In Broadcast - November 2012 - 49

ISSUE 14 - NOV/DEC 2012 | WWW.INBROADCAST.COM

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

N E W S

InTECH
Signal Management Processing & QC Cont.
equipment demonstrations from a number of leading manufacturers, including Te k t r o n i x . R i c h a r d Brooking, the c o m p a n y ’s Video Marketing Manager for EMEA, says that in the digital domain as much as in Picture Quality Analysers aid in codec design and evaluation the analogue DPP’s guidelines will cover both world, material has to be absolutely tape and ﬁle-based video formats right before it enters the distribution and be followed by UK broadcasters chain to guard against problems, including Sky, Five, S4C and UKTV, which can take a lot of time, effort as well as the founding members. and money to correct. The DPP issued a statement “All digital does is carry the saying it “hopes to achieve content. If the video is illegal and industry-wide collaboration with doesn’t meet technical standards broadcasters and QC tool vendors, or the audio is too loud or too soft industry-wide standards for QC or down on one leg, that is going to cause problems either during reporting, tests and terminology and best practice sharing among post or on transmission, so it has broadcasters. The DPP is currently to be correct from the start,” he says. working on a set of guidelines for Brooking adds that T&M also plays suppliers that will include an agreed a part in TV play-out, with devices high-level workﬂow for automated that detect any faults, such as audio ﬁle-based QC, an agreed list of drop out, during transmission. required tests and tolerances based Despite the inﬂuence of software on AS-11 standards.” AS-11 is and file-based operations, T&M an open subset of MXF (Material equipment manufacturers still see eXchange Format), which is used to traditional devices like waveform deliver completed programmes as monitors and vectorscopes as ﬁles from the production company relevant today. or distributor to broadcasters. The DPP is basing its standards on T&M Match AS-11 and other formats set out “Wherever there is a professional by the Advanced Media Workﬂow broadcast based creative input, Association (AMWA) and is aiming to these traditional T&M units should introduce guidelines for QC in 2013. be found,” says Steve Nunney, a Director of Hamlet Video. “They Auto v Human enable production and postNeil Hatton, Chief Executive of production to ensure they match London post house Azimuth, sits sequences, cameras and get the on the DPP Technical Standards correct effect at the right levels and gamut expenditure.” Committee representing UK Screen, the trade organisation for facilities Nunney also does not view digital and producers in the TV and ﬁlm systems as inherently self-checking, industries. Hatton sees the proposed which belies any thoughts that test new set-up as a “good move”, machines are becoming obsolete as new manufacturing and distribution which could break the de facto monopoly held by T&M equipment processes are developed. “It would manufacturers favoured by the big seem quite the opposite in a number of areas where 3G analysis is broadcasters. “But we will have to be a little bit careful to see where the required, ﬁbre to coax, coax to ﬁbre ultimate responsibility and liability being one example,” he explains. lies, either with the post facilities or “Where devices are made with the broadcasters,” he says. a speciﬁcation it must be veriﬁed. Hatton comments that automated, Where programmes are made to ﬁle-based T&M processes will play a speciﬁc broadcast speciﬁcation then T&M steps in to ensure they their part in any QC system but that are compliant.” human judgment – using eyes and Nunney adds that while software ears in conjunction with calibrated monitors and properly set-up can be written to test and measure parameters as part of that, you still loudspeakers – is still the only way need a T&M expert looking after it to check for certain parameters. The EBU QC conference included who understands the nuances of the subject and what to look for. Robert Millis, Product Manager for Compressed Servers and File QC Systems at Harris Broadcast Communications, is of the opinion that traditional T&M is “still critical to overall success”. He explains that material in ﬁle-form typically starts life as real-time feeds or ones that have been creatively modified. “Encoding/compression technology, while highly evolved for most formats, is not a lossless process,” says Millis. “Another risk point is ﬁle-based media has gone through workﬂows that may affect the captioning or other ancillary data that is part of the complete package for broadcast delivery. Baseband T&M products have a role to monitor during ingest, serve as a double check during the edit process and at broadcast playout. Traditional T&M products, driven by experienced operators, can also differentiate between intended artistic effects and objectionable artefacts, ﬁltering out false positives that can be hard to avoid in the automated tool sets.”

A head and torso simulator in a test cell chamber - Image ©Brüel & Kjær

Sound Results
The blurring of the lines between professional broadcast and streamed distribution platforms has opened up a new area of research and development for some wellestablished T&M manufacturers. Danish company Brüel & Kjær is noted for its academic approach to ensuring good sound quality in broadcasting and live sound. Its specialised equipment is being used by manufacturers of handheld units, such as smartphones and tablets, because people are listening on headphones or earphones and expect good quality audio. “It’s opened up a whole new T&M market,” comments Julian Simpson, Production QA Programme Manager of Brüel & Kjær Sound and Vibration Measurement. “We’re using our core technologies, such as high quality measuring microphones and the dummy head and torso simulation set-up, to test these systems. As well as products like tablets and
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File QC
T&M manufacturers are now being joined by specialised software developers producing systems for QC. Companies like Amberﬁn do not claim to produce T&M equipment but develop programs using test and measurement principles to perform checks on ﬁle-based material during the transmission process. “There’s still the need to measure signals upstream, in post-production and production, and that’s done using traditional machines,” comments Bruce Devlin, Chief Technology Ofﬁcer of Amberﬁn. “When you get more into transmission you still need the same measurements but in a different way. This is because, although there are now more channels available, many have fewer viewers, so there is less money to be spent on running them, which means more automation is being used to produce good results.” Devlin explains that this situation means broadcasters are using software variants of hardware equipment downstream – in distribution/transmission – to maintain quality and assurance. “The way things should be working is to check material with a T&M box and then in software as it goes down the chain,” he observes. “But all measurements seem to get thrown away when something is put into video on demand. People have to consider the life cycle of something and find a way of remembering what they did upstream and then incorporate those changes into the version being streamed later.”

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Bruce Devlin, Amberﬁn CTO

things “…The way working is should be to check material with a T&M box and then in software as it goes down the chain

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In Broadcast - November 2012

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