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Live TV field production of one-off sports events is an open invitation for surprises of all kinds. The show must go on and it’s the worst possible time for drama. It’s a good fit for passionate engineers who thrive on winning and enjoy alternating bursts of despair and adrenaline. The more adrenaline a field sports production generates, the greater the thrill. Like a magic act, the trick is keeping production secrets hidden from view.
When we look at the various TV packages available today, the vast majority of pay-TV service providers are failing to maximize the amount of data that can be attributed to all the content that is watched by viewers. Yet, in an era where personalization will be one of the biggest drivers towards purchased consumer content, the television industry has far wider scope to maximize the possibilities associated with big data. Ericsson’s Warren Chaisatien argues that pay TV operators are failing to exploit the data they have.
A White Paper from Media Links
Huge quantities of ink and pixels have been spent extolling the virtues of an all-IP infrastructure for a modern media production facility such as a broadcast studio or and IPTV head-end. Today, Media Links is one of the only companies in the world that has successfully installed complete, IP-based studio systems for global clients. By integrating all of the video, audio and data flows onto a common platform, huge up-front savings and continuing cost reductions can be realized.
The primary advantage of an IP-based system is the convergence of multiple signal formats onto a comprehensive, distributed IP switch fabric that seamlessly transports kilobit-speed data signals alongside multigigabit uncompressed video flows. Media production facilities benefit by not having to purchase, install, manage, or maintain the multiple signal routing systems that are normally required to switch different types of compressed and uncompressed audio. A converged IP backbone dramatically increases system flexibility, allowing new applications, bit rates, and signal formats to be added to the core switching platform merely by adding a new type of interface card.
Broadcasters are confident that they will hold on to the sub 700 MHz UHF band for digital terrestrial services in all regions of the world after the first week of the ITU 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15). This comes after a rearguard action by broadcasters spearheaded in Europe by the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) to prevent further encroachment by cellular services into spectrum in the sub 700 (470-694/698 MHz) currently reserved for DTT services.
Today’s smartphone owners carry more powerful video technology in their pockets than the best state-of-the-art TV broadcast or production facilities could provide two decades ago at any price. The second decade of this century is when off-the-shelf computing matures to the point that it can facilitate and manage nearly all technology-based tasks in broadcast TV stations and TV networks in real-time.
Engineers face new challenges in measuring 12G-SDI signals, which require different techniques compared to those used with SD-SDI, HD-SDI and 3G-SDI signals. Here we will touch on the importance of signal shape, the impact of jitter and the complexities of the different interface formats.
Video over HDMI has proven for more than a decade it has a place in professional and broadcast TV infrastructures and its use continues to grow. Will HDMI replace the SDI interface?
The choice between systems for ATSC 3.0 audio is now down to MPEG-H versus Dolby AC-4 and there is about equal support for each system. It’s now mired in politics within the committee, though a decision is due by the end of 2015.
