theibcdaily Saturday 14.09.13 129 National boundaries broken down In Brief Conference Analysis
By Kate Bulkley Some 6 billion YouTube videos are watched every day around the world and, according to the European MD of YouTube Matt Glotzbach, “national boundaries have fundamentally been broken down” and “traditional gatekeepers have been removed”. But according to the TV broadcasters and producers at ‘The Next Big Battle: National Broadcasters vs. Global Platforms’ session in the Forum there is still a whole lotta life left in live and linear television. Indeed, Discovery’s COO John Honeycutt believes that the skills that broadcasters and channel operators have in aggregating and presenting content in an easy to use way is what viewers will continue to look for even as they may also watch YouTube and other online services. “Infinite
Discovery COO John Honeycutt discussed the importance of ease-of-use
choice is a beautiful thing but if I have to take 20 minutes navigating to get there that is not a good consumer experience,” said Honeycutt.
“The fracturing of choice and the simple decision making process about what app to use
and what device to use is not simple,” said Honeycutt. “Many of us are technically savvy but there is a large swatch of people who simply want to be entertained and giving that to them in a package that is logical and navigable and understandable and has relevance to their desires is something that can’t be forgotten.” He reminded the audience that Discovery Channel alone counts 333 million subscribers globally versus 36 million for Netflix. Not only that but there are still big pitfalls in securing global rights for many programmes, most obviously sports and films, but also for standard television, added Gary Woolf, senior vice president digital at All3Media, which created the just launched new-style game show called Million Second Quiz on NBC in the US. “You think about the trouble we have with delivering on-demand content across different territories with metadata
and translation and other issues and I think it is more complicated in terms of technology and preparing your content than people give it credit.” YouTube’s Glotzbach says that
we are at a “golden age” of connected devices at the moment and once that “landscape” of many devices doing many different things settles down this will be a game changer for video consumption in terms of ease of use. BSkyB’s commercial director Rob Webster said that he sees all these trends as opportunities which is why Sky “continually adapts its business models”, for instance it has launched its own entry-level priced OTT service Now TV. At the same time Sky recently launched Sky Movies Disney, the first time that Disney has licensed its brand to a broadcaster for use in on-demand as well as HD and 3D versions. “Consumers trust us to add value and offer sensible curation of content,” said Webster.
Creative industries call for fusion Conference Analysis
By Ann-Marie Corvin The chair of one of the UK’s largest production companies has urged training bodies to start producing graduates who are as comfortable with science and technology as they are with arts and humanities to fuel Europe’s digital economy.
Former Granada boss Steve Morrison, now chair of ‘superindie’ All3Media, has called for an end to arts/science divide at universities to pave way for more polymaths – “a new breed of renaissance men and women. “When I was at university the scientists were in different halls to the humanity students and
TV editorial departments were populated by arts graduates – the only engineers we came across were usually there to fix the lift,” he said.
“But the creative industries in the digital economy need a hybrid of computer programming, art and design, business studies and technology to create content for the future,” he added. Morrison told delegates attending IBC keynote session ‘Beyond Broadcasting’ that he first started to see the benefits of an arts/science fusion while he was working in satellite TV in the early ’90s. “We flew over to Seattle to have brainstorms with Bill Gates and it was a real meeting of minds between UK artists and US scientists.”
According to Morrison over 20%
of All3’s sales are now from its digital programming and, speaking on his firm’s ventures in the digital space, he pointed to the newly launched US quiz show format for NBC, Million Second Quiz. The 24/7 gameshow gives viewers playing along at home via an app the opportunity to
Redwood steps out of the box Aveco By Heather McLean
Aveco has introduced Redwood, a family of entry-level and scalable solutions, consisting of Redwood Studio and Redwood Play, for markets that need all the features to produce news programming or put a new channel on air, but have smaller budgets.
The Redwood Studio system can quickly put a new news studio on air. It is specifically designed for the complexity of news and production studios with smaller budgets. By using a client/server architecture, integrating a powerful graphics, playout, and switcher engine in the client, combined with Aveco’s existing Astra Studio 2 studio control interface, users get affordable, easy-to-use functionality. Commented Pavel Potuzak, managing director for Aveco:
“Redwood Studio defines a new market segment that can address the complexities of a live studio broadcast by providing broadcasters with a way to automate the entire workflow, generate a unique and consistent look and feel with no trade-offs in graphics, and put the show on air with minimal training, minimal staff and minimal equipment.” The Redwood Play CiaB system is designed to quickly add a new master control channel
fly to New York and play the game in the ‘studio’ – a giant glass bubble.
The playalong app for the heavily promoted show is currently the number one free download at the iTunes store and during the show 1000 viewers a minute downloaded the app – momentarily crashing the system.
while keeping costs under control and overcoming the limitations of traditional CiaB solutions (limited scalability, reliability and functionality) by using a client/server architecture. Redwood Play comes complete with everything needed to put a channel on-air including graphics, media player, switcher with effects, and a powerful automation engine. The Redwood client includes clip playout, graphics, switching and DVE effects, which reduces capital and operational costs. 3.B67
Iris blossoms in China for Merging
Technologies The latest upgrade of Merging Technologies’ post production facility features two Iris post production systems: Iris is a scalable work surface, based around a Smart AV Tango 2 which features a 24-inch touch screen interface, along with a range of I/O solutions using the Horus Networked Audio Interface. The core of the system consists of a Pyramix MassCore (or Native) recording, editing and mixing system coupled with VCubeHD video playback and management application. Shanghai Motion Magic operates three sets of Pyramix DAW systems; and in 2012, Shanghai Media Group said that all existing Motion Magic DAWs must connect with the Avid ISIS 5000 network systems, therefore all post production studios would transition to being networked. 8.C35
Makeover for
OTT platform OTT TV platform specialist Avion Media is unveiling enhancements to its flagship AVIION OTT product, with new features including improved skinning, EPG replacement and editing, and targeted advertising.
New functionalities that will
receive the most focus are the customisable skins for the user interfaces of client applications, blackscreening (ie hiding) specific programmes during the broadcast, and editing and replacing EPG events by the system administrators. 14.551
Content Transform
gets HEVC support HEVC support is to be added to Content Transform cloud- based video transcoding and delivery, following an agreement between Harmonic and Tata Communications. The move is said to enable the broadcast industry to migrate its existing archives to Ultra HD.
Content Transform, a cloud-based video service from Tata Communications, uses Harmonic’s ProMedia file-based transcoding technology to deliver multiformat video over Tata Communications’ network and data centre infrastructure to broadcasters around the globe. 1.B20
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