This morning I met up with OCTOPUS CEO Peter Stokuc to talk about his company’s updated OCTOPUS6 newsroom computer system. Peter says that for the new OCTOPUS system the core functions have been revamped to make operation quicker and more intuitive. Even with all these changes, OCTOPUS6 is still backwards compatible. The key traits of OCTOPUS, according to Peter, are that its platform independent and its solid MOS protocol implementation.
I just finished meeting with Shotoku Broadcast Systems. The company’s president, Naoki Ebimoto, was kind enough — and patient enough — to let me play with their range of pedestals and pan/tilt heads. (It’s one thing to get to see the equipment in person, but it’s so much better to actually be able to test it out.)
Shotoku’s latest launch to the U.S. market is the TRP-100 robotic pedestal. It’s designed for all studio applications, including news, sports and current affairs. I can tell you from my own experience that the pedestal is very smooth. It is controlled by Shotoku’s TR-8T Control System, and it allows full X, Y and height camera movement, as well as conventional pan and tilt motion.
It features a navigation system that is easily calibrated within seconds using a target-tile placed anywhere on the studio floor. Full manual operation, with or without power, is supported for all axis, optimizing flexibility of use and easy maintenance.
Broadcast Pix showed their HD versions of the expanded Slate switcher family. The new Slate HD switchers provide an easy and cost effective way to create compelling live HD video. Their file-based architecture streamlines live production workflow by completely integrating the included switcher, CG, clip stores, still stores and monitoring while seamlessly networking them with content from edit bays. The first Slate HD switcher was used at the Sundance Film Festival.
Each of the three new Slate HD models includes: a switcher with up to six keyers and DVEs, multi-view monitoring, a Harris Inscriber CG, and a clip store. The switchers’ hybrid I/O supports: 1080i, 720p, SD, DVI and VGA, plus analog output in composite, Y/C and component. It can add: HD and SD analog inputs and 1080p output. Both 16:9 and 4:3 content can be mixed while preserving the native aspect ratio of each element.
Echolab was highlighting the new MultiPlayMD multidefinition, multichannel instant-replay system. The MultiPlayMD offers unique functionality at an affordable price point with continuous recording of up to 32 channels of SD or HD content.
Operators can switch instantly between live, play, and record functions, with instant synchronous playback available on all channels. The system is fully integrated with Echolab’s Overture1 and Overture2 switchers and can take “still” and “slow” modes of operation from these panels or from Echolab’s Conductor control integration system.
Also introduced was the MegaKeyMD which is a powerful clip player, mixer, and keyer that can serve as a networked storage device for animated graphics and video clips. MegaKeyMD accepts both HD and SD inputs and features a two-channel internal mixer and internal linear keyer to support playout of dynamic video clips. The system is fully integrated with Echolab’s Overture switcher series to support complex animated transitions through the switchers’ Stinger feature. MegaKeyMD also may be used with Overture systems as an additional downstream keyer or mixer on any output.
Broadcast Pix has expanded its Slate line with a new 2 M/E version. With the Slate 5000, a single operator can run all aspects of a sophisticated 2 M/E live HDTV production, including complex graphics, animation, clips and effects. It also allows the operator to control robotic cameras, audio mixers and video switchers.
The switcher, which can accommodate up to 32 video inputs, has six keyers, six DVEs, animated transitions with audio, a multiview monitor, dual channel clip store for as many as 60 hours of QuickTime and MPEG-2 clips, Harris Inscriber CG, and five channels of graphics. The panel has two banks of device controls, each of which can be assigned to a switcher function, clip or graphics store, or to control other devices in the studio.
The Slate 5000 can be ordered in various configurations, such as HD/SD, SD-only, analog, or mixed format. The HD versions can simultaneously process 1080i, 720p, SD-SDI, HD analog component, analog composite, Y/C, component, DVI and VGA inputs, with both synchronous and asynchronous signals, in both NTSC and PAL, and in both 16:9 and 4:3 formats. The Slate HD models can output both 16:9 and 4:3 formats simultaneously.
At a press conference yesterday Vizrt put on display a collaboration with Perceptive Pixel. Perceptive Pixel has an advance multi-touch graphics display system. Vizrt has integrated the system into its Viz Engine.
Users of the integrated system can control graphics through multi-touch gestures. Listen to Phil Kurz’s interview of Jeff Han, Perspective Pixel’s founder, about the interactive display.
My last stop on the floor yesterday was at the Xytech booth (SL4326). There, I was given a little plastic man with a squishy, sticky head that you can throw like a dart, and a fascinating walk-though of Xytech’s new Enterprise.net, or XE .NET. It’s a smart web client version of the company’s flagship business management and workflow system. It allows users to access the schedules from their desktop or remotely from laptops or handhelds.
Not every company at this year’s NAB Show has the newest, hottest technology. And as Mark Richards, international broadcast manager for the UK’s Fischer Connectors, told me, it’s often not worth it to release a new product at a show just for the sake of releasing a new product.
Fischer, though, is a special case, considering that it works in connectors and, because of this, a particular challenge for the company breaking into the U.S. market is based on the different standards here in the States. To its credit, the company did showcase some new products at IBC this year. But Richards doesn’t want to rush anything this year, preferring to wait to release a proven, reliable product than to just whip something up for the show that won’t be available until who knows when (he says the company should have some new technology to highlight by next year’s NAB). more
At my meeting with Utah Scientific this morning, CEO Tom Harmon showed me the UTAH-400/XL. The router offers a 1056 x 1056 matrix in a single equipment rack while using industry-standard BNC connectors. The router is readily scalable from 288 x 288 to 1056 x 1056 and beyond using a single family of matrix building blocks.
The company also has introduced two new additions to its master control switcher product family. The MC-4000 delivers two complete signal processing channels in a 3RU package, offering larger broadcasters a fully integrated system for demanding on-air operations. For smaller applications, the MC-40 provides a standalone package that integrates the company’s MC-400 channel branding board along with an eight-input board that allows the MC-40 to be used separately from the UTAH-400 routing switcher.
At Dalet’s Diamonds are Forever party last evening, I got a chance to talk with some reps about two projects the company is excited about.
First, I spoke with Benjamin Desbois, general manager for Dalet, about the workflow created for TMZ, which focuses on producing Web and TV content quickly, efficiently and simultaneously. Broadcast Engineering had an article about the TMZ setup in our February issue.
Next, I spoke with Miguel Miranda of DMS Technologies, Julien Decaix of Dalet and Janice Dolan of Zazil Media Group about the media convergence going on at Grupo Multimedios. The media group chose the Dalet NewsPro for Omneon as part of it’s plan to go tapeless as well as create a newsroom that integrates it’s newspapers, TV and radio.
The message is that integration of media needs to be from the start. This ties in with the tone at the sessions I attended yesterday. Trying to adapt stories after the fact for other formats or media takes more time and resources than if it was planned out from the start.
The editors and writers of Broadcast Engineering post live from the 2008 NAB Show in Las Vegas as the news happens. Check back throughout the day for the latest in industry news, reports from press conferences and product introductions.
This morning I met up with OCTOPUS CEO Peter Stokuc to talk about his company’s updated OCTOPUS6 newsroom computer system. Peter says that for the new OCTOPUS system the core functions have been revamped to make operation quicker and more intuitive. Even with all these changes, OCTOPUS6 is still backwards compatible. The key traits of OCTOPUS, according to Peter, are that its platform independent and its solid MOS protocol implementation.
The company also has introduced two new additions to its master control switcher product family. The MC-4000 delivers two complete signal processing channels in a 3RU package, offering larger broadcasters a fully integrated system for demanding on-air operations. For smaller applications, the MC-40 provides a standalone package that integrates the company’s MC-400 channel branding board along with an eight-input board that allows the MC-40 to be used separately from the UTAH-400 routing switcher.
