38


Technical Review | January-March 2013


This year, manufacturers like Samsung, Sony, LG, Westinghouse, Toshiba and Panasonic are trying to shake the trees by building bigger television screens and quadrupling the resolution in their images to 4K in Ultra HD sets. However, many of these new models are quite expensive. Panasonic and Sony both announced new 56in sets, while LG said it has begun taking orders for a 55in flat-panel OLED screen that will ship in March.


The real action at the show was is in the far more affordable software for “smart” TV receivers. Manufacturers are clamouring to add apps and other interactive elements to their ultrathin displays. And there’s more competition than ever to the home television set. Viewers can now access programming over smartphones, tablets and computers. This reduces the need by many people to buy a television set at all.


This year the “big thing” that manufacturers are pushing is 4K Ultra HD television. These new sets have four times as many pixels as their HD predecessors, though – like 3-D – there is little programming being distributed to watch at this high resolution. Ultra HD also costs more, far exceeding the low prices of HD sets.


(Broadcast Engineering) Freeview Reaches Highest-ever Total


The UK DTT platform Freeview has recorded the highest ever number of households receiving the service on the main TV set. Over 11 million households have Freeview on the main screen with 20 million – 76% of UK television homes – watching Freeview on either the primary or secondary set.


On Tuesday BBC Two HD replaced BBC HD in the UK with Freeview suggesting a further 10 HD channels could launch on its platform before the end of next year. Three years since launch, cumulative Freeview HD equipment sales stand at 7.6 million and the total number of homes with Freeview HD on their main set has reached 3.53 million, making Freeview HD the second biggest HD platform in the UK. Freeview+HD box sales have increased 24% year-on-year. Typically FreeviewHD boxes are also capable of receiving on demand services.


(Broadband TV News)


New Technologies and Techniques Needed to Deliver Video to the Internet


Hybrid OTT and Internet IPTV Surges in Korea


South Korea has taken to IPTV in a big way, with the number of subscribers growing from zero to over 6 million in the last four years. According to Korea Telecom (KT), this is now equivalent to 25% of the country’s entire pay-TV market. IPTV services were launched in South Korea in December 2008, with satellite hybrid IPTV following in October 2009. KT now claims a 60% market share in a sector also served by the companies SK Broadband and LG U+.


KT’s hybrid IPTV service OTS is characterized by rich content, consisting of 162 channels, 130,000+ titles and 145 ‘varieties’ (genres, etc). KT also operates Mobile and


A UK-based media management and workflow software provider has published an independent report outlining the shortcomings and challenges of Internet delivery of video content.


Noting that the consumption of content over Internet-enabled devices has exploded, which for content owners is, “a mixed bag of increased opportunity and increased operational pain.” The report highlights four key challenges content owners face when delivering content to the Internet: Delivery; Service; Packaging & delivery technologies; and Standards.


Internet TV is exploding, and content owners must sweat value from their content by leveraging multiple deals to stay in the game. However, fulfilment and delivery of content to the Internet can be incredibly painful and costly with the cost of preparation and repurposing often negating the


N-Screen, giving a seamless service on any screen, anytime and anywhere.


(Broadband TV News)


Fibre Optics Opens New Opportunities in Sports Production


This year’s Super Bowl event, with more than 3500 hours of video content transported via the broadcast backbone based on fibre-optic transport, have established fibre-optic as a vital component in the mix of contribution technology for sports productions. However, there is much more to the role of fibre optics in sports than contribution. Over the past few years, fibre optics has emerged as an enabler of a rethink of the traditional approach to remote sports production.


At the top of the list of questions raised by the broad availability and speed-of-light performance of fibre-optic transport is how much longer will it be necessary to send a mobile HD production control room – with its video switching, replay, graphics, monitoring, camera control and audio mixing – to the stadium or arena? Rather than roll trucks and trailers, is it possible to transport raw, live camera and audio feeds directly from their pickup positions to a studio hundreds or thousands of miles away via fibre where all of the production is done without diminishing the final production? Is it possible to control camera setup from great distances and be just as responsive to the changing shooting environment as if control were being done from a CCU on site? How far can this concept of remote control be taken? How will this impact production staffing and travel expenses?


There are also tactical benefits that can be achieved by relying on fibre to transport feeds and control cameras positioned in dangerous or out of the way locations, such as with certain trackside camera locations at a speedway. There have been successful productions carried out using this technique and, the thoughts of those planning the next generation of production from remote sports production factories are wide open. The technical and production challenges must be addressed, and the setups should take advantage of the potential for fibre optics to transform how sports get produced. (Broadcast Engineering)


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