12 Saturday 14.09.132
theibcdaily Optical distribution
is made simpler The only almost bandwidth-unlimited distribution medium for the future is fibre says Tracey J W Ford, sales and marketing chief, Norwia
Another show, 50,000 people, 1400 vendors, 14 halls and hyper-talk about trending issues. But are we sidetracked about what is really important? Today it’s more important
than ever to listen to customers and what they really need for their business economics to be viable and strong. Also we see a younger
generation watching content in a different way and we should adapt our minds rather than concentrating on hyper-talk and trending issue of this show. We need to create a clear
path of thought and direction of how we deliver a cost- effective solution that gives competitive advantages to content providers. Simplifying technology while avoiding extra ongoing cost that complex solutions bring to us should be our priority. Live content is becoming
more important to content providers because of the exclusive nature and advertising revenue compared to recorded programmes. This is because of the uncontrolled distribution that the internet has brought us regarding recorded programmes. Live content production
must be less complex while maintaining high quality to give broadcasters a real advantage. Manufacturers should think simpler when creating products that are serving these economics and current pressures in our market today. We need to take the complexity out of broadcast signal delivery and make the simple task of delivering a signal easy. Also eliminating the need for costly SLA’s and discovering technologies that are more reliable and easy to adapt for all broadcasters. Distribution is a key part of
the broadcast chain and should be as pure as possible to preserve quality for the many different user-viewing platforms. IP does have a place; it answers some of the
Tracey J W Ford: ‘Why make your infrastructure more complex than is needed?’
requirements but not all. The flexibility for extreme distance transport is where IP will have its future and maybe make further inroads once the simplicity issues are addressed. In the current foreseeable future the only simple, effective and almost bandwidth-unlimited distribution medium is fibre for most applications. Fibre has been around for a
long time. Advancement and technical shifts have been made but mostly silent to the hyper-talk we hear from year to year. Fibre has become a more friendly medium, more education is available and nor is it the domain of the few in white dustcoats. Newer systems are
available on the market today to provide the next generation ease of use, more flexible than before and lower capital outlay that can be reused in seconds without complex strip downs. Why make your infrastructure more complex than is needed? Potential users need to ask themselves, is it cost effective? Is it adaptable? Does it actually do the job I need rather than getting into the complex world of overdoing broadcast distribution systems? 9.B12
Opinion
BT Sport built to a tight timeline
Megahertz Broadcast Systems/Timeline TV By David Fox
The design, build and commissioning of BT Sport’s three channels (launched last month) was one of the largest and quickest broadcast installations in the industry. “There was just four walls, no services. We had to build an entire broadcast centre from fibre lines in to all the technical equipment, offices, huge lighting grids etc in just 24 weeks, with multiple projects being built in parallel,” explained Dan McDonnell, MD of Timeline Television, which project- managed the build.
It subcontracted Megahertz to manage the technical fit-out of three large TV studios, galleries, master control, edit suites and dubbing theatre. Timeline was also awarded a five-year managed service contract for all technical operations. A complex routing and
control infrastructure allows the studios’ 24 Sony 2400 HD cameras and 32 radio microphones to work with any of the seven production
Q&A Ed Calverley head of solutions, OASYS Automated Playout
Has IBC come at a good time for the electronic media industry? Why? As the focus for the launch of new products, IBC is always a key time in the industry calendar. Following the global recession broadcasters are once again beginning to launch new services. We’re seeing significant interest in OASYS as broadcasters realise the importance of choosing best-of- breed suppliers who offer flexible solutions over the larger manufacturers where compromises are common.
What do you think are the key developments in, or threats to, your market sector at the current time?
from the same box, others like OASYS offer more
sophisticated solutions with the full range of features required for most broadcast channels.
Why should delegates visit your stand at IBC? Visitors have the chance to see how sophisticated our
Using one generic label like ‘channel in a box’ for the new generation of automated playout systems can be misleading. Where some companies just offer basic playback of video and graphics
Chameleon solution is in action. Chameleon amalgamates software modules to deliver an optimal playout configuration for the specific needs of a broadcaster and our servers can be reconfigured in multiple ways within seconds to show several different playout scenarios. We also have some nice comfortable sofas to sit on! 8.B16
On the air: BT Sport is based in the 2012 Olympics International Broadcasting Centre where it has three studios
galleries (the four smaller galleries are mainly used for localising international events). There is an end-to-end tapeless workflow, with two petabytes of storage over two sites, which is built on tightly integrated EVS, Harmonic and Avid technology, with 32 ingest ports feeding 25 Avid suites and 200 producer desktops. All systems run AVC-Intra and it is the first broadcaster to be fully DPP compliant. IP Director logging stations allow live feeds and rushes to be tagged with appropriate keywords and metadata.
Production staff can browse the archive and live feeds, make playlists and send content to various destinations, including playout or archive. The entire tapeless system is mirrored at a standalone disaster recovery site. The MCR manages more than 150 incoming and outgoing HD vision lines, plus satellite traffic. Besides being on the Megahertz stand at IBC, Timeline is doing presentations on other stands, such as Aspera (BT Sport has a huge file- exchange system moving hundreds of TB per day). 11.F20
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132