Broadcast
Cloud and IP, content and metadata through to smart use of automation and AI, IBC2019 is all about the ‘supply chain’
If recent IBCs and NABs are a guide then expect the trajectory of core postproduction tools to move further into the cloud enriched with time saving automation. The most common AI applications are facial and object recognition, speech to text and enhanced metadata tagging.
Avid’s ‘reimagined’ Media Composer is its biggest redesign in 15 years. it supports Netflix’s mastering and delivery requirements including the ACES (Academy Color Encoding System)
Tasks that previously took hours can now be done in minutes, claim Avid of a new distributed processing module. Avid NEXIS Cloudspaces effectively extends local offline storage into Microsoft Azure.
Adobe is speeding workflow using AI. In After Effects, a new content-aware option automates removal of objects like boom mics, signs and even people from footage and fill in the pixels with neighbouring pixel data to complete the scene.
Blackmagic Design’s latest DaVinci Resolve features a cut page tool to speed editing of fast turnaround projects. An upper timeline shows the entire programme while a lower timeline on the same page shows the current work area to avoid users having to zoom in or out. An AI/ML Engine uses facial recognition to automatically sort and organise clips into bins based on people in the shot.
8K ecosystem widens
Indicators for 8K will be spread all over the floor at IBC2019. Both Avid and Resolve software can handle 8K finishing (Avid even claims 16K).
Indeed, it’s the new must-have appendage for vendors (see also AI). The greater data overhead can help render higher quality visual effects or deliver more information to the final image for cinematographers wanting to mix resolution, aspect ratios, and sensor size.
Drama, like mini-series Trust, are increasingly shot at higher than 4K resolutions and more general programming is following suit. 4K channel Insight TV is shooting some content in 8K, including segments of Car Crews with Supercar Blondie, starring social influencer and car nut Alex Hirschi.
Blackmagic Design identifies the corporate video comms market as early adopters. It announced a flurry of 8K capable solutions including the ATEM Constellation switcher earlier this year.
“What’s most important for us when we talk about an 8K product is that it’s inherently available for 4K as well,” explains Craig Heffernan, technical sales director EMEA. “It’s a future proof workflow that enables anyone to test or implement 8K workflows based around UHD budgets and planning, and allows us to provide a foundation to build tools for customers leading the industry into 8K content production.”
The format will also find a home in live production for techniques such as region of interest—extracting 4K or HD images from a single 8K one.
“The benefit is that 8K offers a more personalised experience with a high quality of experience compared to other approaches where the zoom leads to fuzzy picture,” says Thierry Fautier, vp, video strategy at Harmonic which will present results of its 8K over 5G demonstration at the French Open at IBC2019.
Full frame imaging
The crop of large-format digital cinema cameras and lenses continues to grow. Bigger and better sensors are becoming easier to produce - though price is still a factor. Full-frame sensors offer better depth of field control and image quality, particularly in low light situations.
An inexpensive new option is on verge of launch by lens maker Sigma. Touted as the world's smallest and lightest full frame mirrorless (i.e electronic shutter) camera, the Sigma fp will record 12-bit CinemaDNG raw in 24p 4K. It’s got the virtue of a point and shoot camera with the trappings of a cine quality imager and is compatible with Sigma and Panasonic lenses.
Rival options include Sony’s Alpha 7R IV, shipping around IBC for about U$3500 and capable of recording 4K up to 30p. Sony says the 61 Megapixel sensor makes it the highest-resolution full-frame camera it has ever introduced.
Look to Chinese vendor Z Cam for release (post IBC) of full frame 6K and 8K versions of its E2 modular cinema camera. The E2-S6 sports a 26MP Super35 CMOS sensor paired with either a Canon EF or ARRI PL mount. It can shoot UHD 4K 60p and will cost a budget friendly U$3,995.
Harmonising OTT and TV
A new initiative intended to standardise the delivery and presentation of broadband and broadcast delivered television is being put before the industry at IBC.
DVB-I, from cross industry consortium DVB, aims to do for OTT what it did for digital TV. Namely, to enable broadcasters to deploy common services across a wide range of devices and to enable manufacturers to save costs and offer a single consistent user experience for all video services.
“We are not early – but I don’t think we are too late,” says Peter MacAvock, DVB chair. “The OTT march is fully underway and DVB-I is designed to provide the type of standard and rigour to the OTT sphere that DVB brought to digital TV.”
Specifications include the integration of channel list so that all broadcast and IP services are discoverable and a low latency mode to ensure that the overall delay for live OTT channels is the equivalent to broadcast, potentially down to fractions of a second.
Silver bullet compression
Debate continues about the merits of codecs to succeed HEVC for streaming video with cost as much a consideration as compression quality.
The chief contenders are AV1, developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM) and Versatile Video Coding (VVC), an MPEG-led standard.
In tests earlier this year, BBC R&D found that compression gains from VVC far exceeded that of either HEVC and AV1 but at the cost of processing time. It also found that AOM has significantly reduced AV1’s computationally complexity.
VVC could cut bandwidth requirements in half over HEVC and is considered the silver bullet to make 4K and even 8K fly.
“For an economic broadcast of 8K television the industry needs VVC,” says Thomas Wrede, vp new technology & standards, SES Video.
However, there are question marks about the licence costs of AV1 and VVC which the Media Coding Industry Forum is working to clear up. In the interim, MPEG has fast-tracked development of MPEG-5 EVC as a royalty-free codec competing directly with AV1.
With the race to standardise EVC and VVC due next year, at the time AV1 is set to mature, there will likely be a photo finish.
Interoperability - more important than ever
Spme form of IP production tool can be found on most booths but there appear two competing systems: the ST 2110 family of standards and NewTek’s NDI.
“The reality is that we’re unlikely to have a single IP solution,” says Ian Wadgin, senior technology transfer manager, BBC R&D. “What we need is a way for the two systems to interoperate and pass content between them.”
A broadcaster may use ST 2110 in their studio environment but have NDI in their live news production workflows where more compressed workflows are important to deal with less than optimal connectivity.
The answer might lie in NMOS (Network Media Open Specifications) enabling an NDI source to appear on a ST 2110 matrix and vice versa.
Since NewTek was acquired by VizRT in the industry’s most dramatic M&A this year, eyes will be on this integration.
“Convergence of the two systems would be welcome and means that the right tool will be available for content producers whatever their requirements or budget,” Wadgin says.
Vox Pops
The entire value chain for 8K needs evolving. If you look at 8K cameras, particularly for ENG type applications, the selection is very limited. Not all post production tools are set up to deal with 8K. Then there’s storage. We’ve started producing projects in 8K, not necessarily to build up the library, but because we want to understand where we need to adapt the workflow chain from production through to delivery. Rian Bester, CEO, Insight TV
The next big thing promises to be shooting in ‘Full Frame’. However, the choice of cameras available to cinematographers is very slim and with the exception of DSLRs, all are very expensive with a gaping hole in the middle. We have a sneaking suspicion that some manufacturers will launch professional Full Frame cameras to make this new format available to the mainstream. Barry Bassett, managing director, VMI
As television continues its transformation into an era of universal IP delivery, the resilience and quality of experience of broadcast must be maintained. Understanding emerging developments in hardware and software, together with a view on how these might be implemented by the television device sector are critical if the viewer experience is to be protected, and industry and government are to derive the maximum economic and social value of the unique opportunity that lies ahead. Richard Lindsay-Davies, CEO, DTG
Having recently migrated our content to the public cloud, our IBC exam question is around how we use this opportunity to help our viewers discover even more UKTV content and to enjoy it when and where they want it. Simple but smart, nimble products that can easily plug in to our existing ecosystem will fit the bill nicely. Sinead Greenaway, CTOO, UKTV
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