Archive for the ‘Automation’ Category
by Michael Grotticelli May 1st, 2012
In a move that surprised even some company insiders, Harris Corp. will divest its Broadcast Communications business and find a buyer by the summer (when it begins its fiscal 2013 year). After years of lackluster earnings due to a general slowdown in equipment sales from TV and radio stations, as well as other organizations that Harris supports, the decision to sell off the division was announced in a filing note on April 27th and make public on May 1st, 2012.
 Harris is seeking a buyer for its flagging RF and video production business. With the transition to digital mainly finished among stations in the U.S. (although it’s still occurring overseas), revenue for the Integrated Network Solutions business unit (which includes the Broadcast Communications segment) for the third quarter of fiscal 2011 was $111 million, a decline of 14% versus the same period a year ago. The company’s Board of Directors apparently decided this was too much of a burden to carry forward.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: broadcast, company acquisitions, divestiture, Harris Corp., Harris Morris, sell
Related Topics: Automation, ENG, HDTV, Infrastructure, News, Production, Products, RF and Mobile TV, Storage & Networking |
by Michael Grotticelli April 25th, 2012
Last week’s NAB show was attended by 91,932 professionals from the worldwide broadcast and professional video production industries, up about 4.5 percent from the 88,044 that gathered in 2011. Dennis Wharton, the NAB’s Executive Vice President of Media Relations, said that an estimated $30 billion in commerce was generated by the show including the business done on the exhibit hall floor by the 1,600 exhibitors occupying 815,000 net square feet of exhibit space. The NAB Show has attracted more than 110,000 people in its heyday in 2007.
“The economy is getting better and the financial outlook for the broadcast industry in general, reflected by this year’s extremely positive show, is improving as well,” Wharton said, alluding to the increase this year in exhibitor participation and an almost 10 percent increase in size (up from 1,550 exhibitors occupying 745,000 net square feet) from 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 4K, attendance, cameras, cellular, convention, exhibitors, lenses, media, NAB, OTT, over-the-top, Production, transmission
Related Topics: 3-D, Automation, ENG, HDTV, Infrastructure, NAB, News, Newsrooms, OTT, Production, Products, RF and Mobile TV, Storage & Networking, T&M |
by Michael Grotticelli April 23rd, 2012
With a wide array of products that address video production as well as signal processing and distribution seperately, Evertz is now combining some of those products into integrated solutions that are pre-configured to work together and save broadcasters on resources and operational costs. The company is also offering the largest HD-SDI router, at 2,304 x 2,304 I/O matrix, on the market today.
This, according to Mo Goyal, director of product marketing at Evertz, means products like its Mediator (asset management), MAGNUM and MAGNUM VUE (routing and master control functionality from a single software-based interface) and VistaLink Pro) SNMP monitoring and control) are now able to reach into and manage—and control—more parts of a station’s facility and allow a single user o have virtual control at their fingertips. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Centralcast LLC, centralcasting, Evertz, HD-SDI, Magnum, master control, Mediator, PBS, routers, signal processing, signals, software, stations, VistaLink Pro
Related Topics: Automation, HDTV, Infrastructure, NAB, News, Products, Storage & Networking |
by Michael Grotticelli April 19th, 2012
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) has released a new MXF Commercial Delivery specification, AS-12, a constrained version of MXF that has been developed to enable more efficient handling of commercials through the many transactional and media processing operations from conception to air.
 The new MXF Commercial Delivery specification aims to solve two problems: unique identification and defining a master spot for the creation of long-tail versions. As broadcasters look to serve commercials to long tail delivery platforms as well as their primary channels, controlling costs is important. Many versions may exist of the same commercial, adding confusion to the traffic operations. Versions may be sourced from different distribution routes, arriving with different wrappers and codecs, as well as different aspect ratios. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Advanced Media Workflow Association, AMWA, AS-12, Commercial Delivery specification, engineering, file format, Media eXchange Format, MXF
Related Topics: Automation, HDTV, Infrastructure, NAB, News, Newsrooms, Production, Storage & Networking |
by Michael Grotticelli April 16th, 2012
A mere two months after it bought FX-Motion, a camera robotics company based in Belgium that allows sophisticated “motion picture-style” cameras moves using unmanned pedestals on a rail system, Ross Video, in Toronto, Canada, has purchased Cambotics, a robotics company based in Escondido, Calif. whose technology is less sophisticated but more affordable for local stations. No financial details were provided.
 The CamBot Series can handle payloads of up to 200 pounds on its 700 Series pedestals. The idea, according to Ross Video President and CEO David Ross, is to provide broadcasters with options for how they want to configure their unmanned news studios. The FX-Motion product line is now in use at the CBS affiliate in Chicago and was developed by camera robotics pioneers Bob Scotto and Miles Spellman. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bob Scotto, Cambotics, camera robotics, company acquisitions, FX-Motion, Miles Spellman, pedestals, Ross Robotics, ss Video
Related Topics: Automation, ENG, HDTV, News, Newsrooms, Production, Products |
by Michael Grotticelli April 13th, 2012
WDRB-TV, the Fox affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky, has deployed a new scalable, file-based system from NVerzion, a provider of television station automation, to manage and process video content for its two on-air channels.
The 90 percent tapeless workflow offers the station financial savings by reducing personnel and tape costs, NVerzion said. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Automation, EMC, master control, NcontrolMC, Nversion, routers, transmission
Related Topics: Automation, HDTV, Infrastructure, Newsrooms, Production, Products, Storage & Networking |
by Michael Grotticelli April 12th, 2012
This all-day conference on Monday, April 16, will demonstrate how software developers are addressing two major concerns with respect to cloud-based solutions for video delivery—reliability and security.
Sessions will look at privacy issues, reliability questions and security concerns, advanced capabilities of cloud computing, the latest trends in the audio/video ecosystem of cloud computing and a look ahead to the future.
The sessions are designed for management, IT and production professionals tasked with the distribution and delivery of content.
Tags: Cloud Computing, Conference, content delivery, data analytics, NAB, post-production, storage, Super Session
Related Topics: Automation, Infrastructure, News, Products, Storage & Networking, T&M |
by Michael Grotticelli April 12th, 2012
This session, on Tuesday, April 17 at 9:30 a.m., is billed as an “executive level briefing” on the FoBTV initiative to develop global strategies for the next generation of terrestrial television broadcasting.
 Late last year the world’s technical community agreed to work together on designing new platforms for broadcasting’s future. Expert analyst Ben Keen from Screen Digest will provide a foundation for discussion with a keynote presentation on terrestrial broadcast DTV around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: broadband, ecosystems, FoBTV, Future of Broadcast Television, NAB, Super Session, Technology, world standard
Related Topics: Automation, HDTV, Infrastructure, News, Production, Products, RF and Mobile TV, Storage & Networking |
by Michael Grotticelli April 6th, 2012
KBNZ, a low-power CBS affiliate serving Bend, Oregon, is now operating out of a new master control facility designed and built by system integrator Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) that handles all ingest and playout functions for the station.
 KBNZ’s new master control facility now handles operations for the CBS affiliate and PEG channel COTV. When Zolo Media purchased KBNZ in 2010, master control for the station was performed by KOIN-TV, the CBS affiliate in Portland. New management decided to bring the operations in house at its Sherman Road studios. The project to build an on-site master control facility was approved in early 2011, and was on the air on September 1, 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ABS, ADC, Advanced Broadcast Solutions, COTV, Evertz, Harris, KBNZ, KOIN, master control, playout, Samsung Electronics, system integration, Wohler Technologies
Related Topics: Automation, HDTV, Infrastructure, News, Production, Products, RF and Mobile TV |
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