with SMPTE standard fiber-optic cables with a maximum distance between the camera and the CCU of 1000m; features two remote controls, one for camera control and the other for remote replay.
Hego
AKI LiveBox
+46 8 534 883 00
www.hegogroup.com
The newscast-in-a-box system streamlines the content creation process; integrates fully into an ENPS-based workflow; features an internal disc recorder, integrated prompter software and two channels of graphics; enables users to create their own rundowns and to encode the produced video clip to the file format of their choice; export formats include uncompressed video, DV25/50, H.264/AVC and JPEG2000, all with MXF wrapping if preferred; controls robotics camera; plays animated graphics, such as opening sequences.
Snell & Wilcox
QC Station
+44 23 9248 9000
www.snellwilcox.com
The dedicated monitoring system features four Hyperion monitoring modes; Hyperion is designed to continuously and automatically monitor signal content, providing verification of whether legal and technical obligations are met and providing guidance as to the validity of signal parameters; allows all alarms to be integrated into multi-image displays and reported through SNMP to control and monitoring systems; fits in a 1RU chassis.
MOG Solutions
mxfSPEEDRAIL
+351 22 940 8224
www.mog-solutions.com
The server-based system ingests material into a post-production environment; accepts both file-based content as well as SD-SDI and HD-SDI feeds; allows users to schedule capturing; generates both high-resolution and low-resolution versions of the SDI input simultaneously; writes to local storage or directly to an Avid Unity.
3ality Digital, Quantel
3flex SIP2100
+44 1635 48 222
www.quantel.com
The stereo image processor can analyze stereoscopic 3-D content, correct faults and help create technically perfect deliverables; features sophisticated algorithms that can analyze and correct real-time HD-SDI signals without rendering, which allows it to be used in the widest range of post and broadcast operations.
Miniweb Interactive
Service platform
+44 20 8232 2020
www.miniweb.tv
The service platform allows TV network operators and CE device manufacturers to deliver converged broadband video and interactive services to monetize viewers' see, search and spend actions; provides an open, standards-based, device-agnostic platform; supports a range of products, including TV keys, channel menus and Web-style advertising, independent of the type of TV distribution platform and type of TV device; allows broadcasters and content owners to connect with a potential global audience of TV viewers.
MultiDyne
LiGHTBoX
+1 516 671 7278
www.multidyne.com
The battery-powered, bidirectional field fiber transport for HD, video, audio, Ethernet and data is designed for harsh environment applications; can be linked via tactical fiber cable to other MultiDyne fiber links.
PHABRIX
S×A
+44 1635 255 494
www.phabrix.com
The 3G-SDI, HD-SDI and SD-SDI portable video test signal generator, monitor and analyzer supports AES audio testing and monitoring; includes a 4.3in TFT monitor; supports 16 channels of embedded audio; features USB and Ethernet connectivity for remote operation; comes configured with a full range of test patterns, both static and animated; operates from either the internal battery or power adaptor.
Sennheiser
MKE 1
+49 5130 600-0
www.sennheiser.com
The small clip-on microphone is designed for situations where a microphone needs to be virtually invisible and still offer outstanding sound quality, whether for musicals and live shows, or for broadcasting applications; a newly developed membrane protects the mic from sweat in harsh live conditions, and a special gauze and multipurpose cap protects it from moisture; a Kevlar-reinforced cable with molded anti-kink sleeve minimizes handling noise.
Snell & Wilcox
MachHD
+44 23 9248 9000
www.snellwilcox.com
The HD motion-compensated standards converter and crossconverter with synchronization capability has HD inputs and outputs; provides upconversion, downconversion and crossconversion within and between frame rates; handles embedded, AES (balanced and unbalanced) and analog audio, with a range of additional features such as ARC and color space conversion; features dual redundant PSU capability; provided in 1RU rack mounting housing with remote control capability via Ethernet.
Pharos
Mediator
+44 118 950 2323;www.pharos.tv
The content management system with Playtime delivers efficiencies for playout and content management, with workflow driven from the desktop; offers highly efficient multichannel, multiplatform and multisite broadcast and new media delivery by unifying operations under a single enterprise; handles all files transfers automatically.
Maximum Throughput
MAXedit
+1 514 925 3350;www.max-t.com
The server-based editing software solution allows broadcasters and facility owners to rapidly set up a multiuser editing environment; suited for news production, specialty programming, digital dailies, corporate and institutional productions, and offline editing; permits user access from a Web browser on their laptop or workstation; allows users on a network to view, edit and render compressed and uncompressed SD and HD content, without using specialized software and hardware.
BBC Research & Innovation
Dirac
A royalty-free video compression format designed for a wide range of uses; delivers low-resolution Web content to broadcasting HD and beyond, to near-lossless studio editing; in streaming applications, it offers high quality at low bit rates; supports professional profiles optimized for TV and cinema production, including low delay coding; professional profiles are currently in the process of being standardized by SMPTE as VC-2; the open technology removes licensing costs on software.
The 2008IBC Pick Hits judges:
John Battiloro
Director, Media Asset Capital
Phil Braden
Operations Director, Gateway Broadcast Services
Dr. William Cooper
CEO, Informitv
Howard Fine
VP Broadcast Services, PacificTelevision Center
Sid Guel
President, Broadcast Automation Consulting
Lars Rikart Jensen
Technical Manager, Danmon Group
Khalid Naseem
Technology Leader, Kaltek Technology Consulting
