Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/123966
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Broadcasters Show Daily Pico Digital (Con't. from p. 1) electronics, distribution and drop products to satellite, CATV and terrestrial multimedia communication systems. Pico Digital possesses a portfolio complete with the highest level of design, engineering, quality assurance and support, offering innovative digital product solutions for today's market challenges. Pico Digital is a privately held, employee-owned company, headquartered in San Diego with offices in Japan, Mexico, Brazil and China. BSD: What makes your company unique? IL: We focus first on the customer's business objectives then on technical challenges in a collaborative environment. This results in the most efficient solution possible, whether 100 percent ours or combined with best-in-class partners. We are also unique competing primarily with public companies by outpacMAXON (Con't. from p. 1) both MAXON and Adobe thinking about how we could take things to the next level," recalled Steve Forde, Adobe's Senior Product Manager. The answer? A new partnership aimed at better integrating Cinema 4D functionality with the Adobe suite of products, providing artists with a set of tools that streamlines workflow, freeing up time for creativity. With this release of After Effects, artists will be able to work on and LiveU (Con't. from p. 1) BSD: How has LiveU technology changed since that original backpack? AC: We've done several important things to enhance performance over cellular networks. By developing a proprietary antenna array we can obtain stronger and clearer signal than standard aircards, even in remote or congested areas. Until recently, our antennas were only inside our units. We now have an external antenna called the Xtender that can be mounted on vehicles or tripods for improved connectivity, and can also be combined with KA-Band satellite dishes. Our smart algorithm also keeps improving to enhance quality and stability and reduce latency, by better predicting netSan Solutions (Con't. from p. 1) systems where best-of-breed applications can be deployed to support an end-to-end file-based workflow. Our reference implementations support both real-time requirements and long-term content preservation. Applications we support include content ingest, logging, newsroom production, media asset management, transcoding, editorial, play-out automation, and content archive. BSD: What would you say makes your company unique? HA: We believe there is great value in understanding the I/O requirements of the various media applications. We spend a lot of time carefully analyzing the I/O ing them and comparatively outperforming them. Our ability to win deals based on listening then doing continues to be valued by customers. BSD: What was the most significant event or series of events affecting your company? IL: 2011 was our first operating year as the merged entity of Pico-Macom, Standard Communications and X-Digital Systems. Management took care to make sure Pico Digital was on solid footing from an operations and corporate development perspective. We harvested the synergies of the merged company, experiencing more than 60 percent growth in top line revenue with contribution coming from all lines. In 2012 we continued to refine our business focus and market direction. We introduced additional digital products for modulation, encoding, transcoding and satellite receivers. We continue to demonstrate success in both domestic and international markets. BSD: Are you introducing any new products? IL: Yes, we completed development in several product verticals. Our new XDSMUL384 receiver/modulator (IRD) breaks new ground for international satellite networks. Our new PD-1000 and PD4D platforms are capable of HD/SD video distribution with modulation. In the hospitality space, we are introducing a low cost edgeQAM with LG Pro:Idiom, Samsung LYNK, and DVB SimulCrypt options, supporting up to 96 HD channels in hotels requiring an expanded HDTV offering. BSD: What distinguishes product(s) from the competition? your IL: Price, performance and quality are the easy answers, but if you look more closely it's our total commitment for customers' success. From the FRI to the first deliveries we keep our customers' business in mind. 63 That shows in products that are adaptable to a changing business landscape. BSD: Who are your target end-users? IL: Our customers vary depending on the product verticals. We sell to large operators, content providers, broadcasters along with top tier distributors. Our footprint is split evenly between domestic and international customers. We continue to expand our reach in Asia, Europe and Latin America. BSD: How can our readers find out more about your company? IL: Visit us during NAB 2013 at booth SU11711 or any time at www.pico digital.com. For more information, visit www.pico digital.com, call 800-421-6511 or email sales@picodigital.com. Pico Digital will be in booth SU11711 at NAB 2013. preview their C4D projects inside the After Effects interface. This smooth integration is possible thanks to a bridge called CINEWARE, which establishes a Live 3D Pipeline between the two applications. "This pipeline cannot be found anywhere else to this extent, and it will completely change the workflow of artists in the future," explained Harald Egel, MAXON's Co-Founder and CEO. But that's not all. After Effects will also include a new "light" version of C4D, aptly known as Cinema 4D Lite. "The idea is to introduce new users to some of the capabilities of Cinema 4D while giving experienced users the advantage of the new workflow," said Paul Babb, President and CEO of MAXON for the Americas. Forde agreed, pointing out the fact that more and more digital artists are using 3D in their work, so now is the right time to provide them with a complete pipeline that's fully integrated with After Effects. Acknowledging that it's rare to see collaborations like this in the industry, both Forde and Babb agree that it's time to move beyond be-all-end-all software thinking. "Both of us realize that we're just another paintbrush in the toolset for artists," Babb said. "It's our job to make it as easy as possible for artists to do their jobs, and whatever we can do to make the workflow as smooth as possible is going to be a win for all of us." work conditions. User experience has gotten better by developing much smaller devices like our LU40, creating our remote control dashboard that allows users to easily control any LiveU unit from the browser of any web-connected device, shortening bootup time to less than 1 minute, and more. a much larger number of customers going live thanks to the ease of deploying LiveU units on short notice and while on the move. We have also made additional units available for major events around the world, including onsite support. The improvement in performance has also considerably increased adoption in motionrich uses, such as certain live sports. tual property and patents in our field, having the largest global installed base, and having raised a significant amount of venture capital. All this allows us to have dedicated teams working on each one of our product lines, from our backpacks and belt-clip devices, to our external antennas, laptop and smartphone solutions, camera integration, satellite partnerships, and more. LiveU will continue to leverage our rich experience and resources to launch products that considerably improve content acquisition workflows for our customers. BSD: How have broadcasters changed the way they use LiveU? AC: LiveU has become a standard part of newsgathering, and broadcasters have become much more comfortable including it as part of their daily mix. In many cases, LiveU is deployed even more frequently than traditional ENG trucks. In recent stories like the Pope resignation, Hurricane Sandy, Super Bowl, and others, we've seen patterns of the applications with specific media formats. By doing this research, we are able to design storage architectures that are robust, properly scale, and maximize the performance of the application software. BSD: Describe your company's current marketing strategy. HA: Our marketing strategy is simple. We team up with the best-of-breed application vendors to offer a joint solution of application and infrastructure that is optimized and supportable. Because our infrastructure designs are aware of the applications we can offer a level of support that is unmatched in the industry. BSD: What product and services do you BSD: What can we expect from LiveU in 2013? AC: We've identified opportunities going beyond our proprietary devices. Many news organizations wish to give their employees or even viewers a way to transmit from their smartphones and laptops. LiveU has the advantage of being the only company that owns the intellecsee as being the hottest this year? HA: There is a lot of talk today about media applications deployed in the cloud. Our take on this is that there are four quadrants for implementations: the local data center or centers, public cloud, private cloud and content delivery networks. Our reference implementations allow for file-based workflows to span all four. BSD: Are you introducing any new products at NAB this year? HA: This year we will be introducing an ArtiSAN product that allows for collaborative editing with Avid Media Composer. This solution supports project sharing. Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier are also supported with the solu- See the new Live 3D Pipeline in action for yourself. Visit the MAXON booth SL5316 and/or Adobe Booth SL3910 at NAB, or watch it streaming at www.C4Dlive.com. For more information about LiveU, visit http://LiveU.tv, call 877-88-LiveU (54838), email info_us@liveu.tv, follow the company on Twitter @LiveU and visit booth SU5511 at the NAB show. tion. Our reference implementation supports an open SAN architecture of best of breed storage arrays and Fibre Channel networking. BSD: How can our readers find out more about your company? HA: Below is listed our corporate contact information. Also, please have your readers visit our booth in the NAB South Upper Hall. We will be showing collaborative editing, newsroom systems, MAM systems, and sport logging deployed on a open SAN architecture. For more information, visit booth SU7814, go online to www.sansolutions.com, call 866-661-7144 or email harry@sansolutions.com.