Grass Valley has launched a trio of new products for live production.
The GV K-Frame XP video production engine is designed for high-resolution content creation across multiformat environments and high signal density, including the increased bandwidth requirements of 4K UHD.
The compact hardware platform has the smallest footprint of any professional 4K production switcher, according to the company. The switcher also allows its 80×40 I/O count to remain unchanged, regardless of whether customers are producing in all IP, all SDI, or in hybrid environments at 1.5G, 3G and and 12G.
The LDX 100 camera platform is a high-speed, native UHD camera with native IP connectivity. Its integrated design frees up multiple rack units per camera that were previously dedicated to camera base stations and simplifies the logistics for mobile productions when having to pair the right number of cameras to CCUs at each event.
The camera is a self-contained IP device that connects directly to the network, at up to 100 Gbps, allowing simple connection and discovery of audio, video and control as well as enhanced PTP timing using open SMPTE IP standards.
At its core is Grass Valley’s new Titan imager. Designed for live sports production, the 2/3-inch imager provides UHD resolution and HDR/WCG colour reproduction at up to 3X high speed. The camera pairs with industry standard B4 lenses to provide the zoom range and depth of field needed in sports “without the optical gymnastics of other competitive solutions,” the company said.
LiveTouch 1300 is a live highlights and replay production system, bringing flexibility to 4K UHD production allowing users to capture video directly from IP sources.
Designed for mobile, outside broadcast (OB) productions and sports venues, the system features a new HTML5 LiveTouch Dashboard for system monitoring, control, start up and basic configuration in OB truck environments.
LiveTouch enables multiformat production without changing the operator workflow. Concurrent operators can access all cameras and servers to instantly create, edit and playout highlights packages. The Fileflow 4 UI enables operators to create rules for automated file delivery to social media, archive and other network-based destinations.
“The demand for captivating, stunning quality content is at an all-time high,” said Chris Merrill, Grass Valley’s director of product marketing. “We developed LiveTouch 1300 to help our customers efficiently create immersive 4K UHD and HDR replays in any production scenario. Now more than ever it is crucial to allow broadcasters and content owners greater freedom to cover live events regardless of their location. LiveTouch 1300 makes distributed production and collaborative workflows easy and fast.”
Synamedia joins Alliance for Open Media
Synamedia has joined the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) at the Promoter level.
As a member of the Alliance, Synamedia will collaborate with AOMedia members to advance open standards for media compression and delivery on the internet.
Other AOMedia members include Amazon, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung Electronics and Tencent.
AOMedia’s open-source, royalty-free video coding format AV1 is interoperable, open and optimised for internet delivery and scalable to any modern device at any bandwidth.
“We’re thrilled to join AOMedia,” said Julien Signes, SVP and general manager, Video Network at Synamedia. “As customers make more intelligent use of virtualisation and Cloud, we see the adoption of AV1 as a way to further our own goals of enhancing online video streaming experiences for OTT at scale. We look forward to working alongside AOMedia members to open up new possibilities to use AV1 for royalty-free, cross-platform online video across a wide range of applications.”
SES reaches 367 million TV households
SES has announced that the number of global TV households it reaches directly or indirectly via satellite increased by 12 million to 367 million in 2019.
The company attributed the increase to the leading infrastructure of TV reception — satellite and cable — which grew by 9 million in 2019 to 153 million and 149 million homes, respectively. IPTV and terrestrial TV grew by a combined 3 million to 43 million and 21 million homes.
“Europe continues to be the strongest market for SES, with 168 million total households served by the SES fleet, up by 1 million from 2018, followed by North America at 69 million,” SES said.
The Satellite Monitor study also revealed that HD broadcast has been on the rise in Europe, with 167 million TV households, an increase of 5 million from 2018. “Satellite remains the preferred choice of infrastructure when it comes to HD content broadcasting,” the company added.
“Broadcasters and TV platform operators need robust and reliable data before they make the decision to enter new markets,” said SES CEO Ferdinand Kayser. “For more than 25 years, SES has been the only satellite-based solutions provider in the world to regularly and extensively monitor the industry in specific countries and identify key trends for our customers to help them succeed in their business and expand their reach.
“The results of our annual Satellite Monitor market research demonstrate that satellite continues to be the most optimal infrastructure to deliver high picture quality, and that despite changing consumption habits, people still strongly rely on linear TV and complement it with OTT content.”
