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At NAB this year, it was striking to see how many companies have taken advantage of GPU compute to improve the performance of their applications. Video, rendering, imaging, and effects are all tasks that can benefit from the parallelism of GPU compute. Nvidia’s CUDA and OpenGL have been around for a long time, but we’re also seeing the first of the OpenCL applications coming online.
There’s plenty of talk about “editing in the cloud,” and the common catchphrase I’ve heard is, “You could replace your microwave truck with a Starbucks.” In other words, cloud-enabled devices will let you edit anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. There were three companies at the show with viable cloud solutions for post and news: Avid, Quantel and Aframe.
NAB 2012 closed its doors two weeks ago, so it’s a good time to draw an appraisal on various themes concerning OTT issues, and especially premium OTT issues, that have been handled through industry technology offer during the tradeshow. Here we’ll go from production to distribution and examine the salient NAB facts and products, at least the ones which have a potential influence on OTT workflows evolution in the coming months (or years ?).
Technical executives of broadcast organisations from around the world have joined the global Future of Broadcast Television Initiative. This represents a laudable effort to define the requirements for future global terrestrial television standards, but it currently lacks representation from other fields of telecommunications and information technology. The vision is there but it needs to be part of a bigger picture. Announced at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, the founding organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding that builds on the Future of Broadcast TV Summit held in Shanghai in November 2011, with a declaration on 11/11/11 that established a framework for cooperation to chart the future course of terrestrial television broadcasting. SEE WEBSITE : http://www.nercdtv.org/fobtv2012/index.html
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) released a new MXF Commercial Delivery specification, AS-12, on the opening day of the 2012 NAB Show conference program, April 14. The constrained version of MXF has been developed to enable more efficient handling of commercials through the many transactional and media processing operations between conception and air. As broadcasters look to serve commercials to long tail delivery platforms as well as their primary channels, controlling costs is important. Many versions may exist of the same commercial, adding confusion to the traffic operations. Versions may be sourced from different distribution routes, arriving with different wrappers and codecs, as well as different aspect ratios. MXF Commercial Delivery aims to solve two problems: unique identification, and defining a master spot for the creation of long-tail versions.
I suspected that this year's show wouldn't be as overloaded with new product as last year because most of the major players have already rolled out the flagships that will carry them for the next few years. I found this to be somewhat the case but not entirely as there were definitely a handful of "show stoppers" on display. The emphasis this year seemed to be much less on new, groundbreaking wares and more "this is what we're working with now, and here's how we can do it better." While NAB is in many ways a portal of things to come, this year there were far fewer 3D announcements and a lot more emphasis on 4K which is evident in the current market as well. 3D has struggled to gain much, if any, traction outside of theatrical content and the resolution war is heating up now that all the major manufacturers are, or will be (IBC is next), intro-ing cameras offering greater than HD resolution. This is interesting because it's really not much different than the megapixel war with consumer digital cameras. Resolution while incredibly important is still relative to optics, image processing, presentation, and many other factors. Bigger isn't necessarily better though it's obviously a huge marketing opportunity for these vendors.
Apparently, the folks at Dolby Laboratories are no longer content with scaring the bejesus out of moviegoers by simply funneling those horrific audio cues from today's standard theater setup. Instead, the mad audio scientists claim they can recreate a more lifelike and sensory audio experience by pushing sound from even more directions -- a feat made possible by the company's new Dolby Atmos technology. By leveraging up to 64 speaker feeds and 128 simultaneous audio inputs, for example, Dolby says it would be possible to more accurately recreate the sound of creepy footsteps coming from the floorboards of a higher floor.
Another NAB show has come and gone and most all broadcasting professionals are back home, snuggled into their edit suites, camera storage rooms and executive offices dreaming of all that cool gear we got to play with that is not yet shipping. There’s always a ton of gear that is announced and demonstrated that won’t be shipping for months (or maybe even years) to come. Some of them even win awards. I usually like to wrap up the really big show with a list of winners and losers for the NAB that has just passed … at least, I like to do that for the more post-production-centric toys and services we see mainly in the South Hall. But this year will be a bit different.
Tektronix demonstrated an automated audio loudness correction solution combined with the Tektronix Cerify automated file-based quality control platform. By incorporating proven audio loudness correction technology used in the Dolby DP600 (pictured), the demonstration showcased how Cerify is able to automatically correct audio content in real time.
MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) picked up steam last week when Microsoft publicly backed the standard. Specifically, the company blogged that, later this year, Windows Azure Media Services and certain client development kits will support MPEG-DASH as part of what it calls an industry-wide effort to "establish reliable video delivery to Internet-connected devices". While HTTP streaming has emerged as the approach of choice for addressing growth in Internet video and for delivering content to multiple devices, three competing solutions —Microsoft's Smooth Streaming, Adobe's HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) and Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) — have fragmented the market, making it more expensive and complicated to meet consumer demand.
Dolby Laboratories has launched a new development kit based on the MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH) standard which it believes will enable its partners to deliver high-quality audio for HD streaming. Dolby technology has already been selected by leading online video services including Netflix, HBO Go, Vudu, Best Buy CinemaNow, Samsung Acetrax, Dixons KnowHow Movies, Voddler, Apple iTunes, and Amazon Instant Video. The new development kit will enable current and future partners, such as encoder vendors and digital rights management (DRM) vendors, to implement and test Dolby Digital Plusfor products and services in the online video ecosystem. It includes test vectors as well as specifications that describe how Dolby Digital Plus can be signalled and transported within a multiscreen, connected home environment.
Once upon a time there was a small Australian company that made capture cards, I/O and monitoring devices, routers and converter boxes. But when Blackmagic Design purchased DaVinci three years ago and subsequently rolled out both a hardware-enhanced and software-only version of Resolve, the company made clear it was not afraid to jump into completely new product categories, upending expectations as it went. It has since been in both acquisition (Teranex) and development mode (USB 3.0, Thunderbolt). And on Monday, Blackmagic took another Evel Knievel leap and introduced the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera, a 2.5K/1080HD camcorder that records uncompressed RAW, ProRes and DNxHD and features a built-in SSD recorder. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Neither did we.
San Francisco has a largely unknown place in the history of television. Back in 1927, on Green Street in the city, Philo Farnsworth had patented a method for showing moving pictures wirelessly. As a lone inventor, he was up against RCA, Westinghouse and Marconi. Each TV broadcaster at the time required a custom TV set to receive their signals. If you wanted to watch certain channels, you had to buy a set compatible with just those channels. Skip forward ten years. Farnsworth prevailed in a decade-long legal battle with RCA but was never able to capitalize on his remarkable inventions (of which TV was just one of more than 300 patents issued). The broadcast signals were still incompatible. Reason prevailed finally in 1941 with the establishment of the NTSC standard, which harmonized all the broadcast formats at the time. NTSC was the foundation on which America's broadcasting industry and the behomoths of ABC, CBS, and NBC were built. Today, with streaming media, we find ourselves back in 1927. There are three main adaptive segmented formats - Apple's HLS, Microsoft's Smooth Streaming and Adobe's Dynamic Streaming. They are 80% the same, yet 100% incompatible. To view HLS, you must have a player for that format. For HDS, another player and for SmoothHD, a third. This fractured delivery space forces encoders, delivery networks and client players to spread their development efforts across all these formats, forgoing optimizations that could be achieved by converging around a single format. There is now a new streaming format on the block - MPEG-DASH. Not another format you moan - won't that make things worse? Perhaps not. DASH is different.
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As expected, hardware and software tools for CALM Act loudness compliance were at the fore at this year’s NAB Show. But the audio buzzword of the show was MADI: the AES10 standard, introduced in 1991 and updated in 2003, has become increasingly popular in broadcast audio products over recent years.
As the dust has finally settled from NAB, I’d like to reflect on the key themes we saw from this year’s show : - multi-network, multi-screen video services have continued to serve as “must have” features - Multi-screen security was quite the hot topic - Standards MPEG-DASH, UltraViolet & HTML 5 have made great strides in simplifying life - Future-proofing your network has never been more important in a multi-DRM world.
BBC R&D and Xilinx, Inc. have demonstrated a prototype camera-back device (Stagebox) at the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) that enables the transport of professional quality video over internet protocol (IP)-based networks. The BBC R&D Stagebox can be attached to the back of any broadcast-quality camera. Due to the integration of more system functionality onto a Xilinx field programmable gate array (FPGA), expensive and cumbersome SDI/audio/talkback and ancillary cabling can be replaced with a single network cable (fiber or Cat6). The small form factor device effectively expands the reach of video networks to remote production sites and studios using IP networks.
This year’s conference and exhibits, more than any to date, reflected a broadcast-technology universe beholden to the Big Bang Theory: expanding in nearly limitless directions simultaneously, meeting the needs of everyone from action-sports producers with smaller budgets (with offerings like the GoPro POV camera and developments from Newtek) to those looking to develop a technology roadmap for the next multimillion-dollar production-facility upgrade. There was definitely a hot new technology at the center of the action: 4K. There was definitely a not-so-hot technology that made gains in production efficiency to guarantee that it will one day be a market reality: 3D. And then there was the hot gossip, as the professional marketplace’s frustration with Apple Final Cut Pro X seems destined to make Final Cut Pro a thing of the past sooner rather than later. And, finally, there was a continued evolution among nearly all product developers to offer more–cost-effective HD-based systems that rely more on software development and less on hardware development. For NAB Show attendees, the end result could mean the ability to upgrade facilities much more easily in the future because there will be less need to replace hardware and cabling infrastructure.
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade group that advocates on behalf of the nation’s radio and television broadcasters. According to their mission statement: NAB advances the interests of their members in federal government, industry and public affairs; improves the quality and profitability of broadcasting; and encourages content and technology innovation. Each April a large convention is held (for decades now it’s been held exclusively in Las Vegas) where scientific papers are presented on new technology, as well as most of the vendors that serve this sector demonstrate their products and services on the convention floor. It’s changed considerably over the years – originally the focus was almost exclusively radio and tv broadcast, now it has expanded to cover many aspects of production and post-production, with big software companies making a presence in addition to manufacturers of tv transmission towers… While Sony (professional video cameras) and Grass Valley (high end professional broadcast electronics) still have large booths, now we also have Adobe, Microsoft and AutoDesk. This show is a bit like CES (Consumer Electronic Show) – but for professionals. This is where the latest, coolest, and most up-to-date technology is found each year for this industry.
FUJIFILM Recording Media U.S.A., Inc. announced at the 2012 National Association of Broadcasters Show inLas Vegas,Nevada, the introduction of their Permivault cloud based storage service. Permivault provides both on-premise and off-site solutions for long-term active archiving and disaster recovery. Fujifilm created the Permivault service to help customers faced with the growing explosion of content and data. These customers demand a reliable, cost-effective storage solution that is secure, scalable, and always accessible online. Permivault cloud storage service provides a secure storage architecture powered by StrongBox from Crossroads Systems, Inc. StrongBox is the first enterprise-level storage solution that leverages Linear Tape File System (LTFS) technology, featuring the unparalleled scalability and economy of tape with the speed and accessibility of disk. “Through the innovative combination of disk and tape within StrongBox, customers using Permivault gain uncompromising access to their content in an affordable, online active archive,” said Rob Sims, CEO, Crossroads Systems.
RelayCaster server appliances offer a turn-key solution that enables optimized transmission of IPTV streams. By using the RelayCaster Streaming Protocol (RSP), reliability and data rates of streaming live content along lossy long distance links, such as the public Internet, can be greatly improved. Having proven its value for live distribution of streams between data centers, Motama's RSP has now taken the next step: At NAB, Motama will introduce the first deployment of the protocol on Broadcom-based set-top boxes. As a first reference, products from CIMA distributed by See-IP.tv will be demonstrated, in particular IP300 for operators and IND300 for Digital Signage and TV in public places. Compared to streaming with UDP or RTP, Motama's RSP greatly reduces packet loss and thereby significantly increased the Quality of Experience for end-users. Compared to streaming with TCP or higher-level protocols, such as HTTP, much higher bandwidths can be achieved with Motama's RSP - in particular when streaming over lossy links.
Brevity announced at the NAB convention today V3, a technology that delivers simultaneous transcoding and accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network. V3 delivers its transport capabilities through a Web-based enterprise video management solution that utilizes automated project-driven workflows, advanced algorithms, virtual storage, Web-based interfaces, and teraflops of computing power. The technology moves securely encrypted files over Internet, fiber, or data satellite up to 30 times faster than otherwise possible, while maintaining high quality resolution and support for leading industry codecs and formats such as Avid DNxHD, EVS MXF, Final Cut Pro, Sony camera formats, and others. Brevity says that V3 has been tested successfully on uncompressed, high bit rate video, 2k and 4k DPX files, as well as on compressed HD and SD files.
KIT Digital unveiled its new social TV solution, the KIT Social Program Guide (KIT SPG), at NAB last week. The KIT SPG integrates users’ social networks with their service provider’s EPG, allowing viewers to enjoy a full range of social TV functions, as well as change the channel, through a single interface. The solution, which has been built with the first and second screen in mind, also boasts support for cloud-based DVR functionality, VOD store integration and multiple e-commerce models and ad serving for advanced content monetization.
Ever since I saw the 3rd-generation iPad (2012), I began to have visions of its use for video journalism. Many of ProVideo Coalition magazine readers sent me private enthusiastic comments about my pre-NAB iPad articles like Avid now lets you edit video on your iPad for US$4.99. Should you?, Why an iPad is like a 4×5 view camera, and why you’ll need a black “focusing cloth” and later part 1 of my review called 1st handheld dynamic microphones with hybrid XLR/USB/iPad connectivity from Audio Technica. While I was translating/localizing brochures for Avid Latin America just before NAB 2012, I became aware that they were going to launch iNews Command for iPad. On the NAB 2012 floor, I saw several iPad video journalists. Ahead you’ll find several photos, a few videos, and comments about various iPad video accessories.
Over a decade ago, Lost Remote was the first blog to cover the National Association of Broadcasters convention — a huge showcase of television technology in Las Vegas — about how the internet was changing the business. This year, we returned to NAB to see how social TV is impacting production, from tech to workflow. Like the late 90s with the internet, it’s still early, but social TV is beginning to make inroads. “There are so many technology providers here, and the interest in social TV is disproportionate to the innovation,” said Sam Decker, CEO of Mass Relevance. “It’s such a small part of all the real estate and discussions that are happening.” But he said he sees the technical crowd beginning to react to demands from producers who want more social functionality in the production process. One of the biggest trends is focused on making it easy for producers to integrate social content on-air. Until now, displaying a tweet or a poll has been extremely labor-intensive (put poll on website, tease website from on-air, refresh poll results, create graphic of results, write them into script, drop it into the rundown.) But new partnerships are automating the entire process, tying it to social curation and the second screen.
Haivision says its new HyperStream Internet media services portfolio simplifies and automates media distribution through cloud transcoding and CDN connectivity for OTT delivery of high quality, adaptive live HD content. Available as both a user-controlled software as a service (SaaS), and as a fully managed service, HyperStream brings together the power of cloud-based transcoding on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), and easy connectivity to Akamai’s SOLA Media Solutions for global delivery, security and analytics. HyperStream Live is a pay-per-use live cloud transcoding SaaS for delivery of adaptive video content to desktop and mobile devices over the Internet. HyperStream Concierge is a fully managed service for Internet media delivery, including cloud transcoding, CDN distribution, video player configuration, event set-up and management, and on-site support as needed.
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