Game of Thrones Season 8: Battling the pirates

IBC

You can close the betting now. Outlasting every pretender for the right to rule, the winner from Emmys to BAFTA in 2020 will be a Westeros lock-out.

https://www.ibc.org/content-management/game-of-thrones-season-8-battling-the-pirates/3722.article

Already the most Emmy garlanded drama show in history, the insanely popular TV franchise is valued by some analysts at north of $1 billion. Naturally, the season’s end game has been closely guarded but even the most ironclad measures are unlikely to prevent it from being the most pirated series ever.

Four episodes of season five popped up on pirate sites before official transmission and another set were hijacked in 2017.

IP Echelon (now owned by Vobile), the Australian anti-piracy company used by HBO for season seven, monitored torrents and issued thousands of warning letters to ISPs but that didn’t prevent over a billion illegal streams, according to monitoring firm Muso.

Even the cast during filming of season eight had to learn their lines from firewall protected iPads, not printed scripts.

According to Joe Dempsie (who plays Gendry) the security extended to any information about shooting. “During the whole course of season seven and season eight I have never laid eyes on a shooting schedule," he told the Express. “Your filming dates are on a need to know basis. You don’t get hard copies of scripts anymore. They are all on this special app. Which are triple locked.”

Secrecy was amped up even further for the sixth and definitively final episode, helmed by showrunners David Benioff (also a writer on sci-fi feature Gemini Man) and Daniel Weiss.

Filming was so top secret that only crew members wearing a special Episode six badge were allowed on set with some scenes even shot on a closed set.

Battle for WinterfellThe one aspect of the production that has been allowed to be publicised is designed to guild the show’s epic narrative.

Each of the final six episodes reportedly cost in excess of $10 million and aside from S8 episode one’s tame 54 minutes run time, episodes three-six are super-sized, clocking in at a feature length 80 minutes.

Among these will be an immense battle decider at Winterfell which will take up most of an entire episode. Indeed, the episode’s director Miguel Sapochnik, says the aim was to outdo the record 40-minute long Helm’s Deep siege in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

He says he studied Peter Jackson’s film to determine when the audience would get “battle fatigue” from too much hacking and slashing.

“It feels like the only way to really approach it properly is take every sequence and ask yourself: ‘Why would I care to keep watching?’” the British director told Entertainment Weekly. “One thing I found is the less action — the less fighting — you can have in a sequence, the better.”

This battle to end all battles is the final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living where heroes including Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) all join forces.

“The [GoT battles] I’ve done previously [‘Hardhome’ and the Emmy-winning ‘Battle of the Bastards’] were generally from Jon’s perspective,” Sapochnik explains. “Here I’ve got 20-some cast members and everyone would like it to be their scene. That’s complicated because I find the best battle sequences are when you have a strong point of view. I keep thinking: ‘Whose story am I telling right now?’”

The episode required 11 weeks of night shoots, apparently exhausting to cast and crew. Sapochnik wanted to shoot continuously in one location rather than split the shoot over time and into multiple green screen segments which is common for creating action scenes in blockbuster movies.

The producers agreed. “When you have rapid cutting you can tell it was all assembled in post-production,” Benioff says. “That’s not the show’s style and it’s not Miguel’s style.”

“What we have asked the production team and crew to do this year truly has never been done in television or in a movie,” co-executive producer Bryan Cogman told EW. “This is completely unprecedented and relentless and a mixture of genres even within the battle. There are sequences built within sequences built within sequences. David and Dan [wrote] an amazing puzzle and Miguel came in and took it apart and put it together again. It’s been exhausting but I think it will blow everybody away.”

Epic VFX, epic campaignSuccessive seasons have gone from conversational scenes in relatively low budget studio sets, to increasingly monumental VFX-extended location shoots with legions of white walkers and plenty of dragon time.

The VFX work load is now comparable to that of a Marvel film with facilities in Canada, UK and New Zealand landing significant creature or environmental shot orders from supervisor Joe Bauer including Rhythm & Hues, Rodeo FX, Method Studios, The Third Floor, Image Engine, Weta Digital, Pixomondo, Zoic and Dublin’s Screen Scene (which is owned by NEP).

All of this hyped secrecy cleverly adds to the multi-million dollar marketing campaign building to episode one which airs globally on April 14.

HBO’s orchestration included hiding six Iron Thrones around the world for fans to find, a team up with American Red Cross for a blood drive campaign called Bleed For The Throne and tasking artists to re-imagine 18 props from the show.

Sky (now Comcast)-owned streaming service NOW TV gave fans the chance to receive Game of Thrones themed tattoos. All of this was promoted on Facebook. Even the fountain in front of Las Vegas casino Bellagio has been turned into a light and sound stunt.

This is nothing new. In December 2017 Belfast International Airport was temporarily re-named as Westeros Airport.

GoT Production HaloNorthern Ireland is arguably the main beneficiary of the series success, even more so than HBO which under new parent AT&T must now seek to fill the hole left in its schedule.

Previously renowned for documentaries and with no history of large drama productions, the region has been transformed.In the decade since HBO shot the pilot in Belfast to the final day of filming in September 2018, it is no understatement to say that the film and TV industry in NI has been revolutionised.

“It is no secret that we hope Game of Throneswill do for Northern Ireland what Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings did for New Zealand,” states local film and TV trade and funding body NI Screen. “With a much longer shelf life than the majority of films and an expanding worldwide reach and penetration, Game of Thrones has real potential as a driver of tourism. It is possible that the series will deliver the widest media exposure Northern Ireland has ever received outside of politics and the troubles.”

Belfast’s Titanic Studios (including main GoT stage the Paint Hall) and Harbour Studios are among the largest soundstages in the UK.

“The level of investor confidence required to build these multi-million pound stages could only have been achieved through such a cinematic television project as GoT and its potential to provide stable work flow for a number of years,” insists NI Screen.

The GoT halo has raised the profile, skill levels and work load of location scouts to costume designers across Northern Ireland.

The estimated value of HBO’s investment to the region by 2017 alone was £206 million – not a bad return on just £16m in NI funds.

That doesn’t include a potential ‘prequel’ to the Westeros saga (working title The Long Night) being shot by HBO as a pilot at the Paint Hall from source material by GoT author George R.R. Martin and filmmaker Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass).

“Our hope and expectation is that HBO will remain in Northern Ireland for many years yet,” says Richard Williams, CEO at NI Screen told Broadcast.

“Arguably the most significant change lies in the perception and credibility of Northern Ireland, in London and particularly in LA.”

From being Northern Ireland’s first major foreign drama production in 2009 GoT has propelled the region to the A league. NI Screen expects to host three even four major projects to invest there between now and 2022.

HBO has fuelled demand for GoT by keeping distribution off competing SVODs like Netflix and Amazon and even clamping down on second hand sales of past series DVD collections on Amazon’s retail site. Exclusivity of series eight (alongside distribution on long standing partner platforms like Sky), plus the Jane Goldman-penned sequel and potentially three other fantasy series at various stage of development will drive the launch of AT&T’s WarnerMedia SVOD label later this year.

While GoT characters slug it out over the next few weeks, HBO’s longer term battle for the small screen has only just begun.

Craft Leaders: Natasha Braier, Cinematographer

IBC

The filmmaker’s principal job is tell a story but the conventions of narrative can be a straitjacket for those like cinematographer Natasha Braier who believes in experimenting.

https://www.ibc.org/production/craft-leaders-natasha-braier-cinematographer/3714.article

“I consider myself more an emotional poet than a narrator, in a way, so I tend to gravitate to the filmmakers who also have that approach,” says Natasha Braier ASC ADF. “You can be more poetic with the image and let the viewer complete the picture.”

The Argentine cinematographer has tended toward edgy or lyrical material for directors including Sebastián Lelio, Lynne Ramsey and Nicolas Winding Refn.

“I’m attracted to someone with a strong visual personality because I feel with them that I have the freedom to do something more visual and poetic and less tied to conventional storytelling,” Braier says.

She’d made up her mind to be a cinematographer by her late teens. An early interest in photography translated to a passion for film and after her family relocated from Buenos Aires to Barcelona when she was 18, Braier began to study for a career by taking a Masters at the National Film and TV School in Beaconsfield, UK.

“We were encouraged to take 16mm cameras out at the weekend and shoot whatever wanted,” she tells IBC365. “We had all the resources to experiment with but on an artistic level I felt like an alien there. Perhaps I was too experimental. I felt a degree of frustration at the time but looking back, it was an amazing foundation.”

She graduated with a showreel and started to look for an agent. “The first year was not so easy, there wasn’t much work. I kept doing lots of short films for not much money. Then the network of connections that you’ve built up over the years starts growing and people start getting proper jobs. I did about five shorts a year and survived on shooting commercials and music videos.”

Her break into features came with Glue a coming of age drama shot in Patagonia and directed by Alexis Dos Santos, with whom she had made several shorts at Film School. The film won awards at film festivals in Rotterdam and Buenos Aires and was praised for its visually striking look.

That led Braier to shoot two films in 2006: En la ciudad de Sylvia directed by Catalan art house director José Luis Guerín, and XXY directed by Argentine Lucía Puenzo, which won Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival Critic’s Week.

“After that I came back to London and was lucky to work with one of my favourite British directors, Shane Meadows. Somers Town was initially meant to be a short film but ended up a feature.” Largely shot in black and white the film won the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh IFF in 2008.

She went to Lima to shoot La Teta Asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) directed by Claudia Llosa which addressed the fears of abused women during Peru’s recent history. It became the country’s first Oscar nominated picture (for Best Foreign Film) and Braier spent a period travelling there afterwards.

“Sometimes I might choose a project that’s going to take me to live in a country for a few months so that I can really get to experience a culture and a way of seeing the world from the inside.”

Braier’s reputation from her days at the NFTS as a “revolutionary anarchist Argentinian” brought her to the attention of former student Lynne Ramsey : “People said we were both rebels.”

The director made contact with the budding DP and asked her to lens short film Swimmer which Ramsey made for the 2012 London Olympics.

Ramsay sent Braier a treatment for the film, along with a compilation of music she wanted to use and reference images as a starting point.

“The treatment was a piece of art in itself, with poetry and links to click so I could listen to these British songs she wanted to use. This was quite impressionistic, based on feelings.”

Neon Demon
Perhaps the apotheosis of this approach to date is Braier’s co-creation with Danish director Winding Refn on concept horror Neon Demon in 2016.

“I accepted the job without reading the script because I respected Nicolas as an artist as someone committed to taking risks,” she says. “That is important to me too. I’m not interested in safety. I want to improve myself and express myself and get out of my comfort zone as an artist without fear of failure.

“Whatever that script was, I was going to have a very interesting journey.”

Superficially about the perceived shelf-life of feminine beauty, it would be fair to say Neon Demon caused uproar among critics even by the standards of its provocateur director (Pusher, Only God Forgives). The story has Elle Fanning’s 16-year-old ingénue model go to LA and is first shocked then corrupted then consumed by Hollywood’s haute couture.

The Telegraph dubbed it the most offensive film of the year for being “openly ridiculous” in its blood-drenched portrayal of necrophilia and stylised body horror, at the same time praising “its polished to a glistening marble sheen.” It horrified Cannes audiences too, which is exactly what Refn intended.

“Nic is dealing with very current issues but in a poetic and abstract way,” Braier defends. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t get it. Personally, I found the process of working with him really liberating. It re-awakened the anarchist side of my personality.”

Rather than being dictated by budget, the film’s low $5 million cost allowed them the freedom to experiment. Braier’s bold approach is evident in its vivid colour palette which alternate from blue to lilac and turquoise to bright pink and blood red.

“Shooting chronologically allowed us to discover the movie’s visual language as we went along,” she explains. “As the movie becomes more insane and more surreal, I found myself more and more able to reflect that visually and to let go of all conventions of narration.

“There is still a storyline that you are submitting to, but it was liberating to be free of having to follow certain rules. I’m very grateful to Nic for letting me experiment and get out of my comfort zone without fear of failure.”

Honey Boy
Braier’s latest project is Honey Boy, directed by Alma Har’el and written by and starring Shia LaBeouf about a child actor’s relationship with his hard-drinking father.

“I was drawn to this really profound and powerful story of healing and finding your identity, which are perhaps themes which I’ve returned to again and again in my work. The story is Shia’s way of exorcising his demons, but it means a lot to Alma too and its honesty was something I was attracted to.”

It’s not a surprise to learn that Braier’s parents are psychotherapists “but then everyone in Argentina is a shrink or goes to one” she says.

 “In my first decade as a filmmaker I was influenced by directors like Jean Luc Goddard and Andrei Tarkovsky as well as poetic cinematographers like Jean-Yves Escoffier (Mauvais Sang) and Chris Doyle (In The Mood for Love). You are absorbing everything that stimulates you. But as I get older, I’m finding a deeper connection with myself and channeling more of my own experiences into interpreting what I do.”

Braier is often asked about being a woman cinematographer but perhaps the more interesting question to ask of any cinematographer is how they see the world. Does she feel there is such a thing as the female gaze, in contrast to the theory that the history of art has been dominated by male depictions of the world?

“When I’m working for any director, it’s my gaze at the service of their gaze,” she says. “This is the person who hired me to help them realise their ideas visually. Nicolas has a very objectifying, masculine gaze in Neon Demon but every artistic collaboration on film including on this film is the result of what each person brings.”

She elaborates, “I am the sum of being a woman and an Argentinian, of having the trauma of migration to Spain when I was young away from my friends, of moving to LA, of love stories and heart breaks and family issues just like everyone, of travel around the world, of living in the jungle and experimenting with drugs. I am the result of every page of the notebook of my life, but every artist is that too.

“I don’t believe women see the world differently only because of their gender, just as men do not. Cinematographers do not only identify with their gender or their nationality or their race. It’s the very experience they’ve lived up to the moment they turn on the camera.

HFR: Ang Lee's Gemini Man leads high frame rate resurgence

IBC

The jury is out on the aesthetic qualities of high frame rates (HFR) for cinema but the technique seems an inevitable part of the future theatrical experience.

https://www.ibc.org/production/cinema-tech-high-frame-rates-take-a-bold-leap-forward/3730.article

The latest attempt to break HFR into the mainstream is Gemini Man which is released on October 11. Ang Lee’s sci-fi action thriller film stars Will Smith as an elite assassin who is pursued by younger clone of himself.

It is being made in 3D at 120 frames per second with Lee convinced that HFR can create a smoother, more natural look and a more comfortable way to view 3D. At this moment the format remains exotic and is seen by many people as a distracting gimmick – if it is seen at all.

There’s good reason to suspect Gemini Man will achieve greater success than any previous high frame rate movie. While, the number of theatres equipped to playback 3D at 120fps worldwide can be counted on one hand, that’s about to change thanks to a new technology pact encompassing production through exhibition tied into the opening of Paramount’s film.

Up to 100 new projection systems capable of showcasing the film at 3D 120fps are to be installed in cinemas across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, followed by additional countries.

Dubbed the Cinity Cinema System, the Huaxia, Christie and GDC collaboration encompasses production, postproduction, distribution and projection. It includes a jointly developed projection system that will use a new model of Christie’s dual RGB laser projection configuration, combined with a new media server from GDC that can play back 120fps per eye, or 240fps.

Announced at exhibitor’s trade fair Cinemacon just before NAB, the tech alliance concerns not just projection but a film lab to help filmmakers research, test and shoot in the format. Ang Lee is among consultants to the service.

Lee, also speaking at Cinemacon, said: “This is the beginning of something new in the cinema. I don’t just want to see movie images - I want to experience them. That’s a dream I’ve been pursuing since Life of Pi.”“At present, technical challenges along the industry chain are mostly linked to projection…with the application of HFR and other technologies as the bottleneck,” Fu Ruoqing, chairman of Huaxia Film explained. “By entering into strategic partnerships with Christie and GDC Technology, Huaxia Film will work closely with them to remove this bottleneck. By combining art with technology, we will deliver more forms of artistic presentation to the shooting and production processes to improve movie production, create a differentiated and high-end market, and keep movies alive and competitive.”

He urged other filmmakers to participate and help show HFR’s potential to audiences. Lee said, “It’s a different mindset and you have to create something new for it."

The technical drawbacks to HFR are being cracked and more filmmakers including James Cameron are likely to follow Lee’s lead. Arguably what is missing is audience familiarity with what is admittedly a disconcertingly vivid experience which Gemini Man’s cinematographer Dion Beebe has told IBC365 is like looking through a window.

The film will also likely be released in a number of other versions including at the high frame rate of 60fps which thousands of projectors worldwide are capable of playing back.

PLF formats launchA 3D 120fps theatre is just one of many technologies cinema exhibitors are investing in in order to attract punters with a superior viewing experience. Such Premium Large Format (PLF) screens typically include advanced sound systems and upgraded seating and are considered the future of cinema exhibition.

Among the latest entrants is THX, the business founded by George Lucas, which plans to unveil its THX Ultimate Cinema in the US then globally this year. THX is working with Cinionic, a cinema joint venture of Barco, CGS and ALPD. Cinionic offers a dual-Barco laser projection system that delivers 4K resolution images.

Another competitor in the premium large format (PLF) space is Dolby Laboratories, which offers its Dolby Cinema experience.

PLF screens reached a total of 3,372 worldwide in 2018 according to IHS Markit, with IMAX the market leader with a 64.8% share. Other PLF brands include CGS (mostly in China), Dolby Cinema (more than 190 screens worldwide) and Screen X.

Another new PLF system known as Sony Digital Cinema launches this year. It includes Sony’s dual 4K laser projection, HDR, Dolby Atmos sound and recliner seating. The system will cost over $1 million per screen, reports IHS Markit.

Most PLF feature high brightness laser projectors but new displays with LED or direct view technology are coming on stream. The leader is Samsung which has more than 34 installs of its DCI-compliant Onyx Cinema LED display. Sony also makes LED screens and is thought to be planning to launch a version for cinema, potentially for its own PLF.

New at NAB: The cloud gets crowded

IBC

NAB 2019: The cloud allows for revolutionary gains in speed, flexibility, and collaboration, with the industry on a fast track to deploying workflows with Google, Microsoft and Amazon. So it’s little wonder that NAB has been awash with new launches based on cloud technology.

https://www.ibc.org/delivery/new-at-nab-the-cloud-gets-crowded/3736.article

Video workflows for sports, news, film and entertainment are moving rapidly to the cloud and NAB was awash with ways to achieve it.

There are many benefits for doing so but Intel’s Lynn Comp summed it up best in a keynote delivered at NAB.

In future, she said, media will become a building block for a set of “intelligent visual experiences” that go way beyond content streaming to the TV. “We move from a world of passive consumption to something that is much more interactive and immersive. In addition to traditional media processing and delivery, the agile, flexible visual cloud encompasses workloads such as analytics, immersive media, cloud gaming and graphics.”

It’s no coincidence that Intel has termed its cloud service ‘visual cloud’ of which Comp is the general manager but her point is salient.

The intense competition for new SVOD services from AT&T, Disney and Apple versus incumbents Amazon and Netflix will shift from conventional high-end unscripted and drama shows into new immersive storytelling formats such as 360-degree and augmented reality. These will be produced in ever-more visually stunning cinematic ways with higher resolution, HDR and high frame rates.

Netflix’s burgeoning slate of nonlinear programming is a prime example. Bandersnatch should no longer be considered an experiment, more like a future of entertainment in which programming will be made and delivered in increasingly personalised, contextual and just-in-time ways.

And Cloud? It’s the only way to handle the massive increase in data.

The hosts
Google, Microsoft and Amazon were everywhere at NAB. You’d be hard pressed to find a vendor in storage, asset management, video acquisition, playout and more which does not have its kit plugged into one or more of them.

Google fielded John Honeycutt, formerly CTO of Discovery and now heading up Google Cloud as vice president of telecommunications, media and entertainment.

Honeycutt has been tasked with getting film studios, distributors, and telcos to shift their workflow to Google Cloud. MediaKind is one customer which has launched Cygnus 360º-as-a-Service for anyone wanting to process live 360º video at up to 8K resolution. “By integrating our products with Google Cloud, we are opening up production in the cloud to new global markets where cost and ease of integration are big factors in deciding which solution or product to choose,” said CEO Angel Ruiz.

Amazon is the biggest media player in this area with more than 60 companies on the NAB show floor demonstrating what they are doing with AWS. It offers facilities the ability to deploy a creative studio in the cloud for VFX, animation, and editing workloads. Machine Learning (Amazon ML) and AWS Elemental Media Services process sports content to extract metadata with activity and object detection for enhanced live sports coverage. Demonstrations at NAB incorporated automated highlight clipping and on-screen graphics creation.

Unlike Amazon and Google, Microsoft wants to be seen as a little more independent. “We’re not in the business of content creation or content ownership,” said Sudheer Sirivara, General Manager, Azure Media. “We want to provide platforms to help content creators and owners achieve more.”

Enhancements to Azure include a new cloud rendering service, content delivery network (CDN) optimisation and more AI capability umbrellaed under its Video Indexer.

Intel is the new kid on the block, using NAB to announce the Open Visual Cloud. Intel described this as an open source project with reference pipelines for CDN transcoding and video ad-insertion on launch with VR, interactive raytracing, and cloud gaming to come.

Storage, transcoding, transcription
Most media companies will come into contact with the Cloud first to accelerate storage capacity. We need to become familiar with terms like hot storage, which keeps media in the cloud ready to go in an instant. It’s like the term online for on-premise storage and is distinguished from a ‘cool’ storage tier (nearline) for material accessed less frequently. Archive is archive but this too is about being the best fit for the data centre.

Quantum claimed its most significant product launch in more than a decade with a new storage line based in the Cloud. Its F-Series of flash drives are run on Quantum’s own Cloud Storage Platform to support performance-intensive workloads like UHD editing and rendering. It comes with Quantum’s file system StorNext which offers things like data protection and an automated tiering of data to optimise storage capacity.

XenData teamed up with Wasabi to offer a hybrid cloud archive service. The joint Cloud File Storage Service is operated by Wasabi, a cloud provider that sells storage services compatible with Amazon’s S3 storage platform, with pricing from $0.01 per GB per month based only on the volume of data stored in the cloud and no charges for uploads or downloads.

Content providers and posthouse have a choice to make when it comes to investing in storage options: expand more on premises capacity; offload everything to the cloud or maintain a hybrid of the two. The latter is seen by many as a sensible halfway house in which content can be managed locally or by a cloud provider of choice, with users in control of what content should be stored where.

 “Traditional storage platforms can’t meet the scale, intelligence or cost efficiencies needed for today’s media workflows,” reckons Jon Toor, CMO at storage vendor Cloudian. It has paired with Telestream to overcome this obstacle by plugging Telestream Vantage’s automated metadata tagging, search and analysis tools into the Cloudian HyperStore platform. Vantage provides services such as auto-transcription and captioning, keyword analysis, and QC automation.

Broadcast metadata and transcription specialist Take 1 launched Take 1 Cloud, for video transcription workflows. The standard features of this product enable broadcast and production companies to use a web-based interface to transfer video assets, add comments or instructions for specific projects or media files, monitor the status of work in progress and retrieve completed outputs.

For clients with ongoing contracts or high volumes of work, the platform’s features automate large parts of the workflow. It can automatically scan and transcode clients’ video projects as soon as post is completed and, when transcription or localisation services are requested for these projects, automatically trigger the associated tasks.

Broadcast engineering stalwart Evertz has launched what it described as a collection of on-demand and ‘pay-as-you-go’ cloud native services for broadcast customers. Evertz.iO is a serverless system (at least in so far as the servers are virtualised in the cloud) and will offer services such as technical metadata generation, content moderation, audio transcription, scene detection and text detection applications, the company explained. It has partnered with Interra System to offer automated QC in the cloud.

Production in the Cloud
Production in the cloud is still in its infancy, yet new capabilities are quickly evolving out of this technology.

Avid NEXIS Cloudspaces, for example, effectively extends local offline storage into the cloud using Azure. “Instead of resorting to NAS or external drives when budgets are tight, Avid NEXIS Cloudspaces offers a way to offload projects and media not currently in production,” explained Jeff Rosica, Avid CEO.

Forbidden Technologies has also added Microsoft Azure to its own cloud video platform Blackbird, a move which is said to increase the speed of cloud workflows such as viewing, clipping and publishing video online. Among companies already using Blackbird on Azure is Deltatre, which uses it to accelerate delivery of live and on-demand video highlights to sports fans.

Collaboration across geographic boundaries is one benefit of a cloud-based approach. Intelligence in the form of metadata-aware or AI-driven media asset management software can be layered on top. Storage and MAM vendors have been tying the knot to offer such a combined product.

iXsystems, for example, has partnered with media asset management specialist Cantemo to offer iXsystems’ storage line running with Cantemo’s cloud video hub, Iconik; Forbidden Technologies has allied its Blackbird cloud video platform with Xytech’s facilities management software.

“Bringing talent to known creative hubs such as Los Angeles, New York or London’s Soho is not a cost-effective cure for facilities,” said Andy Liebman, founder, and CEO, EditShare. “They need to be able to [gain access to] talent wherever they are located and, if need be, bring them into the creative process remotely.” EditShare’s Flow MAM targets this problem and boasts cloud-based workflows in Azure, Google, S3, Wasabi, and Backblaze.

Wireless links developer Dejero was showing the ability to bring AI to live content by hooking IP video links into Microsoft Azure via its video encoders and receivers. Once in Azure, metadata tagging, facial recognition, and speech-to-text functionality is enabled using Microsoft’s Media Services Video Indexer, with the result spat out to newsrooms keen to introduce automation to save time and reduce costs.

Sony thinks news organisations, and ENG crews in particular, are ready to move to the cloud. It is offering its Ci cloud processing platform and XDCAM Air content acquisition tool. Content can now be transferred via wireless transmission directly out of the camera into Ci. Other new features include algorithms for object recognition and speech-to-text technology to help eliminate manual logging and transcription processes.

Sony has also developed a mobile app called XDCAM Pocket that “turns any phone into a cloud-ready XDCAM camcorder”. With it, users can stream content shot with smartphones back to base over mobile networks.

Playout in the cloud
Broadcasters are shifting to IP-based workflows and embracing the cloud for full scale channel operation.

“Broadcasters at NAB have a particular interest in the ways cloud virtualisation models can help them pursue new avenues in a ‘test-bed’ environment,” says Kris Barker, Head of Product Development, Satellite & Media at Arqiva. “They will explore these future cloud-based systems, looking for the virtualisation services that offer the flexibility to rollout new channels quickly and affordably, and the scalability to pull them down when those habits shift.”

Qvest Media has new range of cloud package for live event production, post production, archiving, disaster recovery or playout. Qvest.Cloud, for example, is for companies that want to efficiently orchestrate, manage and monitor their media technology, either on-premise, with a single cloud provider, in a multi-cloud environment, or using a hybrid model.

M2A Media used NAB to discuss Dynamic Content Insertion, a development based on public cloud technology that allows live event streaming content to be localised without the need to run multiple local playout systems.

Telestream believes that currently, service providers and content aggregators are turning business away due to not being able to create channels quickly for short-term events. Its Channel-as-a-Service Optiq collapses months of installation and preparation to minutes. One scenario sees content providers that want to have the choice of which cloud provider to use: many do not want to be tied to a single provider or want to migrate away from or de-risk their current provider, but simply do not have the choice. The intention is that OptiQ will support most major cloud providers, in addition to on-premise data centres at a later stage.

AV with Chinese characteristics

AV Magazine

In 2022, Beijing is set to become the first city in the world to have hosted both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games. The games will be held in February when the city’s average temperature is well above freezing. Not even the nearby Yanshan Mountains are expected to have enough snow. Previous Olympics in Sochi and PyeongChang augmented the real thing with man-made flakes but China will fulfil its vision of a ‘Joyful Rendezvous upon Pure Ice and Snow’ with more fake stuff than any event before it.

https://www.avinteractive.com/features/territory-features/av-chinese-characteristics-08-04-2019/

You can take that as symbolic of the ‘can do’ attitude of a state transforming itself and the global economy (along with the planet’s climate) with the most ambitious manufacturing programme the world has ever seen.

A recent downturn in growth and an accumulation of debt (running 254 per cent in 2017 according to the IMF), may be unnerving some economists but has hardly put a brake on AV investment.

“We’re seeing explosive growth in the pro AV market across China,” reports Robert Stacy, Asia Pacific GM at AJA Video Systems.

According to the 2018 AV Industry Outlook and Trends Analysis summary by AVIXA, the local industry will be worth U$230 million by 2023.

“The AV sector is very progressive and has grown substantially over the last decade,” says Ellen Shi, marketing manager for China at visualisation products vendor, disguise.

Growth is being driven by a number of factors including mega-scale infrastructure projects; cultural changes in education and entertainment; the rise of esports and wireless 5G; and a continued evolution of smartphones and the internet.

“All of these developments are setting the stage for new opportunities, while at the same time encouraging industries to embrace audio and video, and to upgrade from traditional, legacy mediums to digital,” Stacy says.

Brandi Zhu, country manager for Kramer Electronics, says the pro AV boom in China began about 10 years ago when a majority of AV solutions were foreign brands. “Now, there are more and more Chinese brands which have grown fast and become strong brands in the past few years. The Chinese market is very diverse now, and the competition is also very fierce. To remain competitive in this market, a company has to develop various new products aggressively to match multiple market needs.”

Market preconceptions
Two preconceptions tend to dominate ideas of doing business in China. That it’s a price driven market with local brands likely to undercut foreign imports; and that there’s a necessity for overseas firms to actively collaborate with a Chinese one on the ground.

Michael Austin, director of sales (APAC) at Datapath, says Chinese customers have a ‘good enough’ attitude towards products and solutions. “They tend to be primarily interested in whether a solution works ‘well enough’ and can meet the primary technical requirements, rather than whether there are additional features and functions that could improve usability or simplify solution setup. That said, there is certainly a smaller number of high-end projects where customers demand the best regardless of country of origin.”

Foreign AV firms are likely to struggle to compete on price with local products that can, at a basic level, accomplish some of the same technical tasks.

“There is usually openness towards foreign products, but the actual interest level and likelihood of buying will depend significantly on whether there are any acceptable or comparable local alternatives,” Austin says. “It is essential to identify your product’s unique capabilities, distinguish between those that attract interest rather than being deemed ‘beyond what is good enough and therefore just adding cost over local solutions’, and then actively promote the former,” advises Austin.

In most cases non-Chinese pro-AV companies are achieving “small to medium-sized business” in China, he reports, through distribution or through small local teams working with distribution and/or system integrators. “Investing in a local team essentially requires joint investment with a local Chinese company,” he adds.

“Naturally we are keen to promote our own brand, but most of what we broadly categorise as Command & Control’ – but can include utilities, telecommunications – are government projects. In some cases the videowall controller effectively must be ‘made in China’.”

Local vs imported product
Most observers agree that it’s a fiercely competitive landscape. “Consequently, it is important to innovate, remain price competitive and ensure you provide excellent support,” says Stacy.

That sound advice is not necessarily unique to China, of course. Another truism common to most markets is that the smaller the technical gap between local products and imported ones, the more that local support could become an issue.

“Even if a potential customer likes your product, they may select a local competitor with a less attractive product simply because there are more staff available for remote or on-site support,” says Austin. “Ensuring your distribution partners, OEM customers, and/or local team has adequate technical support expertise, and that they can directly provide this support directly and/or train their downstream partners in turn, is essential to ensuring end customers reach the necessary comfort level in buying your product.”

Kramer entered the China market a decade ago and has its own direct branch with sales and technical teams in the country. AJA’s strategy involves a strong distribution channel and reseller network, along with a social media presence on platforms, such as Weibo. Disguise opened a Shanghai office last year and has a reseller partner in Beijing. It also reaches customers through WeChat, a local language website, user manuals, support, and training.

“We’ve also seen the pro AV market, including major companies within that space, expand rapidly because of the increasing spending power and rising numbers of young consumers,” says Shi. “Gen Z have more spending power, are early adopters and keen learners. Social media is raising the demand for visually impactful entertainment, as more immersive entertainment experiences are gaining attention on social media sites.”

Disguise has supported projects including an Omega brand event, Hermes projection mapping and Jessie J concert touring as well as events at the Nanjing Opera and the National Games of China.

AJA sees similar growth in live events. “If the market seemed limited to government-based projects, recently we’ve seen major growth across all sectors as more streaming platforms – such as Tik Tok, Kuaishou, QiY and Youku – have come online,” says Stacy. “More sophisticated raster sizes, frame rates and deep colour workflows, including HDR, have become highly sought after for live events prompting greater demand for low latency signal connectivity.”

Mega-city AV
Unsurprisingly, most of the large, tier one system integrators are based in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou because many of the large government projects for broadcasting, utilities and so on are driven from these locations. Meanwhile, the LED industry is centralised in Shenzhen, the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the global LED industry. Among them Chainzone, Novastar, Yes Tech, Absen, Unilumin Group and Leyard.

“These LED companies have become better and better at marketing their LED panels in overseas markets,” notes Austin.

Many of the most recognised Chinese technology brands such as Huawei, Tencent and ZTI also have their global headquarters in Shenzhen, “providing a large talent pool of trained engineers and sales professionals,” says Alex Couzins, head of brand and marketing, Absen.

Provincial city growth
Provincial capitals don’t miss out though. Chengdu, Hangzhou and Nanjing exhibit fast economic growth and increasing incomes, which means AV growth too.
“Even the most remote regions are rapidly expanding in the pro AV sector, with more access to innovative technology due to an increase in entertainment venues being built in new cities with an aim to bring multiple populations together,” reports Shi.

Command and control
National security is an important concern in China. Datapath expects the overall pro AV market to grow steadily, highlighting city surveillance projects that involve massive numbers of IP cameras. “Recently China has been placing more effort on – with some success – exporting such solutions to markets outside of China,” Austin says.

For the government and security market, policies have a significant impact on demand, reports Zhu. “The government wants to support Chinese brands, so the proportion of domestic equipment used is also growing substantially.”

For the business and corporate vertical market, she reports that customers prefer AV solutions to be “simple to configure, efficiently serviced over its lifecycle and easily managed by software.”

This year alone some 35 theme parks will open in the country, according to Zhu. “China is becoming the world’s largest theme park market. Hotels (often adjacent to theme parks) are another huge opportunity market for the pro AV industry.”

Absen spies demand for e-gaming. Its LEDs were used to create a four-sided LED display for the finale of esports tournament G·League 2018 which took place in Shanghai this January. Each side measured 16m × 9m, hung 20m above the floor and were the biggest yet for a tournament in China. The displays were used for livestreaming the game and for enhancing the fan experience.

Large-scale infrastructure projects continue to consume AV technology across the country to keep up with the explosive growth of China’s megacities, and the impact this has on the city’s energy, transportation and emergency services requirements. Couzins, for example, reports “a big spike in demand for Smart City control and command centres”.

A good example is the Longgang Operation Centre in Shenzhen, allegedly the world’s largest curved narrow pixel pitch LED screen “and one of the most technologically advanced control rooms,” he says. With a record-breaking 103 million pixels covering a 167 sq m surface area and a pixel pitch of 1.2mm, this LED videowall has the highest pixel density ever achieved (at the time of installation).

“This reinforces China’s position as a market leader, never afraid to employ or invest in the latest AV technology to achieve or meet a specific market need,” Couzins asserts.

The newly established Xiong’an New District is another example. It’s a top-down, government initiated city-building project that will see a high concentration of AV activities in the new region.

“The establishment of the Greater Bay Area in the south (Guangdong province, Hong Kong, and Macau) will see heavier investment on AI-powered technologies that will be applied to the smart city system installed in regional infrastructure,” reports Shi.

The next milestone will be the 2022 Olympics which builds from the legacy of 2008 with the Water Cube set to stage curling events, the National Indoor Stadium used for ice hockey, and the Opening and Closing ceremonies scheduled to once again take place at the Bird’s Nest.

As a result, the host budget is a relatively modest $3.9bn but the event “will certainly impact activities related to facilities throughout Beijing,” says Zhu.
A new high-speed railway, for example, will cut travel time from Beijing to Yanqing to 20 minutes, and from Beijing to Zhangjiakou to 50 minutes.
Both are resorts for alpine events and the line is due to be completed this year.

Netflix original: Inside Netflix’s post-production operation

IBC

From interactive episodes of Black Mirror to Bear Grylls’ latest series, Netflix’s post-production operation and supply chain is responsible for servicing the insatiable appetite for original content that will see it deliver more than 1,000 branded shows this year.

https://www.ibc.org/production/netflix-original-inside-netflixs-post-production-operation/3720.article

The Netflix supply chain, which underpins its rapid growth, is set to become even more integral to everything from editorial to user experience as it attempts to become the most innovative content creator on the planet.

“Where companies like Netflix are producing content at unprecedented levels of complexity, quality and velocity, we need to rethink what post is as a creative function,” Sean Cooney, Netflix director, Worldwide Post Production tells IBC365.

“We’re at the beginning of experimentation with many different formats and technologies and many new ways an audience can enjoy our content. We want to find ways to express stories that are not constrained in one traditional framework or dictated by the limitations of technology.”

It all points to an early stage integration of post processes that is going to be increasingly necessary for Netflix continued success.

“We are at a pivotal time in our industry where we stand at the end of the era dominated by the impact, legacy and elegance of that hundred plus year old technology called film and the evolution of what we think of as ‘video,’” says, Leon Silverman, director, Post Operations and Creative Services. “What is really interesting about a company like Netflix is that its culture comes as much from Silicon Valley as from Hollywood. It has a deep affinity for creating entertainment and for technology innovation.”

Silverman has spent the past decade at Disney, where he built its in-houseeditorial, sound and digital media operations team and infrastructure before joining Netflix in February

“The fact is, I wasn’t looking for a new job, but I was looking for “what’s next,” says the veteran who also spent more than a quarter of a century at former Kodak-owned facility Laser Pacific (now part of Technicolor) leaving as president. He was a founder and former president of trade body Hollywood Professional Association where he continues to serve on the organisation’s board of directors.

“Hollywood has always been a meeting place for art and the technical sciences, but these have been siloed and segregated in many parts of the traditional system. In some ways, moving to Netflix is a culmination of everything I have been trying to achieve throughout my career. Its ethos is about the intersection of technology and creativity in order to innovate new forms of storytelling. Netflix has the resources, the vision and the talent to align these goals.”

Pointedly, Silverman adds: “I know how hard it is to get the people, resources and freedom to create innovation in big companies. I’ve worked with many brilliant people in my career, but my Netflix colleagues have a level of intellect and smarts, where they don’t make it about themselves. This culture is all about the freedom and responsibility to drive impactful results.”

Global operation
Netflix global post operation is in Los Angeles, where it employs the majority of its 275 person staff. Cooney explains that this comprises teams that manage shows from a budgetary, scheduling and creative standpoint together with technical and engineering teams that are advancing imaging and sound and user design “to create next generation immersive entertainment.”

Forty-five post-production staff are currently stationed in international post hubs including London and Amsterdam but with regional content increasingly important to the growth of the company, this number is set to grow and with it the complexity of Netflix’s post-production operation. The aim is to streamline core functions like localisation, QC, asset management and archive while increasing output from Asia, Latin America and Europe.

“Every title must go through that pipeline while on-the-ground management of the craft functions on shows such as editorial and finishing happens remotely and under the management of partners, freelance creatives and third-party vendors,” explains Cooney. “One of the challenges is making sure that the talent we work with feel they are creatively supported even while we operate on a such a large scale. We want to continue to provide a boutique experience even as we expand.”

Those aren’t just platitudes. Netflix does receive positive reviews from showrunners, directors, editors and cinematographers for the creative space it gives them. There’s recognition, too, of the importance of existing relationships with dozens of third-party post houses, freelance artists and tech vendors.

“Netflix has spent a lot of time cultivating deep relationships in the post community but as we get more and more involved in upstream production we want to focus on streamlining handoffs from the creative side of production to content finishing, localisation and delivery to our service,” says Silverman.

The use of the cloud to connect globally located creatives is a part of the discussion but there’s also an emphasis on connecting this ecosystem to the physical spaces where creative work is done. “We have a need to be present where creatives are located - whether that’s New York, Singapore, Brazil, Berlin or Mumbai and we need to take as much friction out of the process as possible,” Cooney says.

Format experimentation
While this makes sense from a business point of view, there’s a creative intent too. Bandersnatch, the breakthrough interactive drama from the Black Mirror team, could not have been realised without close collaboration from editorial all the way to user interface design.

“We developed special technology to enable audience interaction but that had to work in concert with our engineering and product teams and with editorial and post teams,” Cooney says. “This involved multiple departments working to create a unique end-to-end experience and figuring out how the branching of storylines can work. It meant the user interface guys talking with [Charlie Brooker] about the script and with every department in between that touches the content.”

Netflix’s investment reportedly includes ‘state tracking’ which logs the choices viewers make as they watch the Bandersnatch episode. New technology also enables the narrative branches to load without any lags and a writing tool called Branch Manager suitable for multiple choice scripts.

There are plans to explore other genre including romantic comedy, in nonlinear fashion but next up is live-action interactive factual You vs. Wild. Debuting April 10 and fronted by survival expert Bear Grylls, viewers will apparently have the power to control which decision Grylls makes as he climbs mountains and enters jungles.

There are plans for more nonlinear drama as well as experiments with just about every cutting-edge media and technique from VR to virtual production. “We have teams exploring virtual production just as we are interested in experimenting with every intersection where technology meets creativity to innovate new formats spanning film, TV and immersive media,” Cooney says.

In doing so a new role is envisioned for post, one that collapses the traditional boundaries separating it from production. It’s an idea that has been envisioned for years but Netflix may have the resources and gung-ho attitude to finally make it happen.

“We are at a time now where the very notion of a serial progression from content inception to production to editorial then finish to distribution is anachronistic,” Silverman says. “’Post’ is not ‘after’ anything as much as it has become the underlying fabric of content creation, production and distribution. As we see more synthetic content and nonlinear content such as Bandersnatch there’s more than a realisation that post is integral to the greenlight process.”

He adds, “It would be great to have the ability to rethink, reset, recharge and reinvent large parts of our industry to create better colour, editorial, VFX and finishing pipelines and essentially create a cloud-based creative supply chain connected and integrated fully with the creative and physical places all over the globe where content is made. This will take real work and a lot of dialogue to move our industry forward, but the fact is, if there is any organisation or group of people anywhere that can bring content creators together with creative technology innovation in service of global storytelling, it is Netflix”