In Broadcast - March 2014 - 44

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

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 29 - MARCH 2014

N E W S

InSTUDIO
Systems Integrators Part II Cont.

Sony
According to Sony's head of AV
Media, Olivier Bovis, the past
year was challenging for the
whole industry, with a signiﬁcant
number of projects postponed due
to widespread budget constraints.
However, he expects to see a
marked improvement across
Europe in 2014, as many of those
projects are being picked up again.
The key factors affecting Sony's
clients' business are the migration
into the IP space and 4K. "Many

might argue that talking about 4K
as a serious consideration is a little
premature, but it has moved from
the realm of the theoretical into
the actual. Our clients are thinking
about 4K in the most practical sense
now," says Bovis.
"Unsurprisingly, economic
pressures have led to extensive
ongoing conversation with
customers regarding technology
deployment, and we expect these
pressures to continue across the
industry for the foreseeable future.
"The continued integration of IP
workﬂows is inevitable, and systems

44

Peter Gabriel's 'Back To Front: So LIVE' tour was shot in 4K by Sony

like Sony's NXL-IP55 are the kind of
equipment that broadcasters are
using to get quality full HD video out
over IP networks. Those customers
who are looking to future proof their
content and equipment, as well
as take advantage of superb HD
content now, are already looking
to invest in 4K and this will only
continue and increase."

In Action
To help viewers feel that they
were at the front of the stage for
Peter Gabriel's 25th anniversary
of his multi-platinum album, 'So',
Re al Wor ld
Productions
and
coproducers
Done & Dusted
Productions
and
ERP
Productions,
as well as
CT V Outside
Broadcasts
shot two dates
of G a b r i e l's
'Back To Front:
So LIVE' tour in
4K. The concert
was shot over
two nights at
London's O2
arena with ten
PMW-F55s

Olivier Bovis,
Sony

"...Our clients are in
thinking about 4K
the most practical
sense now

"

The concert celebrated the 25th
anniversary of Peter Gabriel's multiplatinum album 'So'...

in RAW format to R5 and SRR1000 recorders.
Sony had earlier helped shoot
what is claimed as the ﬁrst ever
4K concert, of Muse performing
at Rome's Olympico Stadium.
Producers Serpent used 16
F55s provided by Dutch facilities
company United.

EFX Productions Upgrades OB Van With Blackmagic
EFX Productions upgrades live OB production capabilities with Blackmagic Design...

J

o h a n n e s b u r g - b a s e d EF X
Productions has been providing
OB services in South Africa for
more than a decade, working with
staging companies, transmission
service providers and creative
directors to produce sporting
events, concerts, television series
and documentaries.
Founder Brendan Marsay has
more recently been taking on
bigger and increasingly complex
productions, requiring him to

upgrade the live production
capabilities on his company's OB
van with the help of local broadcast
systems integrator Telemedia Ltd.
"At times we found ourselves
running an external HD switcher in
order to give us enough channels,"
says Marsay. "Often we'd be keying
graphics downstream or we'd end
up using a video router so that we
could mix six camera sources, one
graphics channel and one playback
channel. It was a very limiting

The OB van features a Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher
paired with an ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel and video wall

setup that we'd simply outgrown.
Furthermore, many of the larger
jobs we are now taking on require
multiple big screens in addition to
an external broadcast, so having
a fully-ﬂedged 2 M/E production
switcher was an absolute necessity."
The centrepiece of the van's
new workﬂow is the Blackmagic
Design ATEM 2 M/E Production
Switcher paired with an ATEM 2
M/E Broadcast Panel and video wall.
"The ﬂexibility of the multi view
options on offer in the switcher
was one of the big reasons I
ultimately settled on the ATEM
vision mixer. I like the fact that
you have the ﬂexibility to run an
eight channel multi view on one
screen and a programme preview
on another. Alternatively I can use
all 16 as a multi view across the
van's two 40-inch television screens.
Incredible flexibility.
"Another bonus is that your
graphics channels on the ATEM
don't take away any physical inputs.
In essence, that gives me 18 plus
channels, with 16 physical inputs,
each with their own automatic

frame synchroniser. This only
further increases the size and
scale of productions that we are
able to take on."
Since completing the upgrade,
EFX Production has been involved
in a number of productions including
the South African soap opera
'Isidingo', for broadcaster SABC
3. "We were brought in to assist
with catching up on their schedule,"
reveals Marsay.
EFX Productions used both
M/Es on the ATEM, with M/E 1
providing a HD programme feed
to the HyperDeck Studio and Sony
XDCAM deck, which was down
converted to SD, while M/E 2 was
being operated remotely via a
tablet, switching the vision mixers's
preview. The ATEM's SuperSource
feature was also used to provide an
extra multi view.
"That process is all running in HD
and then multi split for our three
camera positions. Using the ATEM's
aux outputs meant that EFX could
supply multiple monitoring to SABC
during production," said Marsay.

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