NAB 2015 – new products abound

April 2015 – Showing the energy and growth in the M&E Industry the NAB 2015 show had most of their vendors rolling out not just one, but multiple new products for the new year. Blackmagic Design once again was the most prolific with a release of 38 new products, most of which will be available in 2015. AJA followed suit with 12 new products including a major announcement on their professional camera. Also releasing more than one product were industry icons Harmonic and Tektronix. Even newcomer COGO announced 4 products to the marketplace at the show, as part of the Intel pavilion space.

New entry to the market is COGO. Their first product is COGO CLOUD. The product is a cloud based transcoding system designed to simplify the task of encoding video for streaming. Using a cloud based GUI and compute capability in the cloud, your files can be transcoded with the systems handing resolution, bit rate and container type while allowing multiple resolutions out from one source file. To be released soon, is COGO CODER which an executable for your local computer that allows unlimited transcoding runs and content throughput on a monthly license model. Also coming soon are COGO LIVE targeted at LIVE Streaming applications for transcoding, and COGO BROADCAST which is targeted at the needs of the Broadcast & OTT that is mix of live and file based transcoding.

Tektronix introduced a number of products around their position to support and monitor all sections of SMPTE 2022 and 12G SDI (4 x 3G) which is rapidly becoming the default for 4K content. They have not as yet introduced products but are closely tracking the traction and market introduction of ATSC 3.0 and is an active member of the Sony Alliance. As part of the broadcast industry transition from SDI to IP, Tektronix is working with Cisco on addressing the problem that network switches and IP do not have accurate enough time synchronization to enable frame accurate switching. The Cisco solution uses time based switching and other methods such as frame-marker switching. To support this effort, Tektronix has a prototype PTP timing solution using a modified SGP8000.

Tektronix WFM-WVR8300-4K

Tek also was showing their SPG8000 –an All-in-One Master Sync and Master Time Generator; ECO8000: an All-in-One, Always-On Automatic Changeover Unit; WFM / WVR8000 Series – this is a 4K compatible Waveform Monitor that will support Both 4K/UHD and 3G/HD-SDI Workflows ; and the WFM2300 – all in one portable WFM solution. The WFM2300 performs SDI & ASI physical layer measurement, has a Multipurpose Signal Generator that produces SDI test signals with Genlock, has an AES tone generator and audio monitor for AES/Embedded/Dolby E, Audio Loudness Monitoring, Cable simulation and loop length margin testing, and A/V delay and propagation measurements.

On the software side, Tektronix expanded its File-Based QC Portfolio through an exclusive licensing agreement with Digimetrics which brings the Aurora, Hydra and AutoFix Software products to the Tektronix Automated Digital Video, Audio File-Based QC Solutions. These join the existing Tektronix Cerify and QCloud offerings.

Harmonic came to NAB not only with an agenda to roll out new hardware for the continuation of their reference broadcast infrastructure, but they also introduced their Harmonic Video Network (HVN), an OTT video streaming service available at www.hvn.tv. The OTT service was designed as an information source for video engineers with a valuable source of information related to video delivery infrastructure, the HVN-1 channel will focus on workflow, content creation, channel playout and distribution, video service delivery, cable edge and multiscreen issues. HVN-2 will celebrate the beauty of the moving image with cultural and environmental vignettes from around the world, demonstrating the industry’s best video quality and highlighting Harmonic content originally produced in 4K and available for license.

Harmonic ProView 7100

On the hardware side, they announced the ProView™ 7100 is the industry’s first single-rack, multiformat integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), transcoder and MPEG stream processor to support the HEVC standard. This is a key part of Harmonic’s end-to-end HEVC-based video transmission solution. The ProView 7100 decodes HEVC compressed streams up to 1080p60 resolution, maximizing bandwidth efficiency for broadcast service delivery.

To support the hardware solutions, they announced the Harmonic Virtual Media API (VMA). This is an open application control interface for broadcast automation control of its VOS™ virtualized media processing platform. The VMA, supported by the Electra XVM virtualized media processor and the Electra X family of advanced media processors, has been adopted by service providers and broadcast automation vendors, including Pebble Beach Systems, Dayang Technology Development Inc. and VJU. This VOS platform ecosystem creates a fully integrated, cloud-based playout, graphics and encoding solution that can be used by video content and service providers to create and deliver live linear channels to any device faster, with a lower TCO and amazing video quality.

AJA entered the show with an early morning press briefing & breakfast. In addition to the several new fiber oriented converters, KONA software updates and partner news about 4K, they had announcements on the CION camera. On the tech side there was the release of the V1.2 CION Firmware upgrade. The v1.2 firmware for its CION 4K/UltraHD and 2K/HD professional production camera s a free download for CION users providing image improvements, new features and several other enhancements. The update includes improvement in : White Balance; Video Levels; Gamma/Color correction; New LUT support; Auto White Balance Alarm; Time Lapse Function Indicator; and Expanded RGB output.

AJA NAB 2015 Customer Event

Their big announcement was the promotion of their CION camera with the #TryCION promotion. This program backed by a $1M in company support, the promotion is seeding 100 CION cameras with qualified shooters. This new program, currently only available in North America, provides filmmakers, cinematographers and camera operators with easy access to CION to see and experience the camera first hand in production. #TryCION kicks off today, and will run through the end of summer 2015. Cameras are being made available on loan to qualifying applicants. Additional AJA CION accessories are also included with the loan program. Individuals interested in the program can apply online here: https://www.aja.com/trycion. To celebrate the active customer base and new products, AJA once again held the premier customer event at NAB, this year held at the Drai day and night club at the Cromwell.

Blackmagic Design introduced the largest number of new products of any of the companies with press conferences at the show. The premier products of the new releases were the UltraStudio 4K extreme and the Micro Studio & Cinema 4K cameras. Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K Extreme will be available in June 2015 for $2,995. The UltraStudio 4K Extreme is the world’s first Thunderbolt based solution with 12G-SDI (4x3G) technology for capturing and playing back video from the latest high frame rate Ultra HD and 4K devices up to 2160p60 over a single, standard BNC cable. The UltraStudio 4K Extreme supports virtually every SD, HD, Ultra HD and 4K format and frame rate, in both YUV and RGB color. Additionally it includes a built in hardware multi format hardware codec that allows capture to H.265 files for distributing Ultra HD content online.

BlackMagic Design Ultra Extreme 4K

Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, a miniaturized Super 16mm professional digital film camera with an expansion port that lets customers use PWM and S.Bus model airplane remote controls to operate the camera wirelessly for capturing action anywhere. The Micro Cinema Camera is available in July 2015 for $995. The camera has 90 min of battery life when connected to operate airplane remote controls.

BlackMagic Design Micro Studio and Micro Cinema Cameras

Also released was the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K. In the sme form factor as the Micro Cinema camera, the tiny Ultra HD and HD studio camera is designed for live production and delivers equal or better quality images than the larger studio cameras used today. Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K will be available in July 2015 for $1,295. The Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K is small enough to fit in the palm of your can be used for both HD and Ultra HD production and features a built in color corrector, talkback, tally indicator, PTZ control output, B4 lens control output, and an extremely flexible MFT lens mount that is easily converted to other lens mounts via third party adapters.