The ongoing evolution of IP and new software driven systems enables studio owners to get maximum flexibility and value out of the technology they employ, as many traditional hardware products gain more flexible software configuration options and new software-only versions become available. Today’s Production Control Rooms, whether IP, SDI or hybrid, are being tasked with doing more, both internally and remotely. The latest generation of technology for control rooms starts with the production switcher, which now features additional built-in technology like signal routing, Comms and audio mixing that can be accessed by the technical director from the same switcher panel.

At the 2023 IBC Show in Amsterdam, more multifunction products will be on display in many exhibitors’ stands.

“Live productions are back in full swing whether it be parking on-site or some brand of remote orchestrated from an off-site control room,” said Greg Huttie, Product Marketing Manager at Grass Valley (Stand 9.A01). “The reality is customers are asking to tap the switcher’s flexibility across the board in creating more programming delivered from every event - whether it be additional clean-feeds or isolated tagged feeds. Broadcasters are finding more use cases for pairing traditional and software-based switchers to add revenue while decreasing capex costs.”

Grass Valley will show updated hardware and software versions of its K-Frame based products as well as software processing switcher applications that work seamlessly within its cloud-based Agile Media Production Platform (AMPP) environment.

“The incorporation of routing and/or audio within a production switcher is all about offering an alluring cost-based solution,” said Huttie. “By design, every switcher has an internal matrix (router) crosspoint and on the audio side passes audio. Relying on that switcher matrix as your single centralized hub for inputs and outputs that feed other essential production environment equipment raises the question of a single point of failure within the standard broadcast flow. While Grass switchers’ crosspoints are large enough, we have not adopted or monetized this practice based on our users’ input.”

At IBC the new Kayenne panel will be shown with improved tactile response, more functionality and more operational flexibility. The updated switcher control panel affords Technical Directors comfort with a familiar layout that offers the additional flexibility of a touchscreen incorporated within the transition module. Also new is a software update that allows custom assignment of M/E keyers for optimized usage of all available keyers.

“This year everyone is talking about the Kayenne panel updates that we’ve made and connecting the control surface to our K-Frame XP processing engine,” Huttie said. “We continue to push hard on new innovation. Stay tuned for additional announcements regarding SMPTE ST 2110 IP, HDR SDR color mapping and more coming to our hardware-based switching.”

Following on this integrated system theme Blackmagic Design (Stand 7.C49) will show its new ATEM Television Studio HD8, a compact live production switcher with a built-in broadcast control panel. It’s a fully featured broadcast quality live production studio with eight standards converted 3G-SDI inputs, built in streaming, master recorder, multiview, USB webcam support, DVE, four ATEM advanced chroma keyers, media players, talkback, four-way Ethernet switch and (optional) internal cloud media storage.

The ATEM Television Studio HD8 ISO includes all the features of ATEM Television Studio HD8 plus ISO recording of all eight inputs to separate video files. It also supports up to eight remote cameras via local Ethernet or globally via the internet. Remote cameras even support tally and camera control.

“Our ATEM SDI line and the new ATEM Television Studios incorporate a built-in Fairlight audio mixer, making it possible to do complex live sound mixing,” said Bob Caniglia, Director of Sales Operations, North America at Blackmagic Design. “The internal mixer on our ATEM Television Studios features enough channels for all SDI inputs, as well as extra channels for the XLR, RCA and MADI inputs.”

He added that each input channel features the highest quality 6 band parametric EQ, compressor, limiter, expander and noise gate as well as level and pan controls. Customers can mix all of these input channels together at the same time, or set video sources to audio-follow-video.

“The audio mixer is extremely powerful and it can be adjusted from the front panel using the dedicated audio mixer controls and LCD,” said Caniglia. “Audio mixing can also be done using our ATEM Software Control.”

The company will also show its ATEM Television Studio 4K8 and the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 4K production switcher systems. The ATEM Television Studio 4K8 is a 4K Ultra HD live production switcher with a built-in broadcast control panel. It’s designed as a fully featured live production studio with 8 12G-SDI inputs, 10 12G-SDI aux outputs for external recorders, 4 port 10G Ethernet switch, built in streaming, master recorder, multiview, USB webcam support, 2 DVEs, SuperSource, 4 ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyers, 2 media players, an audio mixer, multiviewer, talkback and (optional) internal network shared storage.

“The ATEM Television Studio 4K8 has 10 independent 12G-SDI outputs that can be used for external recording,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “That’s great for when customers want a high quality solution for multi-cam editing as all outputs are in sync and have matching timecode with full audio mapping.”

The new switcher combines all the broadcast features of the ATEM Television Studio HD with additional support for Ultra HD standards up to 2160p60.

Ross Video (Stand 9.A05) will show the Carbonite Ultra 60, a new production switcher which, among other things, allows users looking to undertake larger, more complex, and more demanding productions to do so without having to spend a considerable amount of money on one of the largest switchers on the market. In addition, the new modular design of Carbonite Ultra 60, combined with the fact that it’s based on a software-defined hardware platform, makes upgrading from HD to UHD easier and even more affordable for customers.

The company said the Carbonite Ultra 60 is an ideal solution for facilities that need the power, affordability, and feature set of the existing Carbonite, but require more inputs and outputs than previously available. The new Carbonite Ultra 60 provides the same I/O capacity in both HD and UHD resolutions.

The Carbonite Ultra 60 switcher supports an I/O of up to 60x25 in HD or UHD. The 3RU frame can be configured as 36x15 and expanded should demand increase. It goes beyond simple layering and transitions to include onboard frame syncs, format converters, multiviewers, and more. Audio mixing and processing capabilities are available with a license key.

“We’ve been on an incredible journey with the development of the Carbonite series, and during this time, thousands of technical directors around the world have turned to Carbonite,” said Les O’Reilly, Director of Product Management for Production Switchers at Ross. “With this latest development, we’re thrilled to be able to offer customers what they’ve been requesting from us—a larger Carbonite frame. Carbonite Ultra 60 is the result of direct feedback from our customers and allows them to continue to create compelling content.”

“We’ve been busy constructing solutions that solve the myriad challenges our industry continues to face while allowing customers to future-proof their workflows for emerging technologies,” said Scott Murray, senior vice president of Marketing at Telestream. “With a focus on ensuring our customers thrive, we’re bringing more products and services to IBC this year than in any time in our history.”

Riedel Communications (Stand 10.A31), along with its full line of Artist intercom systems, Riedel will highlight its expanding video production portfolio. At the stand the company will show a number of products resulting from its acquisition of multicamera live production company SimplyLive. The move has extended the company’s extensive existing hardware-centric portfolio for video transport and processing with COTS- and cloud-based solutions enabling the company to offer new services and deployment models to its customers.

Offering six to 12 HD channels, the new RiMotion R84 features up to four UHD channels and up to eight HD HDR channels, and comes in a compact 2 RU chassis with five 2 TB SSD RAID storage drives. It’s designed to accommodate productions of all sizes, with the ability to network multiple systems and add secondary operators and RC-10 remote control units.

At the IBC Show many products and systems will boast the ability to help users (content creators) to tell better stories and production staff members to be more productive. Once images have been captured, the creation and distribution of these stories starts with the production studio and the various technologies that make it work. The options for how you want to set it up are virtually unlimited.

“The pandemic essentially flipped the industry on its head, and coming out on the other side we have entered a new era of portability with gear that is all-encompassing,” said Blackmagic’s Caniglia, referring to the company’s new ATEM Television Studios. “Our customers need switchers that are portable enough to use in smaller or unique venues that might not have access for equipment racks or broadcast vans, while at the same time having the capabilities of a live switcher built into a broadcast control panel for high end work.”

Other articles in this IBC 2023 'Show Focus' series:

The Broadcast Bridge will be at the IBC Show - Stand 8.F01. Please come and see us, get a copy of our free book on 'Scalable Dynamic Software For Broadcasters' and share your thoughts on what we do and what you would like to see from us in the coming year.