www.psneurope.com
May 2013 l 33
broadcastnews EUROPE
New ‘joint task force’ heralds further networking unification
By David Davies
WHILE THE Audio/Video Bridging-promoting AVnu Alliance continues its work to bring standards-backed coherence to professional audio and video, a new collaboration forged by three broadcasting and film groups is focusing on the interoperability of IT-based networks to ‘stimulate new business opportunities’. Founded by the European
Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF), the Joint Task Force on Networked Media will define a strategy to develop a packet- based network infrastructure for the professional media industry. Bringing together
manufacturers, broadcasters, standards bodies and trade associations with the objective to create, store, transfer and
stream professional media, the Task Force will develop an “agile, on-demand” infrastructure to support a variety of distributed, automated, professional media workflows. In an impressively rigorous outline of its objectives, the Task Force also reveals that it will adopt a three-phase approach, with each stage used as a ‘gate’ for assessing whether sufficient progress has been made before advancing. Dr Hans Hoffmann, EBU
head of media fundamentals and production technology, remarked: “The time is right to define technologies for an all- over networked production environment encompassing live and file-based content exchange. The findings of the Task Force and subsequent open systems standards will lead to a paradigm shift in how content is produced by broadcasters, with highly efficient and flexible production
workflows and, ultimately, new business opportunities.” Specific representation for audio in the form of involvement by the AES would seem like a logical future development for the Task Force. Mark Yonge, AES standards manager, confirmed
that the society has been liaising with the EBU since August of last year on this very issue. “We have been working on ‘High-performance streaming audio-over-IP interoperability’ in standards project AES-X192, and a draft
document will be considered for publication at our upcoming meetings at the AES 134th Convention in Rome,” Yonge told PSNEurope. “I would expect this to be of some significance in the Joint Task Force on Networked Media.” “From the earliest days of digital audio standardisation, the AES has recognised that audio cannot be segregated into isolated application areas and so cross-industry interoperability is vital,” he added. “This is as true for complex networked interfaces today as it was for elementary parameters such as sampling frequency back in 1984.”n
www.aes.org
UNITED KINGDOM
THE BBC’S flagship music show, Later Live –with Jools Holland, has returned and is now broadcast from The Maidstone Studios in Kent. The programme had to look for a new home after the closure for redevelopment of BBC Television Centre (TVC) in west London. Laterwill be staged in
Maidstone’s Studio 5, which offers
1,115sqm of space. The audio control room houses a Vista 8, which sound supervisor Mike Felton says is able to handle the 160 channels necessary: “There’s 160 channels of music and we need access to everything. The Vista 8 has lots of levels and a good design of user interface.” n
www.maidstonestudios.com
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