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There has to be a first time for everything and this was my first SMPTE trade show at Sydney’s Darling Harbour venue. The pros-pect of going to this show had never excited me but, with an “offer I couldn’t refuse” from Ray Sanders, I made the effort. Honestly, I had preconceptions of comparisons with NAB and IBC and this is a much smaller show but it’s nice. Many fewer Americans telling you how their products can “monitise your workflow” and lots more friendly faces. I actually had time to look around rather than my usual rushing from interview to interview to enter- tain you lot. There were a few new products which we will cover and a new face or two but first, I’m just inside the door when I bump into Stuart Barnaby. Ed: Stuart, you’re here having a look around, you’ve been here a day and it’s not as big as NAB or IBC, but it’s comfy? Stuart: It’s fantastic actually. I’m very impressed with the quality of the stands – they’re smaller than what we have at NAB, but it’s great. What I particularly like about SMPTE is that we get to come over and talk to our colleagues, people like Lemac and Videocraft, Digistor, StormFX, who have all got stands at the SMPTE. They’re dealers in Australia like we’re dealers in New Zealand. It’s wonderful to be able to catch up with them, talk to those guys about AUGUST 2013 Vol 194 what they’re doing, what they’re selling, what’s working for them and for their customers in the Australian market, because that’s the most applicable market to us, which is great. SMPTE Show in Sydney Ed: And they’re pretty open to that – I mean, with New Zealand’s rules about parallel importing, I would have thought that some of these guys would be eyeing New Zealand as a potential market? Stuart: I think the fact that they’re strong dealers in Australia and there’s a network of strong dealers in New Zealand as well stops that from happening … I don’t think any of them would be interested in coming

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There has to be a first time for everything and this wasmy first SMPTE trade show at Sydney’s Darling Harbourvenue. The pros-pect of goingto this show had never excitedme but, with an “offer Icouldn’t refuse” from RaySanders, I made the effort.Honestly, I had preconceptionsof comparisons with NAB andIBC and this is a much smallershow but it’s nice. Many fewerAmericans telling you how theirproducts can “monitise yourworkflow” and lots morefriendly faces. I actually hadtime to look around rather thanmy usual rushing frominterview to interview to enter-tain you lot.

There were a few new productswhich we will cover and a newface or two but first, I’m justinside the door when I bumpinto Stuart Barnaby.

Ed: Stuart, you’re herehaving a look around, you’vebeen here a day and it’s not asbig as NAB or IBC, but it’scomfy?

Stuart: It’s fantasticactually. I’m very impressed with the quality of thestands – they’re smaller than what we have at NAB, butit’s great. What I particularly like about SMPTE is thatwe get to come over and talk to our colleagues, peoplelike Lemac and Videocraft, Digistor, StormFX, who haveall got stands at the SMPTE. They’re dealers in Australialike we’re dealers in New Zealand. It’s wonderful to beable to catch up with them, talk to those guys about

AUGUST 2013 Vol 194

what they’re doing, what they’re selling, what’s workingfor them and for their customers in the Australian market,because that’s the most applicable market to us, which isgreat.

SMPTE Show in Sydney

Ed: And they’re pretty open to that – I mean, withNew Zealand’s rules about parallel importing, I wouldhave thought that some of these guys would be eyeingNew Zealand as a potential market?

Stuart: I think the fact that they’re strong dealersin Australia and there’s a network of strong dealers inNew Zealand as well stops that from happening … Idon’t think any of them would be interested in coming

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and setting up in our backyard because thecompetition’s too strong and it’s well established. Ithink that we’ve also had relationships with the guysfrom companies like Videocraft and Lemac and Digistorthat go back over a decade. We’re really goodcolleagues and we’ll ask each other about certainproduct ranges and what we liked with this and what wedon’t like with that. You know, we do talkcollaboratively with suppliers as well, so that we canmake sure that we’re getting our customers’ messagesacross strongly to the vendors, whether it’s productdevelopment or pricing or marketing, so it’s great, weall get on really well. It’s a great pleasure in ourindustry to have strong colleagues across the Tasmanthat we get on well with.

Ed: There’s quite a few New Zealand customers hereI see wandering around having a look. Is this becausethey can see things here that they can’t see in theshowrooms in New Zealand?

Stuart: Actually it’s a wonderful opportunity – theairfares across the Tasman aren’t much. You can havea good day here which is enough to get around all thestands, see the products, talk to the vendors about thevarious things … it’s a great opportunity to do so, somany New Zealanders take advantage of that to duckover and have a good look.

Ed: Is there anything specific you’ve seen that youthink “that’s something I need to focus a bit more onwhen I get back home”?

Stuart: I think the key thing for us, like Imentioned before, is talking to the dealer network overhere gives us a lot of ideas in terms of how we can workon around workflows because we already know theproduct ranges, but it’s how they’re being used, whatcustomers are buying and how the customers are usingthem over here, that we quite often get ideas about.

Ed: And you enjoy being interviewed digitally now?

Stuart: Ubba ubba ubba …

Ed: Yeah, yeah, enough digital static from you.Stuart was one of my fine carriers. He used to bringthe tapes back for Miss Hellfinger to type up, but nowStuart, it’s flying through the Internet.

Stuart: Aaaah you know everything changes, so Iguess you’ll give me the SD card to take back?

Ed: Oh no, no, no, it’s all going over Wi-Fi, but we’llstill keep the paper coming out. People enjoy the paperprint don’t they?

Stuart: Oh absolutely. There’s nothing like amagazine arriving on your desk that you open withgreat anticipation and eagerness, as happens eachmonth.

Ed: Especially when you often find your photograph init, and this month will be no exception!

Stuart: It’s often said I have shares in themagazine, but I don’t seem to get any payback Grant.

Ed: Well I’m open to offers Stuart.

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KTVU – San Francisco BayPart 2

Just before getting into the SMPTEstories, we continue the KTVU story withJim Wagner.

Ed: Jim, were you here for thetransition from standard def to high def?

Jim: Yes, we all were!

Ed: You’re still going through it?

Jim: Well we’re the only station in SanFrancisco presently – we’re the No 1station ratings wise – but we are the laststation to convert all of our Newsgathering in the field to high def.

Ed: What does that tell you?

Jim: That you don’t have to be high defto be No 1! But just before we made thetransition to high def, we bought newPanasonic P2 cameras that wereswitchable between 4x3 and 16x9 aspectratio. Of course at that time, we were4x3, so when we made the transition, weswitched them to 16x9 and upconvertedthe footage.

Ed: Are you using Ensemble products to do thatupconverting?

Jim: We have a mix of Miranda, Ensemble and Evertz.But we really like the Ensemble product believe me. IfKen and I had our way, that would be our primarysource, but again corporate decisions are made wayabove our heads.

Ed: Okay, just tell me a little bit more about yourtransition … you say it’s ongoing, what are some of theongoing processes?

Jim: Well they’re just assembling new field cameras,all the trucks have digital equipment in them now andwe are currently starting to go digital from the trucksback to the station. As soon as that transition is done,then they’re going to flip the switch and start thecameras in high def. Right now they’re still standarddef, but they’re coming back to us, in many cases,digitally – standard def 16x9 sure. So we’re not highdef origination in the field …

Ed: But your broadcast is?

Jim: Yes, we upconvert them and then of course thestudio cameras and all the graphics and everything arehigh def.

Ed: Have there been any major problems along theway?

Jim: No, no. We just didn’t have enough money to doit all at the same time.

Ed: I understand that one of the biggest problems isthe storage; you’ve got to increase your file storagecapability quite a bit to handle the change?

Jim: Yes, we’ve upgraded the storage a couple oftimes. We’re about to replace a nearline storage unitwith double the space of the old one. Our Newsoperation is Grass Valley hardware, EDIUS is theplatform we edit on in the newsroom, but we also haveFinal Cut Pro and Avid. We’re not all one house. Someof the other Fox stations are all Avid platform, butwe’ve always been a hybrid.

Ed: No issues putting that to air?

Jim: No, it keeps us on our toes. But we’re about toupgrade … well we just upgraded the Storage AreaNetwork, the Grass Valley SAN. We have a deeparchive system, it’s a Spectrologic Robotic System

controlled by an SGL Archive Manager recording on DLTtapes, LTO-4 is I think what we’re at now. We’re goingto convert to 6 eventually, it’s just the density of thestorage. But we’ve got about 180 terabytes in the box;it will hold a petabyte which is a thousand terabytes, sowe’re about three years into that process. Every singlefinished clip and story gets stored forever, so thedatabase just keeps going – so now the datamanagement system has to be upgraded in the nextcouple of months, since the servers are slowing downbecause the database has got so large.

Ed: I think that’s a pretty common story.

Jim: Growing pains, yes. The onboard motherboardRAM just keeps getting larger and larger.

Ed: Now one of the parts of the other studio here isthe green screen and it’s a good old, bog standard,chroma green with a Kino Flo Image 80 all over it. Youwent for this rather than for the green monitors …reason?

Jim: If you get a chroma green screen correctly lit,you don’t get the rough edges and anything else.There’s one station in the Bay Area that’s not litproperly and you see a rotten terrible edge on thepeople who are doing the Weather. So it just takes thetime to light it correctly.

Ed: They have the monitors do they?

Jim: No they have a green chroma screen too, it’s justlighting – you know, just take the time to light itcorrectly.

Ken: I honestly don’t know if anyone in the Bay Areahas the chromakey green monitors. The only thing Ilike about this is the keyers have got so good now, thatwhen the meteorologist comes up to the wall and theythrow a slight shadow, it still looks beautiful. Iremember back in the days of old, spending a half hourtweaking on a 13 pot tub and Ultimatte unit to try toget the shadows right and transparent. That wasUltimatte blue.

Ed: So I guess lighting it with a Kino Flo, that’s reallypart of the magic isn’t it?

Jim: Yes, just having nice flat lighting on Weather.

Ed: Tell us about your trucks – 17 News trucks Iunderstand – and there’s a Google map here with theGPS locations?

Quite a lighting mix.

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Jim: Two of the vehicles are satelliteuplink capable. We have one truck thathas a repeater, it has two microwaves onit and we take it up to the tall hills overthe Bay Area. If we had to get intocentral California, we would then bounceit over the top of the mountains with arepeater at the top and now a satellite –with the Fox satellite timing, you’ve gotan instant link.

Ed: Otherwise if you don’t, you take allyour shots, race to a mountain top andmicrowave it back to the station here?

Jim: And another thing that we juststarted using last year is a backpacktelevision unit called Live U and we werethe first to use it in the Bay Area. Lastyear there was a riot in a BART stationand we were the only broadcaster thatwas in the BART tunnel in the stationgetting live video and everybody elsecouldn’t figure out how we did it, because you’d have todrag cables down the escalators to get there. After thatbig event, everybody now in the Bay Area has Live U.The nice thing about it is that it’s got six cell phoneantennas in the backpack, so as long as you’re in anarea where there’s cell coverage, you can get a goodsignal out. You can go anywhere there’s cell coverageand get the signal back here.

Our other Cox owned stations have Live U so if areporter stationed up in Seattle has their Live U runningand there’s a story we want, they simply change the IPaddress that they’re sending the story to and it showsup in our server; and we can do the same with them.We can change our send to address on the backpack,they can select a Seattle station and be sending thesignal to another station.

Ken: Send it on the iPhone with another little carriersender.

Ed: Now we’re in the real heart of the action, theingest room where there are lots of lovely tapes?

Jim: We’re in the ingest centre and everything’singested on obviously hard drives as files, but at thesame time, they’re bringing data in, we’re still takingBetacam cassettes and recording the slugs, the feedscoming in from the field, on tape as a backup. We hada virus a couple of years ago, an outside contractorfrom one of our manufacturers, brought a virus in onhis USB stick and it took us down for almost three daysand we were literally back to doing tapes. We workedeverything the old-fashioned way on decks and playingback manually like we did 15-20 years ago when Istarted here.

Ed: Did you get phone calls from the public asking“what are you doing?”

Jim: No actually we didn’t, but the first thing that Inoticed was dropouts – we hadn’t seen dropouts for solong. Actual tape dropouts and wrinkles were goingvertically across the screen as the tape played back. Itwas like “wow”.

Ed: Nostalgia?

Jim: Yes. It took us almost three days to flush … itwas one of those viruses that kept replicating itself andevery 15 minutes or 30 minutes it would replicate andyou would have to go in and continually scan for it andclean it. It would hide. We actually hired someconsultants to come in and help, because we had to getat different places in the system.

Ed: Have you thought about keeping the tapes asbackup in that sort of situation?

Jim: Yep – that’s why they’re still here. The otherthing about the virus is that a lot of our systems at thattime didn’t have virus protection software on them,because a lot of the proprietary systems that you get,the manufacturers say “you know, it kind of slows oursystem down if you install that McAfee or that whatever…” I think we’re now using three different varieties ofvirus software – everything’s got virus software on itthat can.

Ed: Something else I’ve noticed is that you don’t havelogos on your trucks?

Jim: Many years ago, during some local protests, mostof the trucks that had logos on them were damaged in ariot that they had here. And ours, the trucks that didn’thave logos on, were left alone.

Ed: You’re waiting for the next riot?

Good use for a surfboard.

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Truck locations via GPS.

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Jim: That’s right, there’s no need to put logos onthem. Some of the other stations are rolling billboards.They put those full latex logos that have their picturesand stuff. They tend to also attract needless attentionat the scene. You don’t need that, they’re a cause oftraffic congestion and everything else.

Ed: And in the parking lot here with the big logo“Bloom Energy” – what are these big grey boxes withwires coming out of them?

Jim: There are four Bloom Energy boxes. Each boxhas four 25 kilowatt hydrogen fuel cells in each cornerand there’s an inverter and other support equipment inthe centre of these boxes. So each one is 100,000Watt, 100 kilowatt, and on any average day, we aredrawing about 600 kilowatt. When we first put in ournew generator 10 years ago, we did a test to see howmuch load we could pull here. We turned on all thestudio lights, turned on all the chillers ( it was asummer day ) and we were able to pull about 800. Sothis thing turns the meters backwards. We put powerback into the Pacific Gas and Electric Network at night.So we run the meters backward at night.

Ed: So this is to power your building, not the trucks?

Jim: This is for the buildingand it’s inline at all times.

Ed: Do you have brownouts here?

Jim: Well technically, thefuel cells have to shut downwithin milliseconds of thelocal power source goingaway, because they don’twant to reverse energise thelocal line. Because it goesthrough transformers andgoes higher and highervoltage, you could killsomebody, a lineman. Sothese shut downimmediately, but we have astandby generator and wealso have UPS that runs allof the technical power.

Now in the media preproom, we have CharlesNorth.

Ed: Right. Media prep – Iguess with so much localmaterial, this is a busy,busy place?

Charles: Yes it is. Wehave several other TV

stations and we prep directly for two of them. All theshows that come down via satellite or any method,have to be ingested onto a server and then prepped for

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Jim holding a Betacam SP backup tape.

Hydrogen power supply boxes.

air, which means excluding all the black holes, includingthe network commercials and making them for our localcommercial content, and making sure it all times out onthe playlist.

Ed: You say it’s for more than one channel?

Charles: Yes, we have KTVU, we have KICU, we alsohave our sister stations in Reno but we don’t prep forthem, they have their own headquarters up there.What we directly ingest and prep here is for twostations, KTVU and KICU.

Ed: Out of the 24 hours, how many hours would yoube prepping material for?

Charles: Everything except for our Newscast.Newscasts take about 7-7½ hours a day I believe andall the other hours a day would be content which had tobe ingested and prepped for air. Some of it’s easy,some of it’s infomercials which are just half hourchunks, those take like a second to prep …

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Ken: They made a six year warranty ifyou buy it yes. If a card goes bad after5½ years they will replace the card.

Ed: And it’s good that they’re a localcompany?

Ken: It’s great – made in America. Youcan’t say that much anymore you know.

Ed: But it does the job and does itwell?

Ken: Yes it does it very well.

Ed: I’ll see if I can get Cindy to sendyou one of their great cookbooks.

Ken: Yes, do that.

Well, we are not quite over with thisinterview because, chatting on the wayto his car to take me back to my hotel,Jim tells me he’s got another job besidesthis one at KTVU and they’re quite happyabout it.

Jim: It’s a community television stationnear my home. It’s run by the wife ofone of my co-workers here, so that’s

how I got involved. They needed help with a broadcaststudio. They run three community cable televisionchannels, Livermore California, Dublin California andPleasanton California; the three cities combinedtogether and they foot the bill for this very nice facility.

Ed: And the City Councils pay for this?

Jim: Yes, the three cities share the cost, which makesit affordable, because a lot of these operations havegone under with the restrictions in funding, with theeconomy and all. They have a production van, they goout and cover all City Council meetings, school boardmeetings, parks and recreation meetings and specialevents like parades and community events. They domost of them live and then they replay them constantlybecause they have three channels to cover, and I thinkmidnight to 6.00am, they have a logo loop. They’re onthe cable system now so that you can actually tune inand find various programming. It used to just say“community programming” now it actually tells youwhat the shows are.

Ed: Is this an expensive operation. What are wetalking in sort of ballpark – hundreds of thousands?

Jim: We’re talking about a rough budget ofUS$250,000. They have a permanent staff of probably

Ed: You don’t check them for truth do you?

Charles: No, we don’t have the time for that job.But we have 10 people upstairs who are responsible forthem being somewhat factual – hopefully.

Ed: And do you have tech issues – material coming inthat’s not actually up to spec?

Charles: Oh yes, not too often, but occasionallythere’s stuff that comes on satellite, the weather willjust break up, or there’s stuff that comes on tape ormaybe it’s just not quite up to power and then we haveto reject or float it by the “powers that be” upstairs andsay “hey this doesn’t look like it’s up to spec, what doyou want to do with it?” And depending on the timethat it airs, if it’s like in the middle of the night maybe itwill be let past.

Ed: Has the CALM Act ( loudness level legislation inthe USA ) had a big influence on what you do?

Charles: Not directly in this job that I’m doing, butwe’ve had to put a lot of time and effort into reachingcompliance with that. We have one guy who has beenput on task for that, an engineer, and he’s been on itfor three months almost full time, working on gettingeverything up to code, up to spec. So it’s prettyseamless to us down here, hopefully, althoughwe do keep a close eye on our meters to makesure everything is under the radar and good togo.

Ed: In terms of the spec, I know now you’rebroadcasting out in high def, but I guess thematerial that’s coming in, that you’re prepping,you’ve got a mixture?

Charles: Yes exactly and we upconvert asnecessary to get it all to air …

We are now in the master control room andthere are 10 channels coming out of this andthey’re all local stations within the northernCalifornia area. A final word from Ken.

Ed: Ken, you’re pretty keen on the productsyou’ve got from Ensemble?

Ken: Yes, it’s good stuff, they are one of thebest companies for customer service. We haveAFAs switchers Das, Mitto stuff, you know,things like that. They make great products.

Ed: And you say it’s a six year warranty fornew people? Ken Dixon with some of the Ensemble product at KTVU.

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Gencom at SMPTETo begin the SMPTE story for Gencom, we have NoelOakes with an ever expanding range of JVC cameras.

Ed: Noel, it’s fair to say that, in the last couple ofyears, JVC has been producing the cameras thateveryone should have a look at for the smallerproduction – the handhelds have really come of age inthis recent time, and as we mentioned at NAB, big saleto the BBC and if the BBC News likes them, well whyshouldn’t other people?

Noel: Yes, very true and of course since NAB andthe BBC’s news, we’ve had a lot more success globallywith broadcasters using these cameras, ( the 650s inparticular ) for the Wi-Fi and the streaming capability,and the fact that this allows them, for certain situations,to save a lot of money because instead of sending outENG trucks and crews, they can use these cameras andstream live images back, so that’s a nice saving forthem also. So they certainly have come of age in thelast couple of years with these new models, that’s right.

Ed: And they should be because they have all thetechnology including the CMOS sensors?

Noel: The 600 series and the 650 series are nowall CMOS sensor cameras, all one-third inch. That ofcourse makes for very good low light capability. Theplan going forward is that hopefully we’ll see the sametechnology incorporated into our next generationshoulder mount and studio cameras due for releasenext year.

Ed: Is there a standardised recording medium?

Noel: Basically, we’re recording to SDHC, SDXCcards. The operators have a choice of file formats.They can record MP4s, .MOV files, AVCHD, MXF andwith the streaming cameras you’ve got the ability torecord full res onto one of your cards in any of those fileformats, and record proxy res or quarter res onto asecond card if you just want to use that for, say, aquick webstream or indeed to be used for webstreamingsites for News organisations, etc.

Ed: Some people might think that, these days, acamera is a camera and there’s been a lot ofconvergence in that smaller camera market, but in factthere are differences. JVC has somedifferences that people need to look at,such as the webstreaming capability, thestandardised SD cards and, from whatI’ve seen, absolutely beautifulviewfinders?

Noel: Yes well I suppose, as you

say, there has been a lot of convergence

in the DSLR cameras being used fordifferent applications; however those

cameras are good for particular

applications, so the JVC units, still being

a traditional form factor, still having

extremely good lenses from Fujinon, and

the fact that you have the choice of not

just multiple resolutions to shoot to, but

multiple file formats, you know, are fairlyunique and I think is a great advantage

over perhaps some of the convergent

products that are out there.

Ed: Now Noel, what about gettingthese cameras into the dealers in NewZealand, because honestly, New Zealandtelevision people like working withdealers, because they get a whole range

of advice,they’re notjust buyingthe camera,they’re buy-ing the otherbits & piecesto go with it.

So when arewe going tosee thembeing able tooffer JVC aspart of theirrange?

Noel: Wellit’s actuallyalready underway and as of about two months ago.Bernie Huynen did a trip through New Zealandspecifically with these cameras, as well as other JVCproducts, but these cameras were the main drive, andwe’ve spoken to a number of dealer organisations inAuckland, Wellington etc, who have shown greatinterest in wanting to represent these cameras. Sothat’s underway now and I’m sure you’ll be getting a listof who is on board from Bernie shortly.

Ed: Looking forward to it. And Noel’s been saving thebest for last, a rather small one you’ve got in yourhand?

Noel: Yes it is rather small. JVC have alsoreleased these new cameras to get into the actionmarket and the wearable camera market. It’s a productthat’s very much a competitor to the GoPro cameras.The first generation’s in my hand at the moment, theADIXXION 1, which is a full HD, SDHC, SDXC cardrecord device that has inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity and anumber of different mounts that allow you to use themfor anything from helmet cameras to putting onsurfboards, to putting on bikes, dashcams etc. One ofthe advantages that JVC do have over the GoPros is thelenses on these are a much superior lens as far asquality is concerned; they also have a zoom capabilityand small LCD monitor. It’s been a fairly new productfor us, but we’re getting a lot of interest in these from

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the commercial and professional markets, as little fillcameras, POV cameras for productions and obviouslyfor the sports channels etc.

Ed: Is the microphone any good?

Noel: Yes it’s actually got a very goodmicrophone, and another fact is that these units don’tneed an external housing as you can use them in up tofive metres of water as they are, so everything’s sealedon them now and the microphone is an external pickup.With some of the other models that are out there, onceyou put the external housing on them, then obviouslythe mic is covered by that, the pickup, so that’s oneadvantage on audio with these.

Ed: Well it must be very expensive?

Noel: Well no, actually the retail price on this firstgeneration initially was AUS$499, but with the newADIXXION 2 coming, as is always the case, the pricingdrops to make way for the new model. These areactually now selling for AUD $249 including tax. Theseunits are currently available; they have actuallydropped in price quite significantly to help make way forthe next unit. It’s a very good price.

On rare occasions, I am allowed to interview the FirstLady of Gencom, Nicki Brierton, and today is my luckyday.

Ed: Now Nicki, I’ve received various emails that havegot a web address on them from Gencom – there’ssomething special happening there?

Nicki: Yes there is. We’ve just launched our e-shop. We have listed some of the smaller products, inparticular those just like the camera Noel has shownyou; we’ve got Hualin which has tripods and batteries–basically all our accessory products and anything thatfalls under our distribution range. At this stage thisfacility is only offered to our Australian and NewZealand customers.

Ed: But the good thing about it is that, unlike anoverseas website where you’re buying stuff and it’sbeing shipped to you, this is coming from Gencom andit has that full Gencom backup?

Nicki: Oh totally, and you know you’re going toget a good quality product when you buy off our e-shopand that the support is going to be there, as opposed tobuying from another overseas site.

Ed: But Noel, we’ve just said that you’re interestedalso in putting these cameras into dealers. Is thiswebsite going to undercut your dealers?

Noel: No, because the pricing on our website isabsolute to the customer, so they come in, they’ll see asite there that’s not a negotiable price and built intothat there is a dealer discount underneath. So say acustomer comes and sees the site and finds out well,Gencom is selling it for this much, they can still go to adealer and a dealer still has enough margin to be ableto match that pricing we’ve got on our site. So thedealer pricing and dealer business is factored in as well.

Ed: That’s a good way to service your customers?

Noel: Yes. It gives them the options, we get topromote the products and I think it helps the dealers –the fact that we’re promoting the products and makingsure we get hits when people are searching on theInternet for products, that Gencom’s representativebrands come up high on the search return.

Ed: And to me, to also cement JVC as a seriouscamera maker, you actually do have a 4K offer. It’s asmall one, but it is the start of 4K and I understandthere is already a workflow for it?

Noel: Yes that’s right. So we have a cameracalled the GY-HMQ10 and it is a native 4K smallcompact camera. It records to four SDHC or XE cards.We’ve had that shipping now for close to a year – it wasintroduced at NAB, not the last one, the one before andwith the push now for Ultra HD content, 4K projection,big 4K monitors, it’s a very cost effective way to getinto the acquisition of 4K material. It will be a steppingstone for JVC to introduce larger 4K cameras over timeas well.

Ed: Do we need to mention 3D?

Noel: Well there are plenty of 3D cameras in theJVC range still. It’s still an area that we get I guessmore now specialist enquiries from; it’s not a huge pushnow from the market, but you’ve got to remember thatfor all of the major motion picture productions, themandate is they must be still shot in 3D as well as 4Kso that if they want to repurpose the content later orthe delivery medium, they’ve got all those options. Soit’s still a very viable format and still very muchrequired for commercial apps.

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Also on the Gencom stand we find Mike O’Connell.

Ed: Now Mike, you work for Pixel Power, but you’rehere on the Gencom stand because Gencom actuallyhave a couple of solutions for a channel in a box andPixel Power would be at the top end of that – fair tosay?

Mike: That’s correct. Here we’ve got ourChannelMaster which is our channel in a box. This is ahardware based solution that has a master control

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switcher, video server and a CG all inone box.

Ed: And I guess that’s the crux of itisn’t it – it’s a hardware version.Cheaper versions are software versions.What are the penalties for softwareversions?

Mike: We designed this product ona reliable product platform which meansit is faster and more consistent.Software systems tend to have issuesallocating internal processor resources.

Ed: So a hardware system tends to befaster?

Mike: Yes definitely. Many othersystems are using graphics GPUs onstandard PC’s and the GPU is carryingout all the processing, including decodingthe media files, source mixing, plus anygraphics that may be played back.That’s a lot of functionality to ask of aGPU. We’re using the Sony XDCAMcodec, specially designed to decode themedia files; we’re also using dedicatedhardware, designed by our engineers for the mastercontrol switcher and the character generator portion ofChannelMaster. The standard PC cards find that ifthey’re decoding a media file, having to render agraphic and do a mix and a dissolve, they tend tochoke.

Ed: Which is difficult if you’re actually doing this live?

Mike: Correct. One of the other differentialsapart from the hardware, is we actually have ahardware control panel, so the master control operatorfeels comfortable in the new domain; they’ve got afamiliar interface. They can do mixes to live feeds, livesatellite feeds, live studios and then do mixes into themedia …

Ed: … as opposed to a touchscreen panel?

Mike: Correct. We do support touchscreen panelsas well, so you can have the best of both worlds. HereI can show you, if this was a touchscreen you canactually drive it.

Ed: I guess the hardware panel tends to be moreprecise?

Mike: More precise yes. The biggest thing is thatit makes the operator feel comfortable.

Ed: And I guess you could hit it with a fairly pointyfingernail and it wouldn’t damage the screen?

Mike: Yes, that’s correct. We’ve addedintelligence to our panel, so all the graphics come up onthe keyers. The operator can go there and actuallyselect which graphic they want to come up on thebutton as well.

Ed: So where would you sort of place this as opposedto one of the cheaper software versions, because theymust have a market, but …?

Mike: There is a market for all levels and we aretowards the top end of that market with, for example,Miranda iTX and the Snell ICE system.

Ed: And this is really something a broadcaster shouldhave in a truck somewhere ready for when other thingsgo belly up?

Mike: Yes, channel in a box is fantastic for use ina DR situation, but the biggest application for this is aspart of a studio in a TV station to actually output thefinal signal that goes to the transmitter or the satellite.So they’re normally permanently wired inside theirfacility and automation systems are driving them –which is another differential for us, as most of the other

channel in a box suppliers you have to buy theirautomation system. With us, we’ve got an openprotocol that any automation vendor can actually writeto and control ChannelMaster.

Ed: So if a TV station, a large television station,wanted to extend their range of channels quickly, theycould very easily set up a channel using thistechnology?

Mike: Correct. With Pixel Power one of the keythings we offer is an upgrade path through our entirerange of 3RU chassis units. So for instance, you cantake a Clarity or LogoVision and upgrade these into aBrandMaster or ChannelMaster.

Once you have purchased our fully featured 3Dhardware it’s all about licensing, which is great forplayout facilities. As their customers come and go, theycan actually tailor their offering and turn one system into another for the new customer that’s come along.We’ve been very successful at playout facilities withthat.

Ed: And also for the smaller regional operator, this issomething I guess if you set one of these up you cantrust that it’s going to work 24/7?

Mike: Yes, it’s been designed to do that. It’sbeen built on our master control switcher calledBrandMaster that we released four years ago; now wehave about 300 of those in service and fundamentallywe’ve added a video server to that box.

Ed: So for a little station in Coromandel to set up oneof these systems, what’s sort of the minimum thatyou’d look at – ballpark in tens of thousands? Fifty,hundred?

Mike: Yes, it would be around the hundredinitially to set up, so the small station in Coromandelmight not quite be the market for this.

Ed: Maybe Paeroa?

Mike: Uuuum. NZVN

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To hear the software side of the “channel in a box” dis-

cussion, we have Iulian Ionescu from PlayBox Technolo-

gy sold by Gencom in New Zealand.

Ed: Now Iulain, we have seen some all in one box

that’s all hardware based, and their point of difference.

You’ve got software as a major component of your Play-

Box technology … channel in a box too?

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Iulian: PlayBox has been developingchannel in a box for the last seven years,so we were the pioneers for this type of“Channel in a Box” solution, turnkeysolution. We are bundling the softwarewith specific server hardware – and weoffer this solution to our customers indifferent flavours. Being a softwaresolution, we can adapt to the customer’sneeds what he wants as an output, as afeature set or just a workflow operationscenario. So we can put different typesof options like subtitles and otherfeatures which you can find as options inour solutions. The customer can go withthe very basic solution and can increasethe functionality of the system by justadding more modules to the system. Interms of input / outputs. HD, SD, ASI,HDI, IP – also providing multiple paralleloutputs, as a new feature since last year,so as an example, our system is able todo HD output and in parallel have asecondary IP stream out.

Ed: I guess the big question though is quality. If asolution is hardware based it tends, in other areascertainly, to be a better quality and I cite file rendering.If you want to render or transcode something, ahardware solution is generally faster and more reliablein quality than a software version. Is this alsoapplicable in playout technology?

Iulian: We have been offering playout softwaresince 15 years ago, so we try to adapt with a really highspec’d server. As you may know, technology evolvedrapidly, and due to this, our software was able to drivethe latest hardware well and provide the bestperformance for all our clients, and quality is alwaysproven to be there.

Ed: I mean honestly, looking at this monitor here( and it’s a very high tech monitor ), the picture isperfect; I’d say certainly better than what I get athome. It is your technology that’s coming out of thatmonitor isn’t it?

Iulian: Yes, absolutely 100% directly from ourplayout server.

Ed: Well I’m just checking. You know it could bevapourware?

Iulian: No, we are just using our technology.However the output cards, it’s a standard output card,such as Blackmagic or DELTACAST, we use these cardsmainly for I/O only. You can see the quality of themboth … Blackmagic is known by the broadcast qualitycard in the market and DELTACAST can provide andsupport our modules with more features, such as DolbyDigital, encoding decoding, CC, etc.

Ed: I guess that’s it, it’s the flexibility with softwarebased solutions that you can mix and match?

Iulian: We cannot rely on the hardware definitely,so we improve our software in order that we canchange any type of hardware at any point. So the costof the maintenance for our customers is even cheaperbecause they don’t need to change a card or hardwarewhich is not available on the market. They can just goand buy another deck and put it inside and that’s it.Moreover, the development of our modules is not basedpurely on the current available hardware, therefore,should the market available hardware be furtherenhanced by its manufacturer, we will continue to drivethe new hardware card with more powerful features.

For all this, the same client will just simply upgrade tothe new hardware themselves, and will automaticallyget those features it was not possible to achieve in theold card.

Ed: So what’s the sort of cost for a base system, intens of thousands of dollars? Are we talking $50,000?

Iulian: No, no we’re talking just for an SD start upchannel maybe like $12-18,000 per channel.

Ed: Wow.

Iulian: That’s the advantage of using softwareanyway.

Ed: And it’s of this quality?

Iulian: Yes, as you can see now.

Ed: So pretty well anybody could set this up couldn’tthey as a little channel in Te Awamutu even?

Iulian: Yes. Usually our customers are setting upin a maximum of two days. Together with Gencom, weprovide support and training as well … as you can seethe interface is really easy to use, so a verycomprehensive interface.

Ed: Amazing. So this interface here, is this a basicWindows interface?

Iulian: Yes, we have been using Windows as ourmain operating system for a long time. And since it isWindows based, maintenance and operation of theserver will seem simple and familiar to many users.Moreover, we have tweaked Microsoft Windows in orderto follow the broadcast quality output and stableoperation. I think the R&D team is really genius; theydid all this, it’s not my job to do it, but they have beenvery good at what they are doing for a long time.

Ed: Well you have to sell them don’t you?

Iulian: With this technology, most of the time, theclient will introduce other clients to us, or some clientssee their competitors are using it and they come to us,therefore, the market share is growth by itself. Andeven though we have around 13,000 customers all overthe world, nevertheless, a partner like Gencom isimportant too, as they will be able to handle the aftersales support and provide the complete end to endsolutions that many clients look for.

Ed: It’s got to be good?

Iulian: Yes, it is. NZVN

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ARRI Camerasat SMPTE

We have Stefan Sedlmeierfrom ARRI Australia. We’veinterviewed Stefan beforeabout ARRI lighting for PLSand that certainly is a bigpart of the ARRI business,but today we’re here atSMPTE to talk about ARRIcameras.

Ed: Now ARRI has had along history with motionpicture cameras, but ofcourse, in those early days,they were film cameras,weren’t they Stefan?

Stefan: Yes, this iscorrect. The company isgoing to be 100 years oldvery soon. They were veryearly adopters and manu-facturers of film cameras for16mm and 35mm. It allstarted more than 95 yearsago, black and white, colourreversal, colour neg forNews, 16mm, 35mm, there is also a 65mm camerafrom ARRI. It’s really a long history and a commitmentto the film industry as a manufacturer for thecinematography market with motion picture cameras.Never forget that we do motion picture, which meansit’s not stills, it’s up to 150 frames a second on the filmcameras, 120 frames a second on a digital camera, andyou record for long periods of time.

Ed: Well we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here,because we’re getting into the digital domain and Ithink it’s fair to say that ARRI was a slow adopter of thedigital recording method?

Stefan: You could say it like that. We always hadfilm processing equipment in our digital intermediate

systems like the ARRISCAN film scanner and the

ARRILASER film recorder. The film recorder does 4K

and the ARRISCAN even does 6K and we did this for

years – even before there were digital cameras that can

do such kind of quality. We were probably late

adopters – we don’t come from the video background

like ENG or DSLR cameras; we come from the motion

picture camera background. The predecessor of theALEXA camera was the D-20, D-21. There are probably

140 D-21 in the world, some of them still shooting, but

it was quite a large unit. It was basically an ARRIFLEX

435 with a digital back end.

Then we developed the ALEXA family of cameras.There are now six different camera models and thesignal processing, the colour fidelity is quite similar toour film processing equipment such as the ARRISCAN,so we have the knowledge and understanding ofcolorimetry and signal processing, and colourseparation. A cameraman wants to achieve naturallooking skin tones. For instance, in the movie makingindustry, it’s not just a car commercial, you want tohave actors who have an accurate representation oftheir skin tone. It is also important that it looksauthentic when you do this. This is why the ALEXAcameras look very filmic, or very natural without

exaggerating any contour or saturation. From the verybeginning the camera was launched, customers loved itbecause it just looks natural, real.

Ed: It’s like the ARRI film cameras they knew andloved, but now in the digital domain?

Stefan: Correct. Also from a postproduction pointof view, what many colourists tell us, it’s like in the pastyou had a well exposed neg, you put it onto a telecine,you start grading. Now if you have a cameraman, heexposes the image right, you load the ALEXA footageonto the postproduction tools, whatever they are, thepictures look great and the colourist can start grading,because the camera output is already well balanced interms of colorimetry and exposure latitude and thecolourists just love it because they have the wholefreedom and latitude of the grading system to really dotheir creative work. They get that with the ALEXAfootage.

Ed: So I guess, all ARRI had to do was to change thatfilm gate to a cinematography lens in front of a sensorand then process the captured images. So how did theygo about that – did they develop their own or buysomebody else’s technology?

Stefan: There are only some manufacturersworldwide who develop imaging sensors, in our case,CMOS sensors. We use a customised CMOS sensor.We do our own bonding and packaging and testingspecification and, of course, the QC with the sensormanufacturer. Back to your initial question – it’s quitefunny, because I sometimes explain it like that as well,that with an ALEXA digital camera system, thedigitisation of the image happens on set, where whenyou shoot film, the digitisation happens in post. It’s afact that, for example, the predecessor, the D-21, hasexactly the same imaging sensor as the ARRISCAN – soa 3K by 2K chip and they use the same technology andsimilar signal processing. So in fact you are right …basically we exchange the scanner film gate with a lensmount, and digitise the light information on the camera

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rather than in post. This is how the ALEXA wasdeveloped.

Ed: It’s a bit like recording on tape and then playingthat tape and digitising it into your computer andediting from there rather than going straight to the file?

Stefan: You always digitise on set, but never mindany imaging sensor is still an analogue device, be it aCCD or CMOS sensor, by the nature of a sensor, it’s stillan analogue device, translating photons into a current,which is translated into a voltage which is digitisedthrough an A to D converter and then the frame storebuilds together the picture because you read out red,green and blue information, and this makes the entirecolour picture. Of course there is a little bit more to itthan that, because you set exposure latitude, you setwhite balance, you have different frame rates between0.75 and 120 frames, different shutter angles andthere’s a lot of variety you can do. You can do shots at1 frame a second, or use it like a stills camera or evendo shots on the SD card while you’re rolling the camerajust for a still for your storybook, for yourdocumentation, like a TIFF or a JPEG while the camerais rolling, and customers use all these options.

Ed: Obviously it has become a lot more flexible in thedigital domain, but do you get the customers – theolder customers perhaps – talking about the old days offilm when they had that instant archive; that the film,after it was processed would be digitised and then itwould go on the shelf so future generations couldaccess that film. It wasn’t going to be lost in somemassive server collapse?

Stefan: We’re still doing that, as we are stillrunning the digital intermediate systems business whichaccommodates the ARRILASER film recorder as well.Sometimes it’s a requirement, even from a distributor,to have it re-recorded back on film for long-termarchival, because film has two advantages still. First,it’s human readable without software … just by lookingat the image you can see what’s on, so you can scan it…

Ed: Or just poke a bit of light through it and there itis?

Stefan: Correct … and second it’s long timearchival, so 100 years is not a problem at all …

Ed: There’s no more nitrate film then?

Stefan: No more nitrate film, this was a little bit

explosive, tends to burn when you didn’t handle it

carefully … but just think about 3½ inch floppy discs

which happened to be around 15 years ago. You can

hardly ever find a drive, nor can you find a driver to run

such a format …

Ed: Oh, I’ve got a couple!

Stefan: So it’s always the mission to keep ithumanly visible, or keep it in a status where you canretrieve the data. Obviously the current, most commonformat is LTO. Now we are up to LTO-6 which stores upto about 2.5 gigabytes per cartridge. This is used bymost third party manufacturers as well, and it’sbasically a data streamer and it’s like an industrystandard and also internationally compatible, but it’salso tape based. High density, low priced storage for

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long-term, still tape has a certain advantage there. Thedata is instant, but you easily accumulate terabytes ofdata of RAW footage, so when you shoot a feature, it’sa 90 minute feature, with a shooting ratio of 40 to 1,with two cameras, you easily accommodate 60 to 70terabytes of RAW footage, and then you do your gradeand your editing, so sometimes customers misinterpretthe savings in not using film stock, as they still have topay somewhere to manage all the data, and theposthouse wants to know where to archive the datalater on, or if they can delete it.

Ed: There’s no easy answer then?

Stefan: There is no easy answer. It’s part of ourmission to do the education as to what happens behindthe camera, how to work with Codex, with Avid, withApple and Autodesk. We are flexible, we offer anyformat, any template, any codec. The camera canrecord ProRes, it can record DNxHD for Avid MXF, it canrecord ARRIRAW, which is an open format so you canget the ARRIRAW converter at no additional cost todebayer, process and to pre-grade the footage, so welook after all customers to really have the toolsavailable to process any image footage they record onany ALEXA camera.

Ed: Which is very good, mentioning customers,because how are customers in New Zealand going toget hold of one of these to have a look at it, to put theirhands on it and see the images that come out of yourARRI cameras?

Stefan: Currently, worldwide, we are close to 4,000ALEXA cameras. We have about 125 in Australia / NewZealand now. I think we have around 25-30 ALEXAs inNew Zealand and we can always help you to get yourhands on one because we know roughly where thesecameras are.

Sometimes, customers like Panavision, they move themaround between Australia and New Zealand, but thenwe know the local customers and we can also help youwith demo cameras out of Sydney.

Ed: So if somebody’s really interested in having alook at an ARRI in New Zealand, what should they do?

Stefan: Firstly, call us in the Sydney office and thenI want to find out whether they are in Wellington orQueenstown or Auckland, or where they are and thenwe can recommend a certain rental house or industrypartner, whoever you prefer to deal with.

Ed: Yes, we know all those stories, but that’s it – atthis level of camera, it’s a very personal thing and it is acase of getting the base camera, but getting also theother bits and the tweaks that make it work for you?

Stefan: The lenses, the accessories, like a matte

box, follow focus, batteries, a fluid head, a tripod … we

try to help, because we are equipment manufacturers.

I’m an engineer myself, I studied electrical engineering

at University. I always try to make it work. I don’t

believe in politics or people not working together; I

want to work with people and I want to work with other

manufacturers. So we also help Sony to have the rightbaseplate with their F65; we use Sony SxS cards in our

ALEXA; we use third party batteries because we are not

a battery manufacturer, so we recommend IDX or

whoever manufactures good batteries for our camera

equipment. We cooperate with Zeiss and Fujinon and

also with Canon for lenses.

Ed: Because that’s it – here today you’re on theCanon stand?

Stefan: Correct. At SMPTE 2013, we have eightALEXAs around the show floor, so you will find ALEXAcameras on the Canon booth where we are now; there’sone with Miller Tripod; one with Fujinon; one withLemac; one with Cooke; one with Shotover CameraSystems and one more with …

Ed: You’d better make sure you get eight at the endof the show? So that’s it, it’s not a specificendorsement of Canon you being here, it’s just Canon isone option that you can put on an ALEXA?

Stefan: Yes we were invited by Canon to show a PLmount 35mm full frame chip on the Canon booth, asidewith a C300, C500, a Sony camera and a camera whichyou would probably use more on a football application,like with a box lens, and we are quite happy to supportthe industry with our presence and it works both ways.

Ed: Now ALEXA – is this the only camera that ARRIare making at present?

Stefan: ALEXA is basically the name of the camera

range to be precise. There is the ALEXA EV, the ALEXA

EV Plus, the ALEXA XT, the ALEXA XT Plus, the ALEXA

XT M and the XT Studio. So now there is a range of sixdifferent camera models under the ALEXA name.

Ed: You don’t like numbers?

Stefan: Numbers … no, we like names.

Ed: It’s very personal Stefan, very personal?

Stefan: We believe in final products, and I alsodon’t believe in just throwing numbers around like 4K or16 bit – it is about the final image. We are in the moviemaking industry and sometimes when I do workshopswith DoPs, cinematography students or with customersand it’s all about 14 bit, 4K, 422, Log-C, at the end ofthe day, we have a look at a show reel; we want to see

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real images, because at the end we are producingpictures and it’s right to understand how is the cameraworking. Yes we capture 14 bit, the camera’s latitude isclose to 15 f stops, we output ARRIRAW, which is a 12bit format, it’s a 3.4K camera chip, we output 2Kdebayered, the deliverable might be HD, it might beIPTV, it might be 35mm or digital projection for the bigscreen. James Bond’s Skyfall was shot on the ALEXAand was up-res’d to 4K for IMAX.

So there’s any kind of way you can do it, but you haveto do it right and pixel count is one of manyparameters, exposure latitude, colour fidelity, colourrepresentation of skin tones, higher frame rates,camera sensitivity – have a good signal to noise ratio soyou can use the camera in low light conditions wherethe scene is even only lit with a candle. This is asimportant as the pixel count, and this all makes thecomposition of the camera front end, the imagingsensor.

Ed: We were talking about listening to customers andto illustrate that, there’s been a recent improvement inARRI technology?

Stefan: Yes, on the ALEXA XT series, we did someimprovements on the handling on the camera, on thehardware on the accessories and this is based oncustomer feedback which we got from our existing baseof ALEXA clients. All of these upgrades are also retro-fittable to any ALEXA which is out there in the field, andthere is the new two-rod viewfinder mounting bracketVMB-3. If you own a viewfinder mounting bracket VMB-3, there is a new viewfinder extension bracket VEB-3which is also more stable, it’s more persistent againsttorque, so you can bring the electronic viewfinderbehind the camera and it will stay upright. Those ofyou who ever had a problem with the fan … the ALEXA’sfan is very quiet anyway, but now it is even more quieta fan if you want. This is also upgradeable to anyALEXA; in-gate neutral density filters available as anupgrade for any ALEXA and of course the new on-boardrecorder, the so-called XR module, the extendedrecorder, accommodating codex drives for on-boardARRIRAW recording. All of these five upgrades areretro-fittable to any ALEXA in the market and standardfitted with any new ALEXA XT.

Ed: This is really special for theindustry, where you don’t have to go outand buy a new model, you can actuallyput improvements into your basiccamera?

Stefan: This is correct and at ourfacility in Sydney, we have all spareparts. You can even buy a single screwfrom a matte box if you lose a singlescrew, or a washer or a nut, or you wanta certain matte box equipped with a newsunshade, because it’s cracked. We getyou any spare part, we don’t oversell theproduct, we don’t sell you a new mattebox, we get you the spare parts. We findyou the accessories so your camera willlook presentable; also if it’s already twoyears old, we can sell you all the bits andpieces individually and we help you sothe camera is still presentable and in acurrent state, so you can still rent it outand it is well respected.

Ed: I guess what a lot of us are lookingforward to now is that, one day, ARRIwill come out with a range of cameras in

the “professional level” to suit those of us in that end ofthe market. A possibility do you think?

Stefan: Likelihood, yes. Let’s see what the next

trade shows will open up in terms of releases and

announcements.

Ed: I’ll see you there. NZVN

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Melaney Yates showing the remote control option for the ALEXA.

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hasn’t yet beenreleased?

James: InNew Zealand, wehave from 510MHz up to 698MHz. This iswhere the TVbroadcasters areand where wire-less microphoneswill operate aswell.

Across most ofNew Zealand,digital televisionis re-stackingdown below 622MHz, so that areais pretty busywith television,but above 622MHz is going to be pretty empty. The caveat there isthat there are some legacy licences there that theowners …

Ed: They’re being a bit retentive?

James: The owners of those licences still have the

licences; they don’t use them at present, but they may

take up their rights to use them in the future … and if

that happens then life will be a little more difficult for us

all.

Ed: I guess the reason that the broadcasters wantthat lower end is that’s a better range?

James: There’s a little bit of that – I’m not surethat it makes a big difference, but it means that

Syntec at SMPTEWe are at Syntec and we have James Waldron, productmanager.

Ed: James, there is a new product here at SMPTE forSennheiser and it’s a new radio microphone. It’s allcleared for Australia, but …?

James: It operates in the region of 1800 MHz,which is cleared under new licence laws in Australia forwireless mic operation. In New Zealand, 1800 MHz isunder a management right for one of the Telcos, so thatmeans you can’t use 1800 MHz in New Zealand.

Ed: And you’ve tried to contact the Telco concerned?

James: We did. We haven’t found the relevantperson yet.

Ed: So you think there must be a relevant personsomewhere?

James: I’m sure there will be someone there whowill be able to tell us whether they’re using it and whattheir plans are for that part of the spectrum.

Ed: So in Australia is it all clear cut? Has thespectrum been set in stone so you know exactly whatareas you’re allowed?

James: Yes, we know exactly what the situation isin Australia. In the UHF area it’s very clear what’sgoing on and, in this new little piece of spectrum at1800 MHz, it’s very clear what’s happening there. Thenew low interference potential devices licence has beenratified through parliament, it’s law now andeverything’s very clear about what we can and can’t do.Operationally it’s more difficult in Australia, but legallyit’s very clear. In New Zealand it’s not quite as clearcut …

Ed: Because there are still negotiations going on Iunderstand – or some spectrum that should be released

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alternate channels in the markets can be the maintransmitters and then you can use the other channels inthat area for the in-fill and so on. So you might havethe even numbers used for the main channels and theodd numbers for the in-fill. And it’s pretty much thesame all across New Zealand, and then the top halffrom 622 MHz up to 698 MHz is virtually empty. If thecompanies who own those rights do actually take themup, then it gets busier above 622 MHz, but I’m not surethat they really will, because if you’re going to transmittelevision, you need to be increasing your profitability.

Ed: No, we just need better channels, and I’m surethat’s the same in Australia?

James: What’s that song … “57 channels andnothing on.”

Ed: Well nothing worth watching. But of course, thepoliticians will say “well then, it’s up to you to come upwith the technology that goes beyond or below thisspectrum, and come up with a new way of doing it’’?

James: Well we have – there’s 1800 MHz which islicensed throughout Europe and now in Australia, andthere’s a move to licence that in other parts of theworld like the Americas for example. In Germany,they’ve just announced 1.4 GHz called L-band; there’s awindow in there that’s been opened up for wirelessmics. But what about the rest of the world? Nothing’shappening there yet. There’s a lot of politicalmomentum that needs to be rolled along somehow.

Ed: Who’d be a wireless mic manufacturer?

James: Well the facts of life are that the industryneeds wireless microphones and so it’s a business thatwill continue; it just needs to find its home again. Ithink, realistically, it’s a time of transition now; it’sconfusing and difficult, but we’ll come out of that periodof transition and it will become clear and away we go.

Ed: Is it time for a wireless microphone pack that

might have a removable and upgradeable part to it that

is the bit that the band sort of fits in that you could take

out a chip or something like a removable card and that

would have some of the band information in it, so you

could swap at a moment’s notice?

James: With wireless designs, the lower the cost,

the narrower the tuning range, and so the higher cost

and more expensive products get a broader tuning

range. If you make it tune right across the whole range

then you can take it anywhere. If you start making a

product with integratable, pull out removable bits, it

becomes more expensive, so you might as well make a

more expensive product with a broader tuning range,

than try to make a low performance product that’s

expensive to make.

Ed: Alright, I was just going for an easy answer.

James: Yes I know. There is a balance to be found,

and the fulcrum point is different depending on whether

your focus, as a user, is on performance or price.

In broad terms, if you pay more you get more.

Ed: Well, we’ll keep everyone posted.

James: For me it’s pretty clear in New Zealand that

if you’re above 622 MHz and below 698 – if you’re in

that window, I reckon you’re in pretty good shape and

that’s the message that Syntec and Sennheiser in New

Zealand is moving forward with – this area you’re safe

to buy.

Ed: Well we’ll hold you to that.

James: Go ahead. But make sure you have a look

at the web site www.ddready.co.nz for a clear picture of

the New Zealand Wireless Microphone situation. NZVN

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Panavision at SMPTEJust to confuse you perhaps, we are at John Barry and

we have Tim Timlin.

Ed: Tim, there’s no Panavision sign here, it’s all John

Barry, why’s that?

Tim: John Barry of course is the sales arm of

Panavision in Australia.

Ed: So pretty well, for New Zealanders, John Barry

and Panavision are synonymous, but in New Zealand it’s

the Panavision name?

Tim: Yes, in New Zealand we’re known as Panavision

Sales, because we’ve been working with that title for a

number of years, since the Film Facilities name went

away.

Ed: That was a while ago. I see there’s an awful lot

of Manfrotto gear here and really that’s what you’re

known for isn’t it?

Tim: Very much so, yes, and displayed in this

particular corner of the stand, but a very big part of the

John Barry operation in Australia, is audio and Georgina

Gelai is the person who is very well known here for

that.

We also have Ed Capp, Global Sales Director for Sound

Devices here and Peter More of Lectrosonics will also be

here. The other big section as you see is lighting and

we have Richard Curtis who is an ex-gaffer looking after

lighting who is based in Sydney.

Ed: And you do the same or similar products in New

Zealand?

Tim: No, not in every case, because other people have

some of these agencies in New Zealand, so obviously

we have to be careful not to …

Ed: Step on others’ toes?

Tim: Step on others’ toes, yes. I mean it’s justetiquette and it’s a small market in New Zealand; we allknow each other in the industry so there’s no point intrying to undermine other companies when we can bebetter off working with each other. But where there’sno conflict then certainly we look after John Barryproduct lines in New Zealand for customers who need it.

Ed: But there’s always the situation, people can buy

online and they do that?

Tim: Yes they do do that, and John Barry does supply

a lot of people in New Zealand by web sales so there is

that situation but, when they want to speak to a person

in New Zealand, I’m that contact for John Barry.

Ed: And the other area – there’s now more and more

crossover with the photographic side?

Tim: Yes a lot more in the motion picture, moving

image side, where it comes together. “Convergence” I

think they call it, where the technologies overlap.

Ed: But that shouldn’t be strange to

anybody coming into Panavision,

because Panavision’s offered still

photography supplies for quite a long

time?

Tim: Yes, that shouldn’t be a difficulty

at all. That’s a very familiar ground for

us.

But in terms of Panavision, we do have a

Panavision “Panavised’’ Sony F55 here,

so Panavision has some representation

on this stand.

Just over your shoulder there is the full

rig.

Ed: Because that’s it, it’s the

accessories isn’t it that really maketh the

camera?

Tim: Yes, Panavision has added items to

strengthen the camera body and

improved the electronic connections to

make the F55 suitable for motion picture

use. NZVN

Page 30

The “Panavised” Sony F55.

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Sony at SMPTEWe’re here at the Sony stand withNick Buchner.

Ed: It is a much smaller standthan we are used to at NAB butthere’s one major new item thatwill be available reasonably soon …the PMW-300?

Nick: Yes, due for release inOctober.

Ed: This is the successor to thePMW-EX3. In what ways is this animprovement Nick?

Nick: We’ve been upgrading theXDCAM handheld range startingwith the intro-duction of the PMW-200 which replaced the ven-erableEX1, so it was really only a matterof time before the EX3 had asuccessor, and this is it, the PMW-300. In common with the PMW-200 it adds the 50Mbps codec, butalso the ergonomics of the camera are quite different tothe EX3. It maintains the shoulder style of operation,so there is a shoulder pad that pulls out from the backof the camera allowing it to be rested on the shoulderand also provides a mounting point for other equipmentif you want to add radio microphones, externalrecorders, larger batteries etc.

The PMW-300 preserves the interchangeable lenscapability of the EX3 and will be available in two kitversions, one with a 14x zoom, the other with a 16xzoom. It has a new viewfinder, both from an ergonomicand electronic design, which is quite adjustable througha wide range of positions depending on how theoperator wants to use it. In fact, it’s the sameviewfinder panel and similar design to the DVF-L350that was released with the F5 and F55. The other keything that will be available in the future for the camerais an XAVC option. At the moment, it uses the XDCAMand XDCAM EX codecs, but it will be possible to fit thenew XAVC codec in the future.

Ed: As a firmware upgrade?

Nick: Yes – this is the codec that was first introducedwith the PMW-F5 and F55. As for other features, thePMW-300 maintains all the interconnectability of theEX3 such as – genlock, SDI outputs, remote control etc.It’s a very powerful but small package.

Ed: It might be a small thing, but having two placesfor shoes on the top of the camera is something thatI’ve certainly found on my Sony to be a very valuableaddition.

Nick: These give you the facility, for example, to put alight on the front shoe, and fit a radio mic receiver tothe rear shoe. Or there may be times users want to fita monitor or ancillary viewfinder on there. The shoesbasically allow the flexibility of adding extra equipment.

Ed: What’s the Sony position on the 50Mbps codec? Imean I know others have brought it out but there wasalways a question of its potential use, why would youwant a 50 megabit per second codec?

Nick: We established the 50Mbps codec and essentiallywon the codec war in New Zealand and Australia withthe original XDCAM HD422 series shoulder mountcameras, in both disc and card-based models. Whenwe first introduced XDCAM EX with the 35Mbps codec,that was very well accepted up to certain levels ofproduction. However, as time has moved on, ourcompetitors started introducing higher bit rate codecs in

smaller cameras and so we have adopted that trend aswell. We didn’t have to invent a new codec, we alreadyhad the 50Mbps codec well established andimplemented in higher level cameras, so we decided tobring that to the handheld range. Basically, the entireXDCAM range now supports it. We’ve also justupgraded the PMW-350 to the PMW-400. This also hasthe 50Mbps codec so the whole range now features thechoice of codecs up to and including 50 megabit, and inthe case of these two models, the 400 and the 300, thefuture possibility to work with XAVC.

Ed: And I guess, for me, the other major point aboutthis camera is that it shows Sony’s support of thetraditional video format. It’s not all about large singlesensor cameras and shallow depth of field?

Nick: Well that’s true. As we’ve always said, thetraditional smaller sensor camera, such as the PMW-300with three ½ inch sensors, is still ideally suited to manystyles of production. The look and requirements foroperation with very shallow depth of focus is not foreveryone. Certainly for run and gun type situations, thecine style may not be the best way to go because it canbe pretty hard to follow focus, depending on the level ofproficiency of the operator; and for a lot ofdocumentary, actuality, reality – those types of shows –I’d question if shallow depth of focus is really required?For example, talking to current affairs TV programmemakers, they’re quite happy to shoot sit downinterviews with shallow depth of focus, throw thebackground out of focus, get a beautiful effect there,but it’s not necessarily the best suited for their runningaround shooting an action packed story. They actuallywant to integrate the two. There’s still an awful lot ofscope for the smaller sensor. The large frame sensorhasn’t displaced it, it’s just that in certain segments ofthe market, this style of shooting has captured thelimelight. I suppose you could say because of the newaccessibility to large frame sensor cameras, it allowspeople to shoot in a cinematic style where they neverhad access to doing that at such a price level before.People who have been happy to shoot small sensor, andaspired to the large sensor look but couldn’t essentiallyafford to, now have access to equipment that allowsthem to make a promotional video or a commercial thatlooks very cinematic. That doesn’t mean that therearen’t a lot of types of production where smaller sensorcameras – with a much greater depth of focus available– are better suited.

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Ed: Now Nick, with all these codecs out there, it canbe a bit confusing, but with the 50Mbps XDCAM codecbeing so ubiquitous amongst the Sony range, you cannow mix in editing quite a range of cameras, includingshort depth of field and standard video?

Nick: That’s true. We now offer the 50Mbps codecstarting from our handheld XDCAM models, through toour shoulder mount XDCAM range at all levels from thePMW-400 right up to the PDW-700 and PDW-F800 disc-based cameras. Then of course, in the large sensorworld, we now have the PMW-F5 and F55, both of whichalso support the XDCAM 50Mbps codec. In fact, I’dhave to say, it’s likely a good proportion of what’s beingshot on those cameras to date is actually using thatcodec, because it’s what is well accepted for televisionreality and documentary production and the workflow istotally established and in place.

XDCAM holds 80-90% of the market here, so thatintegrates beautifully. However a key point whenyou’re talking about those F series cameras, is yes, theycan use the 50Mbps codec, but that’s only where theystart. They offer other codecs that can be selected thattake the cameras up to different levels of production,whereas some of the other large frame sensor camerason the market might offer the 50Mbps codec, but that’swhere they finish for internal recording.

If you want to do anything better than that, you have totake an external output to an external recorder andcable that up, power it and have it mountedsomewhere, whereas our F series cameras can do it andwell beyond. “To infinity and beyond” as someonefamous once said!

Ed: And that’s also attributable to the cards that youhave in there – they’re not standard “off the counter”cards?

Nick: There’s really no such thing as a standard off thecounter SxS card. The new F series use the SxS mediaand we now have several different grades of SxS.When we’re talking about recording the 50Mbps codec,all of the cameras we’ve just talked about can use thesame SxS cards. The new faster SxS Pro+ cards areneeded for the higher level codecs such as XAVC andHDCAM SR. But when it comes to 50Mbps, you can usethe same grade of card through the whole XDCAMrange as well as the F series F55 and F5.

Ed: Good to know. NZVN

Page 34

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