TV TECHNOLOGY: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2017 NAB Show?
PAUL SHEN: Driving efficiency has been and will continue to be what many broadcasters will be demanding this year. There will be many products and services focused on delivering efficiency. For those of us who specialize in IP-based workflow solutions, we’re sure this NAB Show will show a lot of groundbreaking technology on multiple fronts for broadcasters. We expect to see a lot of discussion around the operational efficiency achieved from the transition to IP infrastructure from SDI, and the impact that has on all aspects of a broadcaster’s workflow. We also expect to see trends towards software-defined workflows. We are going to demonstrate a number of solutions at our booth this year that address IP-based and software based workflows for video.
TVT: What will be your most important product news?
SHEN: Our family of products and services were built to help broadcasters create more with less. To that end, we’ll be focused on demonstrating how new additions and enhancements to our hardware and software ecosystem for IP video delivers operational efficiency to a broadcaster’s workflow. For example, we’re showing our new TVU One mobile cellular transmitter with HEVC. It’s really the best of two worlds: more efficient video performance and better stability at 0.5 seconds latency even in a moving vehicle while also using less bandwidth. We can do this because TVU One combines H.265 video compression and TVU’s patented Inverse Statmux Plus transmission algorithm to deliver live video performance that can rival satellite and microwave.
We will also be demonstrating a new API integration with a well-known third-party broadcast equipment provider. This new TVU Alert integration is designed to efficiently automate and streamline a common but manually intensive workflow. The operational efficiency realized by this integration will allow news crews to bring non-live stories captured from the field to the studio by accelerating the transfer and ingest of metadata linked content to the newsroom.
Going beyond traditional broadcast production, we will be demonstrating how the TVU ecosystem now allows broadcasters to manage digital media production within their existing workflow. Using TVU Producer, a broadcaster does not have to treat the producing and managing of live streams to Facebook Live for instance as separate from existing, well-established broadcast workflows. TVU Producer is designed for the digital media producer for easy control of video live streams.
TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
SHEN: In the case of TVU One with HEVC, one distinct difference is our Inverse StatMux Plus (IS+) advanced IP video technology. In order to combat the bandwidth and QoS hurdles inherent in wireless 3G/4G networks, TVU Networks developed a proprietary technology called Inverse StatMux (statistical multiplexing). StatMux is a process where multiple signals are combined and transmitted over a fixed channel. As its name suggests, Inverse StatMux does the opposite, taking a single signal source and then reverse multiplexing the signal across multiple channels for transmission. The transmission is then re-aggregated at the receiving end. With Inverse StatMux, our mobile transmitters can mitigate the effects of constrained bandwidth by transmitting the video signal over multiple channels simultaneously and when you combine that with HEVC, broadcasters can more efficiently transmit data with less bandwidth but with greater performance and transmission stability.
TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
SHEN: It’s a tremendous show. We’re able to meet with so many of our current and prospective customers from all over the world in one place. And we get to participate in discussions about the important topics that are directly impacting broadcast and media industries. We look forward to it every year for all of those reasons, plus socially, we get to spend time with our industry colleagues.
This NAB Show marks the company’s first in the Central Hall. TVU is moving from its traditional location in the South Upper Hall of the LVCC to the Central Hall. This hall will become TVU’s home at the LVCC for future NAB Shows.
