28
MANAGEMENT
January-February 2016
IP-based delivery is here,
production on the way
BY DAN MALONEY
The broadcast industry is once
again undergoing both business
and technology changes in Asia-
Pacific, as in the rest of the world.
At the heart of these changes is the
drive to IP-based infrastructure for
video transport. H.264/AVC now
dominates at the edges for contri-
bution and delivery. In core broad-
cast production environments,
uncompressed video transport over
IP will ultimately prevail, but for the
foreseeable future, some type of
compression will often be required.
H.264/AVC is so versatile that
some camera manufacturers are
using it as a production codec. The
higher bitrate I-frame-only H.264
varieties feature excellent low la-
tency and visually lossless quality.
At Matrox, we believe this quality,
versatility and ubiquity makes
H.264/AVC an ideal candidate
for compressed video transport
applications within a production
facility.
As the percentage of viewers
consuming content shifts from
on-air to online, “data centres” will
become key to overall “broadcast”
operations. As broadcasters look to
improve their data centres to keep
up with online content demand, it
is worth considering if their pro-
duction operations can
In core broadcast
production environments,
uncompressed video
transport over IP will
ultimately prevail, but
for the foreseeable
future, some type of
compression will often
be required.
also leverage new investments be-
ing made in the data centre.
It is not hard to imagine at
some point in the future, where
all video processing between the
camera and viewers’ screens will
be performed in data centres by
general purpose, enterprise-class
computer hardware and operating
systems, running specialised soft-
ware and hardware accelerators.
Video transport over IP will need
to come to full maturity for this
to happen.
Video-over-IP: From the edge
to the core
Matrox offers a number of H.264
encoding products, including both
edge devices and accelerators
for core production processing.
Our Monarch HD and Monarch
HDX H.264 streaming and re-
cording appliances are ideal for
live streaming broadcasts, or for
creating ready-to-upload video-
on-demand (VoD) programming.
Our OEM products are de-
signed for developers of channel-
in-a-box systems, video servers,
broadcast graphics systems and
other broadcast media equipment.
Matrox M264 is a multi-chan-
nel 4:2:2 10-bit H.264 encoder card
that supports H.264 profiles rang-
ing from 4:2:0 8-bit to 4:2:2 10-bit,
even at 4Kp60 resolutions. Matrox
X mio3 I/O cards will soon have
IP connections for uncompressed
video-over-IP. Matrox DSX Core is a
complete set of software modules
for media processing in virtualised
broadcast infrastructures. All of
these tools are necessary to fuel
this final transition to an all-IP
infrastructure.
We view this final step of the
transition not as the beginning of
the end for the broadcast business
as some fear, but the end of the
beginning. When this transition
is completed, broadcasters will
be able to take full advantage
of the power of mainstream IT
technology to create truly unique
business models focusing on their
key mandates — storytelling and
reporting — to more effectively
compete with the ever expanding
entertainment options offered to
viewers.
Dan Maloney is technical marketing
manager at Matrox Video.
Matrox’s Monarch HDX H.264 streaming
and recording appliances are ideal for live streaming
broadcasts, or for creating ready-to-upload video-on-demand programming.
Taiwan’s Infinity Multimedia Production depends on a range of AJA equipment,
including the Ki Pro Rack recorders, for its diversified production needs.
AJA powers multimedia
productions for Infinity
Taiwan-based Infinity Multimedia
Production specialises in produc-
tion and post for live broadcasts,
concerts and music videos. In its
30-year history, the studio has con-
tributed its talents to productions
like the World Games, Deaflympics,
Taiwanese pop star concerts and
more. Although Infinity’s projects
vary in scope, its AJA gear has been
a constant in productions.
With an ample supply of AJA
Ki Pro Rack recorders, and AJA FS1
frame synchronisers and converters
in-house, Infinity leverages AJA
gear for almost every new project it
undertakes. Lin Chia Wei, manager
at Infinity, elaborated: “There isn’t
room for error in live production, so
reliable gear is critical. We’ve been
using AJA gear since 2008 and
continue to, because it’s durable
and stable, and we have quick, easy
access to great support if needed.”
When tasked with transforming
concert footage of popular Taiwan-
ese girl group S.H.E for a Blu-ray
home entertainment release, Lin
knew that accomplishing the de-
sired high-end aesthetic would
require a multi-cam set-up and
digital video recorders capable of
recording ProRes 422 HQ. Infinity
allocated 20 HD cameras and 16
of its Ki Pro Racks to record the
concert footage in an edit-ready
format, with four Ki Pro Racks to be
used as a line cut. The studio also
leaned on FS1s for audio embed-
ding and frame synchronisation.
Having packaged the equipment
into mobile flightpacks prior to
the concert, the Infinity team was
able to easily set up, pack up and
transport the gear as required.
Lin continued: “Our AJA work-
flow made it easy to remain flex-
ible and adapt to the dynamic
concert environment throughout
the project. With the Ki Pro Racks,
we were ready in no time, running
a smooth and reliable workflow
from production to post. The FS1s
allowed us to embed various chan-
nels of audio sources, and frame
synchronise from the mixer for
line-cut recording output.”
Lin and his crew synchronised
all of the Ki Pro Racks in advance,
which enabled quick transfer of
footage from AJA KiStor drives into
Apple Final Cut Pro X for immedi-
ate editing. With footage synchro-
nised by time code, the team was
able to wrap up post and prepare
the Blu-ray release for distribution
in under six months.
Lin concluded: “The Ki Pro
Racks and FS1s kept us on track, al-
lowing our team to produce high-
quality video while simplifying our
workflow and minimising costs;
they strengthened