In Broadcast - March 2013 - 38

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

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 17 - MARCH 2013

N E W S

InPREVIEW

2013 NAB Show Preview
NAB has long been the biggest, brashest and most enjoyable new-technology event in the broadcast
calendar, helped by the Las Vegas spring climate. This is the show which most broadcast equipment
manufacturers use for the ﬁrst display of the latest hardware and software…

By David Kirk
Contributing Editor

n an ideal world, every sensible
broadcast equipment buyer would
attend the Consumer Electronics
Show in January, the NAB Show
in April and IBC in September. CES
is the event that sets the trend in
domestic viewing platforms and
displays. The January 2013 CES
conﬁ rmed the message that 4K
has a healthy future alongside or
perhaps eventually replacing 1920
x 1980 high deﬁnition.
NAB, held at the same venue
as CES, is particularly good for
prototypes. IBC, ﬁve months on, is
where some at least of the latter
appear as buyable products.
The key message emerging
from the following preview is
the accelerating transition from
hardware to software, particularly
in post-production. Notice also a
continuing blurring of the boundary
between hardware and software as
practically everything now comes
with an internal memory and IP
connectivity.
AmberFin’s new iCR-300-DPP
media ingest workstation and
iCR-100-DPP transcoder are both
designed specifically to create
high-quality MXF-wrapped AVCIntra or D10 assets compliant with
the AMWA AS-11 speciﬁcation and
with Digital Production Partnership
guidelines from tape or line
sources. Available as standalone
workstations or scalable enterprise
systems, both are optimised for easy
integration and operation with thirdparty devices.
Blackmagic Design will exhibit
version 1.2 of its Cinema Camera.
This adds time lapse recording
which can be selected from every
second frame up to one frame per
ten minutes. The addition of a new
aperture indicator on the status
strip and SDI output overlay for EF
compatible lenses allows customers
to check F stop settings on the
LCD display screen. Support for
Microsoft Windows formatted ExFAT
SSD disk adds ﬂexibility to select
HFS+ or ExFAT formats.
Brainstorm Multimedia’s
new Aston 3D graphics creation
system is designed to integrate
with newsroom systems, video
servers, NLEs and third party

software. Applications include
fast turnround news and sports
programmes, branding, finance,
weather, elections, game shows and
other real-time on-air programmes.
Calrec has added Automixer, an
automatic mixing function, to the
Blueﬁn2 signal processor used in its
Apollo and Artemis mixing consoles.
Automixer attenuates the output
levels of all channels to maintain
consistent sound levels in situations
with multiple open microphones
and unpredictable audio content.
Applications include panel-style
discussion shows where a guest
might start speaking very loudly.
Users can have eight separate
Automixers, each of which may be
assigned to control any number of
mono input channels and group
paths on the control surface.
Combining Texas Instruments DLP
projection with the LED illumination,
Christie MicroTiles are claimed to
reproduce 115% of the NTSC colour
gamut, exceeding typical LCD ﬂat
panels by more than 50%. Each
display unit automatically detects
its neighbours and self-calibrates for
colour and brightness to optimise
the overall presentation. The
MicroTiles are designed for indoor
high-ambient light environments.
Measuring 16 inches wide by 12
inches tall and less than a foot deep,
they are claimed to be suitable
for a wide range of applications,
including control room walls and
event production. The displays are
controlled via a Christie Spyder
X20 hardware-based 20-megapixel
bandwidth video processor
combined with a routing switcher.
The Spyder X20’s integrated source
monitoring allows simultaneous

Now in production - Camera Corps’ Q-Ball Pre-Set

real-time full-frame-rate monitoring
of all inputs.
Chyron’s new ChyronIP real-time
HD/SD 2D and 3D character and
graphics generator is speciﬁcally
intended for the NewTek TriCaster
integrated live production system.
ChyronIP offers producers up to
two HD or SD full-motion channels
of Chyron graphics which can be
streamed directly into the TriCaster
over a network connection.
Demonstrated in prototype at
IBC 2011 and now in production,
Camera Corps’ Q-Ball Pre-Set
allows 18 shot settings (each
comprising pan angle, tilt angle,
zoom and focus) to be stored prior
to a live or real-time recorded shoot.
All settings are saved in non-volatile
RAM so remain stored even if the
Q-Ball Pre-Set system is powered
down between rehearsal and actual
performance. The Q-Ball Pre-Set
and the established Q-Ball are fully
compatible with all existing Camera
Corps robotic control systems and
CCU panels. Up to 72 heads can
be operated from a single controller.
EVS will demonstrate is XT3
production system with I-Movix
X10 which is claimed to be the ﬁrst
live variable speed playback system
capable of giving continuous real-

Eyeheight LE-2M-K legaliser and audio-level corrector

time output of up to 250 frames per
second at 1920 x 1080 resolution
and image quality. For sports
productions requiring higher frame
rate levels, an X10+ derivative can
also operate on an extreme slow
motion mode at up to 2,600 frames
per second in 1080i50 or up to 5,600
frames per second in 720p60 (100
times slower than live action) with
instant replay.
Eyeheight’s LE-2M-K legaliser
keeps a timed log of every noncompliant video or audio event
requiring correction in the course
of a 24-hour transmission schedule.
This enables broadcasters to archive
a record of as-run conformance
data in countries where legislation
makes this compulsory. Each
action is logged complete with its
linear timecode identifier. Video
legalisation and loudness correction
timelines can also be monitored onscreen. Video legalisation can be
performed to conform with SMPTE
or EBU standard settings and 7.5
IRE or 0 IRE Pedestal. Six user
memories and common presets
are incorporated. In the audio
domain, the LE-2M-K provides
automatic real-time control of
perceptual loudness and true peak
level using ITU-R BS.1770 multichannel loudness and true-peak
estimation algorithms. These are
coupled with proprietary correction
algorithms to ensure compliance
with loudness and peak-programme
level requirements.
Grass Valley’s new ViBE VS7000
video system is an ‘anything in,
anything out’ encoding/transcoding
platform for web TV, second-screen
services, IPTV and cable delivery. It
combines Thomson’s compression
CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

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