SportsTechBuzz at NAB 2017: Wednesday's Latest From Vegas
A quick tour of what’s new, exciting, and interesting at the show
The NAB Show is in full swing in Las Vegas, and the SVG editorial team is out in full force, covering all the latest news from the show floor. In an effort to make the tidal wave of news and announcements more digestible to our readers, SVG is providing a daily “SportsTechBuzz at NAB 2017” roundup. This daily rundown provides snippets of big announcements and what is on display at more than 150 booths at the LVCC this year. Here is today’s SportsTechBuzz roundup, featuring news from the show floor.
Today’s edition features Artel Video Systems, Avid, AWS, Blackmagic, Dolby, Elemental, Canare, ChyronHego, Dolby, Eurovision, EVS, FIS Blue, Fraunhofer, Globecast, Grass Valley, IHSE USA, Imagine, IMT, Joseph Electronics, JVC Professional Video, Limelight Networks, LiveLike, Multidyne, NeuLion, Neumann, Neutrik, NewTek, Ooyala, Quantum, SAM, Scale Logic, SGL, Shure, Solid State Logic, Telescope, The Switch, VER, Verizon Digital Media Services, Vislink, VITEC, V-Nova, Women’s Sports Media Initiative.
CENTRAL HALL
Canare (Booth C7234) is committed to 4K UHD over 12G and recently launched its D55UHD 12G single coaxial cable, which can run 100 meters on 12G. In fact, the company has an all-new line of coaxial cable and connectors that are specially optimized for high performance at 12G and meet the demanding requirements of sports production. — KHK
Eurovision (Booth C3307) Flex, the software-driven IP encoding and decoding appliance using Mobile Viewpoint’s technology, is being showcased, along with a new range of services based on the Eurovision Flex platform, including an Intel-optimized hardware encoder-based HEVC HDR real-time codec. Launched early this year, Eurovision Flex has been used successfully to cover news events, such as the U.S. presidential caucuses in Iowa and New Hampshire. — FR
FIS Blue (Booth C6949), known for its fiber-optic cables, is showing off its new metal line for panels and fiber-optic enclosures. Following the company’s successful installation of more than 200 panels at Ole Miss Stadium, FIS Blue expanded its metal line in time for this year’s NAB Show. The company also upgraded its fiber-optic cable line with Corning Low Bend Loss (LBL) glass, giving it the tighter bend radius that remote sports productions require. — KHK
Joseph Electronics (Booth C6648) is highlighting its Fiber Tote Caddie series of portable fiber-optic signal-acquisition systems and its new water-resistant SMPTE Hybrid Elimination Device, which allows SMPTE cameras to run on non-SMPTE cables. Says President Yohay Hahamy, “Customers were looking for [a product like this], and we wanted to develop and improve on the currently available product. [We want to] get our word out as a reliable provider of fiber solutions.” — KHK
JVC Professional Video (Booth C4315) has debuted the PB-CELL200 ProHD Portable Bridge, a bonded LTE hotspot that streams signals from multiple ProHD, 4KCAM, and JVC PTZ streaming camera models for live broadcasts or webcasts. The system is powered by AC or attached Anton/Bauer battery and uses the same SpeedFusion VPN bonding technology (developed by Peplink and combining multiple cellular, wired, and Wi-Fi connections) as JVC’s car-mounted ProHD Wireless Bridge introduced last year. JVC also announced the JVCCommand Center, a command and control workstation, which can access all the active “bridge” cameras. Other debuts include ProHD Studio, a portable, four-channel live production and streaming system, and a new sports coaching camera, the GY-HM660SC. — JD
Neutrik (Booth C9515) is demonstrating its new XIRIUM PRO Digital Wireless Audio System at its. The cable-replacement system uses FCC license-free, wireless transmission of audio within the 5 GHz band with extremely low (>3.6-ms) latency. “It’s all about more capacity and less cable,” says Applications Engineer Mark Boyadjian.
Solid State Logic (Booth C2627) has released of additions to its System T broadcast mixing platform. These include the Tempest Control Rack (TCR), which allows broadcasters and integrators to build modular systems from System T components where a traditional broadcast console is not required or not appropriate. — Daley
Shure Axient Digital Wireless
Shure (Booth C2218) debuted its Axient Digital Wireless System, its most advanced wireless platform to date, suited for all professional productions and situations. Axient Digital features a receiver that is compatible with its two transmitter offerings, the AD Series and ADX Series, and the Axient Digital ADX Series transmitters incorporate ShowLink, which provides real-time control of all transmitter parameters with interference detection and avoidance. — Daley
Vislink and IMT (Booth C8008) have unveiled the HCAM HEVC 4K UHD camera transmitter. Coinciding with the release of the HCAM, Vislink has finalized an order for 18 systems of the next-generation HCAM transmitters and UltraReceiver placed by UK-based Broadcast RF, a rental company for microwave and wireless camera hardware. The deal was completed on Day 1 of NAB 2017. The HCAM purchase is part of an order with a market value in excess of $900,000 previously placed with Vislink by Broadcast RF. — FR
SOUTH UPPER HALL
SVG caught up with Avid (Booth SU902) CEO Louis Hernandez, who is proud of the improvements to the Nexis storage platform: simply improving the software has increased the density by 300% and capacity by 600% without needing to add additional hardware. And giving Microsoft Azure preferred status also opens up a wealth of future improvements for Avid customers. “Microsoft saw the importance of media and entertainment and reflected that in the terms they gave us so we could offer Azure services at a very attractive price when it is combined with our stack,” he adds. — KK
Avid (Booth SU902) announced native support for the 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos format. in what Tony Cariddi, director of product and solutions marketing, describes as a “strategic alliance with Dolby.” Avid has released a slew of other upgrades for its foundational Pro Tools audio system, including new panning software for object-based audio and the ability to switch between object and buss outputs on the fly. — Daley
Keith Wymbs of AWS Elemental says a stop by Booth SU2202 will give NAB 2017 attendees a chance to see support for the ability to take any input flavor of SDR or HDR and the output it to any format desired by a distributor. “And our big story is the relaunch as AWS Elemental, which brings together the promise of very deep support to help our customers generate new revenue streams.” — KK
Dolby’s (Booth SU1702) partnership with BT Sports in the UK continues to further Atmos as a broadcast-sports audio format. “BT is committed to 4K broadcast, and they wanted an audio format that matched 4K quality,” says Rob France, senior product marketing manager, Dolby. Atmos mixing is now aboard two OB vans in the UK (Telegenics) and has done two boxing shows in addition to English Premiere League games. France says European workflows are better initially for Atmos, given the diversity of rights access and station affiliations in the U.S. — Daley
Fraunhofer (Booth SU6110) has an ambitious goalpost ahead: the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea — the first using the MPEG-H multichannel audio format — but it is off to a strong start: it is displaying three new postproduction products for the format as well as a 3D reverb plug-in, which, according to Robert Bleidt, GM, Fraunhofer USA, more easily brings much-needed ambience to object-based audio. — Daley
Globecast (Booth SU11106) is using NAB 2017 to present a strategy for its new, as yet unnamed, cloud-based services that it intends to roll out in time for IBC2017. According to Globecast CTO Sylvain Merle, the company started the project to build its own MAM solution in the cloud to better support its customers’ media-solutions requirements and their increased desire to operate across international borders. Meanwhile, Globecast, in partnership with Harmonic and the VIVE Lifestyle Network, is showcasing a new linear, UHD, HDR OTT connected-TV platform service at its booth. The new service, available through VIVE’s branded app, delivers UHD-HDR linear streaming content to consumers. — FR
The Switch (Booth SU4324) is taking its at-home-production efforts to the next level with the launch of Cumulus, a cloud-based, production-as-a-service platform that will allow all aspects of production to be controlled via a control room anywhere (at a network’s broadcast center or The Switch’s New York City facility). At its booth, the Cumulus demo featured a SkyCam aerial camera system at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Denver being operated by an operator and pilot located at The Switch booth. The demo also featured talent located in London and Los Angeles, as well as real-time virtual graphics provided by SMT (also controlled in Vegas) and Brainstorm’s virtual teletransporter technology. In addition, C360 Technologies provided a VR camera attached to SkyCam to creating a VR feed in addition to the linear feed. — JD
SOUTH LOWER HALL
Bob Caniglia of Blackmagic (Booth SL216) says that the hot buzz at the booth concerns the Ursa Mini Pro, which has the ability to be a traditional broadcast camera as well as a cinematic camera with the use of interchangeable lens mounts. “And a new Bluetooth app allows the user to control the camera from up to 30 ft. away for doing things like changing color temperature,” he adds. It also has an optional removable viewfinder. — KK
Last year, ChyronHego (Booth SL1210) purchased Click Effects, a move that gave the company an immediate high-level presence in the stadium and arena marketplace. According to ChyronHego CMO Jesper Gawell, NAB 2017 is the first place to check out Click Effects Prime, a next-generation system that provides brute power for rendering and synched control of displays around a stadium: “It’s a nice and powerful workflow.” — KK
A visit to EVS (Booth SL3816) will find a company examining the role IP will play in the industry to the next level. “Last year, the conversations were about how to design and build an IP-based solution,” says James Stellpflug, VP, product marketing. “Now it is time to learn how to find the right approach to using IP to develop a business and not just as a technology that replaces SDI.” One big step in IP? By the end of the year, the XT4K server is expected to support the SMPTE 2110 standard. — KK
Greg Huttie of Grass Valley (Booth SL106) says the V-Series K-Frame production-switcher frame is generating buzz. It can have up to three mix effects with two additional video-processing engines, despite being only 3RU in size. That gives it the power for additional keying and mixing in SD, HD, or 4K workflows. It ties into any GV K-Frame switcher. — KK
IHSE USA (Booths SL12216, SL12416) is launching a wide range of products, headlined by the 480-CTRL2 Draco tera CPU board, a new controller board for its Draco tera enterprise matrix switch solutions. The 480-CTRL2 has several new features to monitor and manage complex matrix systems, including a genlock option for synchronizing serial digital sources when the switch is adapted with SDI option cards. In addition, IHSE USA has launched a line of extenders that allow broadcast SDI formats to be converted and switched within any IHSE KVM matrix switch with extensions up to 10 km over single-mode fiber. — JD
Brick Eksten, chief product officer, Imagine (Booth SL1516), says Open Zenium, the company’s commitment to push IP standards and transparency to the next level, is generating a lot of interest at the show. “We have a master class at the booth every day at 10:30,” he explains. “We are collaborating to build a community aimed at helping our customers and partners accelerate their move to IP and the cloud.” — KK
The NewTek (Booth SL5016) TriCaster is getting a big graphical boost via Vizrt’s Trio/Viz Engine, thanks to the NVG1. The 1RU single- or dual-channel system allows Vizrt 3D and other graphics to be easily integrated within a TriCaster-based production. — KK
Quantum (SL5705, SL5810) is showcasing StorNext 6. The major new release of its flagship workflow storage platform adds new data-management features, including a new quality of service (QoS) feature, collaborative workflows via shared archive with FlexSpace, multi-site synchronization with FlexSync, file-system auditing, and more. In addition Quantum is highlighting Veritone’s multi-engine artificial intelligence (AI) platform in a Quantum StorNext-managed environment. — JD
SAM (Snell Advanced Media) is seeing a lot of interest in LiveTouch at Booth SL1805. “The initial interest in LiveTouch is as a replay server,” notes Tim Felstead, head of product marketing. “But the workflow can help live productions get done in a different way. We want to change the way people work with things like editing integration and automatically triggering workflows and publishing.” Also being showcased is Format Fusion 4, which eases HDR production when cameras and sources have different HDR formats and the ability for the Kahuna production switcher to handle HDR. — KK
SGL (Booth SL5306) is putting its focus on the cloud at NAB 2017, announcing support for Amazon’s S3 and Glacier platforms as archiving destinations for FlashNet, as support for Sony’s Ci cloud-based service for both workspaces and archive destinations. SGL has also added upgrades to its FlashNet Infinity user interface, including a Navigator tool to explore the entire set of archived assets in their original folder format, support for watch-folder projects, advanced metadata support, and capacity analysis. — JD
Scale Logic (Booth SL5324) is putting its Media Storage Services division front and center at NAB 2017. MSS — which offers extended warranty support for EMC/Isilon, NetApp, HDS, Cisco, Brocade, and others at 50% of the OEM’s price — has grown significantly over the past year and is a unique offering to the M&E business (although it has been standard in the IT world for some time), according to CEO Bob Herzan. In addition, Scale Logic is highlighting the latest enhancements to its Genesis platforms: Genesis Unlimited (SAN and NAS Storage Application Platform), Genesis NX (Enterprise NAS File Server and Storage) and Genesis HyperMDC (Metadata Control Utilizing High-Density RAID). — JD
Telescope CEO Jason George
Telescope (Booth SL9930) is showing off its solutions that help content creators become better storytellers in a live-streaming and social-streaming environment. CEO Jason George says, “Our mantra is how do we make video more engaging wherever people are viewing it.” Telescope is taking its Live Studio product — launched last year in coordination with the expansion of Facebook Live with the opening of its API — and taking that to the next level with cloud production tools and services. — BC
Ver’s new Flex Solutions truck service specializes in multi-purpose units.
VER (Booth S110LMR) has announced its Flex Solutions truck service. A new broadcast service, Flex Solutions specializes in HD multi-purpose support units and equipment rental. The support units are customizable and can accommodate any type of facility, including remote production, edit facilities, reality-show productions, and operations trailers. VER offers a choice of eight Flex Solutions models. — FR
At the VITEC booth (SL6005), the big story is the successful launch of the company’s IPTV Sports Venue Solution at Golden 1 Center, the new home of the Sacramento Kings. With the facility’s IPTV system, the Kings can feed fully customizable dynamic digital signs, live TV channels, and low-latency streaming to more than 700 displays throughout the venue. Brian Plumb, senior director, A/V production, Sacramento Kings, discusses the project in a video testimonial. — KHK
NORTH HALL
Artel DigiLink media-transport platform
Artel Video Systems (Booth N4511) is expanding its video over IP capabilities, highlighting improved IP features and functionality in its DigiLink and InfinityLink media-transport platforms, including greater port density for transporting 3G/HD/SD-SDI and ASI, as well as high-speed data transport over 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) interfaces supporting SMPTE 2022-7 Seamless Protection Switching. — KHK
LiveLike (Booth N1218VR) is showcasing its Virtual Sports Suite. The headset-free VR experience places viewers at the center of a “VIP room” in the stadium. Users are provided with a range of storytelling and data options live during the match. For broadcasters, the Virtual Sports Suite can provide both second-screen and VR content, all via an app. Headline projects have included Super Bowl 50 with Fox Sports and the football derby between Manchester United and Manchester City in the UK. — FR
OTHER NEWS
NeuLion (Grand Lobby, L-8) is further enhancing its efforts to support live streaming and OTT through deeper analytics and (potential) monetization with the debut of NeuLion ACE Analytics. Chris Wagner says, “NeuLion ACE Analytics is our way of offering sports-content rightsholders a brand-new dashboard of live watch data, customer billing data, and support data that they can use to pinpoint new subscribers and how to keep the ones that you have.” — BC
Sennheiser-owned speaker maker Neumann debuted its KH80 4-in. powered monitors for broadcast. They’re also ready for Precision Alignment software, the brand’s entry into the automatic-calibration market, with that software expected to be ready by Q4. — Daley
Highlighted at the Ooyala booth (SV1000) is the Ooyala Flex, the company’s versatile and customizable solution for video-production and -distribution workflows is designed to get content to market faster. It is a cornerstone in Ooyala’s transformation into an IVP, complementing its full set of product offerings across ad tech, analytics and video platform solutions. Founder/SVP, Products and Solutions, Belsasar Lepe explains how the platform can streamline a very laborious rights-management and video-distribution process: “Every single partner has their own metadata scheme, their own codec that they support, different partners that they work with, etc. We give them a mechanism to automate that and to make it work very easily. It helps them get the most out of their content rights.” — BC
Level 3’s Lisa Miller speaks at the Women’s Sports Media Initiative lunch.
SVG’s Women’s Sports Media Initiative gathered for its annual Networking Lunch at NAB. More than 60 women from across the sports-production industry gathered to listen to a one-on-one conversation with Lisa Miller, SVP, wholesale and alternate sales channels, Level 3 Communications. Miller leads Level 3’s successful mentorship program, Mentor Rings, and discussed her experience as Executive Sponsor of the program, shared the benefits of mentorship for both mentors and mentees, and offered tips on how attendees can create and grow programs like Mentor Rings within their own organizations. — KHK
NAB 2017 sees the global debut of the next-generation V-Nova PERSEUS video-encoding software. PERSEUS 2 enables operators to deliver the highest-quality content for a wide range of applications, including full end-to-end UHD, IPTV, OTT mobile video and VR/360 video. Visitors to V-Nova’s suite at Encore Tower Suites Las Vegas will be able to witness the full capabilities of the new V-Nova compression codec. — FR
SVG SportsTechBuzz is compiled by the SVG U.S. and SVG Europe editorial teams: Ken Kerschbaumer, Brandon Costa, Jason Dachman, Dan Daley, David Davies, Karen Hogan Ketchum, and Fergal Ringrose.