Logistical challenge: FA Cup heroics from CTV OB and Gravity Media

SVG Europe 

The Emirates FA Cup Third Round is a traditional curtain raiser to the New Year when the plucky David’s of lower and non-league English football get to battle against the superstar Goliath’s of the Championship and English Premier League, usually on mud, in mist and against the odds.

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Over the weekend 9 to 11 January, all 32 Third Round matches were covered and available to watch on television or online in the UK. One was postponed and that match, between Shrewsbury and Southampton, is being played this evening (Tuesday 19 January).

All matches were available live with eight on TV shared between BBC and BT Sport, including Tottenham’s winning trip to eighth-tier Marine making a primetime BBC One fixture.

The remaining 24 matches were broadcast across BBC or BT Sport’s digital platforms or red button services, or streamed live for fans on the FA Player. All were also available to overseas rights holder’s courtesy of the FA’s production partner, Gravity Media.

Big package

The third year of Gravity’s contract includes a number of different elements, such as preview and highlight shows for international audiences and all 32 World Feeds, including a World Feed programme wrap (packaged with titles, openers and promos).

Each FA Cup round also includes a contract to produce a number of match day directed feeds which totalled 21 for the Third Round including visits to Boreham Wood, Nottingham Forest, Wycombe Wanderers, Cheltenham and Barnsley.

Regular partner CTV Outside Broadcasts (OB) works with Gravity to produce these shows on the ground. A logistical conundrum at the best of times, COVID-19 restrictions in nationally locked down England and Wales, meant that even the best laid plans needed to be adaptable to last minute alteration.

“Every ground is different and every match has a bespoke set up. No match is the same,” says Angela Gibbons, commercial manager at CTV OB. “For example, some will carry a World Feed or BBC commentary or either, neither or both. Camera plans range from four to seven with varying EVS specifications.”

Once BT Sport and the BBC took their pick of the live broadcasts, CTV was allocated its share of matches from Gravity. This came two weeks after the 30 November draw, further squeezing the amount of planning time.

“Our first job is to survey each ground to decide if and where we need to rig cables, and where to put cameras,” Gibbons says. “That was pretty much done in the week before Christmas.”

Alan Jessop, CTV’s technical producer, drew up a detailed production planning sheet with the client. Working from those documents, CTV dispatched 96 x Sony 4300 camera bodies with associated lenses; a considerable volume for effectively one day’s work spread all round the country.

“We tried to have a paint-by-numbers system to cut down the variables when it came to kit,” says Gibbons.

Tiered approach

In mid-December the country moved from Tier 3 to Tier 4 restrictions which had a further impact on deployment. For example, when planning began, Bristol was in Tier 2 and therefore was permitted to have a small crowd in attendance. That all changed by the time CTV got on site.

“We tried to do as much regional crewing as possible; taking out the factor of people staying away from home in hotels and to really cut down on the amount travelling to and from venues,” notes Gibbons.

She adds: “It may only be a small variation but it does mean things like rigging and crew allocation and working practices need to alter. It’s the accumulation of these small tasks that you have to keep your eye on.

“We had to send the right sized truck to the right match depending on the number of personal. We were still moving trucks as late as the Wednesday before because events were still fluid. We had to be dynamic and flexible in our approach and to think on our feet.”

She explains that at some grounds there is barely any parking making it difficult to impossible to fit a triple expander. Rigging times took longer due to having to maintain social distancing. League 2 Cheltenham had not had an OB for a while, so CTV allowed extra time for rigging for its game against Mansfield Town. KO there was 13.30 on the Sunday but CTV rigged 24 hours earlier. “That’s something we may not have done last year,” Gibbons adds. “People’s health and safety is paramount.”

Bristol Rovers match versus Sheffield United involved a seven camera World Feed on the Saturday for which CTV supplied one of its larger OBs. This moved across the city to Ashton Gate and the cup tie between Bristol City and Portsmouth on Sunday.

Skeleton crew

“We tried to keep crew numbers reduced but we still need a core team,” Gibbons says. “We had around 450 people contracted across the weekend. Gravity also kept numbers low, typically just sending a match director who would also vision mix, along with one or two EVS ops, a technical producer and a producer if VT was required. We’d have nine engineering crew on site on average.”

Every match had to have its own COVID risk assessment and paperwork drawn up, Gibbons explains: “We ran our own health declarations which went via Gravity and to the club which included things like temperature testing on site. If the ground is not a Premier League or Championship ground then it won’t be prepared with sets of COVID protocols and it’s our responsibility to come up with solutions.”

All Championship grounds and most league 1 and league 2 grounds are fitted with NEP Connect lines. Premiere League grounds are fully fibred, generally with BT links. Anywhere lacking fibre would need an SNG. Boreham Wood’s match was one of these.

The majority of the 21 games were brought back to Gravity’s Chiswick Park production centre but some matches were allocated a complete World Feed production on site.

Explains Frank Callaghan, director of live programming and production, Gravity Media: “We looked at the weekend as a whole and worked out how best to produce the World Feed from the spread of geographic location and crew.

“The reason for not fully remoting everything was ultimately down to the fact that we are providing a service for broadcast, not just streaming,” Callaghan goes on. “The production does need to be the highest quality possible. We don’t want to separate the wrap programming from actual match direction. We feel that the only way to ensure that match nine, for example, is of the same uniform high standard of coverage as match 21, is to ensure control over all elements of all matches.”

Gravity and CTV will reconvene for more FA Cup magic when the Fourth Round commences on Saturday 23 January with Manchester United versus Liverpool the standout clash.

Behind the Mic: Mixing Super Bowl LV spots and finishing dozens of commercials remotely with Lime Studios

copywritten for Sohonet

January is normally one of the busiest periods for commercials post-production in the U.S. as brands line up high-profile Super Bowl ads. This year is no exception. Indeed, since August when production got back up and running, audio commercials mix, and sound design boutique Lime Studios has finished dozens of spots for TV, radio and video games using entirely remote workflows, harnessing Sohonet’s Engineering Emmy winning, real-time review tool ClearView Flex to collaborate on the mix and sound design with clients and colleagues “together apart”.

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“Following the huge uncertainty last spring, business slowly returned, and we’ve been crazy busy since the fall,” says Lime Studios Sound Engineer Tom Paolantonio. “We’ve mixed commercials for AT&T, Disney, Google, Amazon, Planters Nuts, Burger King since the pandemic began. Currently, we are mixing Super Bowl LV spots and looking forward to a fantastic 2021.”

Normality for Lime Studios is relative of course. Like every other part of the industry, the Santa Monica-based facility has faced a bumpy ride to find the working practices that best maintain continuity of production. 

“Our typical sessions involve two or three clients, sometimes up to 10 or more, coming in either locally or flying in from all over the country or even internationally for the final mix with us,” says Paolantonio. “Having all that pulled out from under us very abruptly last March was a shock. It was clear that we needed to adapt, and equally clear that the whole industry was in turmoil. Everyone was trying to figure out what to do. Initially, it was quite a struggle.”

Lime Studios employs 45 staff working across 12 sound mixing stages. After the early weeks of lockdown, its sound designers, mixers, producers and engineers continued to work in socially distanced fashion on site but connecting with clients took trial and error.

“The major thing we learned pretty early on was that there are very few things that can compare to having clients in the room with you and being able to go through that creative process together,” Paolantonio says. “We tried various video conference systems to send audio and video but whether that worked or not depended on internet connections. No one could trust what was being sent or what everyone was seeing. It was okay for broad stroke ideas but not for final mixing.

“We went through a phase of taking the process offline, by talking through the work with the client, sending them options to review and taking in notes but this back and forth just took significantly longer to do anything.

“In addition, the creative process was hindered by not having enough time to experiment in real-time or the ability to experience the mix and sound design together. It was at risk of being a much more utilitarian mix.

“At that point we decided to trial a number of services that would emulate the experience of having the client in the room with us. Ideally, we needed to be making changes in real-time while completely trusting the frame accuracy and the audio quality of the work.

“With twelve studios and lots of moving parts, the more fool proof we can make a remote system the better, and Sohonet’s ClearView Flex tool fit the bill for that. I love the fact that there is a dedicated box with ClearView Flex, so we don’t have encoders running on our machines or separate machines we have to maintain and switch over.”

With every project that Lime Studios does remotely, they learn a little more about how to get the best outcome for their clients. The ability to read the room and interpret the responses of multiple people which artists are so adept at doing face to face now requires a nuanced approach when everyone is online. 

“You do miss that ability to feel the energy of people. It’s almost like you are reading the video conference calls now and there are new things to pick up on. Just keeping people engaged on a video call is very different than when you are together in a room. 

“At first, I was working with clients who I knew and had a well-established rapport. I’ve got to a point now where I’ve worked on several projects with new clients whom I’ve only ever met virtually. That’s an interesting dynamic but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well you can develop a good relationship and communicate effectively remotely.”

These relationships are important especially in such a client service focussed part of the industry but retaining company cohesion is equally, if not more, valuable when everyone is so physically distant.

“It’s a moving target and it evolves daily,” admits Paolantonio of Lime’s attempts to translate its easy-going culture online. “For the most part, before the pandemic, there was a lot of socialising, watercooler talk, and most communication was in person and impromptu.

“Now we’re using email and Slack significantly more than we used to so in some ways communications are a bit more structured and organized now. One of our employees set up weekly trivia nights that he would host as a fun thing to keep everyone engaged. Hopefully, it doesn’t feel like everyone’s working on their own island and we still have a very strong sense of community.”

He says that the biggest lesson of the last year is to be adaptable. “Technology and workflows have always changed but it’s been easier to ignore before and remain set in your ways. We’ve reached a point now where everyone is having to adapt and figure out the best way forward. Just being open to that and trying to make workflows as seamless as possible is kind of paramount right now.”

“Whether we’ve got two or 12 people remote during the final mix, we don’t have to worry about whether their experiences are going to be degraded. ClearView Flex has made it so we don’t need to think about the technical side of it and we can just focus on the work.”

 

CES 2021: The Dial's Not Moving on 5G

Streaming Media

"The future of streaming is the current reality of entertainment," said Verizon chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg during a CES2021 keynote. "This shift is happening as the most powerful world changing tech is becoming available in more and places. 5G is an innovation platform that makes other innovations possible."

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Despite the focus on 5G throughout much of CES, few companies could demonstrate actual game changing 5G applications.

Verizon is busy equipping NFL stadiums with 5G networks, including at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla, which will host Super Bowl LV. Vestberg said fans with a Verizon 5G device will be able use the "SuperStadium in the NFL" app to check out different camera angles of the game and use AR features for player stats. Vestberg said Verizon is also working with the other sports leagues as well.

With spectators currently locked out of stadiums, however, no one will experience "how AR can transform the way we enjoy sports," said Vestberg, "or the way we visit museums and interact with the world around us."

Similarly, Verizon's pact with Live Nation to outfit 15 venues including the Fillmore in Miami, and the Masonic Theater in San Francisco with 5G for the consumption of music fans will be temporarily blunted.

With everyone stuck at home, it will be next-gen Wi-Fi 6 that will arguably have more impact in terms of connectivity than 5G, which is largely for applications getting to and within city centers which of course very few are doing just now.

Verizon is also deploying mobile edge compute (MEC) in private MECs with Microsoft and public MECs with AWS in 10 U.S. locations including Miami and Denver.

"We are taking processing out of expensive hardware and putting it exactly where and when it is needed," said Vestberg. "[Also] 5G network slicing allows all kinds of different traffic including movie streaming optimised for that specific use." 

An IHS Markit 2020 5G Economy Study commissioned by Qualcomm forecasts that there will be 22.8 million 5G-related jobs and $13.1 trillion in global sales enablement by 2035. 

"5G is going to go into and power everything we're doing this decade," said CTA VP Steve Koenig. "5G is going to underpin the entire economy. It's going to create a lot of jobs that will be directly attributable to it."

Samsung America's VP of mobile product management Drew Blackard insisted 5G and edge computing will bring to life a variety of new use cases behind the scenes, especially in the IoT and connected devices space for businesses and in the home.  

"The 4G network of today can't handle this need for computing at the edge," he told a CES panel. "Partnerships are essential in powering meaningful 5G use cases. 5G is not a 'single-player' concept because it requires infrastructure, devices, and content and services." 

With Mobile World Congress delayed, Samsung hijacked the last day of CES to unload its "Unpacked" event and officially launch the Galaxy S21 Android phones.

"It is becoming increasingly harder for smartphone manufacturers to differentiate devices," says analyst Paolo Pescatore of PPaolo Pescatore of PP Foresight. "Hence, we are now seeing a huge focus on significantly improving existing features, improving user experiences, and making devices future proof with new formats." 

Among these is the ability for the S21 to record 8K video. The screen's refresh rate adjusts from 10Hz to 120Hz depending on content. Four cameras on the rear include a 108MP sensor, and the ability to shoot in 4K at 60fps. At CES the vendor also unveiled new flagship TVs branded Neo QLED in 8K and 4K.

"Samsung is seeking to own the 8K space with both the larger screen in the living room and on mobile devices," added Pescatore.

The addition of Wi-Fi 6e support also helps future proof the device. However, says Pescatore, it is early days for this network technology and will need broader support including compatible routers. 

"Wi-Fi 6e comes at an important time as more people are stuck at home working remotely while having to keeping all entertained," he says. "It will be as important as 5G in delivering robust, reliable, and faster connections to users. All of this points to the growing importance of fiber and gigabit connectivity to help power people's insatiable appetite for data and serve new uses." 

CES 2021: Gaming, spatial audio and transparent TVs

IBC

A lo-fi CES delivered more practical iterations for digital entertainment than jaw dropping gadgets

For a show devoted to connected consumer tech surely nothing could be more apt than an all-digital affair. Rather than 180,000 attendees rummaging across 2.9 million square feet of exhibits in Las Vegas, CES 2021 was held online.

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It distinctly lacked the buzz and razzamatazz of previous shows. Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa were among stars making an appearance on the virtual stage only to highlight the glaring gap between today’s remote live experiences and that of being physically present.

Lo-fi CES experience

While 6000+ members of the media didn’t have to wait for hours in line before possible admittance to press conferences, the presentations were, if anything, even more staged than normal. Some were delivered live but felt drained of energy without the jeopardy of appearing before a crowd.

Perhaps that’s just a symptom of the times. Companies zeroed in on technology aids to health, well-being and lifestyle including face masks packed with Bluetooth headsets and microphones.

The virtual nature of the show meant that household brands like LG, Sony, Samsung and Mercedes dominated headlines and conference sessions, while smaller innovators were buried.

The plus sides of attending a trade show of this scale virtually is that attendees weren’t jostling with each other to get to meetings. Over 100,000 folk apparently participated and kudos must go to the technical operation, led by Microsoft and MediaKind, for the fluency of the live video sessions.

“When the economy is at its worst we tend to see innovation accelerate,” said Steve Koenig, VP Research, Consumer Technology Association, paraphrasing the British economist Christopher Freeman.

The trend that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spotted last April — “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months” — continued through 2020 and beyond.

“250 million people went to remote learning in two weeks,” said Koenig. “It took Disney just 5 months to hit 50 million global subs whereas it took Netflix seven years. The point is that the events of the past year will transform the overall economy for the next decade.”

Streaming up, TVs in

Stay at home orders have been a boon to video streaming and, after years of mobile-first rhetoric, it is the living room telly which has had its status emboldened.

Research from Nielsen published during CES revealed that nearly a quarter of all TV viewing comes from streaming apps and that there’s a significant rise in audiences watching live linear TV. 

 “SVOD remains the biggest draw at 55% of the total share but if you take out the main five streamers (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube) the biggest category is linear TV,” noted Nielsen’s SVP Product Strategy & Thought Leadership Brian Fuhrer. “It’s one we see expanding significantly.” 

One reason for this has been adoption of streaming by older age groups. Moreover, they aren’t expected just to revert back again. “During the ‘stay at home’ period a lot more people put the plumbing in to stream,” said Fuhrer.  “People figured out how to get credentials and tried a lot of services. We think that is going to be the pivot for a lot of media consumption going forward as older demos increase and maintain their usage and sampling.”

All of this means TV vendors suddenly have a new market to play for. The CTA expects sales of TVs to soar in 2021 as households upgrade. On the shopping list will be bigger, brighter and thinner screens with at least 4K resolution and the smarts to upscale content to 8K.

Hisense, for example, is adding an 8K up-rezzing chip to its flagship ULED TVs later this year and will promote this through its official partnership with the rescheduled Euro 2020 soccer tournament.

TV vendors also spot an opportunity to take a share of the revenues generated by the volume of streaming and search for content of which their hardware is a conduit.

Just before CES, LG spent $80 million for a 60% stake in TV advertising technology company Alphonso, in a bid to build a streaming-TV ad business. The Korean firm will package ad inventory with Alphonso's analytics and ad-buying capabilities to compete with established streaming ad players like Roku.

Gaming moves centre stage

The other near universal characteristic of TV hardware version 2021 is applications for gamers. Video games are being played more than ever, for entertainment or for staying connected socially. The CTA projects that video game software and services will reach $47 billion in revenue this year in North America alone, up 8 percent from 2020.

TV display makers hope to woo the gaming audience away from the PC monitor.  LG, for instance, touted a partnership with Google which will see cloud-gaming service Google Stadia run on its TVs while Amazon Twitch has earned a prized button on LG’s ‘magic’ remote control.

The company also unveiled a prototype 48-inch OLED capable of bending 1000mm from a conventional flat screen to a curved display intended to help gamers to feel more immersed in a virtual world.

Panasonic’s latest 55-inch and 65-inch JZ2000 model supports for HDMI 2.1 for variable refresh rate and high frame rates suitable for gaming. An AI processor will automatically detect what you're watching or playing and calibrate the best dynamic range settings including Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive. Alongside Dolby Atmos support, the TV comes with side and upward-firing built-in speakers which create what the company calls 360° Soundscape Pro.

Samsung (which is already partnered with Microsoft’s XCloud gaming) has introduced a ‘game bar’ in its range of new NEO QLED TVs for gamers to change the parameters of the screen when attached to a PS5 or Xbox Series X. The aspect ratio, for example, can be changed from 21:9 or 32:9 and it can support 4K at 120fps. An additional new soundbar comes with a gaming mode to introduce “more dynamics to your game experience”, as well as an Active Voice Amplifier to boost dialogue in films and TV shows when it detects noise disturbances.

Serious gamers might prefer the conceptual chair shown by Razer and built of carbon fibre with a transparent wrap-around display, haptic feedback and RGB lighting.

Still, the most important feature for gamers are screens capable of playing back High Dynamic Range (HDR), Wide Colour Gamut and Dolby Atmos, all of which are supported in the latest PS5 and Xbox X consoles. While being rapidly adopted to improve the cinematic experience surprisingly these features have been more sluggish in gaming.

“Games engines have always been able to render in HDR but the actual display output has been a challenge,” said Tony Tamasi, SVP content and technology, Nvidia during a conference panel. “Display interfaces that commonly support HDR, the ability to connect a GPU to a display in a standardised fashion are among issues on the cusp of being solved.”

Greater dynamic range matters eSports pros especially. “Specular highlights and deeper blacks impact the player’s competitiveness by increasing spatial and situational awareness,” said Poppy Crum, Chief Scientist, Dolby Labs. “It means faster reaction times.”

“HDR is really the next big advance in imagery for gaming,” agreed Habib Zargarpour, Head of Film Development, Unity Technologies. “DR brings depth to the realism we’ve been striving for. In filmmaking every step in the pipe from camera to storage, editorial to VFX needs to be upgraded but on a game engine the programmer just changes a number and you have support for the new format. That’s also where there’s an opportunity now with game engines linked to LED virtual production stages.”

Nicole laPointe Jameson, CEO of esports outfit Evil Geniuses said, “The problem my athletes frequently face is the decision making they make in split seconds is limited by the amount of information they can take in. So better contrast and even minute detail in shadows and highlights has great significance on our ability to compete.”

Spatial audio enhancements

Perhaps even more important to gamers are spatial audio enhancements. LaPointe Jameson said that the ability to discern singular footsteps of competitors or enemies, for example, would boost player performance.

Tamasi said Nvidia and others were staring to use ray tracing to compute true rendered 3D spatialised audio – “getting proper reverberation and occlusion by using what you might normally think of as a graphics capability to trace audio waves,” he said. “This next level of audio immersion is an exciting development.”

Gamers will listen using headphones meaning that the exact representation of the audio in sync with the graphics is another key to how each player interprets their response.

The headphones landscape has experienced phenomenal growth over the last decade and as a result, headphones are becoming the fastest-selling personal electronic device on the market, according to Futuresource Consulting. Headphones and true wireless devices are expected to grow to over 700 million in five years’ time. 

This was a major theme at Sony which expanded its consumer focussed 360 Reality Audio service, by adding new video streaming capabilities and content creation tools.  Introduced in 2019, 360 Reality Audio makes it possible for artists and creators to produce music by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them within a spherical space. It is intended to evoke feelings of being in a music studio or live concert venue. 

 

Live video performances have now been added to the sound. With select Sony headphones and an app, users can have their individual ear shape analyzed to enjoy a customised musical field. 

Sony said artists on its label and others will begin streaming video performances later this year.

The company also launched a professional audio mixing tool which could give producers and directors a better means of sharing in the final audio reviews remotely. Fine tuning the sound mix on commercials, TV or film productions was a client-attend fixture pre-Covid but the creative to and fro under remote conditions has been hampered since no party can be sure they are hearing the exact same thing. 

Sony’s 360 virtual mixing environment (VME) “is a mind-blowing tech that can reproduce in a pair of headphones the same sound mixed by professionals in a studio,” said Bill Baggelaar, EVP and CTO of technology development for Sony Pictures Entertainment in a video.

Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Venom 2 have been the first to try out the technology which replicates the speakers of a sound stage in any location and supports 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos mixes. 

“You are truly fooling your brain into thinking you are in the other environment,” Baggelaar told The Hollywood Reporter. 

The 360 VME was developed by Sony Electronics' R&D team in Tokyo working with the studio’s Innovation and Sound Services departments in Culver City. 

The Minority Report report

LG took the wraps off a series of transparent OLED screens, including one that rolls up from being concealed in the foot of a bed. Other applications for this futuristic idea include restaurants and subways for displaying video and spooling graphics, eerily prescient in the pre-crime solving unit of Minority Report.

Another jump to the future was the Hyperscreen from Mercedes-Benz which is a 56-inch curved touchscreen that takes up almost the entire width of a car dashboard. Voice control software learns and adapts to driver behaviour. It could be fitted in new electric vehicles.

Topping the lot, is the vertical take-off flying taxi paraded by General Motors.

“We're preparing for a world where advances in electric and autonomous technology make personal air travel possible,” said GM design chief Michael Simcoe.

 

Resource Productions films BBC drama with diverse cast and crew

British Cinematographer

 

The film and TV industry is a Catch-22 for many aspiring filmmakers but the challenges double for anyone wanting to break into the business from an underprivileged background. How can you attract the attention of producers, commissioners and agents without an initial credit or a leg up from film school?  

https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/resource-productions-films-bbc-drama-with-diverse-cast-and-crew/

Closing that gap has been the twenty-year mission of Resource Productions, a social enterprise and production company which has just shot a new BBC drama with an almost entirely Black crew.   

“Our main mission is to enable social change though film, art and technology and to diversify the creative industries,” says Resource Productions’ Co-Director & CEO, Dominique Unsworth MBE.   

The not-for-profit organisation tries to affect that kind of change in three ways: outreach and engagement, training and development and in-house production.    

“We try to find adults or young people with a potential talent and to identify them before they are even aware themselves about what the creative industries are,” Unsworth explains. “We work with any under-represented demographic whether that’s a particular cultural community, faith-based community or someone from a deprived area of the UK. We work very specifically around different localities where there are opportunities to connect with studios or the industry.  

“Once we’ve identified that potential skill or talent we work with those individuals in training and development. That’s where we first started working with VMI. We used to hire their kit to teach people how to use lenses, for example, or cameras and dollies so that when they went onto a film or TV shoot they were equipped with a greater understanding and therefore didn’t feel alienated.”   

Resource Productions began to make their own content when they found that a lot of the talent they’d trained then struggled to get their first broadcast credit or first paid contract as a freelancer. Its first production, Paperchain made in 2003 for BBC Blast, aired on BBC2 and for which VMI supplied discounted kit.   

“VMI has supported us in everything we’ve done for the last 21 years,” Unsworth says. “So many of those we’ve trained wouldn’t have otherwise had access to the level of equipment that VMI have given us.”    

Some of the crew on that show have gone on to very successful careers, notably cinematographer Leigh Alner who shot the feature Across The River and Mission to Lars, a feature documentary about the Metallica drummer.   

Resource’s latest project is for BBC Arts and is led by Adekemi Roluga, a young Black filmmaker who previously made the animated short Fragments. Breathe (working title) is her first paid commission and a response to the Black Lives Matter movement that reignited following the murder of George Floyd last May. The drama is filtered through the experiences of different Black and ethnic minority characters who suffer aggression or micro-aggression on a daily basis.    

Shot under Covid-safe protocols at Fleetwood Film Studios in Berkshire at the end of last year, the film is currently in postproduction. It is part of BBC New Creatives; a talent development scheme giving artists aged 16-30 the chance to develop their technical and creative abilities on commissions broadcast on BBC platforms.   

Unsworth and Roluga enticed DoP Sean Francis (A Song for our Fathers), one of a handful of professional Black British cinematographers, to join. He waived his normal fee in order to teach the crew, including lighting technician Matthias Djan, how to use the kit. Sound recordist Michael Ademilua also waived his fee in order to participate and share his expertise.    

“Nearly the entire crew are Black or from under-represented groups and are predominantly based outside of London,” explains Unsworth. “We had a whole team of less experienced crew shadowing the experienced pros like Sean and Michael. These films are really important for newcomers to gain credits but the kit that VMI supplies is often the only opportunity that people like Leigh Alner in 2003 and now people like Matthias will get to use this type of equipment.”   

The kit, specified by Francis for Breathe, included ARRI Alexa MINI, a set of Zeiss Superspeed MK II primes, Angenieux Optimo 28-76mm T2.6 PL zoom and a DJI Ronin 2. This was accompanied by a full range of adapters, power, cables and HD 7" TV Logic monitor as well as Teradek Bolt Pro wireless recorder and ProSup Tango Slider kit.   

“VMI supplies us with heavily subsidised equipment for four productions a year meaning that there are more than 100 individuals each year having direct contact with high end drama and feature film equipment,” Unsworth says. “Getting this hands-on familiarity with such kit means they then do not feel over-awed or inexperienced when they go onto a really big production.”   

She adds, “We could easily shoot all of our films on the kit we have in-house or on very low-end equipment - which would be cheaper for us and less hassle for VMI - but that’s not what our programs are about.   

“We’re about making sure there’s no barrier to entry. If other people, through family or friends, can afford to hire high quality kit or if they can fund themselves through film school then they are going to have a much better chance of getting into the industry. If you don’t or can’t you’re going to be stuck with a mobile phone or a low-end camcorder and you’re never going to be able to understand how the camera or lighting department really works or what it means to be a grip.   

“If we are to train up the workforce of the future and if they’re to transition into the mainstream industry they need access to this quality of kit. The value of our relationship with VMI goes far beyond the generous loan of the kit.”  

CES talks seismic impact of streaming

Streaming Media

2020 may mark the period that streaming platforms became the ubiquitous way audiences consumed content and left traditional media companies behind.

https://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/CES-Talks-Seismic-Impact-of-Streaming-144702.aspx

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) projects a record $112 billion spend on streaming services and software in 2021, an 11 percent growth over 2020.

In a CES tech trends briefing, the CTA also noted that Disney+ hit 50 million subscribers in just five months after launch in contrast to the seven years it took Netflix.

“The point is that the last few months will transform the overall economy for the next decade,” said Steve Koenig, the CTA’s VP of Market Research.

“More things have happened in streaming this past year than in the previous decade combined," echoed Brian Fuhrer, SVP Product Strategy & Thought Leadership for Nielsen in a CES presentation dissecting the year’s media activity.

“About a quarter of TV usage is now streaming (among OTT capable homes),” he said. “The early adoption phase is behind us. Older demographics, a mainstay of traditional TV, continue to embrace streaming. During the ‘stay at home’ period a lot more people put the plumbing in to stream. It was a big period of enablement. People figured out how to get credentials and tried a lot of services. We think that is going to be the pivot for a lot of media consumption going forward as older demos increase and maintain their usage and sampling [of services].”

Research out this week from Ampere Analysis finds the average U.S. household now stacks an average of four different SVOD services. In the five largest Western European territories, homes average two services. Across both markets, almost 10% of SVOD homes already take five or more services.

“AVoD, studio-direct streaming launches, the strengthening of local and broadcaster-led streaming, and the turbo-boost that came out of the blue in the form of Covid-19 have brought the industry to a pivot,” said Guy Bisson, Ampere’s Research Director. “That point will lead to a shift in thinking that will change the way content creators, distributors and content aggregators, platforms and channels think about streaming in the wider TV market. In 2021, compounding is here to stay in every portion of the streaming value chain.”

Ampere predicts compounding – in the sense of both combining and adding to - will characterize global TV through 2021 as the streaming TV boom forces a re-engineering of the TV value chain and the strategies for getting TV to the end viewer.

The Great Unbundling

“This is not a winner take all market,” said Scott Reich, SVP Programming, Pluto TV - ViacomCBS’ AVOD service. “There’s been a lot of talk about how many SVODs the consumer can support. I think you’ll see more experimentation from the consumer. They will decide what the new bundle is going to be. The opportunity from us is for them to have enormous options for free and enormous options on the paid side. It’s a win-win.”

Speaking on a CES panel titled, ‘Great Unbundling and Entertainment Transformed’ Reich said Pluto TV had seen time spent viewing and frequency of viewing rise last year.

“Being the free player in this space there is zero barrier to entry so we saw new viewers come to us as well,” reported Reich. “There was a massive influx around election time. So, it was an interesting combination of people coming in for Covid and election news and then diving into escapist content.”

Pluto, he said, was designed as more of a lean back experience than your conventional on-demand service. It also operates as a complementary to its parents paid content offers which includes premium shows like Yellowstone from Paramount.

“During 2020 we looked at a lot of data and optimised the organization of the platform to get people to watch new categories like reality shows and classic TV. We added a lot of Viacom and CBS content. We’re constantly figuring out how we complement Viacom’s linear channels.”

Andrew McCollum, CEO of subscription-based live and on demand service Philo, said the site had also seen a big surge in subscribers during the pandemic and a particular glut in consumption of kids’ content when they were stuck home.

He voiced concern that “a prolonged recession” could have an impact on his business. Nonetheless, the service which costs $20 a month, hasn’t raised its price and McCollum has no plans to do so.

“It was never our intention to be the lowest cost service but it was to be the best value service. Philo existed as a college TV service initially. When we looked at our data and talking about bringing service to market. We felt the lifestyle market was under represented. We felt like we could bring a package of channels to market but not at such a low price that we’d have to increase rapidly over time to make the service sustainable.”

He added, “Free won’t support all the great content that’s being created, unfortunately.”

Conversational TV

With continued fragmentation in the streaming market – reminiscent of similar competition in the growth of the cable market observed Nielsen’s Fuhrer – how do streaming brands continue to grow and innovate in this new era and not get lost in the noise?

Speaking on this topic at virtual CES, Stefanie Meyers, SVP, Distribution for STARZ said, “We are all in a battle to make sure customers can find our content. STARZ realised very early on that having a clear strategy is critical. We have one product. Our content is the same everywhere and we are focussed on making sure the consumer can reach our content on devices or third-party distributors.”

Covid is widely understood to have brought forward the future of TV and of streaming. New tech-driven formats are being primed for primetime.

“Covid has pulled trends forward like digital co-viewing where two people in different locations watch a show simultaneously,” said Sarah Lyons, SVP, Product Experience for HBOMax (WarnerMedia).

Amazon’s VP and GM for Fire TV Sandeep Gupta suggested further intimacy with the TV.

“Conversational TV started with Alexa for search and discovery and now you can take it a step further and ask ‘what was I watching?’, ‘what do you think I should be watching?’ You can see where this goes next where you have a relationship with the TV and a portal into the digital world.”

Kids movies and weekly releases dominate

In Nielsen’s data breakdown of the year in streaming, Fuhrer highlighted the growth of audiences watching live linear TV through streaming apps provided by the likes of Comcast Xfinity and Sling TV.

“SVOD remains the biggest draw at 55% which is no surprise but if you take out the main five streamers (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube) the biggest category is linear TV,” he noted. “It’s one we see expanding significantly.”

Fuhrer attributed this to cable companies making a strategic decision during lockdown to “make their apps more appealing in features and price”.

“We think people like idea of streaming live TV through an app and not a cable box,” he added.

Other take-aways from the analyst showed the value for SVODs in reverting to traditional weekly release schedules for their originals (per The Mandalorian) rather than dropping the whole series at one time.

“This strategy extracts more value out of premium content,” he said. “It’s watercooler TV giving people time to talk about each episode.”

He predicted more of this, particularly with the contraction of new content creation during Covid.

The most viewed movies on streaming services were kids’ films, including older films like Moana and Zootopia. Disney+ scored 7 out of the top ten movie hits for 2020 (Frozen II leading the way with 15 billion minutes viewed). The reason, Fuhrer suggested, was that kids watch repeat views of content.

The most streamed content in the U.S. in 2020, period, was The Office (U.S version) which totalled nearly 60 billion minutes viewed. However, since January 01 the series has been relocated from Netflix to Peacock.

The number 1 original series was Netflix’ Ozark (30bn minutes viewed in 2020). Indeed, 9 of the top ten original shows watched in the U.S were made by Netflix (Lucifer, 19bn; The Crown, 16.3bn, Tiger King, 15.6bn with Disney+ The Mandalorian in fifth place with 14.5bn)

“Kids movies and episodic weekly releases will be key considerations,” he said.

 

Sony Is All Ears at Virtual CES

Streaming Media

While major consumer electronics brands LG, HiSense, Samsung and Panasonic concentrated their CES 2021 messaging on smart fridges, smarter vehicles and tech for the coronavirus era, Sony stood out with its emphasis on media and entertainment production. 

https://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/News/Online-Video-News/Sony-Is-All-Ears-at-Virtual-CES-144685.aspx 

Its main announcement was launch of an audio mixing tool which could give producers and directors a better means of sharing in the final audio reviews remotely. Fine tuning the sound mix on commercials, TV or film productions was a client-attend fixture pre-Covid but the creative to and fro under remote conditions has been hampered since no party can be sure they are hearing the exact same thing. 

Sony’s 360 virtual mixing environment (VME) “is a mind-blowing tech that can reproduce in a pair of headphones the same sound mixed by professionals in a studio,” said Bill Baggelaar, EVP and CTO of technology development for Sony Pictures Entertainment in a video. Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Venom: Let There be Carnage have been the first to try out the technology which replicates the speakers of a sound stage in any location and supports 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos mixes. 

“You are truly fooling your brain into thinking you are in the other environment,” Baggelaar told The Hollywood Reporter. 

The 360 VME was developed by Sony Electronics' R&D team in Tokyo working with the studio’s Innovation and Sound Services departments in Culver City. 

360 music and video streaming  

For consumers, Sony has expanded its 360 Reality Audio services, including adding new video streaming capabilities and content creation tools.  Introduced in 2019, 360 Reality Audio makes it possible for artists and creators to produce music by mapping sound sources such as vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them within a spherical space. It is intended to evoke feelings of being in a music studio or live concert venue. 

Live video performances have now been added to the sound. To showcase it, artist Zara Larsson debuted an exclusive live performance yesterday. Viewers were able to stream the performance with the Artist Connection app on a smartphone. With select Sony headphones and an app, users can have their individual ear shape analyzed to enjoy a custom immersive musical field. 

Sony said artists on its label and others will begin streaming new video content later this year. Additionally, Sony is partnering with other CE companies to promote the 360 Reality Audio experience. 

The headphones landscape has experienced phenomenal growth over the last decade and as a result, headphones are becoming the fastest-selling personal electronic device on the market, according to Futuresource Consulting. Headphones and true wireless devices are expected to grow to over 700 million in five years’ time. 

 

Chris Havell, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Voice & Music at Qualcomm Technologies believes that there are still numerous improvements to be made, with immersive audio quality, microphone audio quality and protecting our health being of key importance. In addition to this, consumers are now gaming and watching movies more using headsets. This means that audio quality has to be delivered with low latency. Havell says implementing these features into standard headphone products for consumers is now important. 

UAV for cinematography 

Sony teased launch of its new AirPeak drone development late year and at CES 2021 has put more flesh, though not the full monty on the brand. 

Today, we’re going to introduce a product that integrates AI and robotics, designed for adventurous creators,” CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said in a video. 

The drone is designed to carry Sony’s own imaging technology — specifically the Alpha series of mirrorless camera. Sony said it’s going to be the smallest drone on the market that can be equipped with its cameras which means full-frame aerial photography and video. 

AirPeak is targeted at "professional photography and video production" and will launch in the first half of this year. Sony also said that this would be “the first phase of this project” perhaps hinting that a consumer version will follow. 

In Sony's teaser video, the drone is shown following a prototype Sony Vision-S concept electric car at a race track.  Whatever Sony plans, it is chasing a market that analyst firm IDC estimated as $16.3bn pre-pandemic and that, on the consumer front, is cornered by Chinese firm DJI. 

Cognitive TV 

At CES2021, Sony also debuted what it is calling the world’s first cognitive intelligence televisions. The smarts for this are contained in a new type of image processor, the Cognitive Processor XR, which surveys the entire frame in real time, breaking down specific zones to concentrate on — such as realistic skin tone — as a way to mimic how our brains process images. This is supposed to also aid the TVs’ 8K performance and will feature in new Bravia XR LED and OLED TVs.  

“While conventional artificial intelligence can only detect and analyze picture elements like color, contrast and detail individually, the new processor can cross-analyze an array of elements at once, just as our brains do,” the company said in its press release. A ‘Sound-from-Picture Reality’ feature in the processor can “align the position of the sound with the images on the screen to offer a uniquely lifelike experience.” 

The Consumer Technology Association predicts that by 2024, half of the sales for 65-inch and larger displays will be 8K and that wholesale prices of 8K sets will drop by about half ($1500) in the next three years, following the trend of previous HD and 4K devices. However, 8K display sales face considerable price competition from 4K UHD sets in similar size segments in the next year or two. 

Virtual set displays 

Sony plans to sell modular ‘virtual set’ displays similar to those used by ILM, Disney and Epic Games to create The Mandalorian. There are two versions of the screens, a C- and B- series with the latter developed with Sony Pictures specifically for use as a studio backdrop without showing reflections. The C-Series is intended for outdoor signage installation or showrooms. Both displays are modular and use the same processing as Sony’s TVs, with the ability to handle HDR, 120 fps and 3D video sources. 

According to Sony, “these displays are capable of high frame rates and 3D, so the there’s a lot of flexibility in what kind of signal you can feed them.” Sony plans to release the product in the summer; no price has been revealed.