Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) BroadcastAsia2016 Show Daily - Day 1 | Page 8

88 BROADCASTASIA2016 SHOWDAILY 31 May 2016 SAM espouses interoperability in IP and supports 4K/Ultra HD production At booth 5D3-01, Snell Advanced Media (SAM) is highlighting a range of software-driven platforms and IP solutions, as well as the company’s latest 4K/Ultra HD products. Tim Felstead, head of product marketing, SAM, shares more and explains how these technologies are shaping the company’s strategy for Asia. Since the creation of Snell Advanced Media (SAM) last year, the company has focused heavily on software-driven solutions, and been involved in industrywide initiatives such as the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS). In Asia, do you think there is a readiness for broadcasters to migrate to IP and what advice can SAM provide for broadcasters looking to build up IP-based infrastructures? Tim Felstead: Yes, there is absolutely a readiness in Asia for broadcasters to migrate to IP. In fact, SAM adopted the AIMS philosophy before AIMS existed, which is that we believe the industry at large (not just Asia) should be using open and interoperable standards. This is important because broadcasters around the world need to be able to invest in new infrastructures without fear. The issue with IP is that you can quickly create a new interface format or a new file format, but you’ll likely run into interoperability issues. Therefore, customers wouldn’t be able to buy from SAM (or any of our competitors) with confidence that interoperability will exist like it does with SDI. One way to alleviate this is for our APAC customers to join AIMS, which is something we strongly encourage because the more broadcasters we get who agree with the philosophy of open and interoperable standards, the better. It would strengthen the industry’s position on the whole. What are some of SAM’s highlights this year that will attempt to address some of the issues surrounding the adoption of IP in Asia-Pacific? Felstead: SAM firmly believes in giving our customers options. We also know that not everyone wants to implement IP immediately, especially when you factor in costs. Because of this, we’ve added some flexible new features to our switchers and routers. There are now copper-based interfaces, 12-gig serial 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) interfaces, and IP interfaces within our switchers. This type of flexibility is important because if a broadcaster wants to create a production system in 4K/UHD, then doing so in IP is certainly more expensive than implementing 12-gig ❝SAM adopted the AIMS philosophy before AIMS existed, which is that we believe the industry at large (not just Asia) should be using open and interoperable standards.❞ — Tim Felstead, Head of Product Marketing, SAM SAM is continuing to support 4K/UHD production with solutions such as the new Kula switcher, capable of 4K/1080p/ HD and SD in 1M/E and 2 M/E versions. serial. That may change people’s view on the benefits of investing in IP today. As a supporter of AIMS and a firm believer in open standards, we offer products with multiple different interface types for greater overall flexibility. With sports traditionally a key test bed for emerging technologies, 2016 is shaping up to be a huge year with football’s European Championships and the Olympic Games in Brazil. Which technology discussions do you expect to resonate the loudest in Asia this year, and how might they impact SAM’s strategy for the region? Felstead: In Asia this year, we expect the ongoing discussion of 4K/UHD to resonate loudly — with sports in particular being a key driver. Sports is high value, and people are finding that unless your products are built the right way, then it makes 4K/UHD production more difficult both operationally and in engineering terms. For example, take a switcher Light. Portable. Versatile. UNBELIEVABLY LIGHT. UNQUESTIONABLY STABLE. Broadcast Asia Booth 5A5-13 www.shotoku.tv - [email protected] that doesn’t have 4K/UHD capabilities. This can make an operator’s job harder, which is why we’ve added 4K/UHD capabilities to our Kahuna switcher. It makes switching to 4K/UHD simple and easy, just as if operators were working in HD. They won’t see a difference in how the Kahuna works, apart from the delivery of higher quality imagery. Another example focuses on the management of media and the workflows associated with major sporting events. Inevitably, you need recording and replay systems, and you need to integrate with editing systems, social media, asset management, and data logging systems — all while keeping costs at bay. You don’t want to be copying media — particularly when it’s 4K/UHD because the file sizes are simply too large. You also don’t want to be moving things over IP networks because the networks become saturated quickly. Moving files is bad for the consumption of disks in 4K/UHD and network design. Our strategy in Asia moving forward is to demonstrate to the market that we can solve all of these problems with the technology we’ve developed in 2016. I’d strongly advise anyone in Asia looking at sports production — if they’re considering even HD — to look at the way our workflows go together and come and talk to us about production in 4K/UHD. We are demonstrating this at BroadcastAsia2016. 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