16
Primestream welcomes
Ernie Leon
Primestream has
appointed Ernie Leon
as the company’s
new vice-president
of sales and business
development. An
industry sales executive
with more than 15
years’ experience, Leon will be responsible
for Primestream’s worldwide sales team,
developing new business opportunities
and solutions to customer needs. Leon was
previously with Sony Professional Solutions,
where he was national sales, business
development executive manager (US).
DigitalGlue offers
Creative.Space in storage
DigitalGlue is offering a new concept in
media storage that the company says will
shatter the paradigm of high-end storage
solutions. Offered as an on-premise
managed storage (OPMS) service,
Creative.Space features a high-speed,
high-capacity platform with “thorough
and inclusive” 24/7 monitoring, technical
support and next-day repairs. Creative.
Space comprises several systems that have
been tailored for different applications.
These include the //BREATHLESS system,
which was developed to target video
production, VFX and content distribution
networks.
Next Issue @ Management
Channel Branding Solutions
PANELLISTS
Fintan Mc Kiernan
CEO
Ideal Systems
South-east Asia
November 2018
Integrating formats
and standards into a
cohesive workflow
Because broadcasters today are operating in a multi-format environment, format
converters are playing an increasing role in helping to overcome workflow
challenges. Shawn Liew writes more.
A
singular approach to broadcasting is
simply not an option anymore — broad
casters today need to create specific
content to meet the specific needs of
certain segments of audiences; this, in
turn, needs to be distributed over multi
ple platforms and devices.
The challenge does not stop there.
Broadcasters today are tasked with
handling an evolving range of pro
duction and distribution formats and
standards, says Robert Stacy, general
manager, APAC, AJA Video Systems.
He tells APB: “Depending on the audi
ence and markets they serve, they may
need to shoot and deliver in 4K/Ultra
HD (UHD), HD and/or SD and even
high dynamic range (HDR), which is
why conversion solutions have become
so crucial to live production pipelines.”
Traditionally, format converters
were designed to help solve the transi
tion from SD to HD, and vice versa.
Today, however, it is critical for broad
casters and media organisations to be
able to handle multiple formats, often
running simultaneous SD and HD,
or HD and 4K/UHD services, Jeremy
Courtney, head of media processing
Grass Valley, points out.
And as content services become
more multifaceted, format convert
ers are also solving a host of new
challenges, he adds. “Today, format
converters remain an important tool
in the broadcaster’s tool kit, handling
4K/UHD up/down-conversion, HDR
conversion — including up-mapping
from standard dynamic range (SDR)
to HDR, down-mapping from HDR to
SDR and cross-mapping from one HDR
Grass Valley's UDC-3901 module
provides 3G/HD/
SD up/down/
cross-conversion
with video, audio
and metadata
processing.
format to another.
“Format converters are also central
to bridging the gap between SDI and
IP,” says Courtney.
A good multi-format converter can
be compared to a swiss army knife, sug
gests Bruno Bauprey, product manager
at Analogue Way. “It must support any
signal delivered by any source and con
vert it to match the workflow require
ments. This implies that the multi-format
converter has versatile input/output
connectors and high-quality processing.”
These functionalities, he highlights,
are critical in a world where the resolu
tion and quality of video content keep
increasing. 4K/UHD, HDR and 8K
are adding to the continuing switch,
in some regions, of SD to HD, causing
manufacturers to implement initial
solutions using currently available
technology, while being constrained by
technical and cost limitations. Bauprey
explains: “These solutions, such as HD-
ready formats, 6G-SDI and quad-link
3G-SDI, are limited in terms of perfor
mance and ease-of-use.
“Now that more consistent solu
tions exist, broadcasters must be able to
manage workflows, including an array
Patrick So
Regional Manager
Asia Pacific
Magna Systems &
Engineering
Craig Johnson
Managing Director -
Media
Nielsen
❝ [A good multi-format converter] must
support any signal delivered by any source
and convert it to match the workflow
requirements. This implies that the multi-
format converter has versatile input/output
connectors and high-quality processing. ❞
— Bruno Bauprey,
Product Manager, Analogue Way
of disparate equipment.”
Today’s conversion op
eration, he details, can imply
one or all of these treatments:
deinterlacing, frame rate conversion
(FRC), colour space conversion (CSC)
upscaling from SD resolutions to up to
4K/UHD resolutions, but also changes
between standards — analogue, SDI,
HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and so on.
With so many factors to consider,
what then are the key features broadcast
ers should look out for when making a
format converter purchase today?
First of all, pay attention to the
versatility of the product, including the
supported input/output connectivity
and the range of supported formats,
advises Bauprey. “Then, just from a
purely technical point of view, the equip
ment’s latency and the signal quality
are key features,” he continues. “This
can be easily explained by the fact that
it is only a small link in the workflow.
Consequently, it must help maintain the
overall latency of the system as low as
possible. Moreover, signal quality is also
really important; for example, control
ling the jitter for an SDI signal.”
Another point to look out for, says
Bauprey, is the conversion performance
and the resulting video content. Because
video processing is at the heart of format
conversion, checking the quality of the
de-interlacing/FRC/CSC scaling treat
ments is crucial, as it directly impacts
what audiences see. “Too often, you can
see badly de-interlaced camera feeds
resulting in a disastrous comb effect,” he
cautions. “It is also interesting to keep
an eye on functions like input switching,
audio management or content cropping
help.”
In the constant drive to deliver a
more compelling viewing experience
and more content choices to consum