Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/668752
B r o a d c a s t e r s S h o w D a i l y W e d n e s d a y , A p r i l 2 0 , 2 0 1 6 8 ALL VIDEO IS NOT CREATED EQUAL By Stuart Newton, Vice President of Business Development, IneoQuest Technologies Broadcast quality video is expensive to produce, to license and to deliver to viewers. If it cannot be viewed as intend- ed, and the viewer becomes frustrated, the experience can be more damaging than having no video at all. This knowledge is not new, of course. Before the advent of digital TV and online video, just about everything on television was essentially "live." If the viewer missed it, reruns were the only option. If a channel dropped out, the show was gone. Drops were very ugly for broadcasters and their advertisers, which is a big reason why broadcasters built their networks for "broadcast quality" and 99.999 percent availability. Since all TVs received the same stream and quali- ty level, they focused on program avail- ability. When the viewer switched the TV on or changed the channel, the program was either there or not. Straightforward. Those days are long gone. With the advent of OTT and VoD offerings being delivered across all kinds of networks and devices, the program availability metric remains critical. However, slow video startups, blocky picture quality, sudden stops and starts and poor ad transitions and placement can also frustrate and drive away view- ers. Suddenly, there is an almost endless list of tradeoff decisions to be made between content preparation, video qual- ity and cost – tradeoffs which are often highly dependent on the perceived value of the video content. For example, high demand, highly perishable, emotionally engaging content sits at the top of the value pyramid. Live sports is probably the first thing that comes to mind here, but consider dramat- ic weekly broadcasts and VoD-only shows with cliffhangers that have a high social following (Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, etc.). No one wants to read the spoiler before they see the show. In comparison, a problem with a vintage episode of "Mr. Ed, the Talking Horse" may not require the same level of quality or assurance monitoring. But then again, if you are a premier vintage TV subscription provider, then maybe it does. In fact, it may be more valuable than last year's World Cup final, which had a huge value when broadcast live! Today's content providers are faced with a series of questions about how best to deliver the quality experiences viewers expect and ensure a video's impact: What is the "right" quality to offer a smart- phone, tablet or massive UHD TV? Will a higher speed stream – more Megabits per second (Mbps) – result in better viewer engagement or subscriber reten- tion? Will that higher engagement justify the high- er CDN delivery cost? What is the "right" amount of quality monitoring for a given video content type (live sports, new movie releases, news, etc.)? Finding the right answers to these questions will enable OTT service providers to optimize video quality based on its per- ceived or anticipated value. The fact that content value is constantly shifting, a one-size-fits all video quality/assurance solution makes little sense.. That is why IneoQuest's solution portfolio offers multiple levels of video assurance analy- sis, from basic program availability to in- depth real-time frame-by-frame MOS analysis. Please drop by our NAB'16 booth #SU6102, where we can help you focus on aligning your quality and assurance costs to the value of your content. Learn more at booth #SU6102. BLONDER TONGUE DEMONSTRATES 'EDGE-TO-CLOUD' SOLUTION There are plenty of ways for viewers to access interesting content over the inter- net, in real-time, at home and on any device. The LiveCast encoder and High Definition Demodulator Module (HDDM) decoder are essential to deliver the caliber of quality needed to keep viewers captivated when streaming live broadcast content. Blonder Tongue's LiveCast encoder and HDDM decoder are included in the Zixi Eco-Zystem[R] of partners for spe- cializing in video streaming enterprise and commercial applications. The encod- ing and decoding solution benefit both Blonder Tongue and Zixi customers and gives users a wide-variety of options for delivering broadcast-quality video to support a multitude of workflows. Both Blonder Tongue units are equipped with Zixi software, which pro- vides content-aware bandwidth optimiza- tion, error correction and packet loss recovery to ensure pristine broadcast video content is delivered. Once the ded- icated video is delivered, media or serv- ice providers can distribute it via content delivery networks, open internet or pri- vate networks for viewing on multi- screen devices. "This architecture allows for signifi- cant cost-savings compared to traditional methods such as satellite, building fiber or leasing dedicated bandwidth from third-party providers," said Don Young, Director of Business Development at Blonder Tongue. Young continued, "The LiveCast encoder includes additional features to make it an ideal application for broadcasters and OTT providers, including SCTE-104 and SCTE-35 con- versions to enable ad-insertion, second- ary audio programming and remote man- agement through SSH tunnels." The HDDM is a low-cost profes- sional video demodulator with the ability to decode an IP transport stream, off-air digital 8VSB channel or a program from a clear QAM source. The unit accepts content in either MPEG-2 or H.264 video formats and simultaneously outputs HD/SD-SDI, HDMI, component and composite interfaces with embedded audio or separate analog audio. The HDDM delivers HD video standards of up to 1080p60. Visit booth #SU6605 to learn more and obtain a live demonstration. After the show, go to www.blondertongue.com. WHAT IF YOU COULD LIGHT A SCENE WITHOUT RUNNING CABLES? With Bluetooth direct communication and advanced battery optimization, Visionsmith's Hexolux line of LED fresnels cross the threshold into cable- free production. Setup is as fast as put- ting a light on a stand. If you want to move a light, just pick it up and move it. With Bluetooth control, you could fine-tune the brightness of each light from your phone while swinging in a hammock behind the monitor. Is this the future of lighting? Let's look at some of the pitfalls: battery time and Bluetooth reliability. What if you're in the middle of a take, and one of the lights shuts off? Visionsmith has an interesting answer to this: it built a volt meter inside the light. By looking at the voltage of the battery, it's possible to set a silent alarm at a specific voltage to warn you when your battery is running out of juice. A typical camera battery will run the light for around an hour at the brightness of a 1K Tungsten — if you dim the light at all, the battery will last much longer. What about Bluetooth reliability? Remember in 2006 when you spent 40 minutes pairing your headset? Bluetooth has come a long way in the past 10 years, and Visionsmith inte- grated state of the art hardware into its newest fresnels. Some of the other features of this light are a 12-degree to 70-degree zoom range, 95 CRI LED illuminator, 1000W tungsten/300W HMI equivalent output, daylight or tungsten color bal- ance and DMX support, which seems to hit all of the major marks for a professional quali- ty fresnel. This light also has some more unusual features, which show just how much thought is behind the design. The light can be dimmed by f- stops, it's hexago- nal in order to tes- sellate with maximum light density, the lens can tilt to cancel falloff and the LED can be simply pulled out of the lens and used as a small light source in countless creative situations. There's a soft box that pops up like an umbrella that drops into the barn door slot, which is a slick way to trans- form your wireless fresnel into a big soft source that's as bright as anything that runs on a single camera battery. This soft box is much easier on the eyes than most panels, being one smooth source, rather than many retina piercing pin-points. Another interesting benefit is that focusing the light can change the size of the soft source. The Hexolux fres- nel comes in two sizes: a five-inch and an eight-inch. The five-inch is small enough to fit in a backpack, while the eight-inch presents a full size key light look and puts out noticeably more light. They have the same range of focus, which is handy on set. These new wireless Hexolux fres- nels deliver a whole new level of speed and freedom for getting great lighting with minimum hassle. For more information, visit visionsmith.com or stop by booth #C12949.