4 TVBEurope News & Analysis The big broadcast conversation By Neal Romanek


AFTER ANOTHER successful BVE in London, all eyes are now on NAB. And in this issue we feature part one of our NAB Product Preview. There weren’t many product launches at BVE — most companies want to keep their powder dry till NAB — but the consensus among vendors was that the show was a great networking event. The dearth of announcements seemed to work to BVE’s benefit, opening up some space to get back to the basics of exchanging ideas and building


partnerships. The BVE seminars, as usual, attracted standing room crowds, and, not blinded by the flash-pow of another new product debut, conversation on the stands was free to address the bigger issues. TVBEurope’s contribution


Neal Romanek


to that conversation expands this year with three major industry events. Our two popular conferences, BeyondHD Masters and IT Broadcast Workflow, will return in June and July, respectively. We are also introducing a new event this year, Next TV Summit London


Digital Biscuit: where tech meets art


Last month’s Digital Biscuit event served up a weird and wonderful menu for TV technologists and creatives alike. Monica Heck reports


THE DIVERSEline-up at Dublin’s second Digital Biscuit show meant a visitor could experience the latest camera technology and attend a technical masterclass, before hearing from movie marketing specialists, The Einstein Couple, who just finished work on Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, or learning how neuroscience informs design with Neurosketch co-founder, Carlos Velasco. What emerged from this melting pot is that technology is there to support art, first and foremost. Nobody knows this better than ARRI, which chose to showcase its AMIRA documentary camera for the first time since its announcement at IBC2013. “ARRI is going back to its


roots in documentary filmmaking,” said Milan Krsljanin, director of group business development at ARRI, showing off the camera. “High frame rate is very important for people doing natural history type work. AMIRA, like ALEXA, can go up to 200fps with full picture quality and no compromise. It’s built around the same sensor as ALEXA.” AMIRA fills a gap between high-end motion-picture cameras and consumer-type DSLR solutions. Milan demonstrated how the “lighter, smaller, faster, cheaper” sister of ARRI’s flagship ALEXA could be used straight out of the bag by a single person on location.


— modelled after last year’s successful Next TV summits in the US. We’re happy to announce in this issue the first round of industry heavyweights who will be speaking.


Looking ahead, our April issue will be covering what’s beyond HD, with a 4K focus and part two of our NAB Product Preview. In May we’ll have a look at satellite and an in-depth look at audio for broadcast, and June will feature our Summer Of Sport OB Focus. We hope you’ll join the conversation.


creative requirement. We’re not just selling a bunch of technology, we are interested in the creative arts and finding technology to adapt it. At the end of the day, we all care about lovely images on screen.” He notes that the biggest trend in the last couple of years is a reduction in the cost of technology. “Tech gives access to creativity to a broader range of people. Improvements in image quality, speed of drives, processors at an affordable price are fuelling creativity.” Dave Hughes, head of telecine


ARRI chose Digital Biscuit to show off its AMIRA for the first time since IBC2013


And crucially, the camera is built on FPGA chips, which makes it highly upgradable.


The creativity/ technology balance While the shooters were being gifted technology to help them work their magic in the field, Brian Gilmore, head of production at Irish animation studio Brown Bag Films was stressing how technology had transformed animation and made his job easier. Brandishing hand-painted cells


of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as an illustration of the hard work of yore, he hailed the advent of technology in the animation space. “I spent many a day painting


those. Traditional hand-drawn animation involved an image xeroxed onto acetate or clear plastic, then hand-painted. It was laborious, time consuming and restrictive.” Gilmore gladly witnessed a change in the 90s, with the advent of digital ink and paint systems,


followed by 3D animation. Yet some independent studios, like Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, only moved from paper to digital in recent times, during the production of Song of the Sea, which was previewed at the show. This sequel to the award-winning The Secret of Kells benefited from technology to faciliate pan-European file-sharing and collaboration. However, Gilmore warned


against an industry driven solely by technicians and leaving animators behind. “People can lose sight of the final goal, which is to entertain an audience. A three-year-old doesn’t care what software you’re using, they want to be entertained, so a balance between technology and creativity must be struck.”


Tech gives access Kevin Moore, director of Eurotek Ireland and Digital Biscuit exhibitor, concurs. “Broadcast infrastructure is our main market, but we come to it from an understanding of a


at post production house Windmill Lane, knows first hand how much technology can support the creative process in post production. “At last year’s event, I gave a talk about grading, but it’s not easy to convey without having the kit to demo. People think the image only is captured on camera, so it’s nice to see DPs asking us, finding out how to get the best out of what they want to shoot no matter what camera they use.” Windmill Lane and FilmLight


jointly demonstrated FilmLight’s Baselight PLUS and Slate in the Kinoplay area. “We combine the Truelight colour management system with the grading tool, to handle mixed formats and give clients the best result. And because every job has an element of VFX these days, we can control how files go to a VFX house or artist to ensure what we deliver is what we get back.”


FilmLight attended the event


for the first time this year and was delighted to note that Baselight was used by Peter Doyle at Technicolor-Postworks NY to grade the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which premiered in Ireland on the opening night of the event.


www.tvbeurope.com March 2014


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