Operators will be required to deliver content through a mix of microwave, cable, LTE, 4G and WiFi technologies and IMT is ready, says CEO Stephen Shpock
While internet delivered content is driving more consumer demand for local news and stories, the boundaries between traditional broadcast technologies and wireless delivery mechanisms are blurrier than ever. To help its customers ensure they stay competitive, Integrated Microwave Technologies (IMT) has developed products that use a combination of 4G/LTE and COFDM microware transmission technologies. IMT’s Nucomm Connect Live
addresses the industry move toward convergence. It combines the ultimate in COFDM wireless camera and 4G technology to produce the most versatile live-news HD wireless camera system on the market today. With its dual COFDM and 4G capabilities, Connect Live is essentially two products in one, and is suited for live and OB as well as news- bureau applications.
For day-to-day news story coverage, the 4G link can be used to transport HD video back to the studio in near realtime. Depending on a user’s needs, latency versus video quality can be quickly tuned between interview, balanced and high quality modes via the unit’s touch-LCD display. Its
boot-up time of less than 30 seconds makes for rapid deployment in the field. Our customers are looking for solutions that not only improve workflow, offer intelligent routing and deliver optimised protocols, but are also cost-effective to implement and maintain. They also want to future-proof their increasingly IT-based HD news- gathering and production pipelines. This trend is seen in virtually all video-related industries. For example, cinema production is moving to a fully digital workflow model, using technologies that in many cases
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have been adapted from the traditional broadcast industry. IMT’s Nucomm Messenger II IP file transfer system enables broadband IP connectivity between an ENG/OB/SNG truck or news bureau and the broadcast studio. With the deployment of video editing systems in remote vehicles or bureaus, the traditional workflow is rapidly shifting. Now, stories can be edited in the field and delivered to the studio over alternative networks. With an IP network, provided by the
Messenger system, other applications can also run between the studio and the ENG vehicle, such as tools for remote cueing or remote truck control. Over the last year, sports video technology has assumed the role of a leader and early adopter of cutting-edge technologies. Smaller, portable HD cameras bring the viewers closer to the action, while new, POV HD cameras capture action images from locations a cameraman can’t reach — and go live on screen in seconds.
We can’t wait to see what the
future of ENG, sports broadcasting and video cinematography hold for us as technology manufacturers, not to mention the viewers. For us, the IBC show is an important venue to keep our finger on the pulse of that change. It gives us an opportunity to meet with our customers, get their feedback and subsequently develop technologies that make broadcasters’ work easier, more efficient and cost-effective. 1D40
Stephen Shpock: ‘Finger on the pulse of change’
WDR radio gets CMS SCISYS
By Heather McLean
SCISYS has announced its delivery of a dira!- based content
management system for all Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR, West German Broadcasting) radio channels. On March 1 2012 the WDR radio channel Funkhaus Europa began broadcasting from its new location, followed in April by the WDR 1LIVE channel, both using the SCISYS dira! Radio system as a single common content and production management system. These two channels
are the first step in establishing a single CMS for all radio channels operated by WDR; WDR 2, WDR 3, WDR 4 and WDR5 will follow and produce their content using dira!, the company stated. Thomas Reyers, key account manager at SCISYS, said: “Because of the great scalability and the multi-client capability of dira! Several channels can share a single system. When all the WDR channels are
operational on this system, dira! will be one of the largest systems in Germany, maybe even in Europe.” WDR’s new concept for its production infrastructure is that scheduling and planning will be made with the NRCS OpenMedia by Annova, with dira! handling the actual production and content management. The two systems are integrated using an extended MOS-protocol. The radio specific MOS extensions are part of an agreement between the vendors and the German radio networks of ARD. Because of its newsroom system integration experience, SCISYS was able to complete this