34 TVBEurope IBC Wrap-Up Acquisition, storage and data
As at NAB in April so at IBC in September, themes of aggressive product pricing and accelerating a push to 4K. David Kirk looks back at the Amsterdam event
COMPETITION AT every price point from prosumer right through to high-end broadcast becomes more fierce with every passing year, accelerated by introduction of increasingly ambitious software designed for latest-generation standard- platform computers. A classic example of the latter was Quantel’s new Pablo Rio 2KO post production system. This is capable of sourcing from 4K cameras and delivering 2K or stereoscopic HD in realtime, all from software running on a PC. A notable feature of IBC2013
was the growing number of broadcast tools based on the Apple iPhone, almost enough now to justify their own exhibition hall. Phone-based devices have one big advantage over traditional tools: they are harder to lose. If all else fails, you just call them from another phone and track the ringtone. Downside is the shared battery. Sony and Panasonic both
displayed refined versions of their widescreen multi-camera systems. These allow 16:9 HD content to be selected on a pan-and-scan basis either during a live broadcast or from a server. Sony’s 4K Live Production System uses two PMW-F55 4K cameras capable of capturing at up to 240fps. It is easy to imagine 8K sooner or later being applied in the same way for output as 4K or HD. Panasonic showed a system employing four AW-HE120 HD cameras to create a 64:9 aspect ratio ultra-wide-angle feed. Most of the excitement at IBC2013 was in the conference presentations rather than the exhibition halls, reflecting an industry which is evolving faster now than ever. If you enjoyed the
videotape format wars and subsequent file-format skirmishes, the contest now worth following is between competing ways of streaming and routing audio and video within a content-production network. Centre of attention is now on IP based technologies. Keyur Parikh and Junius Kim of Harris Broadcast addressed concerns about the reliability of IP links with their paper ‘Methods for robust audio streaming over impaired IP networks’. The essence of their case: “Migration from fixed-circuit based telecommunication services to IP based connections reduces operational expenses as well as providing flexibility in audio networking. However, the reliability and quality of IP connections can deter users from making this migration. A robust audio streaming over IP architecture includes elements such as forward error correction, interleaving, stream grouping, support for multiple IP networks, and dynamic and automatic network adaptation. Test results using both random and burst packet loss type IP networks show audio streaming performance improvements over a variety of impaired network environments.”
The IP Studio BBC Research & Development is developing a framework to investigate going beyond traditional technologies such as SDI towards IP-based studio infrastructure. PJ Brightwell and colleagues outlined this project in a paper titled ‘The IP Studio’. “A unified approach to the identification and synchronisation of audio and video content and data and control events, and the
6G SDI for UHDTV-1, 4K and 3D production Nigel Seth-Smith looked ahead to ‘6G SDI for UHDTV-1, 4K and 3D production’: “There is a pressing need to transport increased data rates in a secure, reliable and timely manner within the broadcast environment. An expansion of the capabilities of SDI is an appropriate choice for this purpose. However, there is no obvious ‘sweet spot’ for the next data rate. Arguments can be made for any rate between 6 and 192Gbps, or even 384Gbps for stereoscopic 3D. “Now that the SMPTE is
Layers, zones and feeds structures in an IP studio
Thorsten Lohmar: With LTE, one cell can contribute to up to eight independent single-frequency networks simultaneously
adoption of techniques and technologies proven to scale for the internet provide a level of flexibility that is not possible with traditional infrastructures. A potentially disruptive finding is the proposal to distribute and consume content and events as elemental grains. “While this enables great
A 56-inch 4K OLED demo at Sony’s IBC stand
flexibility for a variety of application use cases, it is something of a step-change from the usual practice of layering traditional bitstreams onto ever- faster transports such as SDI over fibre. A software framework has been implemented to test the feasibility and usefulness of this approach in practice, through trials with productions and infrastructure providers, and to determine where future standards are needed. A joint task force on networked media has recently been established by the Video Services Forum, EBU and SMPTE.”
HEVC, next big thing? Jean-Pierre Henot and M Ropert of Envivio outlined the merits of H.265 as a compression standard for 4K production and transmission in their paper ‘HEVC, the next big thing?’. “High-efficiency video coding (HEVC) allows bitrate reduction of 50% while providing equivalent quality compared to its predecessor H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The availability of 4K/UHD TV devices at affordable prices, from US$1,500, shows that consumer technology may mature quickly. “However that does not mean 4K/UHD TV services are ready for wide deployment. 4K/UHD is currently limited to 30fps in existing consumer devices. This allows 4K movies to be displayed on consumer TV sets but 4K deployment will only happen with the support of 50fps as the minimum temporal resolution for smooth motion capture on sports events. A new generation of connectors will be required to support 4K at 50 or 60fps on consumer displays. “Recording and connectivity in the studio is also a challenge. With 4K, 60fps and at least 10 bits-per-sample, the bandwidth currently tops out at rates of 12Gbps at 4:2:2. The transmission bandwidth with existing H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression standard would require between 20 to 40Mbps to achieve acceptable video quality but the transmission cost would be too high to reach large audiences. 4K/UHD at 60fps is on its way, and HEVC is the enabling technology that allows for its transmission over multiple networks.”
standardising multiple 3Gbps links for transport of 6Gbps and 12Gbps signals, the first application of gearbox technology would be in combining these into 6G SDI or 12G SDI single links. The same approach could then be used to combine the 6Gbps and 12Gbps links into single 24, 48, 96 and 192Gbps links, once the technology for these links becomes appropriately affordable. “A single 6G SDI link can
transport any currently-defined 1080p format at any combination of frame rate and bit-depth. It can also carry the lower frame rate 2160p formats. Multiple links can be used to carry higher frame rate 2160p formats. 6G SDI can employ existing infrastructure using the existing SDI standard of scrambled NRZI encoded binary data.”
Television over mobile Thorsten Lohmar, senior specialist, Ericsson, discussed the subject of ‘Revolutionising video delivery in mobile networks with broadcast techniques’: “TV and video traffic are
dominating today’s networks, growing from 40% to 90% of mobile traffic within the next three to four years. Long Term Evolution (LTE) Broadcast is a new technique allowing operators to manage the increasing data volume in a more efficient way. “It is built on the 3GPP defined eMBMS technology release, which introduces the single frequency network transmission scheme into mobile networks. Using single frequency network technology for broadcast increases the signal quality, in particular in border areas between cells. With LTE, one cell can contribute to up to eight independent single-frequency networks simultaneously. Broadcast and unicast transmissions co-exist on the same carrier at the same time.”
www.tvbeurope.com November2013
Picture: BBC Reseach & Development
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