www.tvbeurope.com

June 2016

Connected broadcasting

Preparing for Wimbledon

Interview: Jonathan Lewis,

Channel 4

Business, insight and intelligence for the media and entertainment industry

Multi-cameraevent recordingmade simple

Matrox is a registered trademark and Matrox Monarch HD is a trademark of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. All other company and product names are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of their respective owners.

VS4Recorder ProArrive. Connect. Record.VS4Recorder Pro software lets you frame accurately record four live audio/video feeds using a Matrox VS4 quad HD-SDI capture card. It’s ideal for recording live multi-camera productions to create video assets that can be easily repurposed and archived. It also offers a wide range of video and audio codecs for your non-linear editor of choice. And what’s more, VS4Recorder Pro simultaneously provides a complete multiviewer experience.

www.matrox.com/vs4recorderpro/TVBE

TVBEurope 3June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Ours is a complex industry, caught in the

throes of signifi cant technological and

operational change that has forced

many into a period of business transformation.

This transitional phase is endured by all of

us: from broadcasters and content owners to

manufacturers, service providers, industry bodies,

and even us media outlets that, independently

and as a community, are trying to make sense

of it all. Our best efforts in this area often arrive

courtesy of industry forums, where the networking

of informed minds can add some real impetus to

the discussions surrounding the current state of

the market, and its future.

This year’s TVBEurope 2020 conference is

exactly the kind of open forum where all of the

industry stakeholders mentioned earlier can

come together to apply some informed strategic

method to the many and various market forces

that are impacting our business landscape. This

issue, I had the pleasure of sitting down with our

keynote speaker, Tom Toumazis, MBE, to discuss

the key areas of challenge and opportunity

across the sector: a precursor to his opening

address at BAFTA later this month.

Our conversation focussed on Tom’s vast

experience across media and entertainment,

publishing, and philanthropy as chairman and

founder of the ChildLine Board. His view on the

future is positive, and encouraging, and we can

all look forward to an insightful and inspiring

keynote address.

We also seek the perspectives of a number

of industry authorities in our main feature for this

issue: ‘visions of the future’. Of course, nobody

has the answers, but such informed instruction is

always helpful in identifying how businesses are

approaching the future market.

I look forward to welcoming you at BAFTA, on

28 June.

James McKeown Editor-in-Chief

Welcome

2020 visionEDITORIAL

Content Director and Editor-in-Chief: James McKeownjmckeown@nbmedia.com

Deputy Editor: Holly Ashfordhashford@nbmedia.com

Staff Writer: James Grovesjgroves@nbmedia.com

Group Managing Editor: Joanne Ruddockjruddock@nbmedia.com

Contributors: Michael Burns, David Davies, George Jarrett, Adrian Pennington, Philip Stevens, Catherine Wright

Sales Manager: Peter McCarthypmccarthy@nbmedia.com+44 207 354 6000

Account Manager: Richard Carrrcarr@nbmedia.com+44 207 354 6000

Sales Executive: Nicola Pettnpett@nbmedia.com+44 207 354 6000

Head of Digital: Tim Frost

Human Resources and Offi ce Manager: Lianne Davey

Head of Design, Hertford: Kelly Sambridge

Senior Production Executive: Alistair Taylor

Sales Director: Mark Rankine

Managing Director: Mark Burton

US Sales: Michael Mitchellmjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv+1 (631) 673 0072

Japan and Korea Sales: Sho Hariharasho@yukarimedia.com+81 6 4790 2222 CirculationFree subscriptionstvbe.subscriptions@c-cms.comSubscriptions Tel +44 1580 883848

TVBEurope is published 12 times a year by NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN, England +44 207 354 6002

NewBay Media is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association

© NewBay Media 2016. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owners. TVBEurope is mailed to qualifi ed persons residing on the European continent. Subscription is free.

Allow eight weeks for new subscriptions and change of address delivery. Send subscription inquiries to: Subscription Dept, NewBay Media, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 7BR, England. ISSN 1461-4197

Printing by Pensord Press, Tram Road, Pontllanfraith, Blackwood NP12 2YA

This month’s TVBEurope 2020 conference promises a strategic view of the industry’s future

Philip StevensProduction editor

Michael BurnsPost production editor

George Jarrett Business editor

David DaviesAudio editor

SECTION EDITORS

In this issue4 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

Arqiva’s David Crawford opens our future-gazing issue with a look at connected broadcast and the shifting television landscape

Philip Stevens asks broadcasters and OB providers about their plans for the Wimbledon tennis championships, which begin this month

6

34 Feature 42 Data centreBusiness

18Channel 4’s big data guru Jonathan Lewis shares his thoughts on viewing behaviour, data management, and the broadcaster’s plans to take content to the next level

Ahead of the TVBEurope 2020 conference, a number of authorities analyse the evolving broadcast industry and their places within in it

Feature

Opinion

Production

The role of the satellite industry is becoming increasingly pivotal in the world of broadcast. Ian McMurray provides a review from NAB 2016

Paywizard CMO Bhavesh Vaghela reveals the fi ndings of its UK and US focus groups, which explored consumer attitudes to SVoD services

12

21

Now you can monitor 4 completely independent SDI video sources on a single display! Blackmagic MultiView 4 lets you monitor any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD formats and frame rates all at the same time with overlays for audio meters, custom labels and more! With Blackmagic MultiView 4 you can even monitor 4 full resolution 1080 HD sources on a single Ultra HD display!

High Resolution MonitoringBlackmagic MultiView 4 works with both 1080 HD and 2160p Ultra HD screens. When used with an Ultra HD television, you get super sharp multiview monitoring because Ultra HD runs at 3840 x 2160, which is four times the resolution of regular HD. It’s like having four completely independent, incredibly sharp HD monitors on a single screen!

Four Independent Monitors Each view works as a completely independent video monitor because you get full frame re-synchronization on every input. That means you can mix any combination of video standards and frame rates, including referenced or non-referenced NTSC, PAL, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and Ultra HD up to 2160p30, all on the same display at the same time!

Professional ConnectionsBlackmagic MultiView 4 has four multi-rate 6G-SDI inputs and loop thru outputs that make it compatible with your existing SD, HD and Ultra HD equipment. The built in Ethernet connection lets you add custom labels, audio meters and more from any computer on the network, or you can add an optional Teranex Mini Smart Panel for front panel controls!

Studio or On LocationMultiview monitoring is perfect for use in control rooms with lots of incoming feeds, for live multi camera production or for use on location and in tight spaces that don’t have room for multiple monitors. With Blackmagic MultiView 4 you don’t need to connect multiple monitors, dozens of cables or run extra power to see all of your video sources!

Blackmagic MultiView 4 lets you monitor any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD sources, all at the same time!

www.blackmagicdesign.com/nl

Blackmagic MultiView 4 €465*Blackmagic MultiView 16 €1 375*

*SRP is Exclusive of VAT.

Opinion and Analysis6 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

The television industry has never rested on

its laurels. Since the first mechanical sets

started appearing in the 1920s, researchers

and manufacturers have been continuously

improving viewing experiences for the consumer.

From a black and white start, they gave us

colour television, and eventually made those

colours ever brighter, clearer and more vivid. The

television sets themselves became slimmer and

more lightweight, whilst the screen size grew. But

one thing that remained consistent was the linear

viewing model, and it gave birth to a culture of

families sitting down together at particular times

and watching television shows.

And then IP television came along. Along

with VoD this has given people the power to

watch content in their own time and at their

own pace, and smartphones and tablets have

allowed that content to be taken away and

viewed on the go. Friday nights in with the family

in front of the television are now supposedly

becoming a thing of the past, and broadcasters

are being forced to find new ways of engaging

with their networked and tech-savvy audiences.

The television landscape of the futureIf the broadcast industry listened to media hype,

then it would already be disregarding the linear

distribution model and focusing on preparing

solely for a future of IP, OTT and VoD distribution.

The reality, however, is somewhat different.

There is no denying the fact that consumers

have taken to these new technologies like ducks

to water. As VoD and ‘time-shifting’ became

readily available options for viewing content

over recent years, adoption has been fast and

widespread. In an increasingly mobile world,

this development was no real surprise. Simply

put, it has allowed consumers to break free of

the controls of the broadcaster, and watch their

favourite programmes at any time, in any place.

But it would be hasty to believe that IP is set

to take over entirely, not when the linear model

is still so ingrained into the viewing culture of the

public, even among its younger members. Arqiva

ran a millennials research project to study the

viewing habits of 12-18 year olds last year, and

found that contrary to popular assertion, the

main television in the lounge is still the dominant

viewing device for younger people. The findings

also revealed that most of this generation’s

TV viewing was done in the company of friends

and family.

Such results would suggest that the newer

broadcast consumers still use linear television

as a way of being social, and that they are not

willing to move exclusively to secluded tablet

Connected broadcasting: The future of TV

By David Crawford,managing director, satellite and media, Arqiva

www.MultiDyne.com

Harnessing The Power of LightThe Time To Switch Is Now!!

MultiDyne is now offering special trade-in deals on aging Telecast Fiber products, whereby we'll take back your Copperhead (or any Tele-cast product) and give you a substantial rebate towards the purchase of a new MultiDyne SilverBack transceiver or other MultiDyne Fiber product. Think Fiber First. Think MultiDyne.

Email Sales@multidyne.com and find out more.

AJA is pleased to off er a range of new solutions for the established and emerging pipelines you work with today and will integrate tomorrow. We have announced a range of new connectivity, signal conversion, recording, capture,

playout and streaming solutions.

Mini-Converters with solutions for HDMI 2.0, HFR and IP transport, desktop solutions for HDBaseT, Broadcast IP and 3G-SDI, the fl exible multi-channel FS4 with incredible support for both HD and 4K/UltraHD workfl ows, new openGear cards, and

powerful customer requested fi rmware updates for Ki Pro Ultra and CION.

These are the solutions you’ve been waiting for.

Game ChangersNew Technology for Broadcast IP, Multi-Channel HD,

4K/UltraHD, Streaming, Capture and More

KONA IPKONA, now for IP

KONA IP offers the simplest path for your transition into Broadcast IP pipelines, with

SMPTE 2022-6 support today and more coming soon.

KONA IP is designed to be flexible as IP video develops, ensuring broad compatibility today and a standards based approach for future IP needs.

FS4Multi-format Flexibility and

4-Channel Density in a 1RU Frame You travel. You produce.

U-TAP is the new family of USB 3.0, OS agnostic capture tools; presented in a mobile form factor, suitable for your pocket, both in

size and price.

U-TAP is available with SDI or HDMI, and both ingest your

video/audio directly into a broad range of software, including conferencing or streaming.

U-TAP SDI and HDMIHELO

Stream and Record... at the touch of a button

HELO is a mobile standalone recorder and streaming device

with all the inputs you need for capture and a wealth of

ports for recording to USB, SD, and network storage.

Deliver your stream directly to a web Content Distribution Network

(CDN) while simultaneously recording high quality, compact

sized H.264 files.

FS4 delivers the most power andcapability we’ve ever offered in a1RU Frame Sync and Converter.

FS4 supports 4K/UltraHD processing in single channel mode with up, down, cross-

conversion to/from 2K/HD/SD, and a full four channels

of 2K/HD/SD conversion and processing for remarkable per

channel cost and space savings!

Find out more at www.aja.com

Opinion and Analysis8 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

and mobile viewing just yet. Whilst linear doesn’t

look to be going anywhere anytime soon,

neither is the industry in a position to adopt a

total IP distribution model. According to most

broadcasters, this simply isn’t commercially

viable at the moment, and it could be a while

before the necessary economies of scale exist to

change that.

The hybrid modelThe challenge for broadcasters at present,

therefore, is to assess the ways that people are

watching and consuming content, and blend

together those requirements into a workable

hybrid model that meets the demands of the

consumer today. Undoubtedly, that involves

investment in new technology whilst developing

alternative business models to meet the needs

of their continuously connected audiences,

responding to consumers’ demands for TV

anytime, anywhere, but building upon the

strengths of linear broadcast to do so. This is

a best of breed approach that we like to call

‘connected broadcasting’. The onus is on

traditional broadcasters to learn from their

online video counterparts to deliver this type of

connected broadcasting to viewers. These truly

connected services, designed for television,

should combine the historic qualities

of linear workflow efficiency and reliability

with the new capabilities IP brings for reach,

scalability and dynamic operations to make

programming more engaging and improve the

overall viewing experience.

Opportunity to go globalThis convergence of models will not just improve

the viewing experience for consumers, but open

up new global audiences and revenue models

for broadcasters. Television has always been very

much a local and regional entity. Broadcasters

have channels that span the country, but go no

further, certainly not in their original form. From

the content owner’s point of view, you either live

with the restrictions and focus on one market, or

you go through the lengthy process of arranging

industry deals in every country that takes your

fancy. The internet provides an opportunity to

break free from these shackles, and having such

easy access to a global audience is something

that could reshape the way providers think about

the distribution and monetisation of their content.

What does this mean? The broadcast industry is entering one of the

most challenging periods in its history, yet also

one of the most exciting.

It is impossible to say how the industry will

develop over the next ten years, and what new

technologies will become available to disrupt

things further. What is clear, however, is that

we have a hybrid IP future ahead of us. Rather

than talking about one model over another,

innovation should build on the most successful

areas of TV video consumption and offer a much

more powerful, flexible and efficient model.

Anywhere

Copyright© 2016. Clear-Com, LLC. All rights reserved.Clear-Com® is a registered trademark of Clear-Com LLC.

Agent-IC Mobile AppRemote intercom panel on mobile devices

Simply equip your team with Agent-IC on their

to their Eclipse HX matrix intercom system and communicate securely with V-Series keypanels and wireless users on the intercom network.

Call us for a demo: www.clearcom.com

‘The broadcasting industry is entering one of the most challenging periods in

its history, yet also one of the most exciting’

TVBEurope 9June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Opinion & AnalysisOpinion and Analysis

Last month, I suggested that the return on

investment (ROI) from media technology

investment and upgrades falls short if the

benefit side of the equation is not fully explored

and captured. I also looked at how broadcasters

are increasingly asking Broadcast Innovation

to help them focus on upsides whilst astutely

balancing their legacy with new technology

and services options, workflow possibilities and

genuine onscreen improvements. Accessing

new audiences and revenue requires a new

integrated approach that also focuses on the

business requirements. In part two, we’ll drive into

the green on our dial, below.

Cost reduction, increased outputYou might be able to think of ideas to increase

efficiency or improve staff productivity, but

efficiency by itself isn’t worth much. To improve

ROI, it is real cost reduction and increased output

that matters - and quality.

Production and media operations are

usually targeted to suggest and then achieve

these savings, which is always a contentious

area. Today’s processes are often perceived

as inefficient by default. Legacy processes

and segregated departmental activities

are pitted too simplistically against new, as

yet unproven, media tools and automated

workflows. To accurately predict and deliver

potential manpower savings based on untested

improvements is often impossible. On the ground,

many day-to-day tasks are parallel and shared,

and changes to existing job roles based on

potential new solution options are unclear. With

this predictive savings approach, adding vital

new business requirements to the mix often

seems impossible.

An exasperated head of operations recently

lamented to me that this is happening in her

organisation. Unproven new media tools and

workflow were eating up operational staff

capacity without giving enough back. “Following

a mostly technology-lead proof of concept, it’s

too easy to start parallel operational testing, and

once you start, it’s hard to stop” she said. If you

were spending more time troubleshooting your

new broadcast tools and infrastructure than on

the day job itself, how would you know and what

would you do?

Re-mixing operations versus technology

happens in other industries where increased

throughput reduces unit cost. Four specific

techniques to avoid the above scenario and

reduce unit cost in broadcast media include:

• Systematically removing unnecessary and

duplicated tasks is a killer approach, but often

impossible from an internal-only point of view, as

success requires departmental boundaries to be

removed. You also need experience of what your

new options might be before you start tearing

apart established workflows and organisations.

“Surely other broadcasters have solved all this

already?” I’m regularly implored. Vendors are

very persuasive with their own feature sets. At

NAB, I noticed newsroom solutions that are still

missing frame-accurate live monitoring or proper

voiceover capabilities. The lack of these features

could give a very poor ROI.

• There is also regular disagreement about

the added value of specific tasks, particularly

in QC, review and approval. I wonder if this was

behind the ongoing BBC ‘mumble-gate’ where

top-flight production War And Peace apparently

lost a million viewers as it’s actors were accused

of mumbling. TV audiences complained they

had to use subtitles after struggling to understand

No pain no gainpart II

Russell Grute, managing partner at media solutions consultants Broadcast Innovation, concludes his look at maximising ROI from media technology investment

ROI POTENTIAL

IMA

GE: B

RO

AD

CAST

INN

OV

ATI

ON

Legacy

Scalability

Efficiency

Cost reduction

More on-screen

Revenue +

ROISIX KEY AREAS TO TARGET AND

MONITOR TO ACHIEVEIMPROVED ROI

A combined view of the wider potential ROI from media technology investment. Moving beyond legacy technology integration toward greater scalability and the efficiency in media planning and operations to cost effectively provide new on-screen services and revenue

‘To improve ROI, it is real cost reduction and increased output that matters

- and quality’

Opinion and Analysis10 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

dialogue and said that loud music drowned out

the actors’ voices. This was most likely due to

audio production, post or audio QC procedures,

although I suppose the orchestra [on location!]

could have played too loudly…Is losing a million

viewers a bad ROI?

• Ensure that everything upstream is business-

ready for everything downstream. By removing

unnecessary exceptions, very small changes

upstream can yield substantial and measurable

improvements downstream. Again, working

between departments is the key. Despite all

the industry chatter about integrated channel,

IMF and recently 4K, UHD and IP, it’s the

upstream media business processes that give

the biggest improvements. Revolutionising the

legacy upstream planning processes that we

used to call ‘traffic’ will play the decisive role in

multiscreen broadcasters’ future success. Cross-

media inventory planning was by far the most

interesting innovation I saw at NAB 2016.

• Business Process Modelling (BPM) is

advocated as a better technique. A more

intelligent approach, and in my experience the

most successful over the longer term, is

to model potential savings in conjunction

with improved media logistics. However, this is

often over-simplified to the extent that it only

covers thematic, frequently disregarding late

deliveries and live.

Onscreen and beyondCan improvement to media workflow and

logistics directly improve onscreen programming

and revenue? Yes! This is the area which most

dramatically improves ROI. When relevant

media is better presented, recommended and

discovered, our ROI gauge stays in the green.

If we could start again, thinking critically about

where better media workflow really adds the

most value in 2016, we would see an explosion

of video everywhere, with versions and streams

on every screen, anytime. Looking at it from the

audience’s point of view, content is now so easy

to find and so easy to share. Regardless of your

digital tribe, whether you’re a boomer, x’er or

millennial, viewing is now both compulsive and

greedy. Driven by availability and mobility, it’s

finding and sharing that is actually changing our

media habits.

It is crucial that we create new streamlined

processes to enable that finding and sharing.

Workflows can now directly add metadata

to aid downstream content placement,

search and recommendation. This is closely

connected to the upstream planning revolution

I mentioned earlier.

Different broadcasters have many disparate

restrictions and remits in both programming and

funding. The stories they want to tell often differ

from optimal payback. Insurgents in OTT and

VoD, which lead with apps and social media,

can be more targeted and do not, to date,

have so many restrictions. Planning will drive the

optimal revenue return for every outlet: channel,

partner, VoD, OTT, social media, digital and

beyond. This new approach combines ROI from

tech investment and operational transformation

with optimal business upside scenarios. Whilst

some organisations see themselves in a content-

centric way, their view of their media based is on

its inventory as above (versions, components and

metadata), and pure play OTT and streaming

services can move beyond this. STBs, apps and

home NAS systems are almost forgetting about

creating multiple versions due to new browsers,

and are capable of transcoding on the fly,

inserting ads and brokering promotions.

More gain, less painThe continuing search for a killer media

strategy and the leveraging of new technology

integration remains right at the heart of

broadcasters’ urgent business transformations.

Just when we thought it was safe to get back

in the water, along came UHD and IP, as well

as cloud, personalised and programmatic

advertising. To add to the fun, the investment

case is also tougher than it’s ever been. Looking

bottom-up, the IABM cites global broadcast

and media technology sales of about $49 billion

in 2015. Every dollar, euro or pound of that

total must be underpinned by a solid business

case founded on a practicable ROI. More than

ever, technology needs to be in the right hands

to spin-up quickly and yield that optimal ROI.

Those hands are now a hybrid of the business

and operations, enabled by next-generation

technology integration.

There are more investment options too:

operational expenditure can be used to

harness transactional investment in virtualised,

cloud-based, SaaS and third party services.

These options are an unwelcome distraction

if the business focus is not clear. Giving CFOs

confidence on the increase in quality and

revenue protection is a more challenging

objective than any manufacture, SI or set

of technical standards can aim to assure.

Conventional contracts and deliverables are

not enough to monitor and deliver today’s ROI;

it requires all parties to work from a business

perspective.

Looking top down, McKinsey’s 2015 Global

Media Report forecasts global spending on all

media to rise to $2.1 trillion in 2019, from $1.6

trillion in 2014. Whether this is accurate or not, it’s

a big number. For broadcasters’ dependant on

their own share of that number, whose audiences

are targeted for attack by growth-driven niche

insurgents, the ROI form new technology has

never been more important. The stakes are high.

Broadcasters successfully developing their

strategy to gain the upper hand with this new

mix can sharpen their competitiveness to win

their share of lucrative digital audiences. Those

failing to do so are risking everything, rapidly

disappearing from our screens. They are beaten

by onscreen competitors confident in their ROI

and harnessing new technology stacks based on

cloud and web services to rapidly drive their new

media business models in VoD, OTT, apps and

social media.

I have seen broadcasters of all shapes and

sizes upgrade their in-house capabilities, scope

greenfield projects and access service partner

and cloud-based services to secutre their way

forward. However, few of those broadcasters

start with a clean sheet. Whilst their audience

and income is under attack, their ROI from

new media technology and services is also

dramatically affected by how incisively they deal

with their legacy, and how robustly they protect

their business vision.

Gain Cost

Cost

‘When relevant media is better presented, recommended and discovered, our ROI

gauge stays in the green’

Focusing on the gains that drive higher ROI

Multi-cameraevent recordingmade simple

Matrox is a registered trademark and Matrox Monarch HD is a trademark of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. All other company and product names are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of their respective owners.

VS4Recorder ProArrive. Connect. Record.VS4Recorder Pro software lets you frame accurately record four live audio/video feeds using a Matrox VS4 quad HD-SDI capture card. It’s ideal for recording live multi-camera productions to create video assets that can be easily repurposed and archived. It also offers a wide range of video and audio codecs for your non-linear editor of choice. And what’s more, VS4Recorder Pro simultaneously provides a complete multiviewer experience.

www.matrox.com/vs4recorderpro/TVBE

C overage of the Wimbledon tennis

championships fi rst appeared on

television screens as far back as 1937.

In those very early days of regular broadcasting,

up to 30 minutes each day of matches on

the Centre Court were transmitted live. Thirty

years later, Wimbledon provided the fi rst colour

broadcast in Great Britain.

So, there’s a long history of the coverage of

the All England Club, and today, the coverage

is just as remarkable. The interest in this important

tennis event is so great that around 2,500

broadcasters work in the Broadcast Centre. More

courts are covered than in any other Grand

Slam event, and there are positions for 120

commentators on the Centre Court alone.

The BBC, as well as being the UK rights holder,

acts as host broadcaster (HB) for more than

40 other global networks. In fact, Wimbledon

(as it is usually called) is the largest annual

broadcast operation in the world. With such a

high profi le and demanding production both

for itself and visiting broadcasters, how does the

BBC handle its role?

Lawn tennis logistics“The key challenge is telling people what is on

and when, especially in the fi rst week,” says Ron

Chakraborty, executive editor, major events.

“Unlike sporting events where the schedule is

known weeks in advance, you only have one or

two days’ notice - sometimes less - to tell people

when their favourite players are in action. On top

of this, we also need to keep people informed

about emerging stories that happen on the

outside courts.”

He continues, “Even though we’re on two

channels for the majority of the day, we only

have one studio output, and one Sue Barker. It’s

fi ne when the matches overlap nicely, but when

they fi nish simultaneously, or there’s sudden rain,

it becomes quite a juggling act.”

The team also have to be wary of schedule

clashes away from Wimbledon.

“We overcome these challenges by doing

our best to trail what’s coming up and what

is available elsewhere, and we now support

this with our online live text and social media

channels. We also discuss the schedules with

BBC1 and BBC2 a few months in advance.”

Chakraborty reveals that the BBC’s OB supplier,

Visions, begins the rig of technical kit on 30 May.

Members of the production team are on site the

week before the tennis starts, and some fi lming

and editing takes place in the days leading up

to the fi rst Monday of play. Some sequences,

however, need to be prepared earlier.

“Filming with the high profi le players has to be

worked around their schedules, so it often takes

place weeks in advance. We also fi lm preview

material around our coverage at Queens and

Eastbourne. Once the draw is made and the

schedule is drawn up, you get into a rhythm for

the creative sequences: Monday, Wednesday,

Friday might feature Federer and Djokovic;

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday might be Murray

and Serena days. As a result, you can hopefully

plan ahead.”

For the start of the tournament, the BBC has

19 court directors and 18 APs, although this

number decreases in the second week as the

various draws shrink down. “Primarily the match

producers also direct, but they will suggest ideas.

While we do have a creative lead producer, the

production of those sequences is usually shared

around all the APs on site,” explains Chakraborty.

Although the OB provider does contract the

editors, the BBC will suggest names of those it

Production12 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

Philip Stevens asksbroadcasters and OB providers about their plans for the tennis championships

Serving up plans for Wimbledon

Simplifying the remote acquisition, cloud management, and multiscreen distribution of professional live video over IP

Production14 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

would prefer to use. “This year we will be using

an Avid system for all our editing. We do use a

dedicated media asset management system for

the tournament, accessed through IPD.”

Chakraborty states that liasing with other

broadcasters mainly concerns commentators,

pundits and content. “Where certain individuals

work for more than one outlet, we need to plan

their schedules, and when it comes to footage

we might exchange content we have produced

with high profile players.”

Watching the SwissOne of the broadcasters with a special interest in

Wimbledon is Switzerland’s SRF. With the country’s

Roger Federer ranked as the world’s number

three in the sport, his games are followed keenly.

“We are planning to cover the whole

tournament with programing lasting several hours

each day,” reveals Susan Schwaller, SRF’s head

of live. “Obviously, we look for the matches that

are most interesting for the viewers, with the focus

clearly on Swiss players.”

In order to supplement the host broadcaster

coverage, SRF will be sending two commentators,

one expert analyst, one journalist and one

cameraman to the Championships. “In previous

years there has always been interaction with the

BBC,” says Schwaller. “That includes interviews

with experts or an exchange of material.”

The Japanese viewJapanese satellite broadcaster WowWow is one

of the unilateral rights holders at Wimbledon. Its

production facilities also cover the Australian

Open, the French Open and the US Open, and

are delivered by Gearhouse Broadcast.

“As a rights holder, WowWow sets up its facilities

within the broadcast compound into which

a typical Gearhouse flyaway solution is built,”

states Ed Tischler, head of projects at Gearhouse

Broadcast. “That kit includes three Hitachi SK-

HD1200 cameras with Canon lenses in the studio,

while Sony PDW-F800 and Sony PDW-700 cameras

with Gearhouse Actis RF link systems are provided

for filming around the Wimbledon complex to

capture interviews and colour.”

Adding to world feedWowWow brings the world feed from the BBC into

its studio and builds its own presentation around

it. “So it’s a question of WowWow sitting across

the output the BBC is producing, or taking a

feed from an individual court if there is Japanese

interest in that match, such as when Kei Nishikori is

playing,” says Tischler.

“They do cross all of the produced court feeds

by the BBC and mix them into their shows as and

when it’s appropriate to their content. Around 40

BBC cameras are ISO’ed to us. There are 19 on

Centre Court, 11 on No.1 Court and a selection

on the other outer courts.”

Tischler explains that the WowWow production

team is able to hear the BBC talkback in the

Gearhouse scanner. “You hear the directors,

so you know where they are going to go next.

That enables the Japanese production team to

anticipate what’s coming up to help ensure a

smooth output.”

Alongside the live production facilities provided

by Gearhouse Broadcast, there are two Final

Cut Pro machines that are used by WowWow

to edit footage. In addition, there are three

EVS XT3 servers and an EVS IP Director content

management system.

Serving the US audienceTennis is a major undertaking for ESPN. As well

as Wimbledon, the cable broadcaster covers

the Australian and US Open Championships,

and is the host broadcaster for the latter.

“At Wimbledon, we cover all the action from

the first ball to last, so when you look at the

programming schedule, you’ll see that we will

commit over 150 original hours to the event,”

explains Jamie Reynolds, vice president,

production, overseas ESPN Tennis. “We don’t ever

turn off the linear screen until play is finished.”

Alongside the live coverage, ESPN produces

a three-hour highlights programme that is shown

on the middle Sunday on the ABC network

in the US. The total commitment means that

ESPN will employ around 125 personnel for the

Championships, ranging from the onscreen talent

to interns and runners.

“We use three presentation studios for our

output, including one on the media garden

terrace,” reveals Reynolds. “Our directors cover

the presentation element and the play coverage,

so we ask them to be versatile.”

Those directors have access to the clean

feed and ISO cameras from the BBC, plus

the dedicated ESPN cameras on Centre and

No.1 courts.

“We blend together the very best coverage for

our subscribers back in the US, and then add in

our own ESPN graphics to provide comprehensive

on-screen information and data. We have

created our own logging interface and employ

a team of six to eight tennis ‘fanatics’ who

watch every ball and record every incident. This

metadata is tagged in real time for use by our

producers.” As in previous years, NEP Visions will

be providing outside broadcast facilities for the

US broadcaster.

Reynolds concludes, “I believe that the

individuals, both on and off screen, provide

viewers with the depth of knowledge to make the

Wimbledon fortnight come alive and add to a

wonderful sporting occasion.

Roger Federer with SRF tennis expert, Heinz Günthardt

“The key challenge is telling people what is on, when, especially in ther first week”

Ron Chakraborty, BBC

I IMG has a representation agreement with the

All England Lawn Tennis Club which includes

the sale of broadcast rights, and most of the

activities the company offers on site are related

to that activity.

“We’ve been doing the core offerings for

around 25 years,” explains David Shield, SVP,

global director of engineering and technology

at IMG Studios. “The most basic production is

the international highlights programme that

runs for an hour and goes out at 21:30 each

day. This is predominately used by rights holding

broadcasters (RHBs) in Europe, the USA, and

Asia. But next is the world feed. For this we take

all the televised courts into a gallery on site, take

in all the beauty shots, and, in most cases, the

BBC commentary. In all, we cover 15 courts and

provide a cut feed of the best tennis of the day.

During the sit-outs, we’ll go around all the courts

updating match-points.”

That means most of the content on the world

feed is live, but IMG does use pre-recorded

matches that can be used if there is a need to

fill any gaps between live matches. In addition,

the company also collects ENG footage around

the Wimbledon site and this can be used for the

world feed, the in-site RHBs and the BBC.

Comprehensive collectionHe continues, “We get clean and dirty feeds of

every televised court from the BBC and record

the action from each day on EVS. In addition, we

collect all of the IBM data feeds, which includes

scores, number of rallies in each point, who won

the point, speed of serve and so on. There is a

team of loggers − who are actually BBC APs −

who note the visual content, so the metadata is

very comprehensive.”

All of this content is available to RHBs from the

central content store (CCS). “Those broadcasters

can pay a little extra for an IPD terminal, so they

can browse the wealth of metadata that we

capture. They can browse the games themselves,

the clips we produce and have it delivered over

ProductionTVBEurope 15June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feeding the world Philip Stevens visits the facility in west London that provides the world feed (and much more) for Wimbledon

“In week one of the Championships, RHBs get 11 feeds. That offers a European

broadcaster a great opportunity”David Shield, IMG Studios

Productionwww.tvbeurope.com June 201616 TVBEurope

internet GigE network into their own EVS system

or whatever storage arrangement they are

using,” says Shield.

In addition to the world feed, IMG produces

an enhanced service for European broadcasters.

This involves sending coverage of all the

courts that are being covered by the BBC by

satellite to licence holders. “We also include

the press conferences and main interview room

as a separate channel. In week one of the

Championships, those RHBs get 11 feeds; the

world cut, the individual courts and the interview

channel. That offers a European broadcaster a

great opportunity. If they put a gallery across

it, they can make their own show, including

remotely accessing the content store and the

comprehensive background material.”

Back at IMG’s Stockley Park facility, one of the

studios is used to produce a programme for ESPN.

“This is rather like a red button service, where a

mosaic of six feeds is on offer. Alongside the world

feed, those other screens will generally show

matches where American players are involved.

At the end of each match, we can switch to the

studio to do a wrap-up with the ESPN presenters.”

Streaming, tooIMG is also responsible for Live @ Wimbledon, a

streamed service that appears on wimbledon.

com, the official website of the Championships.

Although licensing arrangements restrict the

amount of live play, the content − mainly

interviews and behind-the-scenes activities − is

well received by tennis fans worldwide.

“Live @ Wimbledon is also a digital and FM

radio station that the public can receive during

the fortnight,” reveals Shield. “There are three

independent streams: the main channel, which

includes all the action and presentation from

around the grounds, as well as two channels with

ball-by-ball commentary from Centre and No.1

courts. There are also helpful traffic reports for

those travelling to the Championships.”

He concludes, “The Wimbledon fortnight is

very busy for us! The commitment has increased

dramatically over the years, but it all helps to add

to the enjoyment and involvement of viewers

around the world.”

“The commitment has increased dramatically over the years, but it all

helps to add to the enjoyment and involvement of viewers”

David Shield

Aerial View

As directors call for more sensational shots, different angles and stunning views, the need for innovative specialist camera systems has evolved significantly in recent years.

“Aerial Camera Systems (ACS) was originally set up in 1979 to provide the latest aerial cinematographic equipment to the film and television industries,” explains Matt Coyde, the company’s sales director. “Specialist cameras are becoming more of a standard feature within broadcast productions, and this is particularly true for sports and live event television.”

So, with the ever-developing requirements, is it necessary to design a unique solution to meet every need?

“Generally, no job we do is the same,” states Coyde. “However, our philosophy is to apply the equipment we own or have developed in-house to the needs of the current production. Invariably we can use or adapt one of our specialist cameras to achieve this goal. That said, much of our current inventory has come about from clients requesting a particular piece of equipment to help solve a shot issue for a large project.”

One example of this is the Smarthead3, which was driven by NBC needing a remote weatherised broadcast camera for a 24-hour live broadcast at Sochi 2014. Since then, it has been developed further, allowing it to have the versatility to be used on other jobs.

“Our tracking systems have kept up with Usain Bolt, flown with Harry Potter, seen Andy Murray win his first Wimbledon title and watched Ed Sheeran play to a sell-out crowd.” reveals Coyde.

So, what changes have there been in production demands over the last few years?

“For aerial filming there has been a substantive shift towards large sensor and higher resolution capture, to provide more flexibility in terms of camera and lens options,” declares Coyde. “4K and HDR are an emerging trend in live broadcast, which will become more widely adopted over the next couple of years.”

“The distribution of our viewing on

different platforms and devices is

evolving,” said Channel 4’s Jonathan

Lewis. “If you look at what Google and Facebook

would tell you around everyone moving to

mobile, it is all about thumb-stopping moments.

And three seconds is what they count as an

engaged view. But what we are seeing is that

mobile and tablet usage has spiked,” he said.

“It has reached a zenith in a way for us as a

broadcaster. It is very helpful from a screening

experience or second screen experience – when

your partner is watching something on the main

TV screen and you are watching F1 on your

tablet – and we see a lot of that happening,”

he added. “But VoD is now moving to the big

screen, and the challenge we have been

grappling with for several months is assuring that

big screen VoD is addressable.”

The problem is that where Channel 4 (C4)

has mandatory registration signings for mobile

and tablet, it is much more challenging to get

registration on shared devices. To resolve issues in

this area, C4 teamed up with YouGov.

“We did a pioneering piece of research with

YouGov, around modelling viewing behaviour

against specific programming on C4 by device.

We are also using our first party and BARB data,

and have started to make our inventory on

shared devices addressable through this model.

“That was the big leap forward in the data

space, and over the last six months we have

been moving into what we call the 100 per cent

addressable world. That is quite significant

because no one else is doing anything of that

nature in the shared devices space. They

are still wrestling with monetising views on

platforms,” he added.

Market feedback says operators have

been slow to appreciate the values of big

data, and that many do not have the skilled

staff or budget for generating the exploitation

values of big data effectively. C4 found

the talent early, and has three dozen very

experienced data analysts. “We invested in a

team specifically dedicated around building

what we call our in-house data management

platform. Effectively that is C4’s 14 million

registered users, and that database is refreshed

on a quarterly basis,” said Lewis. “The ambition

is to get to 20 million, but the big focus over the

next 12 to 18 months is to grow our reach.”

Bespoke short form contentThe front initiative here has been the transition of

All 4; from its base value in linear catch-up to a

wide potential content proposition.

“It has evolved significantly, just look at our

foreign drama strand Walter Presents,” said Lewis.

“Walter Uzolino, a former commissioning editor

at C4, approached us about two years ago. He

had locked himself in a room for nearly a year

and watched over 3,500 hours of foreign

drama content.

“He then looked at securing the rights to

some of that content, and

won the rights to about

700 hours of

George Jarrett spoke to Channel 4’s head of digital and partnership innovation Jonathan Lewis; the big data equivalent of a master chocolatier, with a big surprise in store

Channel 4’s big data guruBusiness

www.tvbeurope.com June 201618 TVBEurope

what he saw as the best foreign drama

available,” he added. “He asked us to invest

or partner with him.” Uzolino probably thought

about a stand-alone website but Lewis saw it as

a great boost to the prospects of All 4. Walter

Presents increased the registered users and

produced valuable data.

“We have seen VoD view grow by 30 to 35 per

cent year-on-year, and a lot of that has been

attributed to putting new content onto that

platform,” said Lewis. “We started to produce

bespoke short-form content (All 4 originals) and

we’ve got about 100 series so far in that space

Shows that we are making on All 4 are becoming

so popular that some have travelled to C4. We

can take risks and innovate. We are not schedule

constrained, so can put a lot of stuff out there

and see how it goes.” At least once a month, the

C4 commissioning team look at what content is

working on All 4, and how they might take cues

from that for delivering shows on linear channels.

“We are joining the dots between creative

and commercial, so we are creating lots of

branded content on All 4, with brands that will

fund shows and buy media to support that show

on our platform. We are on our 12th or 13th series

with brands, and this is a multi-million pound

business for us, a really exciting revenue area.”

Taking programmatic to the next levelAll 4 can boast about 15 commercial shorts.

“That’s a really interesting area because

advertiser-funded programming on linear has

always been a challenge. Take it to the digital

environment and you are less constrained from

a compliance perspective, you do not have

a schedule to stick to, and we are creating

content that we then try and let travel onto our

social media platform,” said Lewis.

At IBC2015, trading programmatically was a

big conference subject. “We spent a lot of time

educating the market, working with agency

trading desks and the demand side platforms,”

said Lewis. “We gradually on-boarded the big

four or five major trading agencies, which

are starting to buy inventory within what is

effectively our private exchange at scale,

being able to access C4 first party.”

Involved were the release of data and

delivering automations, which were not

without challenges that introduced delay.

But the big agencies were on board in

November. Then came what C4 calls PVX, its

premium video exchange. “This is taking our

programmatic business to the next level, getting

access to All 4 content and inventory, and we

are also thinking about how we can encourage

other premium content providers to join with that

exchange,” said Lewis.

On the fickleness of consumers, he said: “There

is a behavioural shift happening. One of the

things we have always been focused on is how

we engage with the youth audience, and what

does that mean for us long term and from the

investment perspective.”

Targeting demographic audiences around

specific interests started at the end of 2015. “We

are incorporating those interest groups into our

programmatic offering. It is all about scalability

for us,” said Lewis. “ We can work with brands to

create bespoke projects, but we want to make

sure that we have got enough volume so we can

serve up and deliver to brands when they want

to come and buy from us.

“This year is all about trying to scale up that

capability, and how we get that information

is through a sub set of registered users called

Core 4. There are about 8,000 Core 4 users that

we talk to all the time,” said Lewis. “We survey

them monthly, but then we also track their

behaviours,” he added. “We run the two things

in parallel; what they do, and what they say they

are into. You can then build a profile of people,

and that’s how we build our overall profile across

a whole data set.”

Moving from a modelled worldVoD revenues are about ten per cent of C4’s

overall income. “The delta is changing and VoD

is starting to become a much bigger part of the

revenue make-up. The thing we think about now

is investing in our digital business to continue

the trajectories of growth,” said Lewis. “Walter

Presents was a mix of content and marketing

that drove more attention to All 4 and delivered

greater reach. F1 is a great example of bringing

in a new audience that watches live and via

catch-up TV.”

Programmatic business represented zero

18 months back, but is now 30-35 per cent of

revenue, so how will the All 4 platform develop

going forward? “The content proposition on All

4 will continue to evolve. Moving it away from

just becoming a catch-up service was really

important. Advertising technology continues to

evolve for us, so delivering levels of interactivity

around video advertising on personal devices

is one big thing; being able to extend ads, click

into web sites or click to buy,” said Lewis. “The

personalisation that we can deliver for the Coca

Cola Share a Coke campaign or the My Burberry

campaign; how you develop that into the big

screen is something we are looking at now. “We

have done a dozen deals and we can double

down on that in the next 12 months. We want to

move from a modelled world of access to data

on shared devices, into a registered world.”

The All 4 team has gathered some surprising

data around viewing habits, sometimes around

apparently similar shows aimed at the 16-34

age group audience. “Fresh Meat is a good

example where we looked at that as really 16-34,

and then you look at Made in Chelsea and you

think they must be the same audience. They are

not. You can then start doing interesting things,

scheduling those shows against each other on

different channels to maximise your percentage

share of that particular audience,” said Lewis.

Big screen VoDTechnologies and technology partnerships have

become so much more crucial to the progress

of All 4. Its digital media empire is built on

proprietary technology.

Lewis said: “The most important thing to us

from a commercial perspective is our relationship

with Freewheel around the ad serving capability

that it can deliver, and a pioneering product

development that we have done together.

Freewheel worked very closely on the launch

of the programmatic pilot and the gearing up

of PVX, and we have become aligned from a

technology roadmap development perspective.

“On the interactive VoD side, delivering

interactive as formats, we have an exclusive

relationship with Innovid. We are talking about

how we might establish interactivity on the big

screen,” he added. “The pattern for viewing

specifically for VoD is evolving: we will get over 50

per cent of our views now on big screen VoD.

“We are in a very different place to some of

our digital competitors because big screen TV

is really important to people when they want to

see their special shows. The challenge for us is

to make sure we adapt and keep up with that

change; talking about audience addressability

on big screen VoD shared devices, and

interactivity,” he continued. “This is stuff that

we are very good at doing on the PC and

tablet, and now we need to transfer all of that

to the big screen.”

Archiving and sustaining rights will become

bigger issues as All 4 grows. Lewis said: “All 4

represents 10-12,000 hours of archive content.

Walter Presents is going to be adding another

1,000 hourst. We stack up well in terms of the

long tail of archive that we have on All 4 versus

the BBC and ITV, and there are rumours of

them joining up. We commission a significant

proportion of our inventory.”

BusinessTVBEurope 19June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Drive Visitorsto your stand

1 Preview Issue

5 Live Show Issues

Digital Editions - sent to attendees of IBC past & present

Executive Summary

22 e-daily Newsletters

Exhibition Catalogue

Exhibition Map

The IBC Daily is successful, respected and well read precisely because we work hard to deliver quality.

We find that more and more IBC exhibitors want to work with us because they respect our approach and understand it is based on integrity, accuracy and commitment to business success.

We employ the best international editorial team in the business to work with exhibitors in each hall of the RAI.

Peter McCarthypmccarthy@nbmedia.com

+44 (0) 207 354 6000

Richard Carrrcarr@nbmedia.com+44 (0) 207 354 6000

Nicola Pett npett@nbmedia.com+44 (0) 207 354 6000

Michael J Mitchellmjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv

+1 631 673 0072

For more information contact:

To confi rm your position in any of the 2016

editions, contact the sales team now!

TVBEurope 21June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feature

There is seismic change in the TV industry.

The coming together of offl ine and

online services and the much-heralded

juncture of data, technology and content is

a collision that is having profound effects. In

many respects the changes are regarded as

disruptive, but there is also opportunity.

We recently surveyed our customers to

see how they felt about where the industry

was heading, the challenges they are

facing and the help they need from their

technology partners. Unsurprisingly, budgets

are getting squeezed and content producers

and distributors have to do more with less,

particularly the big broadcasters. Broadcasters

are also concerned about being able to select

technology that is future-proofed, so that they

can invest in their core business without missing

out on the benefi ts of the latest innovations in

audience content consumption.

So which technologies do they see as having

the biggest impact? Certainly end-to-end

IP. The consensus is that this will signifi cantly

change how the whole industry works, but

we are not quite there yet. Few can afford to

sweep legacy infrastructure aside. It takes time

and investment. Our media networks have had

IP at the core for over 18 years, dating back

to when we designed and built the fi rst MPLS

broadcast network. This, in part, has shaped

our attitude to giving customers an alternative

to a big bang approach, to transition to IP

infrastructure and services as and when it

suits their needs, and to accommodate

legacy technologies.

Why bother? We agree with our customers and

believe that IP will underpin the industry and

enable fl exible, effi cient working, but it will also

ensure no one is left behind in the face of rapid

change. Supporting broadcasters through this is

a key role for an infrastructure business such as

BT Media and Broadcast. So what is this change

and how can leveraging the IP network improve

content delivery and production?

The BBC is already leveraging BT’s investment

in fi bre by shifting to an IP-based network,

with the new BT network replaing the BBC’s

existing system from April 2017. The fl exibility IP

networks can provide will make it easier for the

broadcasters to ramp up capacity for special

events while taking advantage of emerging

formats such as 4K/8K and 360-degree content.

The data-hungry content revolution demands

collaboration between suppliers and also

customers and suppliers, to ensure a smooth

production chain.

Evolving our own service provider broadcast

infrastructure is also key to helping customers

deal with the transition. For example, we now

offer hand-off via IP as well as traditional video

interfaces on a wide range of products using

new IP standards endorsed by SMPTE. It’s part

of the evolution, making investments in

processing infrastructure that help customers

avoid the need to purchase new legacy

broadcast processing appliances such as

encoders and decoders.

The next step is software defi ned networks,

and again we have been test-bedding multiple

supplier’s offerings and their interoperability

in our labs for several years, and, in fact, our

existing broadcast networks have a nod to

the future with an element of software control

already. To help cope with legacy, we are

deploying hardware at the edge of our network

that supports legacy interfaces today, but can

be software rebuilt to support IP in the future.

In this way, we can help customers with new

technology adoption and future proofi ng whilst

meeting the cost challenges of change.

We want customers to embrace the collisions

of big data, TV everywhere and Ultra HD

(UHD) and see opportunity, rather than fear, in

migrating to IP in a tailored risk-free way.

By Mark Wilson-Dunn, vice president of BT Media and Broadcast

Ahead of our TVBEurope 2020 event this month, we invited a number of industry authorities to share their thoughts on what to expect over the coming years, and how they are planning their business strategies accordingly

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE:The connected world

Big bang theory

Cost Innovation

We understand the constant pressure media organizations face to reduce cost from their operations. That understanding is reflected in the development of solutions that maximize efficiency and productivity across the media production chain; including collaborative editing, color and finishing, extensive MAM, workflow automation and resource planning, uniquely intelligent Media BiometricsTM monitoring and control and comprehensive automated playout solutions.

IP Innovation

SAM is at the forefront of developments in IP, we offer products that work today in the SDI domain and allow expansion into the IP world without excessive risk or substantial upgrades. Our switchers, routers, infrastructure and playout systems are all available with IP interfaces supporting both uncompressed (SMPTE 2022-6 and VSF TR-03) and a range of compression formats, including VC-2. Familiar control interfaces provide hybrid SDI/IP operation.

All-RoundInnovation.SAM’s unique mix of experience and energy is complemented by a true belief in innovation. It is fundamental to everything we do, and helps us deliver solutions that really make a difference to our customers.

Color & Finishing Editing, Storage & Replay

Production Switchers

Routers & Multiviewers

Modular Infrastructure & Conversion

SAM product sectors

Image Processing Innovation

Our image processing technology is renowned the world over. Offering a complete range of high quality format and framerate conversion that covers every need, from high-end drama to fast-action sports and corporate events. Developed and refined over many years, our patented conversion algorithms produce stunning results, even from the most challenging material.

4K/8K Innovation

For us, UHDTV is all about enabling you to create more compelling content and deliver more immersive viewing experiences for your audiences. So whether you are producing a live sporting event, posting a TV drama, or finishing a feature film for theatrical release, SAM can help you take advantage of all that UHDTV has to offer – without blowing your budget.

If you want to go IP immediately, next year

or 5 years from now, we have products and

systems you can invest in

UHDTV is about enabling you to create more compelling content and deliver more immersive viewing experiences.

The SAM Difference.

Our innovation can help you make a difference. Visit:

Media Processing Software Management

Control & Monitoring

Playout 24/7 Worldwide

Support

The TV and media landscape is evolving

more quickly and more radically than at

any time in its venerable history. Ten

years ago we lived in a pre-Netflix, pre-iPhone,

pre-Twitter, standard definition world (Sky

launched its new HD service in the UK on 22

May 2006), when multiscreen TV meant having

a ‘portable’ TV in the bedroom and Blockbuster

was still a thing.

Fast forward ten years and we are in the

early stages of a transition to UHD, virtual reality

is the ‘next big thing’, 3DTV has been and

gone, and audiences have increasingly seized

control of their viewing through a proliferation

of content sources from new and old media

companies. Content distribution is increasingly

over IP to devices that are more able to deliver

a personalised experience.

This links to a key trend that all media

organisations are focused on today and into the

future; how to develop a closer, more individual

relationship with a viewer. We are moving from

an era of mass audience reach to mass viewer

personalisation and this will require much greater

use and understanding of data science.

Some organisations are already very data

driven, such as Netflix and Amazon, which

together spend hundreds of millions of dollars

each year and employ hundreds of people to

use data to increase insight and personalisation

for subscribers. But what about everyone else?

The next few years will see a significant increase

in the role of data and data-driven decision

making within our industry, as organisations look

to outcompete their rivals for viewer attention.

The good news is that we have a huge

volume and diversity of data to work with,

including content metadata (programme

synopses, series hierarchies, cast and crew info),

dialogue transcripts for most content in the form

of subtitles/caption files, usage data from TV

platforms, audience measurement data from

national panels, navigation and discovery

data from EPGs, TV guides and search engines

and more.

The bad news is that deriving insight from all

that data requires specialist skills and new job

roles such as data scientists, data analysts and

data engineers along with new technologies to

collect, host and process what is often correctly

called big data. We are also competing for

these skills, not just with our competitors but with

whole other industries such as financial services,

retail, pharmaceutical and even baseball

teams (see Moneyball) who are also in a rush to

become more data driven.

The advantages afforded to those who

succeed are significant, and can provide an

extra layer of insight from content commissioning

to audience engagement and everything else

in between. This is not an Armageddon future

of the robots deciding what shows to make and

what we are fed as viewers, but one where the

experience and intuition of industry professionals

is augmented by both new insights and more

granular and timely understanding of what we

already know. We are entering an era of data

driven-broadcasting.

Feature24 TVBEurope June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

By Steve Plunkett, chief technology officer, broadcast and media services, Ericsson

‘The next few years will see a significant increase in the role of data and data-driven

decision making within our industry’

Data-driven broadcasting

TVBEurope 25June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feature

T: +44 (0)1489 889930 | E: sales@sglbroadcast.com | W: sglbroadcast.com

SGL has an established history serving the archive needs of broadcast facilities around the world.

SGL’s solutions evolve with your organisation. Discover our latest developments at Broadcast Asia Booth 5E3-02

Join us to learn more about new

media production

Gemiso and SGL’s integration with Expedat Gateway.

Global leaders in Archive & Storage Management

One thing I miss from the analogue world

is the video rental store guy handing

me an unsolicited VHS: “You’re gonna

love it! And it’s getting a sequel too”. I miss his

colleague too: every time I went to the store she

would suggest independent titles that I always

loved. I miss the creative energy of the magazine

editorial team and how they put so much effort

into choosing and presenting a cover story to

catch your eye on a crowded newsstand. And

the way that smart advertising people were

always looking for new ways to meet their target

audience and remain relevant.

On the other hand, one thing I won’t miss

is the analogue industry’s slavery to the one-

size-fits-all principle. Digital technology and

the internet have radically changed the print

and broadcasting industries, but what about

all of the human expertise and those magic

touches that enable personalised suggestions,

editorial curation and relevant advertising? Well,

now curation can meet personalisation! Next

generation personalisation technology creates

a balance between ‘human experience’ and

the flexibility to deliver personalised content

to millions of people. It is this software that is

giving superpowers to editors, marketers and

advertisers, combining human creativity

with the speed of machine learning and

delivering this power through the universal

reach of the internet.

Editorial teams want to make sure that their

investment in new titles isn’t wasted, and to

ensure that viewers do not switch off or click

away because ‘there is nothing to watch’.

Providers know that the right content is there,

but viewers need the right support to help

them find it.

We see that the process of running a successful

digital entertainment service now looks like two

nested loops: the inner loop is fast, responsive

and self-tuning, interacting with each user and

surfacing relevant options; because, let’s face

it, choice is fun when the experience is not

overwhelming and cluttered. We sometimes call

this the ‘UX autopilot’, based on self-adjusting

software algorithms to produce a machine-

learning UX system that is aware of editorial

rules and marketing goals. The outer loop,

moving at slower speeds, is the domain of

human decisions and judgement; it is where

professionals interpret users’ behaviour through

visual and interactive analytics, offering hints

and actionable options to improve how new

customers are welcomed, and adapting the

content offering to match the infinite number of

niche viewing and content preferences.

By using these two loops, enlightened

operators are marrying human creativity and

machine leaning to delight customers and

optimise the consumer experience. The time

has come for all providers to ask themselves

whether they are making the most of these

next-generation personalisation platforms that

combine the best of the old and the new.

By Pancrazio Auteri, CTO, ContentWise

Next generation TV and the superpower of the inner loop

‘One thing I won’t miss is the analogue industry’s slavery to the

one-size-fits-all principle’

www.tvbeurope.com June 201626 TVBEurope

Today’s broadcasters are content creators

who must cater to their audiences’ desire

to consume content how, where, and

on whatever device they want. The challenge

is to create, transport and distribute that content

to them quickly, yet reliably, all while being

cost-effective.

IP and cloud solutions allow for reliable sharing

of live video both within organisations and to

third parties, at a fraction of the cost of private

satellite and fi bre connections. Distribution via the

cloud is fl exible and scalable, so organisations

can use what they need, when they need it.

Cloud-based IP video distribution networks,

like Live+ Multipoint, enable simultaneous

distribution of live content from any location, to

any location, at any time, quickly, easily, and

cost-effectively. As the industry moves forward,

organisations are leveraging both private and

public networks, and need to support both

live and fi le-based content. The best way to

navigate these complex landscapes is to adopt

a common set of standards that allow for

interoperability. In order to help customers build

best-of-breed solutions that simplify workfl ow,

both hardware and software-based solutions

must work together. Take the new integration

between Live+ Control and GV Stratus, for

example. Files from Control are automatically

transcoded for previewing and use in GV Stratus,

simplifying the workfl ow.

This kind of integration is just the beginning,

of course. Dejero recently joined AIMS so that

we can work with like-minded technology

leaders to actively drive the movement towards

open standards.

The more technology providers can

simplify the process of transporting video in a

seamless and cost-effective manner, the more

broadcasters can focus on creating great

content and connecting with their audiences.

By Bogdan Frusina, founder and CTO, Dejero

It’s all about connectivity

Since the advent of YouTube in 2005, we

have witnessed the staggering growth

and popularity of online video. The rise of

user-generated content continues apace; the

100 million daily Snapchat users creating stories

of their lives are testament to the trend.

User-generated content is now a strong

addition to footage shot by professional video

journalists. Broadcasters and publishers are

capitalising on the smartphone revolution when

it comes to sourcing content, and the growing

phenomenon of eyewitness smartphone footage

is allowing them to cover events like never

before. It is actively sought out as an essential

storytelling tool, particularly when it comes to

breaking news in remote or local areas.

The future of content depends on

cooperation. There is a relationship forming

between news outlets, production companies,

brands and the public. Audiences can record

and share wide-ranging content and so, in turn,

it has become a medium fi lled with opportunities

for monetisation. Broadcasters and publishers are

increasingly seeing the commercial value and

are willing to reward contributors.

Producing quality content takes time and

money. Communities like Newsfl are support this

process. The outputs required to source content

are reduced and news organisations have

the confi dence that the videos pushed directly

to their platforms have been verifi ed and

are ready to upload. Furthermore, the video

contributor is typically paid within 24 hours, with

the likes of Trinity Mirror, Mail Online, BBC and Sky

using the service.

In this age of digital diversity, where consumers

access content via multiple devices, including

mobile phones, tablets and laptops, the cost

of producing content to cater for these various

formats is increasing.

2016 is set to be a huge growth year for

user generated video content. Newsrooms,

production companies and brands that

respond quickly, producing a mix of their own

professionally created content alongside

intelligently curated UGC, will be amongst those

that resonate most strongly with audiences.

By Bevan Thomas, commercial director and co-founder, Newsfl are

Content and cooperation

‘User-generated content is now a strong addition to footage shot by professional

video journalists’

‘Organisations are leveraging both private and public networks, and need to

support both live and fi le-based content’

Feature

TVBEurope 27June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

www.asperasoft.commoving the world’s data at maximum speed

A s broadcasters, streaming service

providers and telcos champion UHD,

it is clear that it is no longer the future;

it’s already here. While the industry deploys

more services in UHD, the innovation leaders

are already looking to the future of even higher

quality services delivered through HDR and 8K.

NAB 2016 highlighted the advancement of

8K. Demonstrations such as Canon’s immersive

8K ride experience and Hitachi’s dockable 8K

camera are further evidence that some of the

technological jigsaw pieces are fi nally coming

together. While these advances address the

increased demand for high quality content

delivery, they also lead to a fundamental

question: How will operators and service

providers be able to launch next generation

services and turn them into true mass-market

offerings? In a TV world that is still broadcasting

SD, and where a large majority of the world’s

smartphones are not able to access video

services, how will operators manage to

offer commercial services supporting higher

resolutions, which are delivered at rapidly

increased bitrates?

As well as pushing quality to higher degrees

than ever before, we must ensure that every

single person who wants to access video services

will be able to do so, regardless of bandwidth.

Our recent deployment announcement with

FastFilmz illustrates how we enabled the launch

of a mobile OTT service delivering video over

2G in rural areas of India. With next-generation

codecs, the HDR/8K future is just around the

corner, and true TV everywhere services can be

available to all, whatever they want to watch,

wherever they are.

By Guido Meardi, CEO and co-founder, V-Nova

Sustaining next generation services

Feature

Featurewww.tvbeurope.com June 201628 TVBEurope

One of the most important benefits of

a big exhibition like NAB, if you are a

major vendor, is that it gives you the

opportunity to talk to the major broadcasters

and content companies about the issues that

really keep them awake at night, and see how

closely our roadmap matches their concerns.

What was clear, from the majority of the many,

many visitors to our booth, was that the time is

now right for them to ease off the brakes and

begin to accelerate the construction of their

next-generation infrastructures. The ability to

seize the agility and flexibility of software-defined

environments running on COTS platforms or in a

virtualised cloud environment was the number

one concern by far.

While the findings from our own 2016 Focus

Forward Technology Trends survey identified

cultural issues, such as the need to acquire

new skills, as a barrier to progress, it is equally

clear that broadcast professionals relish the

opportunity to ‘forget about the forklift’. Future

large-scale infrastructures will be all about

software-defined workflows and not about

massive, inflexible hardware installations.

Media companies are also looking to

incorporate next-generation technologies like

UHD into their workflows in a cost-effective

and non-disruptive manner. The bandwidth

required for UHD, including 4K resolution and

high dynamic range video, is prompting some

media professionals to consider synchronising this

upgrade with the transition to IP.

My final thought is that, as part of our role

as industry leaders, we should take a stand in

ensuring simple, open interoperability so our

customers can build best of breed solutions. That

is why we were one of the founding members

of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), a

trade association dedicated to the promotion

of standards for moving video and audio over

IP, and why we have forged close ties with the IT

community. AIMS is a fast growing group, with

members from across the industry working to

advance open standards, so we are all poised to

help our customers build towards the future.

By Charlie Vogt, CEO, Imagine Communications

Ready for the future

‘Future large-scale infrastructures will be all about software-defined

workflows’

Feature

www.evs.com/ChannelMax-ads

The new Channel Max option allows you to configure more than 12 channels with your new or existing XT3 — as well as add more key features including 1080p and UltraHD-4K standards support — further expanding the power of the most flexible and reliable production server in the industry.

MORE CHANNELS & BEYOND

TVBEurope 29June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

2020: A networked society

‘YOU NEED an agile strategy to survive in the TV industry of 2020’; so claimed Ericsson’s Media Vision 2020 report, fi rst published in 2014, with predictions that have so far proved accurate. In just four years time, the TV industry will have evolved to a point where ‘global brands combine consumer electronics, social media and apps to create disruptive new business models without warning.’

Forming the centrepiece of its Vision is Ericsson’s assertion that, by the year 2020, the Networked Society

will be realised. Within this global society will be 15 billion video-enabled devices connected to broadband IP, transforming the TV consumption experience.

By 2020, penetration of mobile broadband will have exceeded eight billion subscribers and fi xed broadband will have exceeded one billion home subscriptions, representing around 75 per cent of digital TV homes. In total, over 90 per cent of the population globally will have ‘easy access to the internet.’ Broadcasters will exploit the benefi ts of this increasingly connected society

to produce content that reaches a ‘broader and more diverse audience.’

Behind the scenes, the cloud will prove a fundamental asset to broadcasters as they try to keep up with the huge volume of content demand.

In 2020, content will still be king, but the demands of viewers will be increasingly varied and independent. This should be embraced, as ‘it opens up new niches for exploitation, including the ability to market beyond the household to every connected consumer.’

In 2020…....penetration

of mobile broadband will have exceeded eight billion

subs

...fi xed broadband will

have exceeded one billion home subs,

representing around 75 per centof digital TV

homes

...over 90 per cent

of the population will have easy access to the

internet

...the pay-TV

subscriber market alone will

be worth $460 billion

...26 billion

connecteddevices

Source: Media Vision 2020, Ericsson

James McKeown (JM): What’s happening to the composition of the market, and what are the biggest challenges traditional broadcasters are facing?Tom Toumazis (TT): Are they having a bad

time? When you look at how tough it is in the

newspaper industry, television has very high-class

problems compared to the issues that they are

facing. When you take a step back and look

at television, I think you have a whole set of

other issues, with a much more positive

landscape. It has an audience that loves video

and can’t consume enough of it, with more

devices broadening distribution. Research

is showing that people are watching more

television, and sleeping less; that’s not a bad

backdrop scenario.

The big continue to get bigger, and ITV

continues to deliver. [Look at] Adam Crozier’s

strategy of building a distribution business and

focusing on commissioning things that they own,

so that they can run them around the world.

Their strategy of focusing on high-quality content,

building strong drama, creating the ability for

consumers to watch content everywhere and

owning the content and being able to monetise

around the world - it’s a classic example of how

they’ve done incredibly well. Channel 4 is very

solid. They decided to move away from US TV

six to seven years ago and move more into

commission. They’ve done a great job, and their

advertising revenues have reflected that. Sky

has gone from strength to strength in spite of BT

coming in and stealing part of their lunch when it

comes to football.

When you look at the TV players, it’s pretty

healthy. Then you’ve got OTT, which wasn’t

there five years ago – a whole host of providers

disrupting the existing pay-tv model by offering

attractive services. I think it [pay-TV] is still

positive, so long as the economy is stable and

the advertisers still congregate to television.

Content is still very strong, and I think TV has done

a great job in backing quality content.

But there are cracks. Facebook is projected to

be third largest advertising

sales business in the UK.

You have Google,

ITV, Sky, Channel

4, and it’s going

to be Facebook.

Facebook are

going to be

third. Then there’s

another consolation

player because

Yahoo is

going to be sold. If, as a number of people

believe, AOL is going to consolidate with Yahoo,

that’s another significant player. All of them

have video in their sights. That becomes a very

significant issue for the TV industry because

you’re going to see high CPMs, high prices on

traditional TV and incredibly low prices on digital

TV via devices.

JM: How has your experience influenced your personal development? TT: I always describe it as four phases of learning.

The first phase is that you know that you don’t

know. The second phase is when you know that

you know; that’s normally three years into a job,

you become quite proficient at it. People trust

you with it, and you are a specialist. It’s a great

place to be. Phase three is the trickiest, which is

when you don’t know that you don’t know. That

is normally when specialists get appointed to

become generalists, or you get promoted into

a position that you’re good enough for, or you

move into another area that you’re not capable

of achieving. That phase is the toughest phase

in one’s career. It’s normally in that phase that

you need a skill for bringing people around you

to help you figure it out, and the confidence to

be able to recognise the things that you are not

familiar with. The last phase is probably where

I am – you don’t know what you know! There’s

swirling information that you’ve amassed

and now you walk into a room

and you have to apply

everything that you’ve

learnt before. I think I’ve

managed to amass a

TVBEurope 2020 preview: Tom Toumazis

James McKeown sits down with TVBEurope 2020 keynote Tom Toumazis to discuss the state of the pay-TV market, million-pound charity funds and receiving an MBE. Words by James Groves

Feature30 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

number of different experiences that enable

me to apply that into other industries. It’s often

very interchangeable.

JM: When you look back at the crisis points on a personal level, what would you say have been the most challenging roles?TT:They all have their moments, of course.

Normally, crisis points come when you’re

consolidating. They’re the best and the most

challenging. When I joined Emap is 1997 from

Eurosport, I was appointed to put an advertising

sales team together. We’d done a pretty good

job, and two years later they sent me to Harvard.

Established business – the old world, spent much

more time sharpening and shaping its people. So,

in 1999, I went to Harvard for three months and I

came back and I made a recommendation to

Emap to consolidate its magazine, radio, digital

and TV business under one umbrella, which

was to be known as Emap Advertising. It was

the first time any media group had brought all

that together. So now you’re trying to persuade

your people, your shareholders, your industry to

transform, and that’s very difficult. I think Emap

gave me the most pleasure, and the most

buzz and fun.

JM: Tell us about the foundations of ChildLine TT: I can’t say this was a cunning plan; I stumbled

into it! This is in 2003, I’d begun to think a little

bit about putting some stuff back into the

community. I think there are several levels of life.

One is you look after yourself, then you look after

your family, and then you look after others. I had

done phases one and two. The great people do

all three at the same time. I’m not that great!

I thought that there must be more I could do.

I was working for Disney, and they were very

supportive about getting their executives to do

non-profit work.

I stumbled into ChildLine because I wanted to

run the marathon and I picked up a bond. A lot

of the charities in the UK are given an allocation

of running slots in the marathon for a minimum

pledge. I found out two things: I’m a very slow

runner, but I was able to raise a lot of money! I

felt connected to the charity, and since then

we’ve put together a board of a number of

people in the media and entertainment industry.

We raise £1.2 million to £1.3 million a year across

a number of different events. I spend a lot of time

on it, and I really enjoy it. This year we’ve got the

ChildLine Ball in September, where we hope to

raise £1 million.

JM: You sound like you’re in a position in your life where you’re happy and you’re enjoying what you do on both a professional and philanthropic level TT: I want to keep on working, and one thing that

continues to drive me is curiosity. The moves I’ve

made have tended to be complex, difficult gigs,

but jobs that I’ve always felt I can get something

out of. I very rarely hire people I’ve worked with

before because I love working with new groups.

It’s not that I haven’t done it before, but I don’t

bring this whole crew with me that I’ve worked

with for 20 years. The things that I’m doing now,

and the portfolio approach, is a different skill set

completely. Instead of being prescribed a lot of

things that fill up your day, you’re advising and

guiding, slightly further away from the day-to-

day execution, but you’re trying to influence the

direction of where the business goes, and you’re

trying to use your relationships to get big things

done. I like the idea of helping management

teams deliver on a new idea or a new concept,

and that’s what I think TVBE is doing, LADBible is

doing, and what TagSmart is doing. I’m drawn

to businesses that disrupt, and businesses where I

think I can help.

JM: It was that philanthropy that led you to being awarded an MBE. What was that experience like? TT: It’s around this time last year that a letter

came through the post; a white, plain envelope.

It didn’t give anything away, apart from it said

‘On her Majesty’s Service’. I had no idea it was

coming, no one at the charity had given me

any indication. I ripped it open because I

thought it was junk mail! I have this wonderful

letter, half-ripped, envelope half-destroyed,

and the first sentence is ‘Dear Mr Toumazis, the

Prime Minister would like to nominate you to the

Queen.’ It was incredible. It was announced

in June and I went to Buckingham Palace to

receive the award from Prince Charles, and

it’s an amazing moment in my life, and a very

special one. It’s very humbling when you’re

standing in this wonderful ballroom before you

get your award, and you meet the people who

are also there, from all walks of life, who do some

incredible things. There was a man there who

had gone to Africa to fight Ebola and ended up

contracting it himself.

It’s great to receive it, but you also realise how

much great work is done.

TVBEurope 31June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feature

‘Content is still very strong, and I think TV has done a great job in backing quality

content. But there are cracks’

Tom Toumazis MBE will be providing the keynote address at TVBEurope 2020 on 28 June. Toumazis is chairman of TVbeat and Tagsmart and NED of the LAD Bible Group, chairman and founder of the ChildLine Board, part of the NSPCC and a member of the Charity’s National Volunteer Board. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to children

T he move to IP production is widely

predicated on the idea that audio, video

and data can be split into separate

streams and routed over the internet in various

combinations on reception. Object-based

broadcasting takes that a step further with an

approach that atomises the media on capture

for more effi cient production and the creation of

entirely new content experiences. It’s even got a

new acronym: OBB.

World leader in the concept is BBC R&D,

and the backbone to its research is IP Studio.

It’s a model for end-to-end broadcasting that

will allow a live studio to run entirely on IP

networks, with the infrastructure permitting

exploration into OBB.

“As media production in general moves to IP,

media itself becomes part of the internet

of things,” explains Jon Page, BBC R&D head

of operations.

“A camera is a thing, an archive store is a

thing, so is a vision mixer and they all connected

over IP. IP Studio orchestrates the network so that

real-time collections of objects work as a media

production environment.”

At the heart of IP Studio is the idea that

every piece of video, audio and data is given

a unique identifi er and a timestamp as soon

as it is captured or created. This allows media

to be found and synchronised with the most

appropriate content wherever it is needed.

“The internet works by chopping things up,

sending them over a network and re-assembling

them based on audience preference or device

context,” says Page. “OBB is the idea of making

media work like the internet.”

The fi rst major demonstration of this vision

was at the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Subsequently, OBB research at the BBC has

spun off into all sorts of directions. An IP Studio

installation is being tested at BBC Northern

Ireland, and BBC R&D is working with BBC News

Labs to demonstrate how production objects

can be linked to new journalist tools using a

‘linked data’ approach.

“The idea is to see if new types of content are

possible and to minimise the incremental effort

to get more content produced,” explains Page.

“Instead of laboriously creating multiple different

versions of content as we do now, an object-

based production might be able to output more

content more effi ciently.”

The Squeezebox concept, for example, enables

users to adjust the duration of a news story

using a simple slider control. Using “really simple

machine processing” the application aims

to assist in situations where one might need

to rapidly re-edit content to run to a shorter

or longer length, or need to target multiple

durations from a single edit. “Trying to do

that with fully bespoke editing would be

impractical,” says Page.

There are different levels of object defi nition.

It can include a frame of video, a line from a

script or a piece of data. When created around

story arcs (such as BBC R&D Home Front, which

enabled users to navigate their own way

around a story using text, illustrations and audio,

powered by production data) a ‘theme’ can

be conceived as an object. At a more technical

level, researchers involved in IP Studio talk of a

Feature32 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

Atomised mediaObject-based broadcasting is moving from the labs into production reality. The implications are profound, writes Adrian Pennington

“As media production in general moves to IP, media itself becomes part of the

internet of things” Jon Page, BBC R&D

TVBEurope 33June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feature

fl ow of ‘grains’, and how this granular data

can be made machine operable so that

individual grains can be manipulated in a

production environment.

“The aim now is to link the delivery side

of the IP Studio with the audience experience,”

says Page. The Edinburgh Festival in August

will present an opportunity for BBC teams

to test IP Studio’s capture to audience

presentation capability. Multi-day, multi-site

events like this (and Glastonbury or an Olympics)

are some of the clearest applications for a

workable IP Studio, offering chances for greater

coverage and viewer customisation than were

ever practical before.

The ‘objects-over-IP’ approach is central to

BBC R&D’s vision of a New Broadcasting System,

intended to help the corporation deliver richer,

more customisable experiences for audiences,

across a range of platforms.

The rest of the industry, of course, is only at

the point of trying to fi t IP into existing

infrastructure, and Page admits that IP Studio

itself is at “base camp” in terms of its ascent

to mainstream production.

There are fellow travellers on the road

and, perhaps surprisingly, BT is one of them.

Indeed, BBC R&D is collaborating with BT on

an OBB project funded by the EU programme

Horizon 2020.

“We might investigate the future of media, but

it will only happen if the industry engages to build

it,” says Page. “We can’t afford to build a global

OBB system, but we can encourage others to

explore its potential.”

Dublin-based digital media developer

Axonista has found a way to commercialise OBB

by offering clients a way to introduce interactive

graphical overlays to simulcasts on connected

devices. To an extent, OBB can already be

rendered in HTML5 web browsers, but a fully

fl edged version of the technology may require

consumer electronics manufacturers to

onboard some sort of new OBB readable/

renderable software.

“Some of the more ambitious visions for

rendering different versions of complex drama

starts to require the processing engines you

might associate with PCs or games devices,”

says Page. “We expect this sort of technology,

whether on the device or in the cloud, to move

into the mainstream in a few years time.”

BBC R&D has developed an object-based,

interactive web video player capable of

overlaying HTML5 video for conventional 2D

playback, and WebGL for the 3D elements.

Using this, it created an episode of Box Yourself in

which viewers could learn how to make a three-

dimensional cardboard chicken named Peck.

Researchers believe that this three-

tier framework is ideal for many different

learning applications, ranging from children’s

programmes to DIY instructions for grown-ups, to

even more elaborate guides for the hacker and

maker community.“What we’re doing now is the

sort of thing I’d expect to see on stands at IBC in

2018,” adds Page.

Coming down the track is VR and AR, in

which the individual viewer’s point of view (their

head movement) will interact with the media

and change in space. This creates all sorts of

challenges, but one which BBC R&D has been

working on since developing the 3D virtual

tracking system Pierro, running through its current

work in stitching together 360-degree video, and

now into OBB.

“Either we need to produce multiple different

versions of the same content for this future or

we capture an object once and work out how

to render it,” says Page. “This unlocks some

value but ultimately we need to change the

production methodology. OBB as an ecosystem

that has barely begun.”

“We might investigate the future of media, but it will only happen if the

industry engages to build it”Jon Page

Object-based audio coming soon

Object-based audio is far more advanced than object-based pictures, and will feature in the live broadcasts of premium sports events this year, including Euro 2016.

Dolby says its Atmos system is currently being tested by a number of broadcasters who will introduce it alongside select live events broadcast to their top tier 4K services.

We are talking about two different experiences for object-based audio,” explains Rob France, senior product marketing manager, Dolby. “One is to bring more immersiveness for sports content, such as the sound of the PA and crowd, and the other is around personalisation and giving consumers more choice.”

Broadcasters are apparently keen to give subscribers more choice of, for example, commentary from a neutral or team/fan perspective, different languages, a referee’s

mic, or other sounds from the game.Its system was tested in Telegenic’s T25 scanner

and requires additional ceiling speakers, a plug-in for mixing consoles to monitor sound and a Dolby Digital Plus encoder.

“I expect to see Dolby Atmos live to the home by the end of this year,” said France.

Another system, MPEG-H, which is sponsored by Technicolor and Fraunhofer, is at a similar point of deployment.

One plan is to match the object-based video, which is made possible by multiple camera feeds, with object-based sound. This means that the direction of crowd noise, vehicles and players, traveling from left to right on the screen, for example, can be synced to the on-screen action.

BT investigates OBB

“At the moment it doesn’t matter if you are watching on a 24-inch or 65-inch screen – everyone sees the same content,” says BT head of interactive TV research, Andy Gower. “We are looking at the opportunities that emerge if we treat some of the different parts of the broadcast as separate elements.”

An example: One member of a family might want the leaderboard to display on their tablet rather than the TV, while another is more interested in viewing specifi c split times.“Keeping things separate until they arrive at the viewer’s device, rather than burning them all together, allows us to create a much more fl exible experience,” says Gower. BT Sport plans to make an OBB trial at Silverstone during the MotoGP series in 2017 and reportedly plans to trial an OBB experience for football fans watching a game in bars and clubs.

The satellite industry was, inevitably, out in

full force at this year’s NAB – and, no less

inevitably, its preoccupations reflected

those to be found widely across the show floor.

Like the broadcast world at large, it’s responding

to, and supporting, a continuous evolution

in formats and content types. It’s seeing the

growing fragmentation of audiences and their

preferred viewing devices, and those audiences’

appetite for an optimal entertainment

experience. And, of course, it’s readying itself

for the proliferation of 4K/Ultra HD as the industry

standard, with the added challenge of HDR.

In recognition of the increasingly integral role

satellites play in the broadcast space, NAB 2016

featured the first Satellite Industry Forum. A one-

day programme produced in partnership with

the Satellite Industry Association, the keynote

speech was delivered by Mark D. Dankberg, co-

founder of ViaSat. Intriguingly, one of the topics

under discussion was how satellite 4K could avoid

sharing the same fate as satellite 3D.

Another track discussed the growing demand

from air passengers for the same entertainment

experiences as they can access on the ground.

SES announced that it would be working with

Global Eagle Entertainment to provide further

significant Ku-band capacity “to help usher in

the next generation connected airline passenger

experience across established and developing

markets around the world.”

Blurred linesBack on the show floor, NAB saw Broadpeak

responding to what the company described

as the increasingly blurred lines between the

IPTV, cable and OTT worlds with a raft of new

product announcements. 4K was a focus for

the company, as it was for Hispasat, which was

again demonstrating the UHD capability of its

Hispasat 30W-5 and Amazonas 2 satellites.

Intelsat and Harmonic used the occasion

to announce the expansion of their linear 4K

demonstration channel, HVN Intelsat UHD, to

include the Latin American region via Intelsat

14 located at 315˚ East, an emerging media

platform serving the region.

“As UHD gets closer to becoming mainstream,

there is an increased likelihood that UHD and

HDR technologies will be combined to provide

an optimal immersive viewing experience,”

said Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat’s head of media

product services. “HVN Intelsat UHD will provide

a platform for multi-channel video programming

distributors and cable programmers in the

Americas to test their content, equipment and

workflow for both technologies.”

The company was also talking about what

it would bring to the Rio Games, claiming that

it is the first satellite operator to provide next-

generation high throughput satellite spot beams

to support occasional use at the Olympics. Its Ku-

band spot beams will enable media customers

to gather content from the venues and transport

it back to their facilities, utilising what Intelsat says

are EpicNG’s high power, better economics and

simpler access via smaller terminals.

Easy upgradeOstapiuk also noted that Intelsat is supporting

the demand for IP-based media solutions and

multiscreen delivery, expanding its media

services with IntelsatOne Prism, a multimedia

networking platform and portfolio of managed

services that allows customers to easily upgrade

a legacy satellite-based network to a next-

generation, automated hybrid satellite and

terrestrial converged IP network.

Also focusing on the UHD opportunity was

Eutelsat, which was talking to visitors about its

new satellites for the Americas. Eutelsat 65 West

A went into service at the end of April, providing

high power coverage of Brazil and Latin America

and bringing new capacity to 65° West, which

is already a position of reference for Brazilian

broadcasting. At NAB, the company was

expecting the all-electric Eutelsat 117 West

B satellite to be launched in the next few weeks

to provide coverage of Latin America for DTH

and DTT services.

“The state of play of UHD is one of the big

talking points at NAB,” said Markus Fritz, SVP of

commercial development and marketing for

Eutelsat. “This is of significant interest for Eutelsat

as an early entrant into the UHD market and

an ardent believer in its potential. Satellites are

well placed to be part of the UHD ecosystem

as a unique platform, delivering the bandwidth

and coverage that content producers need to

maximise their audience, and that consumers

also depend on to ensure they are not excluded

from this stepchange in viewing experience.

UHD images filmed with 50 to 60fps need

approximately 30Mbps to deliver a quality

signal. This is a struggle with ADSL, even for short

distances. It’s possible with fibre, although

its limited penetration to urban areas, by

definition, reduces the potential audience of a

premium product.”

In Las Vegas, Globecast was talking about

the expansion of its media management and

playout capabilities with the addition of its VoD

Logistics service.

Taking the headache away“Going far beyond distribution, this involves

taking away the headache of meeting the

complex specifications of all the platforms

from our customers, helping them package

their content with the right metadata, subtitles,

languages and artwork, and deliver it with

guaranteed quality,” said Peter Elvidge, head of

global media management at Globecast.

Feature34 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

“Whether dealing with fast news gathering or fixed high-quality content exchange

applications, broadcast transmission formats are continuously evolving”

Hans Massart, Newtec

New challenges, new opportunities: NAB satellite round-up

There can be little doubt that the role of the satellite industry is becoming increasingly pivotal in the world of broadcast. IanMcMurray reviews what the industry was doing at NAB 2016 to position itself accordingly

TVBEurope 35June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

Feature

“VoD Logistics increases Globecast’s

ability to enhance content providers’

profitability by delivering efficient media

management, distribution, monetisation and

contribution solutions.”

“Although linear remains the dominant format

for content consumption, there’s no doubt

that audiences are becoming increasingly

fragmented,” added Francis Rolland, the

company’s director, satellite and networks

and strategy.

“As a result, we’re seeing greater demand for

OTT services and fibre/IP-based delivery. This is

either a means to augment existing services and

respond to consumer demand, or as a flexible

alternative for a new channel launch or a foray

into a new region.”

According to the company, what sets it apart

is that a broadcaster only has to give it their

content once and Globecast can deliver it to

any platform or region.

The challenges presented by more complex

broadcast workflows, the introduction of new

services, increased user expectations for always-

on connectivity and pressure on efficiency and

effective use of resources were also implicit in

what Newtec was showing at the Las Vegas

Convention Center.

Attendees were able to see a demonstration

of the latest release of Newtec Dialog, which

the company describes as a single scalable

multi-service IP-based platform for MultiService

BroadCast (MSBC) operations. It is based on a

single all-IP transport layer and supports video,

voice, data and broadband services.

Continuously evolving“Whether dealing with fast news gathering

or fixed high-quality content exchange

applications, broadcast transmission formats are

continuously evolving,” explained Hans Massart,

market director broadcast at Newtec.

“Add to this the pressure of getting premium

channels and breaking news on air faster

than ever before and the need to exchange

content in various, sometimes multiple, formats

across different transmission channels,” he

continued, “and it is not surprising that many

broadcasters are looking to upgrade their

existing infrastructures, while keeping in mind

operational efficiencies and increasing cost

pressure on OPEX. Our solution aims to address

this, and automation of end-to-end workflows

over the hybrid networks is the key differentiator

to enable it.”

Newtec was also showcasing a new release

of its DVB-S2X, DVB-S2, DVB-DSNG and DVB-S

M6100 Broadcast Satellite Modulator, as well

as announcing the functionality extension of

its MCX7000 Multi-Carrier Satellite Gateway.

In addition to enabling efficient distribution to

towers and head-ends, the company says that

the MCX7000 can be deployed as a dense

modulation solution: up to four modulators can

be inserted in a single RU, opening the

door, according to Newtec, for DVB-S2X

Channel Bonding.

An uncertain placeThe broadcast industry – and, by implication, the

satellite industry – continues to be an uncertain

place in terms of what the future might hold. How

long before 4K takes over? Is there consumer

appetite for what HDR brings? Will AIMS or ASPEN

prevail – or will they co-exist? Those are just three

of the questions to which the answer is: “We

don’t know, so we need to keep our options

open.” Unsurprisingly, therefore, the watchwords

on the show floor were scalability, flexibility,

upgradability and agility. Reflecting that thinking

was ETL Systems.

The company was showcasing a range of

products for the satellite market, including its

new, compact Hurricane Matrix and the StingRay

RF over fibre links range.

“At ETL, we understand that our products

must evolve with the industry, and we pride

ourselves on our flexibility and ability to respond

quickly to customers’ requirements,” noted

Susan Saadat, VP sales (US) at ETL Systems.

“The RF equipment that ETL supplies, such as

our RF switching matrices, is designed to be

expandable. This means that our kit can be

upgraded as teleport requirements grow, with

system expansion handled seamlessly to ensure

minimum downtime.”

TransitionsAt NAB 2016, it was clear that the satellite

industry was reflecting the transitions currently

taking place in broadcast, and clearly believes

it has a key role to play as it sees terrestrial

networks struggle to keep pace with demand

for streaming linear and on-demand content.

The industry is already undertaking testing to

compare the scalability and reliability of its

offering with the more traditional approach, as

evidenced by another announcement from SES

at the show, where the company said it was

working with the Wireless Information Network

Lab (WINLAB) at Rutgers University’s School of

Engineering to conduct trials.

Satellite companies trying to plot a course

through uncharted waters were certainly in

evidence at NAB 2016 as the broadcast market

redefines itself in response to changing consumer

demands and emerging technologies. But then,

it were ever thus: from that point of view, NAB

2016 was little different to shows past, and NAB

2017 promises to be no less fascinating.

“Satellites are well placed to be part of the UHD ecosystem as a unique platform

delivering the bandwidth and coverage content producers need to maximise

their audience”Markus Fritz, Eutelsat

From left to right: Susan Saadat, ETL Systems; Franis Roland, Globecast; Hans Massart, Newtec; Markus Fritz, Eutelsat; Peter Elvidge, Globecast; and Peter Ostapiuk, Intelsat

36 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

During NAB 2016, Adobe followed an

established show tradition of revealing

the updates to video tools it will be

rolling out later in the year to its Creative Cloud

subscribers. Premiere Pro and Adobe Media

Encoder are set to provide a workfl ow boost

through a new Ingest Settings dialogue. As well

as being able to transcode during ingest, the

applications will be able to copy the media

to a specifi c destination on a system, and let

users begin to start editing while the footage

is copied in the background. Premiere Pro will

automatically switch to working on ingested

media when the process is complete.

Support for more native formats includes 6K

and 8K fi les from Red’s Weapon camera, and a

proxy workfl ow is also enabled for the fi rst time.

Both tools will be able to generate lightweight

proxies on ingest (also while copying to another

destination) and allow editors to switch between

native and proxy formats with one click.

There are also major enhancements to the

Lumetri Colour tools in Premiere Pro. Secondary

colour correction, to adjust and fi ne tune specifi c

colours in a scene based on HSL values, will be

available with editor-friendly controls. Enhanced

Lumetri scopes give instant feedback, with new

control over brightness, improved resolution, and

support for monitoring Rec2020 colour space.

There’s also new support for control surfaces,

which gives Premiere Pro a better seat at the

professional grading table, but this and other

new colour features again call into question the

long-term viability of Adobe Speedgrade.

New VR capabilities include a VR video mode

within Premiere Pro, which allows users to pan,

tilt and click-drag stitched video material in a

full screen preview. Adobe will also introduce

support for equirectangular stitched video

media in this release and the ability to add

metadata to enable full 360-degree playability

on VR channels from Facebook and YouTube.

After Effects users will benefi t from a beefi er

playback engine for video and audio previews

and greater application interactivity. Adobe is

also set to benefi t from support from third parties,

such as project management platform ftrack,

which is to include native integration support for

Creative Cloud versions of Photoshop, Premiere

Pro and After Effects, as well as Bluefi sh444 which

showcased its Advanced 4K Mac OSX driver for

Premiere Pro.

Mettle’s SkyBox 360/VR transitions for Premiere

Pro were also unveiled at NAB. As well as ready-

made transitions such as image-based 360

gradient and iris wipes, the plug-in provides X,Y

start points and direction for VR storytelling.

RE:Vision Effects announced RE:Lens, an

After Effects plug-in offering tools for projection

conversion and lens distortion correction. RE:Lens

straightens curved video captured with wide-

angle and fi sheye lenses, such as fi xing footage

shot on a GoPro in ultra-wide mode. It can also

convert video shot on a superfi sh lens (220-280

degrees) to a LatLong format suitable for VR use,

or convert panoramic VR photos and videos in

LatLong format to normal (rectilinear) viewing,

to enable motion graphics, titles, and CG to be

added. It also reduces chromatic fringing and

other aberrations.

Blackmagic Design continues to push ahead

on all fronts. Unveiled at NAB, DaVinci Resolve

12.5 extends dynamic range support in its

grading tools through a new one-click HDR

mode designed for HDR deliverables such as

Dolby Vision and HDR10. Major enhancements

to the node editor make it possible to quickly

navigate between nodes, swap nodes, copy

node contents, extract nodes, use embedded

alpha channels in mattes, and select multiple

nodes with a lasso to create a compound

node for a grade. There’s also ResolveFX, a new

framework for native GPU and CPU accelerated

effects, while a new single point tracker,

new temperature and tint sliders add to the

fi nishing workfl ow.

Taking a lead from Adobe’s roundtrip

workfl ow, Resolve 12.5 now also includes a

direct live link called Fusion Connect, which

lets artists send clips to Blackmagic’s Fusion VFX

and compositing application, then have these

updated automatically in their Resolve timeline.

There’s been a lot of talk about GPU

acceleration of late, and the benefi ts for post

were being pushed at NAB by SGO, which

announced support in Mistika 8.7 and Mamba

FX for the new Nvidia Quadro M6000 24GB to

handle large, complex fi les. It will come in handy

for Mistika’s new VR fi nishing environment, which

automatically handles projection mapping

of equirectangular content to a 360-degree

image-processing and fi nishing engine. Shapes,

texts and composites can automatically warp

and track across spherical projection seams

and poles, while the operator can control the

spherical VR viewing port with a grading panel

tracking-ball, a newly developed GUI control or

with a VR device gyroscope.

Mistika 8.7 also introduced architecture that

gives colourists and compositors access to the

same keying tools, including Mistika’s new 3D

Keyer point-keying system. Further updates to

the keying systems allow for HDR keying levels,

part of a new ‘fourth ball’ system for grading

‘There’s been a lot of talk about GPU acceleration of late, and the benefi ts for

post were being pushed at NAB by SGO’

Post Production

Virtual vision dominates NABThere may have been fewer cameras than usual, but as expected, this year’s NAB saw the VR buzz increase and HDR settle more comfortably into the mainstream. Michael Burns reports

Post ProductionTVBEurope 37June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

HDR projects. Mistika’s Unicolour technology

allows users to transfer between source, grading

and delivery colour spaces including linear light,

SMTPE 2084, Hybrid Log Gamma, and ACES.

Iray, Nvidia’s physically based rendering

solution, is already available for Autodesk’s 3ds

Max and Maya, but NAB saw the release of

an Iray plug-in for Maxon’s Cinema 4D. With a

‘live’ rendering capability, the plug-in provides

immediate visual feedback when lighting and

designing a scene.

Not to be outdone, AMD launched the FirePro

W9100 32GB at NAB, offering 32GB memory

support for large asset workflows within creative

applications. AMD also introduced the AMD

FireRender plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max, aimed

at VR and enhanced 4K workflows and offering

photorealistic rendering functionality.

Avid is aiming to take advantage of all this

increased media use with its Nexis virtualised

storage platform, also launched at NAB. Aimed

at providing scalable shared storage from 20TB

up to 1.4PB, Nexis offers a software-defined

storage architecture that allows capacity and

bandwidth to be ‘elastically’ adapted as needs

change. Avid said its Nexis|Pro solution would

provide an upgrade path for Isis|1000 customers

and will allow real-time editorial collaboration

between up to 24 editors and other creatives,

supporting Media Composer, Premiere Pro, Apple

Final Cut Pro X, Grass Valley Edius, or Pro Tools, as

well as third-party MAM systems.

Also new for NAB was the G-Rack 12 from

G-Technology, networked attached storage

that incorporates a proprietary operating

system with BTRfs file system and an easy-to-use

graphical interface. The 12-bay, expandable

NAS unit incorporates enterprise hard drives

and is available in 48TB, 72TB, 96TB, and 120TB

storage capacities. It utilises quad 10Gb Ethernet

connections for high-speed data transfers, with

an expansion chassis available for expanding up

to another 120TB of storage.

Still on the storage front, Facilis was showing

off 32Gbps fibre channel connectivity and

12Gbps SAS SSD hardware incorporated within its

TerraBlock products, able to comfortably handle

4K+ HFR media, claimed the company.

2016 will see an even greater commitment from TVBEurope to cover more of the pressing areas of concern, challenge, and opportunity within our burgeoning marketplace. The biggest change for this year will be the introduction of new sections to enable us to provide greater coverage to specific business areas. Our Workflow section will now be divided into two new sections: Production, and Post Production. We will also be introducing a new Business section to follow the increasing acquisition and investment activity permeating the sector, and are also introducing a dedicated Audio section to bring regular insights and updates from an often overlooked strand of our industry. These new sections will be manned by a team of section editors.

Issue Exhibitions present at Feature Editorial Close date Advertising close date

July • OTT feature 10th June 3rd June

• Automation and playout

• RIO 2016 Olympic production feature:

August • IBC thought leadership insight and 12th July 5th July

product preview

September • IBC • IBC 2016 Show issue: thought leadership 19th August 12th Augustinsight and product showcase

October •TVBAwards • Audio for broadcast 23rd September 16th September• IBC Best of Show Winners• IP technology

November • Post-IBC acquisition focus 21st October 13th October• Remote production

EDITORIAL PLANNER 2016

EuropePeter McCarthy:+44 (0) 20 7354 6000 pmccarthy@nbmedia.com

Richard Carr: +44 (0) 20 7354 6000rcarr@nbmedia.com

Nicola Pett+44 (0) 20 7354 6000npett@nbmedia.com

USA Mike Mitchell+1 631 673 0072 mjmitchell@broadcast-media.tv

For all advertising and sponsorship opportunities, contact the sales team:

BBC S&PP rebrands

BBC Studios and Post Production has rebranded as BBC Studioworks. The commercial subsidiary of the BBC gets a new visual identity, an enhanced website and refreshed strategic priorities and brand direction.

David Conway, managing director of BBC Studioworks, said, “Quite some time ago we moved away from acting simply as a facilities and crewing provider. Productions now expect us to be a value-adding, fully collaborative partner who understands their vision and is able to bring it to life. We discovered that our customers like working with us because of our ‘make it happen’ attitude, so we have made this concept central to our brand. From implementing 24-hour post production work flows to accommodating a rotating climbing wall in studio, we can cite countless examples of how we have worked with productions to make impossible things, possible.”

BBC Studioworks is on track to expand its operations when it reintroduces Television Centre studios one, two and three, to the market in Spring 2017. The BBC subsidiary said the revamped site would complement its offering in Elstree and provide customers with a greater choice of studio and post production space.

Audio

Alittle less than six months

since its formation was

announced, AIMS already

has the appearance of being a

major industry player. Established to

promote the adoption of standards

that facilitate the shift from legacy

SDI systems to IP-based operations,

among them VSF TR-03 and TR-

04, SMPTE 2022-6 and AES67, the

organisation has grown rapidly in

both stature and size. At the time of

writing, it has 21 full members listed

on its website, from leading vendors

such as Grass Valley, Evertz, Lawo

and Sony, to content producers

including 21st Century Fox, as well

as 11 associate members.

The vision outlined by chairman

Michael Cronk (who is also vice

president of core technology

at Grass Valley) is one of an

organisation that “sits beneath”

other industry groups in supporting

what is surely one of the most

signifi cant transitions broadcasters

have faced, and which also zeroes

in on the reasons for, and benefi ts

of, audio vendor involvement.

AIMS enjoyed a high profi le

at NAB, so how would you

characterise its progress?

In less than half a year we have

gathered more than 30 members,

including some of the main

vendors in the industry, as well as

broadcasters, service providers

and systems integrators; so on a

membership level, the progress

made has been fantastic. I think the

project has assisted in generating

momentum for a standards-based

approach; I am sure it was latent in

the industry [previously], but AIMS

has helped bring it to the forefront.

Do you think the main objectives

of AIMS have been communicated

successfully to the whole industry?

I think the goals we have

are clear, but with anything like

this there is a constant need to

communicate. There are a great

number of organisations out there,

such as the VSF, EBU, SMPTE, and it

is entirely logical for people to ask

what roles they have, and whether

they are competing with each

other or working together. Hence,

at NAB we had a press conference

with multiple organisations, and we

have done – and will continue to do

– a lot of communication about the

fact that there is a synergistic type

of relationship [between the various

groups]. There is a common goal

and that is interoperability.

One thing I would stress is that

there is still a lot of confusion around

the issue of ‘what is a standard’;

there is a tendency for people to

throw that word around a lot. So

education is a key thing in that

regard and it’s a job that is never

really done.

It can be argued that audio

is somewhat further down the

road when it comes to IP, and

it is a sector in which there are

already plenty of organisations

supporting the transition, so what

are the benefi ts of joining AIMS for

companies in that space?

In some ways, audio leads video

in terms of the adoption of various

technologies [and as a result] there

is a lot the broadcast world can

learn from the audio community.

At the moment, we see that the

broadcast community is adopting

AES67, and one of the aspects we

are working on is determining which

are the right operating points in the

broadcast workfl ow within AES67.

It should be noted, though, that

there are things that AES67 does

not cover, for example, discovery

and registration, so there are several

pieces of the puzzle that will need

to be addressed.

But you defi nitely see AES67 as

being a crucial component of

broadcast’s overall IP future?

Absolutely; it is written in stone

in our roadmap. Of course we

are also supporting the adoption

of SMPTE 2022-6, which talks

about a rasterisation of SDI; SDI

has embedded audio. One of

our key priorities will be to work

with the standards bodies to talk

38 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

‘There is still a lot of confusion around the issue of ‘what is a standard’; there is a tendency for people to throw that

word around a lot’

Learning from the audio communityThe rapid rise of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) was one of the major stories of NAB 2016. Chairman Michael Cronk updates DavidDavies on the Alliance’s recent progress and ponders the specifi c implications for audio professionals

Michael Cronk, chairman, AIMS; vice president, core technology, Grass Valley

Details continue to emerge

of broadcasters’ audio

plans for coverage of this

year’s Olympic Games in Brazil, with

NBC Sports Group NBC Olympics

proving particularly forthcoming

about its infrastructure.

Among those vendors whose

equipment will see heavy usage

over the summer months are:

RTS, which is providing broadcast

intercom products; Linear Acoustic,

whose UPMAX v4 units have

been chosen for audio upmixing;

Tektronix, which is supplying

audio and video test and quality

monitoring equipment; and

Audio-Technica, which is providing

microphones, broadcast headsets

and monitor headphones.

Console giant Calrec will also

have a notable presence as part

of the NBC set-up, with no fewer

than four Artemis and three Summa

desks supplied to provide full audio

mixes for the coverage. Specifi c

deployments include three 40-fader

Artemis consoles to be stationed at

NBC fl y-pack venues for coverage

of sports including basketball,

cycling, triathlon and diving.

In addition, Calrec is supplying 26

I/O boxes, yielding a comprehensive

and fully redundant Hydra2 network

to provide signal management and

full control across MADI and Dante.

Lawo will also be well represented

in the NBC audio facilities thanks to

the selection of the manufacturer’s

VSM Broadcast Control and

Monitoring solution.

VSM will be the overall control

system for NBC Olympics’ core

routing and tally management,

connecting to multiple third party

devices on an IP backbone and

utilising 80 LBP and 80 GUI-based

VSM panels.

AudioTVBEurope 39June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

about how we work, not just with

uncompressed audio, but also how

we deal with compressed audio

within the IP domain.

We are very fortunate that we

already have three members with

strong audio heritages – Lawo, the

Telos Alliance and Avid – although

of course we welcome more to join!

Finally, the million-dollar question.

With NAB awash with IP-based

solutions, and momentum behind

the transition seeming to grow all

the time, how long do you think

it will be before we can write the

obituary for SDI?

That’s a long way off yet. Just look

at the move from SD to HD and how

long that took, and the fact that

there is still plenty of SD usage. The

same can be said of analogue. The

nature of the industry is that people

have to invest a lot of capital and

expect that investment to turn

around. They have to go through

a lot of investment cycles before

they can be said to have refreshed

everything [in their technological

infrastructure]. I think it will be a long

time before SDI disappears, and I

am sure in ten years’ time you will

be able to walk into most facilities

and fi nd SDI there somewhere.

In the meantime, there is a

great deal that we can do to

promote the benefi ts of IP for users

– notably agility, fl exibility, cable

reduction and remote production

opportunities – as well as the new

business opportunities that it opens

up for the industry.

NBC is audio-ready for Rio

News update

Gold Medalist Laura Valette of France competes in the women’s 100m hurdle fi nal at the Nanjing 2014 Olympic Games in China’s Jiangsu Province, 23 August 2014. (Xinhua/Liao Yujie)

IBC2016 Conference: Transformation in the Digital Era

#IBCShow

Conference 8 – 12 September : Exhibition 9 – 13 SeptemberRAI, Amsterdam

Leadership, strategy and creativity in media and entertainment

Reimagined for 2016, don’t miss 300+ thought-leading speakers exploring a new era of consumers, data and technology

Register Now! Save on early bird prices before 15 July!IBC.org/register

IBC.org/register

Content and Production

Challenging the Latest Trends

Platform Futures

Exploring the Age of Consumer Choice

Business Transformations

Implementing New Technology

Advances in Technology

Charting the Course of Emerging Technology

Audiences and Advertising

Winning the Viewer with Analytics, Engagement and

Monetisation

Big Screen Experience

Mapping Out the Future of Cinema

Data CentreTVBEurope 41June 2016 www.tvbeurope.com

T here will be one billion pay-TV connections

worldwide at the end of 2016, taking total

household penetration to 50 per cent,

according to the latest pay-TV forecast from

Pyramid Research.

In absolute terms, the Asia Pacific region will

be the biggest contributor, providing 62 per cent

of new pay-TV subscriptions worldwide, while

Africa and the Middle East will emerge as the

fastest-growing region, with pay-TV subscriptions

expanding at double-digit levels (12 per cent) to

58 million at year end.

Growth in Latin America will slow to 5.2 per cent,

reflecting the challenging economic conditions

in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. Meanwhile,

Central, Eastern, and Western Europe will expand

below the global average as their pay-TV markets

reach higher levels of maturity, and traditional

pay-TV offerings enter into greater competition

with global OTT video platforms such as Netflix.

The streaming service launched in Spain,

Italy and Portugal in late 2015 and is expected

in Central and Eastern Europe during 2016. This

trend has already been observed in the US, where

we expect the number of pay-TV subscribers to

decline by nearly one per cent in 2016. We do

not expect, however, that the increasing uptake

of OTT services in Western, Central and Eastern

Europe will translate into disconnections: the ‘cord

cutting’ phenomenon will be, for now, confined to

the US market.

IPTV will be the fastest-growing pay-TV technology

in 2016, well ahead of DTH satellite and cable; the

number of paid-for IPTV subscriptions will expand

by 14 per cent, reaching 167 million worldwide.

Nevertheless, at a global level, the total weight of

IPTV connections will remain small, at just 15 per

cent of total pay-TV subscriptions.

Asia Pacific will continue to be the largest IPTV

market, as it concentrates nearly 52 per cent of

the IPTV subscriptions worldwide. In relative terms,

however, Western Europe will be the region where

IPTV experiences the strongest uptake.

In 2015, IPTV overtook cable as the most

popular pay-TV technology and we expect

it will account for 36 per cent of all the pay-

TV connections in the region by year-end

2016. Growth has been mainly driven by IPTV

connections sold as part of fibre-based triple-

and quad-play bundles. This trend has been

particularly strong in countries like France and

Spain, where, over the last several years, telecom

operators such as Orange and Telefónica have

been aggressively investing in FTTH/B rollouts.

In these two countries, IPTV subscriptions are

expected to account for 77 per cent and 57 per

cent of the total pay-TV subscriptions respectively

by the end of 2016.

The rapid advance of IPTV technology in

Western Europe is taking its toll over DTH/satellite,

with subscriber growth slowing down from two

per cent in 2015 to just below one per cent,

projected for 2016.

Cable technology has also been affected by

the popularisation of IPTV technology, although in

a less intense way as, like telcos, cable operators’

growth strategies also rely strongly on the

promotion of multi-play service bundles.

IPTV leadspay-TV race in 2016

2%

29%

33%36%

IPTV DTT MMDS/LMDS DTH/satellite Cable

PAY-TV SUBSCRIPTIONSBY TECHNOLOGY, WESTERN EUROPE, 2016

PAY-TV SUBSCRIPTIONSBY TECHNOLOGY, 2015-2020

Source: Pyramid Research

1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

Sub

scrip

tion

(b

illio

ns)

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Cable

DTH/satellite

DTT/DVB-T

IPTV

‘In 2016 the number of paid-for IPTV subscriptions will expand by

14 per cent’

Anaemic growth in traditional telecoms service lines is expected in 2016, with internet, technology and IT firms continuing to be a disruptive force, writes Eulalia Marín-Sorribes, senior analyst at Pyramid Research

Data Centre42 TVBEurope www.tvbeurope.com June 2016

T he battle for the hearts of pay-TV

subscribers is in full swing. In almost every

region, the number of subscription-based

pay-TV services across cable, satellite and

recently via OTT delivery has increased tenfold

in the last decade. Amid this competitive

landscape, high rates of churn are forcing

operators to dramatically rethink their approach

to subscriber management.

In March 2016, Paywizard commissioned research

experts Decipher to conduct nine focus groups

in the UK and US to explore consumer attitudes

to subscription video on-demand (SVoD) services

and what factors affect their propensity to churn

or stay loyal. Among the learnings that surfaced

were two standout fi ndings. Firstly, consumers

see SVoD services as entertainment to dip in

and out of, and desire the ability to easily leave

and come back when the time suits. Secondly,

customer service and experience are emerging

as new and powerful differentiators between

pay-TV services, since this superior treatment

and level of support is vital for tempting back

subscribers and keeping them loyal.

Since high rates of churn are forcing operators

to increase the volume of new subscribers to

generate a longer term and stable subscriber

community, providing a great customer

experience from the early moments is critical.

The research unearthed a number of key factors

which infl uence consumers’ decisions to sign

up, many of which are necessitated by a

proactive, transparent and fl exible approach

to customer service.

Pay-OTT excites the eyes and the walletThere was a high level of general interest in pay-

OTT as a new, exciting way of viewing content.

For many, however, SVoD in particular was part

of a desire to fi nd a cheaper option to bundled

content packaging from pay-TV providers. It

was clear that word of mouth about a particular

programme such as House of Cards and

Breaking Bad often drove the user to investigate

the service and join. However, it was equally

striking that the overall consumer experience was

important in selecting and staying with services.

Offers and deals are a necessity Many of the groups had received enticement

from an online offer; Amazon was mentioned

frequently for offering deals to join its Prime

service. A trial period was perceived as a vital

component, as it allows the user to experience

the content range fi rst hand. It was felt to remove

the barriers to entry by a signifi cant margin,

and many respondents commented that they

would not have joined their service had a trial

not been available.

New subscribers value on-boarding assistanceMany commented that SVoD services could

do more in their initial engagement efforts to

acquaint new subscribers with the service. As

one recent ‘package changer’ commented: “I

had no help when I initially subscribed to Netfl ix,

but then I found out that the US version takes you

through a whole orientation and helps you refi ne

your interests for the recommendations. That’s a

great starting point.”

Honesty and transparencyProspective joiners valued honesty and

transparency, right from their initial investigation

of a service. Prospective joiners expressed

concern for one SVoD service’s pricing being

phrased as ‘from £6.99’, and were more trusting

of packaging options that contained clarity on

pricing impact. People expected simple pricing

tiers, with a clear account of what each option

gives you. Flat-rate pricing, with no prospect of

hidden charges, was mentioned often.

Sign-up should be simple Joiners expected registration to take only ‘a

couple of minutes’, and shouldn’t require

excessive information to be entered. Payment

options should include credit card, direct debit

and online services such as Paypal.

FlexibilityServices were praised for having monthly

non-contract billing. Flexibility without contract

‘lock-in’ was seen as reassuring, with Netfl ix

seen as a good example. Amazon Prime raised

some concern for requiring an upfront year-long

payment. Some questioned this, as it raised

doubts about the ease of cancelling.

AccessibilityThere was an expectation for the service to be

highly accessible and supportive of a variety of

hardware, and the TV was seen as an important

device for support. As one subscriber mentioned,

“I tend to watch Sky in the front room on the big

TV and Netfl ix in bed on my tablet.” The research

highlights how customer service and experience

can help defi ne the difference between a

struggling challenger and a fl ourishing TV service

provider. Consumers are hailing efforts from

providers like Netfl ix, which is enhancing its

support services to build trust from the word go.

Looking at great brands beyond the TV world

like Apple, Virgin, Tencent, and Google, the

key unifying factor is that they attempt to

understand their customers and respond in a

way that works within the constraints of their

respective markets. This ethos is fundamental

for operators who want to create and maintain

loyalty from their audience.

Rethinking subscriber managementBy Bhavesh Vaghela, chief marketing offi cer at Paywizard

‘Providing a great customer experience from the early moments is critical

for operators’

There are eight critical decision moments when consumers interact with a TV service. How a service provider shows up, behaves and responds at each decision moment significantly influences the consumer’s decision to subscribe or continue to subscribe

A joint venture partnership of

See you again next year in Amsterdam.