(click thumbnail)Semir NouriQ. What broad technology trends do you think will be front-and-centre at IBC2008?
There is a slow but steady increase in available HD broadcasts throughout Europe. The start of channels like ‘Suisse HD’, ‘ORF1 HD’, ‘Arte HD’ and ‘ITV HD’ are some examples. This will fuel an increasing demand for HD content, and therefore motivate broadcasters and production facilities to invest in high-definition cameras and production equipment.
This demand will drive the market for professional video equipment in the coming years.
For acquisition, solid-state technologies are rapidly replacing tape-based solutions — a trend accelerated by the falling prices of silicon storage media such as SDHC cards. Despite the fact that new codecs such as AVCHD are becoming more popular in professional cameras, it is often the lack of seamless workflows that prevents users from investing in products that use these new compression formats; therefore, proven and well supported formats, especially MPEG-2 and DV-based codecs, will continue to be the mainstream formats in production studios.
With the introduction of HD, a variety of formats will be used throughout Europe for broadcasting and production. In addition to the PAL 576i SD format, 1080i and 720p will coexist, therefore multiformat production equipment will be mandatory for any future investments in the production environment.
Q. What’s new that you will show at IBC2008 and that broadcasters should look for there?
JVC Professional has a long track record of offering video professionals affordable tools for acquisition and production; our popular ProHD cameras, for example, provide excellent HD images at a very affordable price without sacrificing professional features like interchangeable lenses with true manual controls.
Especially in a time of transition, customers need smooth migration paths from their existing SD technologies to new HD-enabled workflows. The flexible JVC ProHD studio solutions will be among the main attractions on our booth at this year’s IBC show. By adding brand new digital multiformat switchers, KM-H3000 and KM-H2500, to our studio line-up, we are presenting a versatile multiformat platform that will provide our customers with an easy and affordable migration option from SD to HD.
For capturing footage, we will show several new solid state ProHD acquisition solutions, based on affordable and widely available media. With ‘Direct File Access’ (DFA), JVC offers a very efficient workflow and a high level of compatibility with existing editing solutions.
With the emergence of new solid-state acquisition technologies, there is an increasing demand for preserving and efficiently managing digital assets. With JVC’s own optical media libraries — utilising Blu-Ray Discs for data storage and complemented by asset management and playout software — we offer our own complete solution for handling digital assets in the post-tape era.
Many HD production houses have chosen JVC monitors for their excellent image quality, robustness and attractive features. We will be showing the new DT-V L3 monitor series at IBC2008, with enhanced image processing and an even broader feature set, to further strengthen our position in the video monitor market.
In summary, JVC will show a family of products that will offer our customers an excellent return on investment in times of changing formats, tight budgets and a strongly competitive production market.
Q. How is your new product offering different from what’s available on the market?
The new production switchers support all common SD and HD formats and offer a rich set of functions that ensure the delivery of high-quality images at the output of the production chain. These robust and compact units were designed to provide many years of service, even in tough production environments like OB vans and fly packs. They come fully equipped with 12 inputs, chroma-key and 3 Aux busses for a very attractive price. There are no extras that have to be purchased separately and no hidden costs.
With our DFA acquisition solutions we will provide the fastest and easiest shoot-and-edit workflow in the market. Our camcorders will record natively in the formats used by the most popular nonlinear editing systems available today. This allows the users to directly access the footage they shot on solid-state media without the often time consuming ingest, logging or conversion procedures needed with other workflows. Through the use of standard, widely available recording media, JVC will ensure that the total cost of ownership of our ProHD solutions is minimised, offering our customers excellent ROI and a competitive edge in the market.
Q. Where are you based, and how many employees do you have? Anything else we should know about your company?
JVC Professional Europe (JPE) was founded in 2003 as a pan-European organization with over 150 highly motivated employees and a distributed network of offices all over Europe. By implementing a European structure we have been able to strengthen our market presence and provide improved service to our customers in this vast geographical area. I am based in the German JPE office.
Q. How many years have you been going to the IBC show and what’s your fondest memory? What’s your favourite restaurant or pub?
The video business has always been much more to me than just an occupation to earn a living. I enjoy working with the people in this business and to be involved in the development and marketing of new technologies for capturing and editing images. This is why I have devoted the last 20 years of my professional life to this business, including attending IBC conventions from the first year it was held in Amsterdam in 1992. I can still remember this show very well, because unlike the later ones, it was held in July and the temperatures in the exhibition hall were certainly ‘comfortable’.
One of the most moving experiences for me was during IBC2003 when the first European HD channel ‘Euro1080’ was launched by Alfacam. I had been invited to attend the launch ceremony showing footage on a large HD screen from the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ and an HD live feed from the south pole. To me, this marked the beginning of HD broadcasting in Europe — a historical moment.
After a busy day at the IBC show I enjoy the relaxing cosy atmosphere of Wilma & Albert’s Steakhouse in Haarlem.
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