TV TECH: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2021 NAB Show?
SATOSHI KANEMURA: We’ll see considerable discussion surrounding technology that enables the SDI-to-IP transition fully not only just for broadcasters, but also for any industry. Production and processing equipment that provides both 3G/12G and SMPTE 2022/2110 capability will be well-suited to handle the format flexibility and bandwidth needed to carry multiple 4K signals from many locations from acquisition to delivery act as a great gateway. Live streaming technology that’s well-poised for this year and beyond must be able to handle many formats and provide unprecedented bandwidth, while maintaining current workflows with little to no operator training.
We’ll hear about 12G solutions that are in place at high-profile venues in the U.S., not beta sites, but real 12G-SDI 4K workflows, which require not only the correct product specifications, but also practical knowledge about the total system. That takes actual experience and implementation.
And because remote production is not going away, we’ll continue to see breakthroughs there. Switchers particularly will need to be able to take sources from remote locales. Also, we’ll see more comprehensive operation that will reduce keystrokes, operations failures and manpower while increasing creativity. We continue to update our switchers to handle IP sources, which can be used for both broadcast and streaming projects—simultaneously.
TVT: What’s your most important new product news you’ll announce at NAB?
KANEMURA: We’ll be focused on our 12G and IP solutions and offering complete solutions for our customers and potential customers. Within the IP/SDI area in our booth we’ll show our end-to-end SDI and IP hybrid solution by featuring our new FA-1616 SDI/IP signal processor, the UFS-10IP gateway, FA-9600 signal processor, and EDA-2000 delay units. We’ll also announce a new partnership with Media Links, a manufacturer of media over IP transport technology, and Seiko Solutions Inc. to create a Precision Time Protocol (PTP) solution for synchronizing video and audio signals in hybrid IP-baseband systems.
We will show our complete, integrated production system offerings that include our switchers, routers, multiviewers, ClassX graphics, Insight production servers and Envivo Replay and Studio production systems. That is a very exciting section of the booth. We expect to see a great deal of traffic.
We’ll have additional innovations: a new multichannel streaming product, a new imaging system for our 4K Ultra Slow Motion camera, a new multiviewer, and several new partnerships. In short, we’ve got a lot of new developments to tout at this year’s NAB Show.
TVT: How Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your company’s business the past year and how has it impacted how you exhibit at this year’s show?
KANEMURA: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated our integration of remote production with our video switchers, specifically the use of remote-control GUIs and physical control panels. With the shift to at-home and other remote-production models, switchers need to allow operators to work outside of the traditional control room using public internet. Customer interest in our remote-production solutions has been very active since I joined FOR-A last April.
