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theibcdaily For the latest show news and updates follow #IBC2014 DVB pushes forward with DVB-S2 In Brief DVB By George Jarrett


As with DVB-T2, the enabling power of HEVC is working technical wonders for DVB-S2X, to the extent that four UHD channels are being transmitted over a 36MHz channel at a data rate of 102.67 Mbit/s. Modulation is 16 APSK. “This content-to-screen achievement took three months to plan, and features a number of pieces in the chain that are quite new and not stable yet,” said DVB executive director Peter Siebert. “The satellite people


have the advantage of a very big range of capacity, wider than terrestrial TV, and I am sure that there are pay TV operators that will start UHD services soon.” This one-off demo set-up


features content from Hispasat, SES Astra, Rai and the EBU, encoding by Thomson and multiplexing by Rohde & Schwarz, modulators from Newtec and Work Microwave and receivers from Creonic and Ericsson. What was the trickiest bit? “The UHD set-top box from Pace. These have only just been developed, so we are at the beginning of that technology,” said Siebert. “And in this case the STB gets an IP stream.”


Peter Siebert: “Will UHD TV become a commercial success?”


The advances from DVB-S2 come in Direct to Home (DTH). VSAT and DSNG.


“Everything you see is technically proven, but the


“First European 4K channels in 2016”


Conference Analysis By Chris Forrester


Ferdinand Kayser, CCO at Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, said he firmly


expects some key European broadcasters to have 4K channels on air during 2016. “The catalyst will undoubtedly be the UEFA soccer and that year’s Olympics from Brazil.” Kayser also announced that


SES would be showcasing the world’s first fully end- to-end 4K live encrypted transmissions on its stand (1.B51) in conjunction with Samsung (1.D35) and Conditional Access specialists Kudelski’s SmarDTV module (1.C81). He added that while there would be plenty of 4K technical trials and demonstrations meanwhile, the core ecosystem for 4K was now in place. “Everything is more or less ready. We still need set-top boxes and their key 4K chipsets to be available, but this will happen well ahead of time.”


Kayser said that SES expected that by 2020 there would be some 200 UHD channels on air around the world, and being viewed on about 100 million screens. “By 2025 that will grow to 1,000 UHD channels, and more than 500 million displays in use. And congestion-free viewing of Ultra HD is a ‘sweet spot’ for satellite.”


Varicam bigger and faster Panasonic By David Fox


The modular new Panasonic Varicam, which can shoot either 4K/Ultra HD or high-speed HD, ships next month. “We had a lot of people who loved the previous Varicam, and we have been out of that market for too long,” said Rob Tarrant, European product manager. “We are in an industry of


creating beautiful images, and we want to get back to that. But that’s not enough. The practicalities are you have to


handle this huge amount of data. The recorder is about the practicalities and the workflow – Its ability to do multiple formats simultaneously. It’s a big advantage, as [the recorder, developed with Codex] can do up to four at once”: Raw, up to 120 frames per second, 4K compressed using AVC Ultra onto Express P2 cards, and 2K and 1K proxies on to the same microP2 card. Similarly, for a broadcast workflow, it will do uncompressed Ultra HD, compressed UHD, HD and 960x540 proxies at once. The Varicam 35 (Super 35mm) head costs €24,000, while the


Flexible filmmaking: Tarrant with the modular Varicam 35 camcorder


recorder module is €15,000 and the new OLED viewfinder (which doesn’t suffer colour shifts as you move viewing angle) is €6,200. It will also release an umbilical cord, so that users can


question is will UHD TV become a commercial success? HEVC is the enabler for bringing UHD across the whole broadcast world,” said Siebert.


Fast portable storage and backup: The new Nexto Media Storage ND2901 is an affordable way to quickly and safely backup video and other files from Compact Flash and SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, on location. It is ideal for use with a wide range of cameras, from the GoPro, through to DSLRs or digital cinematography cameras like the Sony NEX-FS700. It can also be used with microP2 cards, and with microSD (using an adapter). It takes 14 minutes to both copy and do a full verification of data from a 32GB CF card. Users can also check video information or view the still images on the built-in LCD screen. Pictured: Nexto CEO Larry Seong demonstrates the new ND2901. – David Fox 11.G37


separate the head from the recorder by up to 30m, useful for crane or jib use. The 240 frames per second Varicam HS head (costing €16,000) is targeted primarily at natural history. “The beauty of being able to change the camera head and use very long lenses, with 2/3- inch chips, with the same in- camera grading,” will, he hopes make it very appealing to users and rental companies. One of the first testers,


Light Iron CEO Michael Cioni said: “Images are not just about the pictures, but about the workflow. We want products that match both high quality images and efficient workflow,” and he believes the Varicam 35 does both. 9.C45


OBPod lighter and more flexible Gearhouse has launched its new lightweight, expandable OBPod portable production solution. Building on the concept of the flyaway pod that Gearhouse Broadcast has supplied to Sky Sports for the past three F1 seasons, the new OBPod has been designed with weight and expandability in mind. Working closely with UK coachbuilding partner, A Smith Great Bentley, and using the standard air freight AMP rectangular container footprint, Gearhouse has replaced the previous honeycomb casing with lighter aluminium. The new facility makes extensive use of the fibre infrastructure, removing the need for traditional heavy copper cables. A compact Grass Valley NVISION 8500 Hybrid router has been installed, with HD and SDI I/O on both copper and fibre. “This is the first time anyone’s ever made an expanding pod with a very small footprint; everything that has gone into OBPod has got to be able to cope with the demands of it being transported around the world multiple times, so we had to be mindful with the infrastructure and workflow that we’ve designed,” said Kevin Moorhouse, COO at Gearhouse Broadcast.” 10.B39


Five fold increase for multiscreen STB 2014 is proving to be a big year for Comigo with a doubling of its customer base and five times more set-top boxes having been sold than in 2013, the company has said. The Israeli multiscreen pay TV platform company has also announced that it is expanding into Asia, the US and Latin America and that it has launched an Android- based set-top box. “Pay TV operators today are keen on delivering an engaging TV experience on every screen, and are looking for innovative ways to generate additional revenue streams from their TV service,” said Comigo chief executive Dov Moran. “To meet this demand, we are partnering with a variety of system integrators globally, we’ve opened our backend capabilities to solution partners, and we offer our Android-based STB middleware to several STB vendors.” 3.B61


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