The age of disruption

RTS Television

Adrian Pennington looks at the big technology trends that will dominate September’s International Broadcasting Convention

https://rts.org.uk/sites/default/files/televisionsep15_low-res.pdf

September’s International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) will mark the transition from hype to reality for a wide range of trans- formative new technologies. Attendees of the week-long broadcasting conference and exhibition in Amsterdam will be able to assess the growing impact of Ultra- HDTV, big data and Cloud computing.

It is no coincidence that IBC has themed its entire conference as “The future of media in an age of disruption”.

The hardware to make programmes in the 4K version of Ultra-HDTV is now available, albeit at a hefty price. In the US, DirecTV has announced that it will follow Netflix into making Ultra-HDTV shows for the video-on-demand market. In the UK, BT TV has unveiled BT Sport Ultra HD, the first 4K channel in Europe.

Live 4K production became a practical possibility even more recently, with the arrival of cameras that can slot into existing outside broadcast workflows and use standard zoom lenses. All the main manufacturers – FOR-A, Grass Valley, Panasonic and Sony – have announced suitable models in the course of this year, with BT selecting the Sony version to shoot its live Ultra-HD work.

One element of the traditional camera chain that is still missing in 4K is live coverage from wireless cameras. Existing 4K transmitters are simply too bulky to be mounted on a hand-held camera and the video signal latency (the delay while the signal is processed) is still too great to sync reliably with audio.

But that will change, as it did with HDTV, which suffered the same difficulties in its infancy, and possibly as soon as IBC.

With Futuresource Consulting predicting that 20% of UK homes will have a 4K-capable TV by 2018, a business case can be made for offering 4K content, if only to reduce churn among pay-TV subscribers.

Having made big inroads into media archiving and distribution, Cloud computing is now pushing into non-live TV production. Cloud workflows rely on transporting video as packets of data over internet protocol (IP) networks.

The ability to repurpose and deliver content to multiple screens more efficiently than with the bespoke equipment and tape-based workflows of old has been embraced on an enterprise-wide scale at Italy’s RAI, France’s Canal+ and Disney/ABC. All three companies will share their experiences in conference sessions at IBC.

The last step is live production. No longer an experiment, this is the most fundamental technical change to sweep broadcast in decades. Expect the first IP live production technology to be available to buy on the IBC exhibition floor.

Big data is another buzz phrase that has been translated into genuine TV currency. The traditional, pre-sold, 30-second spot advert is under threat from real-time, automated ad trading based on big data about viewers.

Channel 4, one of the first broadcasters to introduce programmatic advertising, will share its experience at the IBC conference. Twitter will talk about how social media can trigger content discovery to create a new personalised programme guide.

One technology whose transformative potential remains the stuff of speculation, with only conflicting guestimates as to its likely commercial impact, is virtual reality (VR).

Even so, the format’s promise has caught the imagination, and IBC is reflecting this with a series of technology exhibits in its Future Zone, on the exhibition floor, and in the conference. For the latter, the focus is very much on VR – and its sibling, augmented reality – as a new creative storytelling medium.

There’s no doubt that VR content is sufficiently different to conventional programmes for it to be labelled a disruptive technology.

So, too, is the “internet of things”, the machine-to-machine communications network that is just beginning to seep into broadcasters’ business plans. For example, video content streamed to a home could be modi- fied in response to data received from web-connected health and lifestyle- related gadgets in that building.

IBC will look at the threat to traditional broadcasters from content distributed by the likes of Netflix, YouTube and Amazon over the open internet as an OTT (over-the-top) service. One conference session poses the question, “Is video-on-demand the new broadcasting gold?”

Another session asks: “Is OTT simply broadcast rebooted?” The rhetoric behind these is clear. Over-the-top video could simply be broadcasting as we know it from now on.

Ultra-HDTV The pipeline starts to fill

Even before the first generation of Ultra-HDTV – 4K – has had its problems ironed out, equipment for the next generation is on its way.

Ultra-HDTV 8K – offering 16 times the resolution of HD – cameras and post-production equipment are being pushed by vendors such as Ikegami and Quantel. They have one eye on feature film production and the other on the Japanese domestic market.

Japanese broadcaster NHK is committed to adding 8K transmission by 2018, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games will be covered in both Ultra-HD 4K and 8K.

One of the bodies shaping the development of Ultra-HDTV is the Ultra-HD Forum, an alliance of manufacturers that includes Dolby, Ericsson, LG and Sony.

‘Ultra-HDTV is now entering a phase where content, technology and consumer experience have to be aligned,’ says the forum’s President, Thierry Fautier.

The forum is establishing guidelines for the implementation of a broad range of new Ultra-HD technologies.

Abbreviations that we can expect to see stickered on consumer kit in the near future include WCG (wide colour gamut), HDR (high dynamic range), HFR (high frame rate) and NGA (next generation audio.

An indication of the importance of HDR is that IBC has awarded its 2015 Conference Prize to a paper from two BBC R&D staffers, Andrew Cotton and Tim Borer, for their report, ‘A display- independent, high-dynamic-range television system’.

Production Sports producers look for their 10%

The value of sport in driving pay-TV businesses is evident in the recent deals struck by BT Sport, which landed Cham- pions League soccer from this season, and Discovery, which gained exclusive rights to the Olympics in Europe from 2022.

Both will feature prominently at IBC, with President of Discovery Networks International JB Perrette and Delia Bushell, Managing Director of BT TV and BT Sport, giving timely keynotes.

‘[Although] 90% of the technology we use is standard issue and established,’ says James Abraham, Director of Digital Strategy at Sunset+Vine Digital, ‘it’s how you weave in that 10% that makes the difference.’

His company broadcasts the Henley Royal Regatta using rugged, lightweight GoPro cameras on rowing boats and on drones over the Thames.

‘There’s always a lot of new stuff, but the tricky bit is deciding what to use and where to use it in an editorially relevant way,’ adds Abraham.

Gadgets aside, most of the innovation has been in the way in which live sports are presented digitally. Since London 2012, it is clear that the trend is for international sports events such as the Olympics to be consumed less on free-to-air, linear TV than on streams to mobiles, where viewers can pick and choose content, including camera angles, of their choice.

Sports programming that is distributed over the open internet is characterised as an OTT (over the top) service.

The production and packaging of sports offerings such as YouTube channel Copa90 and Whistle Sports (part-owned by Sky) will be discussed at IBC by executives from Major League Baseball and digital consultancy Seven League.

Data More Cloud on the horizon

Cloud computing is beginning to make significant inroads into certain genres of television production.

Two genres that particularly benefit from off-site, scalable computing resources and data storage are news reporting and observational documentaries.

The production workflows that make best use of the Cloud are characterised by the sifting of large amounts of footage to build storylines and the need to get on air fast.

Manufacturer LiveU targets the news gathering market. The specialist in IP-based, live video services is contin- uing to construct its Cloud network for hosting video captured by roving news crews on wireless cameras.

Panasonic camcorders offer a live video uplink to LiveU’s Cloud platform, the same platform used by Sky in May to live stream 150 feeds on election night in the UK.

Forscene and Aframe are among the vendors renting Cloud-based editing and review services to programme-makers. At IBC, film-maker Paul Kittel will explain how he transferred footage direct from camera into the Cloud and whittled down thousands of hours for Channel 4’s Born Naughty? series.

Shooting Drones get their own aviary

One of the most dramatic innovations to enter the mainstream over the past year is the drone. Affordable and (relatively) easily controlled miniature flying machines, coupled with a new breed of small HDTV and Ultra-HDTV cameras, have created a new tool that can capture stunning aerial viewpoints.

But a drone sitting on an exhibition stand isn’t that exciting, so IBC visitors will be able to see them in action in the Drop Zone, a ‘large outdoor flying cage’.

‘Imagine console-type camera angles, such as tracking overhead coverage of a football match or following a golf ball as the golfer hits it,’ suggests Jon Hurndall, co-founder of drone operator Batcam. Fox Sports used drones to cover the US Open golf for the first time this June.

Operators are also testing the practicality of carrying heavier, high-speed cameras, such as the Panasonic Vari- cam 4K or Phantom Flex4K, for super-slow-motion shots.

‘Drones are opening up new sports, such as mountain biking or surfing, which TV has not been able to cover before [as easily],’ says Jeremy Braben, owner of Helicopter Film Services.

IP communication Signal problems cause delay

The migration to Ultra-HDTV production is intimately linked to the IP (inter- net protocol) communications standard that is ubiquitous in the IT industry.

IP is less reliable than the broad- casting industry’s existing connectivity standard, SDI (serial digital interface).

However, a single SDI cable cannot handle the volume of data required by Ultra-HDTV, which, in its 4K incarnation, is at least four times greater than that used in HDTV.

Transporting this data along a single gigabit ethernet cable using IP is a lot more efficient than routing it through four parallel SDI cables.

The trouble with IP in a live television environment boils down to timing. With SDI, engineers can guarantee that video emanating from one source (a camera, say) will arrive in sync at a particular end point, such as a vision mixer. This cannot be said about IP with the same degree of assurance.

‘It is much more difficult to see what’s going on in IP,’ says Tim Felstead, Head of Product Marketing at Quantel Snell. ‘Where SDI routers were very reliable, IP systems are more opaque. This creates risk and a lack of confidence.’

The cost advantages of IP are not limited to the price of cabling. Instead of ripping out and replacing equipment every time there’s a demand for new formats, an IP infrastructure can scale to accommodate leaps in frame rate or resolution, to Ultra-HDTV 8K and to anything beyond or in between.

Another cost saving is live, remote production. At IBC, equipment service provider Gearhouse Broadcast will be demonstrating this by sending HD footage down a single 10Gb ethernet connection and editing the pictures on an IP-enabled switcher from EVS.

‘We’re increasingly being asked about remote production by customers,’ says Ed Tischler, Gearhouse’s Head of Projects. ‘It’s still very early days, but new technology means that we’re now in a position to offer remote production as a workable solution.’

Since live production is subject to on-the-fly changes to complex material – a late-breaking news story that includes a satellite link, for instance – it could be the best part of a decade before risk-averse broadcasters consign SDI to history.

Packed to the rafters

Broadcast 

From Surrey to Scotland, the growth of high-end TV production is driving demand for UK studio space. Adrian Pennington looks at the new space coming on stream.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/features/packed-to-the-rafters/5091989.article?blocktitle=Production-Feature&contentID=1169

Investment at Pinewood and Leavesden, pop-ups and reusable warehouses galore, plus fresh technical developments at established TV spaces have made the options for shooting in the UK far broader than even a couple of years ago.

Traditional studios are expanding to keep up with demand, while producers are becoming ever more imaginative about using other spaces.

“High-end TV drama is driving huge potential for growth in the nations and regions,” says Iain Smith, British Film Commission chair and producer of 24: Live Another Day and executive producer of Mad Max: Fury Road.

“Productions are more interested in the greater value of bespoke spaces than booking into film studios in the main clusters like Cardiff, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester.”

In the year to June 2015, UK production was £1.2bn – £350m down on the previous year, but nearly £100m up on 2012-13. Spend on high-end TV production in the UK in the first six months of the year was £279m across 30 productions including Downton Abbey, War And Peace, The Dresser, Endeavour and Jericho.

Screen Yorkshire, backers of Peaky Blinders and upcoming feature Dad’s Army, has struck a deal with property investor Makin Enterprises to convert a former RAF site at Church Fenton, near Leeds, into a fi lm and TV production facility.

This increasingly busy region already includes Leeds Studios, home to Emmerdale, plus Prime Studios and Studio 81, both of which have supported drama including DCI Banks and The Syndicate.

Now, assuming council approval is granted, the 100,000 sq ft RAF base will be re-purposed as Yorkshire Studios, featuring production and office space with workshops and runways. Its existing hangars have no studio-specific soundproofing or lighting rig, but the two largest ones have load-bearing cranage overhead.

“The focus is on letting the site ‘as is’ and we’ll be working with individual productions to fit it out,” says Screen Yorkshire head of production Richard Knight.

Elsewhere, Corsham Media Park near Bath has been cited for a possible new studio, while Dublin’s Aardmore Studios is reportedly backing plans for a second complex on the west coast of Ireland in partnership with Limerick county council.

Scotland’s studio plans
Scottish production spend reached more than £40m in 2013-14, nearly £10m higher than any previous year. Productions include Leopard Drama’s children’s series Eve, which is filming in a converted 20,000 sq ft building in Glasgow, owned by Scottish Canals.

The first significant sound stages north of the border are gathering momentum. The Scottish Government’s Film Studio Delivery Group is in negotiations with the backers of an unnamed proposal. “We can’t dictate the speed of progress, but it is positive,” says Creative Scotland director of film and media Natalie Usher.

Film City Glasgow has previously tabled a bid to build a studio in Govan. The favourite, though, is thought to be a site adjacent to the Cumbernauld lot near Glasgow, currently occupied by Sony Pictures’ Starz drama Outlander.

In April, US studio executives were given a tour of the facility, which includes four sound stages, and were “hugely impressed”, says Usher.

Creative Scotland has ringfenced £1m towards a new complex, and the Scottish Government has pledged a £2m development loan.

However, this public initiative, which has been stalled for years, may be beaten to the punch by a wholly private £138m venture going through planning permission at Straiton, outside Edinburgh. The Pentland Studios scheme includes a £31m film studio with eight sound stages and a 50-acre back lot.

Could Scotland wind up with two major international studios?

“It’s a potential outcome”, admits Usher, who is also lobbying the Scottish parliament for an incentive fund to attract more international and UK productions.

“Outlander has shown there’s a real business to be garnered in Scotland,” says Smith. “I believe a site will be determined this year but, as things stand, productions are being turned away. The Scottish government needs to step up and give more strategic support to private capital to invest.”

Leavesden Studio: building three sound stages

More space for Pinewood
Long-established studios are scaling up. Pinewood is set to double capacity by 2017, adding 323,000 sq ft including three 40,000 sq ft studios. Phase one of the £200m plan, including stages totalling 170,000 sq ft, 10 workshops and two production offices, is due to open next summer.

Its franchise near Wentlooge in Wales opened at the beginning of the year with three stages (two at 20,000 sq ft, one at 30,000 sq ft) “suited for high-end TV”, says Darren Woolfson, group director of technology. It is also becoming a hub, attracting tenants like Arri Lighting and Real SFX.

FX’s historical drama The Bastard Executioner is shooting there, with a remake of The Crow earmarked to follow. Pinewood Shepperton’s TV division recently hosted Sky 1’s panel show Duck Quacks Don’t Echo and continues to host The National Lottery Live for BBC1 and Keith Lemon’s Through The Keyhole for ITV.

Leavesden Studios is building three sound stages (one at 35,000 sq ft, two at 17,000 sq ft), on top of the 48,400 sq ft sound stage, 50,000 sq ft of workshop space and 62,500 sq ft external tank that owners Warner Bros built there last year.

TV makes the difference
Studio business for TV is more competitive than ever with the loss of space at Wimbledon, Teddington and (temporarily) at Riverside and TVC.

“There’s been a lot of chatter about the UK being at capacity for stage space and that productions or networks may start to look elsewhere,” says Charlie Fremantle, general manager of Hayes-based West London Film Studios (WLFS). “There is a lack of ‘big’ space – 10,000 sq ft plus with 35ft height, which the expansion at Pinewood will address.”

3 Mills head of studio Tom Avison adds: “It’s a case of being busy, but I don’t believe it if anyone says they’re full.”

After catering for Lionsgate’s The Royals, ITV Studios’ Jekyll & Hyde (see page 26) has landed at 3 Mills, along with Big Talk’s third run of ITV2 comedy The Job Lot.

3 Mills’ client base is predominantly drama and film rather than light entertainment, but Avison is considering pumping £10 million into a dedicated TV stage.

“Productions come here because they want the knowledge, expertise and flexibility that an established secure studio can bring over a pop-up space,” suggests Avison. “We don’t have an entertainment-specific stage, so the question is whether we are better off with a slightly broader offer or whether we continue to service our black box facilities, which are in solid demand.”

Remote studio production
The ability to shoot in one location and vision-switch live or post-produce in another is opening up new options for producers and studios. Dragons’ Den is being shot at Manchester’s The Sharp Project with rushes piped across to Dock10 for ingest and post. Sharp offered the greater space the production needed, while allowing the team to maintain post at its previous home in MediaCityUK.

While Dock10 invested in a fibre solution to connect the site specifically for Dragons’ Den, both facilities can tap into Manchester’s thoroughbred fast internet connections. The Loop – 82km of fibre ringing the city – provides the dedicated fibre networks on which Manchester hopes to attract digital business.

“You can shoot here and post in LA, Sydney or Beijing, squeezing two working days into one,” says Sharp managing director Sue Woodward. “This is increasingly important for coproductions and to deliver to multiple distribution platforms.”

The Space Project, which opened in November, has welcomed Sky 1’s Mount Pleasant, BBC2 comedy-drama Cradle To Grave and Paul Abbot’s C4 drama No Offence through its doors. Big Talk Productions’ 10-part Houdini & Doyle (airing on Fox in the US and ITV Encore) has taken two stages until the end of the year.

Operational for just over a year, West London Film Studios has housed Churchill’s Secret (Daybreak Pictures/ Masterpiece for ITV); Sky 1’s Fungus The Bogeyman and Roughcut’s Top Coppers (BBC3).

“We’re taking long-term pencils up to May 2016, which is a marked difference from this time last year,” says Fremantle. “Lead times to actual confirmation of jobs seem to be getting shorter.”

Fast-turnaround shoots
At Elstree, BBC S&PP is keen to cater for fast turnarounds. On Celebrity Juice and Virtually Famous, multiple lighting positions were put into the grid at the same time to speed things up.

“Whereas large-format shows like Strictly and The Voice are so massive they have to sit in the space for their entire run, with classic panel and quiz shows we can record more episodes using the same studio footprint,” says BBC S&PP commercial manager Meryl McLaren.

Over The Top Productions and ITV Studios’ game show Keep It In The Family is back in Elstree’s 11,800 sq ft Studio D for a second run and will keep all its post at BBC S&PP too.

On renting space at Elstree in 2013, BBC S&PP splashed out on turning what were essentially four-wallers into a true TV studio with galleries, floors and monopole lighting rigs. The next big investment will be for equipment at the new-look TVC, due to open in 2017.

“Decisions will be made as late as possible to ensure we get the best possible solutions,” says McLaren. “Any kit investment we make from now on will have 4K in mind, so that we can react to that when demand comes.”

On top of the live finals for Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor, Fountain Studios has recently booked quiz shows including ITV Daytime’s 1,000 Heartbeats from Hungry Bear – a result of Riverside dropping out of the equation, believes managing director Mariana Spater. The gap between enquiries and bookings has narrowed, she says: “We’re getting enquiries for programmes coming in to book in a month’s time.”

While the studios are constantly refurbished, Spater is reserving her next major investment for 4K.

YOUNG, FREE AND SINGLE: HACKNEY’S LIVE DATES

In E4 dating format Young, Free And Single: Live, a group of 20-somethings move into a ‘singles apartment’ and go on blind dates.

Lime Pictures shunned a formal studio for something more comfortable. “The space is intrinsic to the format,” explains executive producer Derek McLean. “When we did the pilot, it felt natural to give the participants the same experience as the viewer, instead of going back to a formal studio for live feedback.”

The production team hired a converted warehouse in Hackney, part-fitted for loft-style habitation already, dressed the set and turned the living room into a studio floor for the live show. A neighbouring church hall houses a small audience, while a local pub makes for a handy date night venue.

Cameras inside the building are provided by HotCam with CTV supplying the OB facility for TX.

“Studios can feel so sterile,” says McLean. “While the facilities are amazing, you lose a lot of atmosphere; it feels very controlled. Getting a format like this outside the studio relaxes an audience. The show feels more open and producers have the freedom to think more flexibly about, for example, using cameras in outside spaces.”

IMAGINARIUM STUDIOS: CAPTURING PERFORMANCE

Performance-captured characters have remained beyond the scope of TV budgets, but Ealing-based Imaginarium Studios, co-founded by actor Andy Serkis, aims to change that.

It has established a post-production pipeline with Soho facility DNeg TV to produce performance capture for TV drama, beginning with Sky 1’s Fungus The Bogeyman. “

Shooting performance capture is not expensive,” says Imaginarium chief executive Tony Orsten. “What is complicated is rendering and working with the data. We wanted to find a way to deliver quality performance capture and full CG at TV prices. We think what we are building will be a revolution in TV storytelling. We’ve shown tests to a number of commissioners and they are extremely interested.”

In its studio, dozens of Vicon cameras are arrayed around a space, recording data from markers placed on actors’ bodies.

More than one camera can ‘see’ more than one marker at a time, allowing precise geolocation of each joint on an actor’s body. From there, it’s a simple process to build a skeleton and overlay a digital skin.

Faces are captured using a head-mounted rig of one to four cameras and post-produced in the same fashion. The delay in rendering the digital avatar is only a frame or two.

“People expect a render farm of servers doing this overnight, but it’s pretty much real time,” says Orsten.

“Since we shoot from every angle, the actor experiences a freedom more like theatre. They can perform scenes with an ensemble cast. We assemble the scene into cutaways and close-ups, reframing in post.”

STARGATE STUDIOS: VIRTUAL BACKLOT

Delivering high-end visual effects on a TV budget is the goal of Stargate Studios, but its secret weapon is a library of high-resolution live action backgrounds into which it can insert CG, 3D set extensions and actors.

The LA-based facility is able to cut costs by farming work across its network of operations in Berlin, Malta and Ealing, where it launched earlier this year.

Working Title TV and Bigballs Films’ 10 comedy-part drama You, Me And The Apocalypse for NBC and Sky 1 is using Stargate’s virtual backlot.

For a scene in which the US President drives a bullet-proof car through the Blue Ridge Mountains, Stargate sent a team to Virginia, including a drone crew, to shoot background plates. It added a 3D car in post with photo-real light reflections. The actors were shot against green screen at Stargate London and composited into the scene.

“This process costs less than 20% of what it would to shoot on location,” says Stargate founder and chief executive Sam Nicholson.

Stargate funds the cost of background shoots to own the right to reuse the elements in future productions. It performed a similar routine when hi-res imagery of London shot five years ago was used in a recent episode of NCIS.

“If you achieve the correct balance between 3D photo-real elements, virtual environments and live performances you end up with the most economical and high-quality solution,” says Nicholson.

Ericsson Plans 5G Showcase at 2018 Winter Olympics

Streaming Media 

As the Next Generation Mobile Networks consortium works on 5G standards, with wide availability projected for a decade from now, Ericsson says it will highlight the technology at the PyeongChang games in three years.

http://www.streamingmediaglobal.com/Articles/News/Featured-News/Ericsson-Plans-5G-Showcase-at-2018-Winter-Olympics-105898.aspx

Not content with rolling out 4G LTE, mobile operators are switching their attention to 5G, the next global standard, and possibly the last major network upgrade.

Some operator plans are advanced, despite standardization having barely begun. Ericsson for example says it expects to “showcase some 5G-based scenarios during the summer and winter Olympics during this period. Not coincidentally, South Korean city PyeongChang hosts the 2018 Games in a country which is pumping $1.5 billion into a 5G network it will switch on in just two years time.

Initial work has started on 5G standards under the operator consortium Next Generation Mobile Networks  (NGMN). The NGMN has provided a consolidated operator view of 5G in its whitepaper and created several technical groups to flesh out the vision outlined in it. The NGMN will act as a feeder body for its requirements to the ITU Radiocommunications Sector (ITU-R) and third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) initially, and other consortia (e.g. TMF, IEEE) as the need to do work in these are identified.

Initial deployments of 5G-based solutions are expected around 2020, with trials in the 2018-2019 timeframe.

According to the UK's Digital TV Group, the 5G process is gaining global momentum and receives a strong political support and funding from governments and the European Commission.

The ITU is developing a set of requirements for IMT-2020 and will provide additional spectrum at the WRC conference in 2019.

“This would enable the first 5G-compliant equipment to be available around 2020,” says George Robertson, Principal IP Engineer of DTG and co-chair of the Mobile Video Alliance.

At the Mobile World Congress in March, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said the biggest challenge the industry faces with 5G is the extreme number of use cases.

According to Ericsson, 5G is not simply a next-generation mobile technology upgrade (like the transition from 2G-3G-4G) “but an enabler for a whole range of scenarios affecting multiple industries from media and transportation to automotive, industrial, security, and so on.”

UK mobile operator EE is about to begin 5G trials of its own. Matt Stagg, EE's Principal Strategist, and a mentor for the 5GIC project at Surrey University, says “Bandwidth is not limited but 5G may yield a perception of limitless bandwidth because you will always have enough for your purpose. This could be the connected car, remote surgery, or holographic projection. 5G is not a new air interface. It is best understood as a ecosystem which a lot of people, not just mobile operators, are exploring.”

To make those concepts possible, the attributes of a 5G standard will likely include ultra-reliability and ultra-resiliency, GB throughputs, and latency as low as 1 millisecond.

“It means unicast with peak data of more than 10Gb/s, a more consistent user data rate of 100Mb/s at the cell edge and it means a massive increase of network capacity by moving to higher frequency ranges,” explains Dr Helmut Schink, head of telco standards at  Nokia Networks. 

The focus of 5G delivery is on edge computing, a transformation of the current architecture of the internet. It means transferring processing nearer to the application into local cells and away from centralising data in data centres or on cloud servers. This will free up the network which may otherwise be blocked by the sheer amount of traffic passing over it.

“We will see some big changes in content delivery from the cell side itself because it makes economic sense, it doesn't use backhaul, will lower latency, and frees up other parts of the network,” says Stagg.

One area 5G is not expected to address is broadcast. That's because the capabilities for mobile and video broadcasting are already possible with LTE Broadcast and will be further enhanced by the evolution of LTE in the next few years.

“Standards are being developed by 3GPP for LTE-based services for either unicast or broadcast distribution of TV programs,” states Ericsson. “5G is not essential for such services. Higher frequency spectrum bands in 5G and new radio beam forming technologies are expected to offer ultra-dense deployments at GB throughputs for applications that require such capabilities.”

Nokia's Schink agrees that “multicast and broadcast is not a key focus of 5G.”

According to Robertson at the DTG, the expected capabilities of 5G technology would “certainly be sufficient for the delivery of linear broadcasting to mobile devices” but it remains to be seen to what extent and when they will be deployed in the real networks.

“From the perspective of both the public service media and the commercial providers 5G will need to be assessed in a similar way as other delivery platforms,” he says. “That is, not only on the basis of its technical capabilities, but also reach, costs, market potential, and gatekeeping issues.”

For all the excitement, 5G is not likely to be a mainstream service until 2025.

V-Nova Gains Traction; Will Publish Performance Tests at IBC

Streaming Media

Perseus technology is in use for contribution feeds for Sky Italia; company says it accommodates greater color depth and higher dynamic range in addition to offering efficiency gains. 

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Compression specialist V-Nova says it will publish performance tests for its codec working on Ultra HD streams at IBC next month and says it has 8K compression tests in the works.

The London-headquartered developer, which came to prominence in April after five years of R&D, has generated considerable buzz with its claims of a technology that more than halves the bitrates necessary to deliver Netflix-style Ultra HD content to the home.

The company says it is working with a number of operators to trial and evaluate Ultra HD using its Perseus codec.

"The technology has incredible range from 8K to sub-SD and everything in between," said Fabio Murra, SVP Product & Marketing. "8K 120 fps is what will make the technology really stand out."

Streaming Media has requested twice to review Perseus, but the company hasn't agreed yet, so we asked V-Nova for baseline numbers claimed for the latency and bitrate of its compression scheme.

"Those numbers are difficult to give without the context," replied Murra, who spent seven years in product marketing at Ericsson before joining V-Nova last September.

"The headline is that our technology is capable of delivering UHD at HD rates and HD at SD rates and SD at sub-audio bitrates," he added. "This is correct, but it's a combination of factors, partly compression performance and partly the ability of our codec to behave fundamentally differently compared to existing standards."

He added, "We have re-written our codec from the ground-up."

At NAB and several demonstrations since, V-Nova has shown streaming of UHD 25p video at bitrates of 4-6Mbps for IP streaming applications.

"For a truly immersive experience, we have demonstrated the ability to do UHD 50p or 60p at 11-13Mbps," said Murra. This is about 50% the current benchmark set by HEVC live encoders, he claims, in reference to channels that are available and on air now.

"However, we are not saying that Perseus is 2-3x times better than HEVC in pure compression performance or under all conditions," said Murra.

Key to claims made for Perseus is what Murra calls its "continuous hierarchical adaptability." The "V" in the company's name is symbolic, he said, of an inverted pyramid representative of the core technology.

"Perseus' hierarchy means that it contains all levels of quality (LOQ) within a single stream and it can move between LOQs seamlessly, on a frame-by-frame basis," he explained. "This effect, which we call 'continuous hierarchical adaptability,' effectively eliminates the typical MPEG 'knee' and its nasty blocking artifacts for a more gentle, softer, pleasant picture degradation as bitrates are reduced. Operators can therefore move from extremely cautious operating points to lower ones, while maintaining a great user experience. It means, subjectively, the picture degrades a lot more gracefully, the picture doesn't break or block, so we can push the bitrate a lot lower."

In theory, what such a 'hierarchical architecture' means is that an operator can avoid simulcasting by carrying UHD, HD and SD at the same time and all at different frame rates if required, in the same stream.

"Every operator has to deliver SD, and HD and, in the future, Ultra HD," he continued. "They must simulcast these streams to different screens which becomes very inefficient. Having scrapped the single stream paradigm we are able to build a hierarchical structure which allows us to push the encoding envelope a lot harder. A Perseus UHD stream effectively carries the HD and SD feed, and HD streams include the SD equivalent. This effectively eliminates the need for simulcasting and its another important benefit beyond raw compression performance."

Sky Italia is the company's first deployment of Perseus in contribution, where feeds are brought back from stadiums from live productions to the broadcast centre at a latency measured at 3 frames, according to Murra, "and at a level of performance which is visually lossless and 30-50% better than an equivalent technology like AVC Intra or JPEG2000.

Middleware vendor Wyplay has also integrated Perseus into a STB for an unnamed European pay-TV operator.

"Things get better as data gets bigger—so there's a lot better performance with 4K," stated Murra.

V-Nova is currently testing its codec on 4K Ultra HD content ahead of publishing the results at IBC next month. "We are testing the delivery of 4K UHD content in visually lossless mode at 300Mbps," Murra said. "There is no benchmark out there, but if we can achieve this it means that all of a sudden we can route three UHD 4K feeds down a 1Gbps pipe to the home. It means delivery of Ultra HD content from a live event over IP becomes possible."

SD video could be delivered at 300Kbps, making it possible to provide mobile television over 2G networks.

Murra emphasises that Perseus fits within existing transport systems. "What comes out of our system is still wrapped around an MPEG2 transport stream. None of the infrastructure is really changing. It's just a software update at the encode and decode end."

If Perseus' qualities really do get better as things get bigger, the logical next step is surely 8K.

"Perseus is designed to support native 16-bit so it will already accommodate higher dynamic ranges and greater color depth," confirmed Murra. "Looking forward, 8K 120fps is what will make the technology really stand out. If we can get a 2x performance in HD, a 3-4x performance in 4K then one can only imagine the gains we can make for 8K. Again, there is no benchmark, but we are doing some experiments. The most difficult thing is getting hold of 8K content to work from."

An obvious tie-up might be with Japanese broadcaster NHK, which is experimenting using HEVC/H.265 for contribution and distribution.

One of NHK's partners in creating optical gear for Super Hi-Vision is Hitachi Data Systems, a partner shared by V-Nova. It provides V-Nova with server and storage systems.

"While we are experimenting with technology we are still very focused on solving real world problems for operators today," stressed Murra.

V-Nova's licensing adds to the potentially costly mix of proprietary codecs already competing in the market for HD and Ultra HD (including in the live video over IP domain the IntoPix' Tico Alliance; J2K; Sony Low Latency Video Codec; and the open source VC2).

"HEVC is a standard only because the industry decided to give a number and a name to it, but it includes single ideas from many different companies, many of whom are trying to monetise their piece," says Murra. "There are open source codecs which have no licensing but operators are nervous about adopting those because of intellectual property exposure. We offer the chance to licence one technology from one company, and we are trying to be as accommodating as possible. But we do have IP (intellectual property) and the codec is our business."

V-Nova was founded in 2011 by Guido Meardi (CEO), Luca Rossato (chief scientist), Eric Achtmann (executive chairman) and Pierdavide Marcolongo (angel investor).

OSN: The Battle with Digital Media is Over

IBC

The CEO of Dubai-based UAE pay-TV network OSN reveals OSN will launch an Ultra HD channel in 2016. He believes mainstream TV is far from dead and that OTT is not a threat but an exciting opportunity. 

“The battle with digital media is over,” he says. “We are delivery systems for content.”

David Butorac spoke to IBC ahead of his keynote at IBC2015. http://www.ibcce.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=360/listID=2

At IBC2015 you are keynoting the topic 'Broadcasting in an era of Challenge'. How do you respond to that idea?

The industry is going through one of its most exciting phases ever. I am old enough to have lived through the day when the introduction of multi-channel shook-up TV. Sky pretty much revolutionised the UK landscape with multi-channel broadcasting in an era of four free to air channels (Butorac was a Head of Operations and Station Manager at BSkyB). As broadcast has evolved with digital technology our ability to distribute content to consumers has become an increasingly complex business. So I don't see challenges, I see only opportunities. As broadcasters we need to ensure the delivery of content to consumers and that hasn't changed. What has changed is that this is now driven by consumer demand rather than them being dictated to, as to how and when they watch.

OTT has previously been pitched as a threat to traditional broadcast, yet at IBC2015 it appears we have reached a tipping point where OTT is mainstream since broadcasters have embraced it.

I agree. But let's be clear: mainstream TV broadcast is nowhere near dead. Viewership on free to air across MENA, and certainly on our platforms, is increasing. TV is thriving and particularly so with massive investment going into creating spectacular content. 

When you have directors the calibre of Martin Scorsese creating TV shows like 'Boardwalk Empire' (for HBO) and the success of series like 'Game of Thrones' and 'House of Cards' there is an amazing amount of stunning content in the pipe.

The key is making sure the broadcaster is able to adapt to deliver that. OTT is not a threat. Quite the opposite. It is an opportunity. We developed two OTT platforms at OSN including OSN Plus HD for online viewing and OSN Play, our TV anywhere product which are going from strength to strength.

The concept of broadcast doing battle with digital media is long gone. Ultimately we deliver meaningful content to consumers and the technical means to distribute is just an enabler. We are delivery systems for content.

How important is it to reach consumers on mobile devices in MENA?

There are a number of key demographic and use patterns in MENA which have to be born in mind. One is that 65% of the population is under the age of 35. That's a huge, tech-savvy group. The second is that until after the first Gulf war there was very little international content broadcast in the region. Access to international quality content is still a relatively new thing. You couple that with an extremely tech savvy young demographic – most usage of mobile phones anywhere in the world is in Saudi Arabia – and it means a voracious appetite for content and information on devices.

The mitigating factor is that the level of broadband - wired or wireless - is relatively infant in this region and not universally available in terms of high bandwidth. There is a huge opportunity in this region for content over mobile and it's a space we need to be in, but the region has a content piracy problem and the consumer is still coming to terms with the concept of paying for content, as opposed to receiving it for free. 

You made headlines with your comments at IBC Content Everywhere MENA when you galvanised the industry into action on piracy. What efforts are being made to tackle the issue?

This is a problem the whole industry faces. We are tackling it fairly successfully with a consortium of international content supplier, satellite providers, broadcasters and others. Piracy manifests in many ways. On satellite, we've seen a reduction of 47 TV channels taken off air that were causing concern. There are also significant levels of overspill piracy where legitimate operations like Dish TV operate illegally by selling in this region and we are taking steps with regulators and judiciary to clamp down on that. There are piracy threats from OTT and IP providers outside the region going through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and piracy from bitTorrent use. We have to continue to clamp down on all of these and make the case that this is hurting not just our business as broadcasters but having an economic impact on the region. Piracy is a fight we will never finish fighting. 

When will OSN make a move into Ultra HD?

Ultra HD is the next step but we've no content at the moment. As much as TV manufacturers are selling UHD screens there is only HD to watch. But we are mindful of Ultra HD as an important new consumer experience and we will launch an Ultra HD channel in mid 2016. We are engaged in conversation with lead contractors for the creation of the platform and also with content providers. Like all new technology it is a chicken and egg situation. We need to have content available to drive the market. This region is unique in that all TV distribution is done on satellite, not just pay TV, but terrestrial is free to air too, so access to bandwidth becomes an issue. We will all need more bandwidth for Ultra HD.

How can the region's original content production for international sales be ramped up?

Content creation in the Arabic language has historically concentrated in Cairo and Beirut. Like other broadcasters in the region we invest in that content. Our number one channel and the leading channel one in UAE, is an Arabic language entertainment channel.

What the region has done is build world class facilities in Studio City and TwoFour54. The issue is the skillset. People don't go to Pinewood Shepperton just for the high-tech facilities but for the craft skills of talent in the UK.  That's what we need to focus on in MENA. There is investment in building up fresh and new content and indeed western studios are starting to invest in Arabic language content which is an indication of the sales potential for original content produced here.

Will OSN air the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar?

We have a strong sports portfolio including the Rugby World Cup, of which we will air every game. We also show cricket, having signed with the ICC for world cricket rights for the next 8 years and major golf.

One of the idiosyncrasies of this region is that we have sovereign backers of key broadcasters who pay an uneconomic amount for rights (such as Qatar's sponsorship of Al Jazeera). The amounts paid to air the FIFA World Cup, English Premier League, La Liga or Champions League are way in excess of those that can be returned because the broadcasters acquiring those rights are not doing it for economic reasons. I am not prepared to do that.

David Butorac is a keynote speaker at IBC2015 on Thursday 10 September ‘The Future Is Now – Broadcasting in an age of challenge.’

Ten things you need to know about IP before IBC

IBC

Video over IP for live production is set to be the most pressing issue at IBC2015 and the months beyond. At stake, a new methodology for transporting AV data from site to plant, in and around a studio and live to air. The reasons are many and include promised costs savings in a move to COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) technology, speed to spin-out new channels, a scalable path to resolutions of 4K and anything else the industry throws at it, and new techniques like remote production.

http://www.ibcce.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=351/listID=2

IBC will be buzzing with video over IP. Here are some pointers which may help put the noise into context:

• IP reaches tipping point: IP will not just be hot news at IBC Content Everywhere Europe but across the wider IBC exhibits and IBC Conference, signifying that IP has reached a turning point. IP workflows already impact storage, archive, contribution and distribution. The last step is live production. No longer an experiment, this is the most fundamental technical change to sweep broadcast in decades. Expect the first IP live technology ready to buy on the IBC show floor.
   
• Re-skilling is not to be underestimated. Ripping out base-band SDI is not for the faint-hearted. Who wants to move from a proven technology where everyone knows what a signal is doing, and where it is in the chain, to an environment that some people feel is as yet unproven and in which everyone understands new skills are required? “If you've been working in SDI for thirty years and all of a sudden it's based on servers, this requires different skill sets,” says Adam Cox, Head of Broadcast Equipment, Futuresource Consulting. “The lack of skill sets are a big barrier to IP live.”
   
• Does IP live switching work? Yes, says Imagine Communications: “We are saying that the interaction feels the same as it did when audio/video was run over SDI.” Not yet, says Quantel Snell.  “Where SDI routers were very reliable with straightforward verification of what was happening, IP systems are more opaque. This creates a lack of confidence.” The industry decides at IBC.
   
• SMPTE 2022-6 is a short-term solution: SMPTE 2022-6 is the first incarnation of realtime video over IP and the standard on which most manufacturer's starter IP kit is based. However, 2022 is a mirror of copper-wire SDI functions in Ethernet form and is a way of easing the transition to IP for broadcast engineers. If you want to freely mix and match different camera, metadata or audio streams – the prime advantage that IP offers - then a new standard is required. SMPTE and the Video Services Forum are among those working on it. Expect demonstrations from next year.
   
• The codec conundrum: While HD 1080p can fit snugly down 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections, working in 4K UHD will need mezzanine compression. But which to choose? Contenders include IntoPix' Tico Alliance; J2K; VC2 and Sony's Low Latency Video Codec. Using multiple proprietary codecs, however, might negate much of IP's supposed cost-savings.
   
• The net result is interoperability: Standards are either not common enough or are proliferating, neither of which is suitable for the cross-vendor interoperability with which IP should match SDI. For a successful implementation of IP it is important that one standard is adopted to allow interoperability between systems. The industry needs scale to reduce costs and that will not be achieved with closed vendor specific solutions.
   
• Weigh the velocity of Moore's Law: IP connections capable of 40GbE and 100GbE are already out of the labs and will eventually reduce in price. But where SDI routers are based on a price per port, IP routers are typically based on amount of bandwidth. You can put video over IP unconstrained in bandwidth but the cost of doing so quickly becomes an issue, especially at 4K. 
   
• Migration to IP is more compelling than Ultra HD. In practical terms there is a relationship between IP and 4K but a move to IP is not predicated on 4K. The increased bandwidth requirements of 4K production means choosing between the relatively clunky use of 3G-SDI bundles, looking towards higher bandwidth SDI (12G-SDI or above) implementations or moving to high bandwidth Ethernet technologies. Most organisations are using 3G-SDI as a stop gap while planning and evaluating the Ethernet options for the future. 
   
• SDI isn't dead: Broadcasters could still upgrade with SDI, the roadmap for which includes a 24G standard capable of 4K at 120 frames a second. It is likely that SDI islands will remain for at least a decade. After all it took 11 years since introduction of the first file-based media in 2003 for sales of tape to be erased in the professional European market.
   
• Broadcast vendors have a crucial role: Estimates of the broadcast routing switcher market run to about $300 million; the IP switch market exceeds $12 billion. Broadcast equipment vendors need to adapt their technologies to IT and not the other way around, but they are also set to play a crucial role as the interface between broadcast engineers and new IP methodologies.

Driverless cars, 8K and 4D haptics at the IBC Future Zone

IBC

A driverless car, VR from a single camera and tools to automate post-production are some of the eclectic highlights united at the IBC Future Zone, a unique gallery among IBC's main Exhibition Halls. To whet your appetite for a visit, we take a peak at this year's Zone which has been divided into three theme areas. http://www.ibc.org/page.cfm/action=library/libID=14/libEntryID=107/listID=2

What is Reality? 
This is where visitors can immerse themselves in the worlds of augmented and virtual reality video, experience the intensity of 360° news footage, and discover new sensations with synthetic touch (haptics) and ‘4D’ exhibits. 

San Francisco start-up LiveLike is present, showcasing a prototype application that delivers a 'best seat in the house' virtual reality experience for live event broadcasters who aren't keen on investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment.

LiveLike is showing its exclusive VR prototype developed with major international football teams. “Our product requires no special equipment, simply one fish-eye lensed camera. Even a Go Pro would work,” explains founder Andre Lorenceau.

BBC R&D will take you on a Oculus-based immersive tour to illustrate its approach to a future IP-based production infrastructure. IP provides an opportunity to make object-based media and entirely new content experiences.

Audio is a critical component of VR storytelling and navigation which is where Two Big Ears comes in. Imagine being able to hear a monster growling right behind your ears, or watch a music video where the singer’s voice reacts to where you are looking. 360 VR films allow you to look all around, not just in front, and the Scottish developer's technology ensures that the audio is equally interactive.

“We not only do spatial positioning of sounds, but also recreate important acoustic cues to give a better idea of the space the user is in, as well as other effects such as occlusion using geometry analysis of a virtual environment,” explains CEO Abesh Thakur.

International Innovations
Ground-breaking technologies that are changing the way consumers around the world are accessing and engaging with new content have been brought together into this exciting  area. And what can be more exciting than riding in a driverless car around the RAI while watching TV? That's in store for any visitor who visits automotive manufacturer Tata Elxsi.

Though passengers might have experienced fairly advanced infotainment systems in aircraft, the experience of a 'moving living room' is unique. The vehicle is much smaller, movement is much more perceptible, and the absence of a driver adds to the illusion of being in a home-like environment. What will you make of it?

The Connected Media EU cluster in the Future Zone is presenting the results of four projects that could shape the future of television. The SAM EU project aims to integrate social media, content syndication and digital marketing into a single, universal and open framework.  BRIDGET is developing an underlying architecture to enhance programmes with links to external interactive media elements; web pages, images, audio clips, free-viewpoint video clips, and synthetic 3D models. It calls these links 'bridgets'. LinkedTV aims to weave TV and web content into a single, integrated experience. It is watching news and getting background information on the stories; it is seeing a painting in a TV show and identifying the artist and the museum where it hangs. LinkedTV makes this possible - and cost-effective - with its platform which is the result of 42 months of R&D in pan-European, cross-company collaboration. 

The BBC launched a public facing audience testing platform called Taster earlier this year that gives viewers a chance to sample the sort of interactive and personal content that they could expect as mainstream in an IP-enabled broadcast environment. BBC R&D are ready to share the first results of the trial in the Zone.

Perfect Pixels 
Increased pixel resolution, faster frame rates, higher dynamic range, wider colour gamut ... what can these techniques really achieve in terms of picture quality and the consumer’s quality of experience? 

A pair of EC-funded projects will reveal the results of research into improving the efficiency of post-production workflows. 3FLEX is intent on streamlining 2D and 3D workflows by using depth information with the latest results demonstrated on Mocha and Mistika platforms; Autopost is all about improving the efficiency of labour-intensive visual effects tasks. “We are especially targeting small and medium sized facilities which may not have the resources to either develop their own in-house solutions or use very specialised and expensive green screen, motion capture or rotomation techniques,” says Project Manager, Monica Caballero.
The algorithms will be refined based on industry feedback ahead of delivering a market-ready solution. The project partners in each case are Eurecat, imcube labs, SGO, Imagineer Systems and Fraunhofer HHI.

A tour of the IBC Future Zone would not be complete without a visit to one the perennially popular exhibits. NHK returns to give visitors a chance to see and hear the latest developments in 8K Super Hi-Vision and 22.2 channel audio. These include sequences of tests shot at Wimbledon and the FIFA Women's World Cup this summer and a new High Dynamic Range (HDR) treatment of the format viewable on a new HDR-enabled 85-inch LCD panel.

If you thought 8K broadcasting by 2020 was mission impossible then think again. Japanese group NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) has a R&D project that intends to establish media processing technologies that can transmit ultra-high-definition video surpassing even 8K - in five years time.

Specifically, it is investigating an immersive telepresence technology called Kirari!, which is a technique for directly transmitting not just the images and sounds of players at a live sports event but also the environment and therefore the 'emotions' in which the game exists.

Transport yourself to the IBC Future Zone and glimpse the future for content in our home, our car and our workplace and of the very latest ideas, developments and disruptive technologies in the industry.