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.

Listen to a short clip from Ian Tootell on Xytech Enterprise.

Related articles: Xytech offers new version of digital asset software; Visavis Filmproduktion streamlines business workflow with Xytech software; Xytech Systems to unveil Xytech Enterprise version 11.

Amid all the hoopla surrounding the potential ATSC mobile digital TV standard at this year’s show, one established European standard made a quiet, though possibly momentous entry into the U.S. scene: DVB-SH. The satellite company ICO launched into space at 4:12pm Eastern today, Monday, April 17th, its G1 satellite, placing it into its initial geosynchronous transfer orbit at 4:56pm. After making an initial telemetry and command contact with a ground station in Perth, Australia, it will go into its final position where it will be miles above the eastern Pacific, providing services to the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The satellite will operate in the 2GHz S-band.

ICO is using the satellite to trial its ICO mim, an interactive mobile video, navigation and emergency service, which is based on DVB-SH, a hybrid digital terrestrial/satellite mobile TV standard. The company wants to launch the service by 2009, and is envisioning it as an in-car type service. It would be sort of like a Sirrius satellite radio service – except based on video. It’s generating a fair amount of buzz at the show. more

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

Although this was the seventh year Broadcast Engineering held its Excellence Awards contest, this was the first year that we held a ceremony to honor the winners.

The Excellence Awards have become the industry’s standard of measurement for new facilities, recognizing innovation, high-quality design and construction. Entries include those featuring telco, cable, broadcast and production facilities.

Broadcast Engineering presented the winners with a plaque at the Penton Media booth #SL8328. Following the ceremony, winners were treated to a champagne toast and fruit and cheese party.

Watch a video on the Excellence Awards being handed out on Broadcast Engineering TV.

Check out more pictures from the Excellence Awards.

To learn about the winners’ innovative solutions, please visit:

http://broadcastengineering.com/newsrooms/engineering_excellence_awards/

If you’re interested in participating in the 2009 Excellence Awards contest, please contact Angela Snell for more information at angela.snell@penton.com.

I came to the Belden thinking I’d prepared for my interview by brushing up on Belden’s latest cables. Boy, was I wrong. There is a lot going on at this booth this year, and two of the biggest attractions aren’t cable products at all. The three big product groups I looked at were: recently acquired Hirschmann’s MACH 1000 and 4000 switchers, new modular racks and the introduction of the 1855p (the plenum version of it’s 1855a).

First, let’s start with Hirschmann. Tim Toth, director of sales, told me this was Hirschmann’s first showing at NAB. Hirschmann offers Ethernet switchers and routers for mission critical applications. The group’s goal is to eliminate single points of failure in Ethernet networks. The MACH 1000 and 4000 are created to provide 99.999 percent reliability, even under extreme circumstances. The fanless MACH 1000 has an operating temperature range of -40 degrees F to 185 degrees F. The switchers also have a handy USB flash drive backup setup. For more, check out a short audio clip of Tim talking about the MACH 1000 and 4000.

Next, on to Belden’s new racks. Product line manager and engineer Denis Blouin says that Belden’s goal in making these racks was to provide enclosures designed with broadcasters’ needs in mind. And the well-thought-out setup for cable placement and flow is to be expected from racks being designed by a cable maker. Denis showed me the ultra-slim truck rack, which has the option of being made from aluminum. All the rack frames include the company’s Quick Mount System for cable placement, allowing a cable to be attached anywhere a user wants. For more, check out a short audio clip from Denis about the racks.

And, yes, there were cables too. The company introduced new HDMI cables for HD audio and video. It has also completely updated its Brilliance Tactical Fiber Optic Cables. And Marc Stringer, market manager, told me that Belden will soon be offering the 1855p.

Related articles: Making the connection; Belden to acquire Hirschmann Automation; Belden Brilliance fiber-optic cable stands up to rugged environments.

Inlet Technologies has announced two major initiatives at the NAB Show. Neil Selvin, COO, and Andy Beach, director of product management, first discussed the debut of Armanda, which is an approach to encoding workflow management. The workflow is designed to enhance the hands-off automation that is required to support high-volume operations. An easy-to-use interface and documented APIs will allow organizations to easily tie their controls into existing operations. Armanda provides for pre-encoding, which includes capture and analysis, file verification and metadata extraction; encoding, which includes template creation and management, distributed encoding, job scheduling and priority, and load balancing and node management; and post-encoding, which includes quality control, content encryption and document records, and packaging and publishing.

Selvin and Beach then discussed the availability of two additions to the company’s Spinnaker family of live streaming appliances — the Spinnaker 4000 and 7000. The Spinnaker 4000 introduces ASI and IP input into the Spinnaker product line, while the Spinnaker 7000 supports high-definition. Inlet also has introduced a third format to the Spinnaker family — H.264. The inclusion of this codec in its live encoding product provides content creators with more options for how they deliver streaming media.

Related articles: MLBAM turns to Inlet Spinnaker for 2008 baseball season; Inlet Technologies to introduce new encoding workflow management; Globecomm Systems selects Inlet transcoding engine.

My first appointment of the day was with Tamihiko Ogawa and Hisashi Kasahara from NTT Electronics (SU10220). The company’s big introduction this year are the AVC/H.264 HDTV/SDTV HVE9100 encoder and HVD9100 decoder. One of key features the men emphasized was that they feature 4:2:2 chroma for high-quality professional broadcast. The units are compact, lightweight and supports a wide range of applications, including MPEG-2.

In their booth you can see a series of displays showing the encoders and decoders. The first screen shows the original video footage. The second shows the video at 45Mb/s, 4:2:2 and 1920 x 1080. The third is at 18Mb/s, 4:2:2 and 1920 x 1080. And the fourth is at 8Mb/s, 4:2:0 and 1440 x 1080.

The HVT9100, an MPEG-2 to AVC/H.264 HDTV/SDTV real-time transcoder is another relatively new addition to the NTT lineup. It transcodes, while maintaining picture quality with minimal dealy in real time.

Update: NTT’s HVE9100/HVD9100 H.264 encoders won a Pick Hit award!

Little did I know when I showed up at my appointment today with Tony Iwamoto, VP of sales, marketing and technical services for IDX, that I would be checking out two particular products that were so new that they had literally landed in Vegas just in time for NAB.

For this first product, a little background. Last year, when I went to visit IDX, a provider of batteries, power products and chargers, I remember seeing the Elite line of lithium-ion batteries as well as a wireless camera transmitter/receiver system. The wireless system was being highlighted for its high picture quality and low latency, and when I mean low latency, I mean the latency was just barely enough to be perceivable. But it was still a pretty nice, functional system. I bring this up because at the IDX booth today, I was introduced to the CAM-WAVE system, an uncompressed HD/SD-SDI wireless transmitter/receiver system. more