The new SprintCam Vvs HD system is the latest generation of the Vision Research high-speed HD cameras.

At the 2010 NAB Show (the digital broadcasting conference held in Las Vegas this April 12-15), I-MOVIX will launch the SprintCam Vvs HD, a new ultra-slow-motion camera system.

Featuring I-MOVIX’s SprintCam technology, SprintCam Vvs HD operates at frame rates of 25fps-2500fps in full HD (up to 100 times slower than the live action) and provides instant replay at native HD resolution and image quality.

Specially designed for live broadcast use, SprintCam Vvs HD can be specified in a standard camera version or optimized for shoulder-mounted, portable shooting. Some of the new features include a dual output allowing a camera operator to shoot and record at the same time, segmented memory, a replay vary-speed function and integration of both live- and replay-view on the viewfinder.

Developed in collaboration with Vision Research, the SprintCam Vvs HD system is the latest generation of the Vision Research high-speed HD camera. It has an operational control panel providing a color matrix and control of frame rate choice and a slow motion remote allowing the user to select a video sequence and instantly replay it with an HD-SDI output for live broadcast or storage on any SDI recorder for later use.

Vaddio Releases UXHD CrossPoint Universal Video Scaler And Converter

February 26, 2010

Vaddio, a manufacturer and OEM distributor of specialty PTZ cameras and high-end camera control systems, is now shipping the new UXHD CrossPoint, a dual input, dual output video format converter and scaler for HD-SDI and analog video signals.

The UXHD CrossPoint allows users to easily integrate analog video and SDI signals into Vaddio’s ProductionVIEW HD-SDI camera controller/switcher, and can also be used as a stand-alone video converter. The master control port runs via RS-232 and easily connects to third-party control systems (AMX, Crestron, etc.) for complete access to the internal functions of the UXHD CrossPoint. In addition, a Reference input for Gen Lock is available for synchronizing the SDI output to an external switcher. 

UXHD CrossPoint can also be used as a signal converter with a loop-thru output. In this scenario, an SDI or analog signal can be connected to the appropriate input, and the outputs can be analog, as well as an SDI output – one input, two outputs. In addition, the input on both outputs can be up- or down-converted to resolutions different from the input signals’ native resolution.

Ensemble's BrightEye ships

February 26, 2010

Ensemble Designs has announced that the first units of the BrightEye Mitto scan converter for broadcasters have shipped to television stations worldwide. 

"Broadcasters are looking for a better way to get web material to air," said Mondae Hott, director of sales. "We've been overwhelmed with phone calls from station engineers asking for demos and placing orders for Mitto." 

A superior quality scan converter, BrightEye Mitto makes it easy to choose the desired video output format: 1.5 and 3Gbps HD SDI or SD SDI. Mitto possesses proprietary scaling technology and exclusive multi-tap filtering. The region selected for output determines if Mitto acts as an up-converter or down-converter. The filters automatically adjust in accordance with the conversion being performed. The included software allows users to simply use a mouse to select which part of the computer video they want to output to HD or SD video. 

"This is an example of our flexibility to respond to an industry need. In eight short months from concept to shipping, we succeeded in meeting the demand for an affordable and intuitive scan converter that can go to work today," said Jeremy Wood, software designer of the BrightEye Mac and PC control system. 

More info @ www.ensembledesigns.com

Boxx supplies wireless camera system for Olympics coverage

February 26, 2010

Boxx TV’s Meridian system uses MIMO antenna technology to handle numerous channels in the 5.1GHz-5.8GHz spectrum.

The Meridian HD digital wireless system from Boxx TV is capturing all of the Winter Olympics ice hockey action from General Motors Place, home of the Vancouver Canucks (renamed Canada Hockey Place for the Olympics). Several of the systems are being used on-site to provide live-to-air uncompressed HD signals in real time from untethered cameras located at multiple points throughout the arena.

The zero-delay system transmits images from the arena floor as well as pictures from the locker rooms hundreds of feet away. Its multireceiver system enables directors to pick shots virtually from anywhere in the facility, even through multiple concrete walls and similar obstructions.

With the typical operational range of a football stadium, Boxx uses MIMO antenna technology to handle numerous channels in the 5.1GHz-5.8GHz spectrum, enabling single cameras to shoot from multiple positions and multiple cameras to be deployed throughout an arena or similar facility. No frequency licenses are needed.

The system was installed at General Motors Place by Sony Systems Integration Group, which also served as the systems integrator to upgrade and relocate the facility’s control room and video capabilities.

Multiple receivers were placed at key spots in the arena, including the player bench on the arena floor and in the player change room, gym and the press center, allowing wireless pictures in uncompressed HD to be integrated into any event. In addition, Sony cameras using a wireless, remote camera control system were able to communicate directly to a Sony remote-control panel, another unique Boxx feature that allows original manufacturers’ remote-control panels to be used with its system.

Boxx technology also offers a daisy-chain signal system feature that is similar in concept to the way that cell phone systems pass conversations transparently from cell to cell while a person is moving. In Vancouver, the Boxx signal technology is passing uncompressed HD signals through a series of receivers along long pathways: a hallway, a field, etc. An untethered camera can follow a player from the arena, through long hallways into a locker room, shooting continuously in HD, with no trailing cables.

Cisco provides technology for multi-screen Olympic experience

February 26, 2010

Cisco’s IP video infrastructure and medianet technology is facilitating the editing of the Winter Games content by NBC personnel in multiple international and domestic locations, and allowing gigabyte-sized files to be transmitted between locations and then delivered to TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

Cisco collaborated with NBC to provide a media-aware IP video network infrastructure during the network's all-HD coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. Using a file-based workflow for shot selection, the network can select shots and distribute them to post-production editing facilities even before an event is finished.

Working with NBC, Cisco engineers established an end-to-end IP video solution from video production to content management and distribution, leveraging a combination of multiple video, storage, editing and telecommunications broadcasting technology vendors.

The combined Cisco and multiple broadcast vendor solution, which includes a private network, Cisco IP video infrastructure and medianet technology, will enable real-time editing of the Winter Games content by NBC personnel in multiple international and domestic locations, and will allow gigabyte-sized files to be transmitted between locations and then delivered to TVs, PCs and mobile devices.

Cisco Flip Video cameras are also playing an important role this year for NBCOlympics.com, helping NBC's analysts and bloggers shoot on-the-fly video of the festivities. The network also tested the Cisco Media Data Center and Cisco's Unified Computing System to support mission-critical production and video-archiving functions.

Leveraging the Cisco technology, viewers of NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games are able to use their PCs and laptops to access video that they can play back on-demand and request highlights, rewinds, encores and scoring results. Individuals will also be able to watch video and view results on their mobile devices.

Additional Cisco components of the medianet deployed for NBC include a single, converged IP infrastructure for a wide spectrum of services ranging from the video delivery to data-intensive logistics applications; a high-bandwidth, high-performance connection between Vancouver and NBC studios in New York to give shot selectors and editors the ability to edit video as it is being captured; and QoS that assigns priority to real-time Olympic Games video footage over the network.

Tedial preserves RTVE history

February 25, 2010

Spanish national broadcaster RTVE has chosen Tedial to provide the technology behind one of the largest projects of video digitisation ever undertaken. 

The complete historical archive of RTVE will be converted to a common format and stored, using the complete range of Tedial technology to achieve a seamless solution from ingest and archiving to browsing and delivery. 

RTVE is the largest audiovisual group in the Spanish-speaking world and, as well as its radio and television channels in Spain, it broadcasts on five continents. It has set as a strategic objective to bring all its historical archive together, a project planned to take four years. The work will be undertaken in three RTVE centres, linked by the Tedial software into a single system. 

More than one million videotapes containing 800,000 hours of content are to be digitised using Tedial TD Capture, crossing a large number of formats including several generations of Betacam and older formats including U-matic and 1" tape. Some content is only available on film. Content will be ingested at the three RTVE sites and by external service providers. 

On ingest into the Tedial system it will be encoded to MXF OP1a at 30Mbps or 50Mbps, or to XDCAM HD as appropriate. During ingest the Tedial Indexer will also analyse the media files, providing quality assurance and extracting existing metadata. It will also storyboard each tape and generate a browse resolution version in H.264. 

Archive control uses the Tedial AST module as a hierarchical storage system. In the RTVE system there are 17 AST servers handling both full resolution and browse content, with 900 terabytes on disk and 24 petabytes in tape libraries. The decision to use 17 servers allows the content to be stored by groups, which may be defined by content type, archival format or storage policy. AST co-ordinates the transfer of files between tape and disk. 

Standing at the top is the Tedial Ficus business process management system, which coordinates all tasks in the system, including managing the database and supporting users who need to access and re-use the content. Ficus also provides a link to Arca, the document management system at RTVE, which includes the radio archive of more than two million audio clips. 

"The archive of RTVE is an important part of Spain's cultural history, as well as an asset which we can use to make programmes in the future," said Carlos Hernández, director of the RTVE Documentary Centre. "Digitising and cataloguing more than a million videotapes is a massive undertaking, and we are confident that with the support of Tedial we will accomplish this successfully." 

José Mesas, managing director of Tedial, added: "The solution we are installing will allow any RTVE user access, from a single application, to millions of pieces of audiovisual content in a professional format. It will then seamlessly handle the recovery of that content to the transmission or production area as required, giving immediate access to the whole of the archive, when and where it is necessary." 

More info @ www.tedial.com

Cedar releases ProTools plug-in

February 25, 2010

The release of Cedar's DNS One signals the arrival of the company's Academy Award-winning DNS series as a ProTools plug-in. 

"DNS One is everything you ever wanted from a software-based dialogue noise suppressor," said the company. "A ProTools plug-in that runs on both Mac OS X and Windows, it makes no compromises in sound quality and offers the same Academy Award-winning performance as its illustrious siblings, the DNS1500, DNS2000 and DNS3000. Coupled to a superb new user-interface that allows you to control hundreds of channels of DNS (software and hardware, in any mix you choose) from a single Pro Tools host, DNS One is the most powerful and flexible noise suppressor ever developed." 

Until Cedar's DNS technology was developed, dubbing mixers were forced to use processes such as low-pass filters, noise gates, dynamics processes, or processes developed from analogue encode/decode noise reduction systems. DNS removes the rumble, general background, whistles and camera noise from contaminated audio, making it the tool of choice for removing background noise from dialogue. 

Offering all the power and audio quality of Cedar's dedicated hardware products, DNS One is a flexible, fully automated implementation of DNS designed specifically for Pro Tools users. 

It makes unusable interviews intelligible, saves huge costs in ADR, and has rescued dialogue for countless movies. In the words of one member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, DNS was "probably used on every major movie coming out of Hollywood in the past couple of years," and can now be found on virtually all dubbing stages worldwide. 

"You control DNS One using the dedicated DNS Control System software," said the company. "More than just a GUI for DNS One, this RTAS plug-in for Pro Tools LE and HD systems runs on both Mac OS X and Windows, and allows you to control as many instances of DNS One as your host system can support, plus up to 126 DNS2000s and/or DNS3000s. It is also fully integrated with Pro Tools' automation and its hardware control surfaces such as the Icon, D-Control and D-Command. The DNS Control System is completely cross-compatible between DNS One, the DNS2000 and the DNS3000, so users can install DNS One alongside existing hardware units, creating sessions on one and later, if desired, recalling them on either of the others." 

 More info @ www.cedaraudio.com