Archive for June 29th, 2012

Now Clients Have Even Easier Access Online to Browse and License ABC News’
Expansive Archives

ABC News VideoSource announced today an upgraded and expanded website delivering greater and easier access to ABC News’ vast archival footage online. Producers and researchers will now be able to browse, license and, in some cases, immediately access tens of thousands of video assets from ABC News’ expansive archives with the click of a mouse. VideoSource is the industry-leading stock footage licensing division of ABC News. It offers customers, including documentary filmmakers, educators or anyone with an interest in archival video footage, historically-rich news video from a vast collection spanning from 1896 to the present.

In a recent independent survey by Thriving Archives, ABC News VideoSource was named the overall preferred news provider and the upgraded website brings customers an even more efficient licensing process. Clients can now conduct advanced searches of video content in key categories, including current events, business, crime, disasters, entertainment, government, health, human rights, scenics, sports, technology, U.S. news, wars and world affairs. Suggested and related searches are also available, and users can preview videos online before purchase. Previously digitized material can be licensed and delivered for use in minutes on VideoSource’s updated website.

“VideoSource puts one of the greatest news video archives in the world within reach for our loyal customers,” said Anthony Perrone, Director of ABC News VideoSource. “Now the same unmatched customer service experience is available online with advanced browsing, easy preview and immediate delivery available. Everything you need to tell your story is at your fingertips.”

“I have utilized ABC News’ vast collection for numerous projects over the years with great success. The updated website provides instantly viewable digitized content, a supercharged search engine and the sidebar section of pre-built reels – so handy for quick broad searches,” said Deborah Ricketts, an archival footage researcher and longtime ABC News VideoSource client.

In addition to the user-friendly website the VideoSource sales and research staff – comprised of highly qualified historians – is always available on the phone and in person to help with all news content requests. The VideoSource collection includes ABC News original video as well as content from the Associated Press, British Movietone and Helinet.

About ABC News
ABC News delivers a big picture understanding of the world to empower and inspire viewers to make confident decisions for themselves and their families. More people get their news from ABC News than from any other source. ABC News is responsible for all of the ABC Television Network’s news programming on a variety of platforms: television, radio, and the Internet. With an average television and radio audience of 180 million people in a given month, ABC News surpasses the competition. More than 2,400 affiliate stations broadcast ABC News Radio’s global news coverage. In addition, ABC News NOW is a 24-hour news and information network currently available to 44 million users across cable, broadband, and mobile platforms. NewsOne, the affiliate news service of ABC News, provides live and packaged news, sports, and weather reports, as well as footage of news events, to 200 ABC affiliates and more than 30 domestic and international clients.

Gary Clarke (left) and Pete Bridges, BBC sound supervisors, configuring the Studer consoles in Potters Bar, UK.

This will enable the BBC to take feeds from 34 participating Olympic Games venues for domestic transmission through its network. Following a promise to broadcast “every session of every sport every day,” this will amount to some 2,500 hours of TV sports coverage.

Andrew Hills, Director Product Strategy, Studer, confirmed that the integration of the desks would be carried out by Dega Broadcast Systems, at the same time extending Studer’s relationship with the UK’s state broadcaster that dates back more than a decade.

Whilst Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) will provide host facilities within the IBC’s 42,000-square-metre net space, the design of the BBC space has been a collaborative effort between the broadcaster and Dega, led by project coordinator John Cleaver.

The installation will see the deployment of three 62-fader Vista 9 consoles and a Vista 5 along with three OnAir desks (two OnAir 3000 and an OnAir 1500). Incoming feeds from the host broadcaster and the BBC’s own studios will be fed to the desks, with the Route 6000 linking all the consoles at the core.

According to Pete Bridges, who as Lead Sound Supervisor for the operation will oversee all sound and communications, a Vista 9 will form the hub of each of the broadcaster’s three HD and 5.1 production galleries. In addition, an interactive gallery (IPCR) will manage and route 24 separate streams whose destination will be the Internet, Red Button, and other platforms including Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media; these will be running in stereo using two OnAir 3000s.

Faced with taking the bundle of host broadcaster’s feeds and folding that into its own programming will involve combining the broadcaster’s own presenters with VT, and incoming HD-SDI video feeds and Outside Source (OS) lines. The OnAir 1500 will provide a microphone submix from the athletics stadium presentation.

As for the Vista desks, using the Vista 9 for the first time, Bridges notes that the metering will allow fast reconfiguration when dealing with a wide variety of incoming 5.1 OS lines along with commentary and 24 microphone circuits from the studio via Studer’s D21m stage boxes. Other sources to the Vista 9 will include VT and grams.

To give an idea of scale, the Vista 9 in the main gallery will provide 16 line inputs, 72 line outputs, 52 mic inputs (via RELINK sharing) with 112 AES inputs and outputs (the large number of ports being the result of having so many incoming 5.1 sources).

Situated in its own room, the Vista 5 will be used as a backup gallery to the main sound control rooms (SCRs), and will serve as a bypass source (should the main studio suddenly need to be put into bypass to allow a pre-record to take place). “We will use the Vista 5 to pick up the mix, freeing up the Vista 9s to mix the pre-record,” noted Bridges.

A further useful feature of the Vista 9, he said, will be the ability to upmix stereo sources to 5.1 and downmix 5.1 to stereo outputs.

The Route 6000 itself (which can accommodate up to 1728 x 1728 inputs and outputs) will provide 40 line inputs; 40 line outputs; four microphone inputs and two HD-SDI de-embedder/embedder cards.

Finally, use of the Studer RELINK I/O sharing resource will enable the technicians to share mic circuits between all the control desks. “This is a key benefit,” Bridges said. “We can have HD tie lines between the cores of each desk on CAT5, using Studer’s High Density data stream…with 96 bi-directional tie lines to each of the four Vista consoles, sharing the desks’ sources and outputs.”

The integration of these components has been a triumph for Dega. Stated Cleaver, “One of the realities of an event of this scale is that you are looking at building an entire broadcast centre, not just an OB. Our area of expertise is permanent installs and this is as big an installation as we would undertake anywhere. To do so in a temporary building, for use over a 3-week period, and make it work for the number of people who are going to be using it, was certainly challenging.”

He added, “Since this is our domestic Games it needs to be covered more comprehensively; the fact that we have built three full galleries, and provided interaction between them so that the three Vista 9 consoles link and route to each other to allow them to control any of the galleries, is a huge plus for what these mixers do. Without a doubt, this ability at the front end is something the broadcaster had wanted.”

BBC Sport will field 20 IBC sound technicians, managed by Jon Sweeney, Technical Operations Manager and Richard Morgan, Chief Engineer. With the aid of the Studer platforms, this will ensure that the 26 participating sports are well represented and that the broadcaster’s aim of “every session of every sport every day” is maintained.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG(r), Harman Kardon(r), Infinity(r), JBL(r), Lexicon(r) and Mark Levinson(r). The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.3 billion for the twelve months ended March 31, 2012.

Christie, the first to market a fully stereoscopic 3D DLP projector more than a decade ago, announced an expansion to its product offerings for the visualization markets with the addition of its next-generation Mirage M Series high performance digital projectors. The M Series joins the latest Mirage J Series, adding three new 3D capable products to the dual-lamp platform for a total of 21 projectors in the Mirage Series lineup. The Mirage Series offers the broadest range of 3-chip DLP 3D active stereo digital projectors ­single projector or in a multi-projector array- with advanced features that are specifically created for the demanding needs of the visualization market.
.
“Both Mirage M and Mirage J Series projector platforms now come with an Intelligent Lens System (ILS) that features auto lens calibration and an all new version Christie Twist™ hardware that is included as a standard feature of the projector for no additional cost,” noted Larry Paul, senior director, Technology and Visualization Solutions Management, Christie.
.
“These new Mirage products are brighter than ever, they fill a critical need in visualization applications for display solutions that allow for greater quality in all types of immersive environments, from CAVE systems to spherical, curved and flat screen visualization display solutions.”
.
The new Christie Twist hardware provides enhanced built-in geometric warping with sharper imagery, and advanced edge-blending capabilities that reduce or eliminate all electronic blending artifacts to cover the full gamut of the most demanding of immersive visualization markets, including aerospace, architecture, energy, education and training, government, science, theme parks and transportation.
.
Christie Mirage M Series
The three new models in the Mirage M series are: Mirage DS+14K-M, Mirage HD14K-M and Mirage WU14K-M. The Mirage M series projectors consist of either SXGA+, HD or WUXGA resolution and now feature from 6,000 up to 12,500 lumens – the highest brightness available at 110V. They are easy to set up and configure, and deliver power and flexibility in a proven, high definition 3D platform. The new Christie M Series models will start shipping in July 2012.
.
Christie Mirage J Series
Recently introduced, the Christie Mirage J Series, is well suited for the visualization market. It couples the benefits of xenon illumination – for the most natural color accuracy and stability – with the most advanced electronics, performance and flexibility in stereoscopic digital projection today. The Mirage J Series models come in SXGA+ (4:3), HD (16:9) and WUXGA (16:10) resolution to suit any application and are available now.
.
The Mirage M and J Series projectors come out of the box ready to produce active stereo projection from four different types of 3D source inputs: Up to 120Hz native input over a single Dual Link DVI-D cable or VGA cable, a true 120Hz image from two 60Hz frame locked sources for compatibility with most passive stereo input sources, frame doubled content from 48-60Hz for maximum system compatibility with single link DVI-D or analog and full HDCP support of multiple mode 3D sources from consumer devices including triple flash at 144Hz.
.
Both the Mirage M and J series offer a host of options including HDSDI and other input cards and can also project polarized passive stereo output with an optional filter. A three-year warranty is standard on all models.
.
“Our Mirage Series offers high-performance 3D capability and world-wide power compatibility,” added Paul. “Visualization customers will all benefit from these remarkably powerful, flexible and cost-effective visualization display solutions.”
.
Overall, the Mirage Series projectors offer a wide range of 3D display solutions for single and multi-projector arrays in three illumination platform options: Mirage M with dual lamps that provide an extended lamp life up to 3,000 hours, Mirage J with long life Xenon illumination for the most natural color accuracy and stability up to 1500 hours as well as the Mirage WU-L with LED illumination featuring 60,000 hours of illumination life and stunning color. Mirage Series projectors are compatible with Christie AutoCAL and AutoStack, using a camera-based system for the automatic alignment and blending calibration of projector arrays. In addition, users have remote, real-time monitoring through the Christie Net™ web interface.

Crystal Vision now allows broadcast engineers to synchronize sources timed to a different reference or correct any processing delays while up or down converting. With flexible conversions between SD, 720p, 1080i and 1080p, the Up-Down-AS 3G synchronizing up/down/cross converter provides an output picture quality that broadcasters standardize on and can perform two different conversions simultaneously, giving a continuous clean output in two formats thanks to two downstream synchronizers. It is available in four versions as the Up-Down-AS 3G, Up-Down-AFDS 3G, Up-Down-ATS 3G and Up-Down-ATXS 3G – with each version providing different features. 
.

Up-Down-AS 3G’s project-winning output picture quality comes from a combination of motion adaptive video de-interlacing, Crystal Vision’s acclaimed proprietary down conversion including four vertical filter characteristics, adjustable detail enhancement and noise reduction, while RGB and YUV lift and gain controls help maintain color fidelity.  
.

Up-Down-AS 3G can perform two different conversions at the same time, with two separate converters on the board: one for the up and cross conversion, the other for the down conversion. This makes it the perfect up/down/cross converter for the installations that work in multiple definitions: it allows them to simultaneously create HD and SD copies of a feed from this one board and so easily fulfils their requirement to offer both HD and SD programming. Up-Down-AS 3G gives out co-timed dual outputs that remain unchanged in format (as either SD or 3G/HD) irrespective of any change in the input format, thanks to the internal smart routing.  
.

Up-Down-AS 3G differs from Crystal Vision’s other up/down/cross converters by offering signal timing functionality. To keep the output valid at all times Up-Down-AS 3G has two synchronizers downstream of the converter – one in the 3G/HD path and one in the SD path – which means that it gives a continuous clean output in the two required formats even when the input standard changes, perfect for feeding an MPEG encoder which requires a constant stable video input. The two outputs are co-timed to each other and also to the station reference, with cross-locking allowing any source to be referenced to either HD tri-level syncs or SD Black and Burst. Up-Down-AS 3G includes sophisticated handling of Dolby E and will synchronize video containing a mixture of Dolby E and linear AES within the same audio group and auto-correct timing errors with the guardband to ensure Dolby E alignment.  
.

It offers a flexible range of video and audio delays to help match all the signals, with audio resampling ensuring a smooth matching of the linear audio and video delay. These delays include full vertical and horizontal timing adjustment between 0 and 1 frame to compensate for mistimed sources elsewhere in the system, a tracking audio delay and up to three frames of fixed video and audio delay to match any big system delays.  
.

Between them the four variants of Up-Down-AS 3G offer many additional features. These features include aspect ratio conversion including AFD insertion and reading, four group embedded audio handling with audio routing, integrated fiber input/output connectivity, signal probe functionality, timecode conversion, and transport of both teletext and closed captions between different definitions.  
.

Explained Crystal Vision’s Managing Director, Philip Scofield: “We have received a great deal of support from major broadcasters in Europe and the USA for the quality of our up and down converters. The Up-Down-AS 3G now has so many features within a single product that – as well as having fantastic video and audio processing – it has become an economical way of providing all the processing required when taking video into a broadcast station or OB truck.”  
.

Shipping now, Up-Down-AS 3G fits all its functionality into a space-saving 100mm x 266mm module which is housed in the standard frames – available in 4U, 2U, 1U and desk top box sizes and with up to 12 boards fitting in 2U. The inputs and outputs are accessed by using either the RM41 frame rear module or the RM57 for fiber applications. Control options are flexible and include board edge switches, an active front panel on the frame, a remote control panel, SNMP and the Statesman PC software. 
.
Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK and with an office in the USA, Crystal Vision provides digital keyers, picture storage modules and a full range of interface equipment including converters, synchronizers, distribution amplifiers and audio embedders to the professional broadcasting industry worldwide.

www.crystalvision.tv