TV TECHNOLOGY:What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2019 NAB Show?
MIKE SAVELLO: The most significant trend on everyone’s mind and what we anticipate seeing in many booths at the NAB Show will be AI and its impact on news and storytelling. AI-based speech to text for automatic tagging, metadata insertion and closed-captioning generation will be invaluable to broadcasters.
Here at LiveU we are excited by what AI can mean for content routing and handling. Systems like bonded-cellular and IP distribution, such as LiveU's LU600 and 300, as well as our Matrix distribution system, mean stations and networks have access to more content, including live content, than ever before. But having access to it doesn't help if you can't identify, classify and route that content to your outlets and needs. To keep up with the “content explosion,” content originators need help and AI can provide that—it’s particularly strong for identifying and classifying people and objects. We’ll demo AI for tagging and metadata insertion in our booth.
We also expect to hear more conversations around 5G and its effect on broadcasters and cellular bonding this year. 5G doesn't just provide lower latency with higher bandwidth; it enables whole new business models for the carriers, which they can pass on to broadcasters. These are possibilities LTE wasn't capable of. We’re looking for areas where 5G can begin to have short-term impacts on the media business. That can come in the form of getting 5G-enabled tools into the hands of content creators now.
TVT:What will be your most important product news?
SAVELLO: HEVC is transforming live content for broadcasters and online content creators. We’re eager to share news about our 4K-SDI card, the newest addition to our family of hardware-based HEVC encoder/transmitters. The 4K-SDI solution facilitates professional 4Kp50/60 streaming for top-quality production, supporting VR and 360 applications
The release of our global live content management and distribution system LiveU Matrix enables stations to view, manage and distribute live content quickly and efficiently throughout the media group using low-cost internet connectivity. This platform is poised to transform the way media groups manage and distribute live content over IP.
TVT:How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
SAVELLO: Our HEVC products are all based on hardware HEVC encoding for maximum quality and optimal battery utilization. Users can operate in real time with extreme low latency with the highest quality, even at very low bit rates. This is where the LU300 differs from software solutions where video quality may be sacrificed to keep the latency low or may be switched back to H.264 to save battery life. Unlike software solutions, LiveU’s hardware solutions are encoding in HEVC all the time, providing longer battery time.
LiveU Matrix is the first global content management system that can scale to thousands of simultaneous feeds. The IP video management platform gives media groups and their local affiliates full visibility into all feeds available and puts the broadcaster in the driver’s seat to manage and send content anywhere, without interruption or another piece of hardware. We’re confident that LiveU Matrix will quickly become an invaluable tool for maximizing our customer’s capabilities, while reducing production and distribution costs.
TVT:What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
SAVELLO: There’s no better show to learn about the trends, issues and technology that’s impacting the news and media industry. It’s where our customers go.
