CREATION
January-February 2018
13
Bringing content to life with graphics
Avid has released the latest versions of its Maestro Designer
and Maestro News solutions, designed to enable content
creators to create “superior, high-resolution graphics more
efficiently than ever before”.
Avid’s award-winning Maestro Designer graphics author-
ing software is now equipped with greater rendering power
to create higher quality graphics, as well as enhance visual
identity and production value. Graphic designers can now
create and view their content in 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) resolu-
tion, without having to adjust the resolutions of their graph-
ics. Improved workflow efficiencies have also been added
to Maestro Designer to increase productivity and enable
the faster turnaround of content, including font handling,
animation editing and mask editing.
As for the Maestro News on-air graphics suite, it now
comes with enhanced operational efficiencies for both news
and production environments. With the latest version of
Maestro News, users can quickly and easily re-use content
and even mirror data between different production systems.
A simplified workflow now facilitates faster page creation
and the ability to manage complex content more efficiently
through its new rundown filtering capability.
Alan Hoff, VP of market solutions, Avid, said: “To maxi
mise engagement, today’s broadcasters must create out-
New upgrades to graphics solutions from Avid aim to help content
creators bring their content to life.
standing content that’s tuned for any consumer device.
The latest enhancements available in Maestro Designer and
Maestro News help broadcasters deliver video and 3D graph-
ics in new and compelling ways to audiences everywhere.”
A close-up look at Monday Night Football
ESPN and Fletcher Sports are using Sony
HDC-4800 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) ultra-high
frame rate cameras with Fujinon PL20-
120mm Cabrio lenses for goal-line close-ups
for the broadcast of Monday Night Football,
a live TV broadcast of weekly American
football games.
According to Fletcher Sports, the Sony
4800/Fujinon lens combination allows cam-
eras once considered “specialty” to enhance
the quality of live game production in real
time. Ed Andrzejewski, programme manager
at Fletcher Sports, explained: “In the past,
a lot of the 4K/UHD and high frame rate
camera systems, once you get up to the
ultra-high frame rates, are pretty much there
as just a replay tool.
Fujinon PL20-120mm Cabrio lenses, in conjunction
with Sony’s HDC 4800 cameras, is helping ESPN
shoot goal-line close-ups of the Monday Night
Football programme.
“Now with the camera quality that
Sony brings and the lens quality Fujinon
has brought on for the 4K/UHD cameras,
specialty cameras can be cut in live to your
regular production.”
He added that while high-speed cameras
used for replay shots were previously placed
higher up in the stadium — which required
a longer lens — they are now placed at the
same level as the main game cameras, thus
requiring a wider angle lens.
A variety of lenses were tested prior to the
Monday Night Football season opener, and
the Fujinon PL 20-120mm Cabrios were cho-
sen for their wide angle, clarity and speed.
The zoom range enables camera operators to
zoom out to capture every player on the field
and, in the same shot, zoom in to determine
if the ball crossed the goal line.
The Fujinon PL 20-120mm Cabrio zoom
features a detachable servo drive unit,
making it suitable for use as a standard
PL lens or as an electronic newsgathering
(ENG)-style lens. It features flange focal
distance adjustment and macro func-
tion, and is lens data system (LDS)- and
/i metadata-compatible.
The lens weighs just 2.9kg and features a
T stop of T3.5 end-to-end, a 20mm-120mm
focal range. It covers an S35-sized sensor
(Super 35 format) on a digital cinema-style
camera. The lens is also fitted with a nine-
blade iris to capture the most natural-looking
imagery possible, and is equipped with all
the lens data outputs that are required by
today’s cine-style shooters, said Fujinon.
whoBuyswhat
■ Brios handles all audio sources for
Bleacher Reports
As part of a studio upgrade, online sports
publisher Bleacher Report has purchased
two Calrec Audio Brio compact audio
consoles.
Mark Steinmetz, studio operator and
audio engineer at Bleacher Report, said:
“The Brios are our first Calrec desks, and
they’re a great addition to our team. We
chose the Brio because of its user-friendly
layout and powerful features, which really
set it apart from the other boards we saw
at trade shows.
“Brio can accommodate any skill level,
which makes it really ideal for our crew. Our
audio operators love the console’s ease of
contribution and mix-minus features, with
a layout that’s easy to grasp at first glance
and displays the data in a very intuitive and
natural manner.”
Bleacher Report streams its content
through its