Month: Nov 2018

AVIWEST Wins Prestigious Emmy Award for SafeStreams Technology

Posted on by contentntek in Awards, Broadcast & Playout, Distribution & Delivery, News, Satellite & Transmissions

AVIWEST, a global provider of video contribution systems, today announced that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has presented AVIWEST with a Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for its SafeStreams Technology®, which includes forward error correction (FEC), automatic repeat request (ARQ), and IP bonding techniques. AVIWEST’s technology was bestowed with the prestigious award for its excellence in engineering creativity and in pioneering a reliable transmission method for live contribution and distribution TV links.

“AVIWEST was founded in 2008 with a single mission: to provide a more cost-effective alternative to traditional satellite, telecom and fiber-optic conductivity for the contribution and distribution of live television,” said Ronan Poullaouec, chief technology officer at AVIWEST. “We are honored to be selected for an Emmy Award for the development of ARQ and SafeStreams Technology. This award, which was decided upon by dozens of industry experts and peers, is proof of AVIWEST’s significant contribution toward the advancement of a reliable transport method for live HD and UHD video over unmanaged networks and the public internet.”

NATASAVIWEST’s SafeStreams Technology enables broadcasters to transport critical video feeds through a low-cost public internet connection, offering the same reliability as traditional broadcast transmission methods. Additional transport resiliency and redundancy is facilitated by bonding up to 12 unmanaged IP networks, including 4G/3G, and soon 5G cellular networks, LAN/WAN, satellite, telecom, Wi-Fi, and the public internet.

“Screen actors are always cited for Oscars. Stage performers are similarly proud of their Tonys. Television journalists are quick to add an Emmy to their resume — and with good reason,” said Robert Seidel, chairman of the Technology and Engineering Achievement Committee. “We award the Technology and Engineering Emmy Award to these outstanding companies and individuals who are the tool makers of the industry that have materially affected the television viewing experience.”

Technology & Engineering Awards will be presented at the 2019 NAB Show, held April 6-11 in Las Vegas. The awards honor development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies, organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that have a significant effect on television engineering.

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Artel Video Systems Awarded Second Technology and Engineering Emmy Award

Posted on by contentntek in Awards, News, Satellite & Transmissions

“It is very rewarding for Artel to contribute to innovations that enable the reliable transmission of contribution quality video over the internet,” said Rafael Fonseca, Vice President of Product Marketing, Artel Video Systems. “These advances enable our customers to ensure interoperability of equipment and more easily implement new, more reliable workflows.”

Artel’s ARQ product is one of the major outcomes of the investment in technologies for reliable transmission. This solution is scalable and easy to implement, enabling customers to reliably transmit high-quality data over unmanaged networks, even wireless and satellite applications.

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“This Emmy Award, our second in four years, confirms that Artel is investing in, and focusing on, the right technology. Our customers need ways to reliably transmit high quality information over unmanaged networks in a cost effective way,” said Mike Rizzo, President and CEO, Artel Video Systems. “We are honored to be acknowledged for our efforts and look forward to continuing to provide innovative solutions to the market.”

See the official announcement from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, as well as other Technology and Engineering Emmy® Award winners here.

Readers are invited to contact Artel Video Systems to learn more about reliable transmission and technology applications.

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SuiteLife Systems Announces Partnership With DAC System

Posted on by contentntek in 30 Seconds News, Broadcast & Playout, Satellite & Transmissions

DAC System builds an end-to-end monitoring system with which television and radio broadcasters measure RF power and signal quality in the channel combiners in transmitter rooms and in the antenna systems installed at the towers.

“At SuiteLife Systems we continually seek to seamlessly expand the features and functionality of our ‘Manage, Monitor, and Control’ automation solutions, so we are pleased to combine efforts with DAC System, the broadcast industry leader in RF signal monitoring with outdoor sensors and related technologies. Our broadcast partners and clients always respond enthusiastically when we further expand our end-to-end capabilities with new monitoring technologies that dramatically work,” said Nigel Brownett, president of SuiteLife Systems. “DAC System has already clearly established a stellar reputation with leading international broadcast and network operators since the company’s launch in 2013, indicating that DAC System products are engineered at the highest levels in the industry.”

 

“We are excited about the opportunity to expand into the U.S. market, especially given SuiteLife Systems’ considerable installation base with major U.S. broadcasters,” said Pietro Casati, CEO of DAC System. “This partnership represents yet another step in seamlessly integrating outdoor and indoor RF-system monitoring into the operation chain of broadcasters, which increases safety, allows early detection of system degradation, and dramatically lowers maintenance costs.”

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University of Louisville Completes State-of-the-Art Control Room With Systems Integration by BeckTV

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production, System Integration

The state-of-the-art, 7,850-square-foot television production facility, which opened its doors in September 2018, is designed to house all of the equipment and personnel necessary to originate live programming for the comprehensive linear and digital ACC Network, which will be launched by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and ESPN in 2019.

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“We aimed high with the design of our broadcast center, and BeckTV helped us to complete a truly stunning facility that will do the UofL and the new ACC Network proud,” said Jeremy Noe, executive director of ACC Network operations at the University of Louisville Athletics Broadcast Center. “Thanks to tightly integrated best-of-breed equipment within our control rooms, the UofL Athletics Broadcast Center boasts amazing flexibility and sophistication that will help us give fans more of the great ACC sports they love, better than ever.”

The UofL broadcast center is connected by fiber to UofL athletic venues — home to the Cardinals sports teams — and to ESPN, which means that live sports programming can be originated from the new centralized production facility without the need for mobile trucks. The center will produce live, in-game content for UofL venue video boards such as those in Cardinal Stadium, Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium, the KFC Yum! Center, Jim Patterson Stadium, and Ulmer Field.

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Within the new UofL facilities, two full video control rooms are dedicated to linear telecasts on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or the ACC Network. They can be used along with three scaled-back control rooms to support live telecasts of multiple simultaneous sports events on multiple television platforms. Cardinals coaches and players can do live interviews on any ESPN platform or broadcast channel from the broadcast center’s bureau studio. A flexible studio space, including variable sets and a green screen wall, offers a customizable production environment.

“We’re glad the University of Louisville got both the wow factor and the functionality it wanted with its new broadcast center,” said Paul Nijak, senior system engineer at BeckTV. “One of the tricky bits about this project was that the university wanted to be able to broadcast before construction was complete. We’re proud to say we delivered!”

Working closely with BeckTV, the UofL was able to take its control rooms live prior to completion of the full broadcast center. This allowed the university to use its brand-new facilities to continue production of live programming for ESPN networks or ACC Network Extra, a digital television platform, up until the linear ACC Network launch.

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VITEC Acquires Telairity to Strengthen Presence in Broadcast Market

Posted on by contentntek in 30 Seconds News, Broadcast & Playout

“The strategic acquisition of Telairity further strengthens VITEC’s position in the broadcast market,” said Mark D’Addio, VITEC’s senior vice president, sales and marketing. “VITEC’s HEVC technology and streaming expertise address a growing need for broadcasters to reduce bandwidth requirements while maximizing video quality.”

 

Matt McKee, formerly at Telairity, has joined VITEC as director of broadcast sales. He added, “Telairity customers have been asking for a compelling reason to upgrade their broadcast links. VITEC HEVC solutions offer the highest levels of network efficiency, video quality, and reliability especially for Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) and contribution applications.”

VITEC HEVC technology and solutions make it more efficient than ever to deliver the highest- quality IPTV streams over satellite links, private networks, and the internet. Powered by VITEC HEVC GEN2+, an all-hardware compression chip, MGW Ace Encoder sets new industry standards in video quality, bit rate, and latency. This revolutionary encoder provides best-in class HEVC video quality up to 4:2:2 10-bit and an encoding latency down to 10ms in ultra low latency (ULL) mode for an impressive 65ms glass-to-glass latency.

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South Carolina’s CN2 Shoots Live Field Reports with JVC ProHD Portable Bridge

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production, Products

David Bain, technical manager, said the Bridge and a new BR-DE900 ProHD decoder allow CN2 to provide live content for its viewers for the first time.

Owned and operated by Comporium Communications, CN2 has two channels that serve the tri-county area of York, Lancaster, and Chester. Its small news crew produces a 6 p.m. newscast on weekdays, plus a daytime news magazine show, CN2 Today, three times per week. So far, most live content is being shared on the website.

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CN2’s Rob Barnes demonstrates the cable station’s new JVC ProHD Portable Bridge, which allows the cable station to stream live footage directly to its website or back to the station for live ENG reports for its daily newscast.

Bain said the Bridge may be used for live coverage of the Rock Hill Christmas Parade later this month. CN2 will record multi-camera coverage of the parade and edit the footage in post for later viewing, but one camera will be paired with the Bridge for live coverage on the website. A similar setup was used for coverage of a recent school board debate. Bain said it only takes a few minutes to setup the RTMP feeds on the station’s five JVC GY-HM660 ProHD mobile news cameras, and “operation of the Bridge is very easy.” 

The Portable Bridge streams signals from CONNECTED CAM, 4KCAM, ProHD, and JVC PTZ streaming cameras for live broadcasts or webcasts. Using Peplink’s SpeedFusion VPN Bonding technology, it combines multiple cellular, wired, and Wi-Fi connections. Dual cellular modems with redundant SIM slots support up to four different cellular providers for bandwidth bonding, data overage protection, or blind spot elimination. Dual-band Wi-Fi provides two independent, high-speed networks that work together (2×2 MIMO) to maximize throughput. The self-contained remote broadcasting hub can be powered by AC or an attached Anton/Bauer battery.

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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Selects Bannister Lake to Integrate Live Data-Driven Graphics

Posted on by contentntek in News, Production & Post Production

Bannister Lake, the leading provider of professional broadcast data aggregation and visualization solutions, today announced that the company’s graphic integration services were used to generate key graphics for the special live election night broadcast of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Nov. 6. To help audiences visualize the unfolding results of the midterm elections, The Late Show’s production team turned to Bannister Lake to prepare and integrate graphics into the live broadcast that showed the House of Representatives and the Senate populated with the number of elected officials.

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Bannister Lake Helps Visualize Midterm Election Results for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

The Late Show used Google Sheets to tie data to the graphics and to manually make changes as required. During the election special, Bannister Lake’s role focused on transforming The Late Show’s creative graphic concepts into templates ready for playout. The graphic work was performed by Bannister Lake’s Creative and Technical Director Al Savoie, and data integration was carried out by The Late Show’s production staff.

“Bannister Lake has a long-standing relationship with key members of the graphics team at The Late Show and when we were asked to help out with its election coverage, we immediately said yes,” said Savoie. “We have done countless election broadcasts integrating data and graphics, but we’re especially honored to have been chosen by The Late Show’s team and take part of midterm election history.”

Bannister Lake provides software and services for managing and visualizing data for a broad range of projects including real-time election results, social media, financial information, sports, news, and weather. Bannister Lake’s flagship software solution, Chameleon, is the industry’s most advanced broadcast data engine that allows users to input any kind of data to populate and manage graphic templates. With Chameleon’s Google Sheets Custom Reader, media producers can automatically pull data content from Google Sheets cells and seamlessly populate graphic templates. In addition, producers are able to take full advantage of Google Sheets’ sharing capabilities, granting access and editing rights to multiple users contributing to the content. Data can be organized by topic and displayed using the Google Sheet tab, with Chameleon’s Google Sheets Custom Reader capable of handling multiple sheets and tabs for an efficient and elegant way to display complex broadcast graphics.

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