Live From IBC 2024: Saturday’s Latest From Amsterdam

The SVG Europe and SVG Americas teams are onsite in Amsterdam for IBC 2024. As the production and broadcast industry gathers to launch new products and reconnect, the SVG team is out in force in the exhibition halls of the RAI to gather and share the latest news with the SVG community. You’ll find all the key announcements and news here with daily updates through Monday.

Today’s issue features Adder, Avid, Amagi, Appear, Arqiva, Audinate, Avid, Backlight, Brainstorm, Calrec Audio, Chyron, Genelec, Ikegami, Imagine Communications, InSync, Lawo, LiveU, LTN, Marshall Electronics, Moments Labs, Mo-Sys, Native Waves, Prodys, Quantum, Quantum 5X, Qvest, Red Digital, Salsa Sound, Tinkerlist, TVN Live Production, TVU Networks, Xytech Systems.

Adder (Stand 8.B65) is highlighting the latest addition to its KVM matrix lineup, the ADDERView Matrix C-Range. For organizations or networks that operate in smaller spaces, including collegiate athletic programs, the new upgrade is intended for this smaller space and provides a streamlined IP KVM-matrix solution offering ease of use and minimal maintenance. Designed to be as customizable and user-friendly as possible, each user station is a master controller of up to 16 sources at any one time, and a single computer-access module can connect up to 256 user stations.

Amagi (Stand 5.B87) has focused its efforts at IBC on live remote production, cloud migration, and streaming. To put its cloud-native solutions in context, the company has re-created a live-operations center at its stand. For sports, the environment shows everything from setting up an on-demand live-broadcast infrastructure, orchestrating live remote events, managing graphics and ad breaks, and clipping and social-media publishing. New at the show is the on-premises playout server Disaster Recovery DR Box for Amagi CLOUDPORT. CLOUDPORT, along with Tellyo STUDIO and Tellyo PRO, are on display to show how end users can manage and automate the entire broadcast workflow from ingest to delivery. These are the latest developments building on Amagi’s acquisition of Tellyo last year.

Appear (Stand 1. B41) has updated its HEVC and AVC compression solutions in time for IBC 2024. Through its X Platform, Appear says, it can now deliver up to a 73% improvement in latency performance without compromising picture quality. Says Appear CTO Andy Rayner, “Our evolving temporal compression capabilities complement our JPEG XS solutions available in TR-07 and TR-08 formats. With full interoperability, all of these capabilities integrate seamlessly with Appear’s accelerated SRT technology, providing a complete toolkit for media transport with best-in-class protection and resilience.”

Media services provider Arqiva (Stand 8.MS6) has enhanced its portfolio of streaming services with the addition of new broadcast-optimisation capability. Provided in collaboration with System73, the new service offerings for optimisation, QoE analytics, and seamless CDN switching are intended to reduce delivery cost, latency, environmental impact, and viewer satisfaction issues that come with the increasing requirement of content owners to deliver traffic over the internet, all while increasing quality of experience. “This is a unique proposition for streaming,” explains Arqiva CTO Dom Wedgwood. “It’s peer-to-peer optimization, which is additive to CDNs; it helps sports broadcasters manage the peaks in their traffic that they can’t predict. To get the best performance for these peaks in traffic is hard, but this solves that.”

Audinate (Stand 8.A95) and Lawo (Stand 8.B90) are talking about their new MoU agreement for the integration of Dante audio and video technologies into Lawo’s HOME apps. This will include provision of native discovery and management mechanisms for Dante devices and software as well as access to Dante audio and video within Lawo’s HOME management platform. Lawo intends to integrate Dante APIs and SDKs for access to control, management, and media signals for Dante networks directly into HOME. Lawo will also introduce Dante Importer (southbound) and Dante Exporter (northbound) services into and out of HOME. Says Audinate Principal Product Manager Jim Kidwell, “This is a big deal for us. Lawo has previously supported other protocols, so integrating us gives customers even more choices.”

Avid (Stand 7.B59) is emphasizing AI and focusing on how AI can be of creative assistance. “The way we are trying to apply AI,” says Craig Wilson, product evangelist, video and media, Avid, “is to help customers become more efficient, whether that’s allowing end users to spend more time on the creative part, as opposed to some of the mundane tasks, or enabling them to produce faster to more platforms and more channels.” One such capability is tying speech-to-text to the clips so that, when the text is dragged into the Media Composer timeline, the video follows; another example is rules functions that automatically upload an approved piece of content to playout. Also be sure to check out the new Media Composer SDK, which allows customers and partners to develop their own panels within Media Composer. Notes Wilson, “We have some workflows here with Autodesk or a dailies workflow where you can access the dailies from Autodesk, drag them in a Media Composer bin, and carry on with your work.”

Backlight (Stand 1.D09) is one of the industry leaders at IBC 2024 in AI-driven automation and cloud-based asset-management innovation. The company’s Iconik smart media-management and collaboration hub has a bevy of new features. Among them is Automation Engine, a new no-code UI for building workflows and automating tasks centered on content discovery in media libraries. That includes facial recognition, summaries, and topic extraction through AI. Iconik also offers improvements in media review and collaboration with a new asset player and upgraded dynamic watermarking.

Brainstorm (Stand 7.B47) is prioritizing virtual-production capabilities. For workflows, the company is introducing Suite 6.1 flagship products eStudio, InfinitySet, and Aston, which feature integration with Unreal Engine 5.4, virtual production with advanced rendering capabilities, and collaborative workflows with Aston. Announcements include the company’s partnership with XD Motion, innovations in motion graphics, and its latest work in immersive environments with Edison Ecosystem Advancements and Edison OnCloud.

Celebrating 60 years of putting sound in the picture, Calrec Audio (Stand 8.C47) is marking the occasion with three major product launches intended to deliver flexibility to broadcasters: the compact Argo M console, ImPulseV cloud audio-mixing solution, and True Control 2.0. Built on the same technology that powers Calrec’s Argo platform, the new Argo M brings the same feature set and operational familiarity as the Argo Q and Argo S consoles in a compact 24- or 36-fader footprint. Designed for small to medium applications and adopting the same “everything anywhere” approach, Argo M is a plug-and-play SMPTE 2110–native console.

Chyron (Stand 7.B49) is showcasing expanded live–sports-graphics solutions. Besides creating new opportunities and updates to its Chyron LIVE cloud-native production platform, the company is debuting two features to its sports-analysis line PAINT 9.8 and Virtual Placement 7.6. The enhancement to PAINT increases flexibility in replay and telestration on live broadcasts. To increase efficiency in virtual graphics in a live setting, Virtual Placement 7.6 supplements broadcasts with better optical tracking and calibration, which will upgrade the graphics’ accuracy and precision.

Genelec (Stand 8.A61) has unveiled the Unio Personal Reference Monitoring Solution. Comprising the 9320A SAM Reference Controller, Reference Measurement Microphone, and the new 8550A Professional Reference Headphones, it helps create a seamless bridge between professional in-room loudspeaker and personal-headphone monitoring. With the additional headphone calibration features available within Genelec GLM software — and the optional Aural ID V2.0 binaural headphone monitoring technology — users can enjoy a personal and truthful headphone monitoring experience. Says Howard Jones, communications director, Genelec, “Unio provides a bridge between in-room and personal-headphone monitoring. You can pick things out, position in the mix, and trust what you’re hearing on the headphones. The idea was to produce a headphone mix that was more akin to hearing loudspeakers in a room, so it was always a reliable reference.”

Ikegami (Stand 12.A31) has a new camera making its IBC debut, but its freshest introduction is the IPX-100, a full-featured IP-oriented mini base station. The unit includes a signal generator to allow ST 2110 system configuration before cameras are connected. On the day of the event, the cameras can be connected easily to the IPX-100 by a conventional SMPTE-hybrid fibre cable with up to 3.5-km cable extension. Because the camera head is powered by the IPX-100, there is no operational difference from a conventional fibre-cabled camera. According to Gisbert Hochguertel, product specialist, Ikegami Europe, it is compatible with all cameras in the Ikegami XE and HD series and is just 2RU high by half 19-in. rack width. “ST 2110-22 (JPEG-XS) encoding is available as a software option,” he adds, “an important feature allowing the data rate to adapt to the available IP bandwidth.” The HDK-X500 HD portable camera system, a new entry-level model in the Ikegami Unicam-XE family, can be configured easily for pedestal-mounted studio operation, tripod-based sports coverage, and shoulder-mounted outdoor production. Three latest-generation 2/3-in. CMOS sensors with a global-shutter architecture enable the camera to capture natural images even in challenging situations, and a pre-installed HLG opto-electronic transfer function conforming to ITU-R BT.2100 delivers super-HDR images. Also check out the OCP-500 camera-control system with Ikegami’s slimmest panel width to date, as well as the HLM-2460WA 24-in. and 18.5-in. HLM-1860WR 1920×1080 HD video monitors.

Imagine Communications (Stand 1.B73) is celebrating a milestone at IBC 2024: shipment of the 4,000th unit of its Selenio Network Processor (SNP). Applicable to both IP and SDI workflows, the SNP has been deployed by more than 280 customers in applications that include broadcast studios, mobile production units, and sports venues. A spokesperson confirms that sales in Europe have been particularly strong, with some customers buying as many as 150 units. Among those customers is sports- and entertainment-technology provider Deltatre, which deployed SNP as part of a SMPTE ST 2110 IP network for live graphics production on coverage of Italy’s Serie A. The network went live for the start of the 2024-25 season. New at IBC this year is the SNP-XL, which extends the SNP range to more SDI-intensive applications, including the need for high-density synchronising gateways.

The super summer of sport, with Euro 2024 in Germany and both the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, helped InSync (Stand 2.C30) to further increase the number of live-broadcast frame-rate conversions completed by its products, which had already spiked by 300% in the 12 months to June. Much of this increase came through the use of FrameFormer, the company’s software-based standards converter. At IBC, InSync has announced that FrameFormer has been integrated into the Synamedia Virtual Digital Content Manager (vDCM) suite of cloud-based video-processing solutions. The FrameFormer technology will also enhance Synamedia’s Quortex Link for cloud-based video distribution. Also new for IBC, having been first shown at NAB 2024, is a dual-channel HD broadcast frame-rate converter for SMPTE 2110 workflows. The MCC-HD2 supports both HDR and SDR. The spec for the 1RU device includes NMOS IS0-4/05 as well at ST 2110-20/21/30/31/40.

Lawo (Stand 8.B90) has announced that its HOME Apps platform now hosts nine essential processing apps, effectively doubling the previous offering, with more apps to follow in a few weeks. All run on the same generic computer and offer the convenience that they can be configured and shared among locations using Lawo’s HOME management platform. Lawo Marketing Manager Andreas Hilmer says, “It’s not a future story; it’s a production reality. HOME apps have been serving the largest sports events around the globe already! The adoption is great.” Though launched at IBC 2023, the HOME Apps had already been used at Women’s World Cup 2023, where every feed that went out to rights-holding broadcasters went through the system. It has since been used at the Rugby World Cup in France, for which Lawo technology connected all the stadiums to the IBC, and this year at the Euros and the Olympics.

Although, coming into the show, the big sports news for LIveU (Stand 7.C19) was the Lightweight Sports Production solution, the company made a splash to open IBC 2024 with the announcement of its new IP transmission solution, LiveU IQ (or LIQ for short). LiveU IQ is designed to maintain top-level cellular connectivity by automatically switching between mobile networks in any location. As for Lightweight Sports Production, the solution is reducing the tools for live coverage to a single, cost-effective tool. Built on a remote production “ground-to-cloud-to-crowd” model, it is a turnkey choice for live sports production, providing a complete capture-mix-share solution, making live-video capture, program production, and distribution collaborative. Quick setup, elimination of a truck onsite, and an estimated cost of about $500 per event make it possible for seemingly any sports event to receive live video coverage.

LTN (Stand 5.A76) is showcasing how its LTN Lift automated digital linear-channel creation and playout solution can provide sports broadcasters and federations with new revenue opportunities and allow them to deliver tailored cross-platform experiences. Sports streamer DAZN is one of the organisations to have used LTN Lift to create new linear channels across digital platforms. LTN Lift makes it possible to spin up multiple versions of customised linear channels while mixing prerecorded and live programming and integrating with third-party channel-management systems. The LTN-hosted playout solution was used during Euro 2024, delivering customised video feeds to fan zones across 10 cities. Also at IBC, LTN has announced that it has teamed up with Skyline Communications. The partnership integrates Skyline’s DataMiner open-monitoring and data-orchestration platform with LTN’s interoperable ecosystem of IP video-distribution technologies. The link-up is underpinned by the LTN Wave fully managed, multicast-enabled IP-based transmission solution.

Marshall Electronics (Stand 11.A17) is rolling into Amsterdam with three new pieces of equipment on its PTZ camera catalog. The new trio — CV612, CV620, and CV625 — bolsters options for users looking to upgrade broadcasts with behind-the-scenes access. The CV612 features the ability to automatically place the subject in focus as the center of attention with AI facial recognition. The CV620 has a 57-degree field of view, supports broadcasts up to 1080p/60, and is outfitted with a high-quality Sony sensor, mic and line-in audio options, and a range of IP protocols: RTSP, RTMP, RTMPS, SRT, and MPEG-TS. The CV625 taps AI facial learning but also has a high-performance 8-megapixel 1/1.8-in. sensor to capture crisp high-quality UHD video.

Moments Labs (Stand 5.H60), the video-search–tech company formerly known as Newsbridge, is talking about new features for MXT-1.5, its multimodal AI indexing model. Utilising the company’s content-awareness algorithm, Automatic Sound Bites, as the name suggests, highlights sound bites in a video, allowing editors to quickly identify quotes or sections without spending time scrolling through footage or transcripts. Sequences Detection enables users to instantly find moments they need to build a story by automatically grouping shots into editorial sequences. Also on show, A plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro provides users with direct access to their Cloud Media Hub within the Premiere Pro interface, removing the need to switch screens or download and re-upload files. Moments Labs customers include Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and WRC Promoter.

Mo-Sys (Stand 7.B45) is highlighting its Mo-Sys L15 PTZ camera head, the latest heading for the growing market for PTX cameras and camera heads in sports. Designed for small-size, large-sensor cameras, it is suited for filming in tight spaces. On the flip side is the U-50 heavy-duty remote head, which can support up to 50 kg, suiting it to long-lens use where it isn’t practical to have a person manning the camera. “We cater to the broadcast and film markets,” notes Markus Wuttke, customer service engineer, Mo-Sys, “so we have very quiet heads that also have built-in encoders so we can get the pan and tilt data directly from the camera and combine it with our tracking equipment. One thing people like about our cameras is, they are very easy to set up.” MoSys also is showing MoViewer, a cost-effective and fully autonomous system that integrates with existing studio multicamera projects and provides directors an AI-assisted, real-time, perspective-accurate preview of all cameras.

Native Waves (Stand 5.A41) is teasing some new features for its live-media-viewing-experiences technology. Now included in the end-to-end offering is user-activated action replays, which, when viewed on a mobile device are swipe-able, making it easy for the user to see one or a series of customised highlights both during and after a sports match or event. Replays are possible from multiple camera angles. The new swipe-able highlights feature, which offers a “TikTok-like” experience, is currently without a name, but it can be demoed on the Native Waves stand during the show.

Prodys (Stand 8.C71) is demonstrating its Quantum audio encoders — the Quantum2 W and Quantum2 XL — for remote commentary, providing all-in-one boxes for audio and video. Says Prodys Sales Manager Gaspar Gomez, “Until now, customers needed a commentator box and a backpack to do the video, but now we’re delivering that all in one box, based on our rich history in audio commentary.” Also, the company is introducing the Quantum Web Commentator, a remote commentary application with video decoding that runs seamlessly on any browser. Additionally, the Quantum2 ST audio codec now supports four independent mono connections, and its encoders now feature Ethernet Tunneling, allowing remote IP operations and simplified control of connected devices, such as PTZ cameras.

Quantum (Stand 7.B55) is determined to deploy AI in a meaningful way. Its “flashFORWARD” demos show several end-to-end solutions designed to power AI initiatives for years to come. One example is Quantum Myriad, a cloud-native architecture that brings new levels of simplicity and adaptability for unstructured data storage. A Myriad cluster can start with as few as three NVMe all-flash storage nodes, and its architecture enables scaling to hundreds of nodes in a single distributed, scale-out cluster. Clients connect through a single IP address no matter how large the cluster grows, and Myriad automatically load-balances client connections across multiple 100GbE ports. Another offering is Quantum StorNext, a shared-storage software platform suited for large video files, digital imagery, and other forms of unstructured data.

Quantum 5X (Stand 8.538) is on hand with its usual bevy of low-profile player and coach audio transmitters and microphones. This year’s offerings feature more handheld controls for coaches and on-air talent to use in getting those discrete microphones on-air via the SwitchMic family, which comprises the Rockerswitch, the Toggleswitch, and the Pushswitch. Each has a different type of switch (rocker, toggle, pushbutton) to put the mic in transmit mode, and, when the device is coupled with the MicControl software, button functions can change. “With the pushbutton, you push it once to mute and push again to get it back on,” explains Quantum 5X Chairman/CEO Paul Johnson. “With MicControl, you can change the function from push to mute to push to talk or push to access the talk-back channel. And you can set it to push and have the person, like a referee, speak to the house and make an announcement without interrupting the feed to the truck.”

Qvest (Stand 10 C.24) has teamed up with NVIDIA on a series of gen-AI solutions focused on metadata tagging, content creation, and content discovery, with the aim of creating new opportunities for revenue generation, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. Christophe Ponsart, EVP/applied AI practice co-lead, Qvest US, expects collaboration with NVIDIA, a leading AI-capabilities and -technology platform, to enable Qvest to quickly deliver use cases for media and entertainment companies.

Red Digital (Stand 8.MS14) is focusing squarely on the traditional-broadcast market with a new broadcast module for the Red Digital V Raptor XL camera that, according to Andy Newham, sales manager, EMEA&I, Red Digital, allows the camera to easily slip into a broadcast environment. “It begins by changing the colour mapping and the terminology in the camera menus to make it more broadcast-friendly,” he explains. “It can connect to the CCU for cameras like the Sony HDC-3500 and provide remote control so you can have a cinematic look that matches the colour from the broadcast cameras. And it can do 240 frames per second in 4K, so it is well-suited for high-frame-rate needs. Also, there is a global shutter, which is being used for high-speed capture in the motor-sports market.” Something else to check out is VRX Phantom Track, an LED screen offering a mode for flickering between frames (allowing one LED screen to output two images) and the camera can be synched with that flickering to deliver the two images as two separate outputs from one camera.

Salsa Sound (Stand 8.B77e) is demonstrating many cool areas of audio, including a virtual remote production using two separate workflows — one MPEG-H, one Dolby — fed by the same raw microphone feed. Says Salsa Sound Co-Founder/CEO Rob Oldfield, “What this shows us is that MixAir is ridiculously flexible. It also shows that you can do Dolby workflows in the cloud because we have a software-defined methodology, not a hardware-defined methodology. I’m really pumped to be showing this at IBC this week.” Salsa Sound is also demonstrating a bleeding-edge new product designed to show mixers exactly what they are mixing in terms of speech intelligibility.

Tinkerlist (Stand 7.C17) is talking about its recent investment from EVS. Says Tinkerlist Head of Growth Aaron Nuytemans, “For EVS, we’re a perfect match. EVS is a leader in live execution, but what they don’t do is the pre-production part. But, because we interface directly with EVS, we can provide an end-to-end solution for scheduling and more.” Cuez by Tinkerlist has also unveiled Storiez, a cloud-based, story-centric tool that can be connected to the company’s Rundown and Automator products but also stand on its own. Storiez is a newsroom computer system (NRCS) that allows real-time collaboration to manage and deliver breaking news in a single platform.

Germany-based OB provider TVN Live Production (Stand 0.A17) has partnered with Sony for the latest addition to its fleet of trucks. The new Ü8 truck – on display in the outside exhibits area — features four Sony MLS-X1 switchers, allowing two control rooms in the truck to be used independently and enabling TVN to handle two separate, simultaneous productions in one OB van. Says TVN CTO Christoph Moll, “We have the option of the independent use of each of the switchers, but, for really large UHD productions requiring up to 200 UHD inputs, we can combine all four units on board the TVN-OB8 to one large mixer. This gives us maximum flexibility.” The Ü8 truck debuted during the European Football Championship in June and July.

TVU Networks (Stand 5.A.91) has added a virtual Network Operations Centre (NOC) to its SaaS live-video platform. The NOC offers broadcasters the ability to watch over and control their media pipeline from contribution to final playout. Available in the cloud, on-premises, or via a hybrid of the two, the NOC features UDX for up/down/crossconversion, browser-based video scopes, and manual or AI-powered colour correction on any IP source. According to a spokesperson for TVU Networks, this new offering would give broadcasters confidence to use the cloud for sports and news production and would make life “easier for broadcast engineers”. TVU is also showing its recently launched MediaHub routing platform and showcasing how France Télévisions used its technology as a disaster-recovery backup during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Xytech Systems (Stand 4.C10) is spotlighting its recently announced merger with Fabric, which is intended to offer organisations struggling with resource and data management a better solution. Xytech CEO John O’Connor says the merger will offer a media–supply-chain solution that provides quick access and management of data and resources with minimal manual intervention. He cites Fabric’s media–supply-chain and metadata-management solutions as a complement to Xytech’s resource-management tools. Adds Fabric CEO Rob Delf, “Our customers will benefit from an integrated platform that not only delivers superior performance and reliability but also drives operational efficiency and significant cost savings driven by modern, data-driven architecture, setting a new standard for the industry’s future.”