The world of broadcast audio is about to reach new levels as the industry embraces the future with Next Generation Audio (NGA). While precisely what features will be offered remain unknown, several 3D Immersive formats are already under development and soon will find their way into broadcast production and distribution.
The broadcast equipment industry is in the process of making the transition to IP based transport for video, audio and data. This has led to development of a suite of standards including SMPTE ST 2022-6 for encapsulation of uncompressed SDI within IP packets and SMPTE ST 2110 for live IP production carrying separate video, audio and data packets.
Like the creative professionals that use them, today’s storage systems need to be agile and able to serve up content when it is requested, as quickly and efficiently as possible. A real-time performing ‘Primary’ storage system also needs to accommodate multiple, disparately located users working in a collaborative environment. There are many successful variations on how to set up such an infrastructure, but the type of storage technology you choose—spinning hard disc drives (HDD) or solid-state flash media (SSD)—could mean the difference between a project’s success and failure.
One of my colleagues recently wrote an article including statements from others in the industry that orchestration was just a component of media asset management. I beg to differ and propose an alternative opinion and perspective.
TV and social media continue their convergence, creating both problems and opportunities for broadcasters and pay TV operators.
The production of ITV Studios’s popular reality TV show “Love Island” is no small feat considering it utilizes two locations separated by 3 km (roughly 2 miles) on the island of Majorca, Spain. To establish reliable connectivity between the two sites, veteran systems integrator Timeline Television was called in to provide ITV Studios with inter site connectivity as well as the establishing RF facilities to enable the transmission of the show live in London on the ITV 2 channel.
TV 2 Denmark wanted to expand its coverage of the nation’s hugely popular live handball matches at the same time reducing the overall cost of the production. Since live event production is resource intensive, to effectively increase its output, the broadcaster sought a solution that would address and eliminate bottlenecks in its live production workflows. In early 2015, the broadcaster launched a new dedicated sports channel, TV 2/Sport, after implementing a solution enabling parallel productions at multiple different arenas across the country – and reducing production costs.
With the emergence of 4K and HDR production, remote production companies and studios have been struggling to make sense of the additional requirements for more cabling (4X more) and native equipment that supports it. Where the highest quality HD signal uses a single 3Gbps SDI cable to connect point A to point B—e.g., a camera to a production truck—the same workflow in 4K (or UHD) requires four separate 3 Gbps cables, often referred to as a “quad link” or “4-wire infrastructure.
