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July 26, 2007
U.K. Experiences HD Growing Pains
High-definition television in the U.K. continues to experience growing pains. Ofcom, the U.K. communications industry’s independent regulator, has drawn up a plan that would allow for up to four HD channels to be broadcast over the air. But the plan is not being embraced by public broadcasters, says Ofcom CEO Ed Richards.
“There is a debate about how much you can squeeze in, but we have commissioned some independent research which we will make public in due course,” Richards said. “We genuinely believe that you can get four HD channels.”
The trick, he said, is to use the spectrum more efficiently, such as employing MPEG-4 or DVB-S2.
Pay TV services like ITV and BskyB are grumbling about the proposal. Simon Pitt, ITV director of platforms, said that squeezing HD programming onto the spectrum allocated could be accomplished technically, but that other service providers would be willing to pay for the spectrum. He said, “Who is anyone to say that HDTV is better than mobile TV?”
Nokia multimedia Vice President Mark Selby said HD programming doesn’t necessarily mean good programming. "When Toy Story came out, everyone said it would be the future of animation,” he said. “Since then we've had the success of The Simpsons and South Park--which shows it's the overall experience that matters.”
Adding to the hostility was the reaction of BskyB to the British government’s “HD for All” campaign that promotes free HDTV. The satellite broadcaster felt it was insulting to compare the provision of HD programming to something as fundamental as universal healthcare.
Even Ofcom isn’t buying into the campaign. Said Richards: “We are not yet persuaded by the case, argued predominantly by the ‘HD for All’ campaign, that the best and only way to maximize the economic and social benefit of the spectrum released by digital switchover is simply to gift some or all of it to the broadcasters [for free HD].”
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New Options For Live Event Producers
Producers of concerts, awards ceremonies and other live events have two new choices regarding production facilities: an HD flypack from Image Pacific and a 53-foot HD production truck from Trio.
“What’s become clear to us is that the market for mobile production trucks is expanding,” said Peter Kimball, Trio Video director of program development and production. “We have extensive production experience and are always looking to move into new areas of distribution.”
The truck, dubbed “Rhythm,” has a variety of Grass Valley gear, including LDK 6000 mk II Worldcam HD cameras, a Kalypso HD production switcher, a Trinix HD router and an all-HD infrastructure based around GeckoFlex and Kameleon signal processing modules.
“Trio is not only supplying the equipment, we’re designing the production system and developing a blueprint to cover these multi-venue events,” said Kimball. “We’re doing a lot of HD production and the Grass Valley equipment has stood up extremely well on all of our live entertainment and sports projects.”
Meanwhile, Image Pacific in Vancouver, Canada, has added an HD flight pack engineered by Sony Broadcast and Communications Solutions Group in Canada. It includes four Sony HDC-1550 multi-format HDTV cameras with four Fujinon ENG/EFP HDTV lenses. It also includes one FOR-A Hanabi HVS-1000HS HD/SD production switcher with all options included and three FOR-A FA-9000 HD/SD signal processors.
The pack also features four Sony HDW-1800 HDCAM decks, an EVS HD broadcast server and a 42-inch Sony HD LCD panel with multiple program/preview viewer display—all of which packs up into 10 portable cases.
“The choice of Fujinon lenses for our HD Flight Pack is critical to our ability to meet the needs of any production situation and satisfy our clients' shooting requirements," said Dale Rechner, national operations manager for Image Pacific Broadcast Rentals, in Vancouver, and Image Central Broadcast Rentals, in Toronto. "Our experience with FOR-A has been similarly reliable and customer-focused.”
Rechner added that FOR-A's HVS-1000HS has quickly become the go-to compact switcher for HD flypacks. “The FA-9000's are ideal for any kind of conversion, and the processors support all formats,” he said. “With a rental operation like ours, you never know what format you'll receive and what kind of signal type or format conversion will be needed.”
In 2008, Image Pacific plans to offer a second HD Flight Pack, as well as an HD mobile truck that will carry eight to 10 Sony HD cameras and Fujinon HD lenses, including longer lens for sports and entertainment.
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JC Penney Makes HD Investment
Even if some production companies aren’t yet delivering high-def images to consumers, many are at least laying the groundwork with HD gear purchases. JC Penney recently made the HD plunge for its diverse video needs both in training and in-store promotion. The Plano, Texas-based company has equipped its in-house studio with an array of Panasonic HD gear, including two AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema cameras, an AG-HVX200 DVCPRO P2 HD handheld camcorder, nine DVCPRO HD VTRs, and LCD production monitors and plasma displays.
“Recently we produced a series of shows that we shot and edited in HD, to then be down-converted to both standard definition and to low-resolution M-PEG2 files,” said Scott Hamil, JC Penney chief engineer, internal communications. “We were extremely happy with the look and quality of the video.”
JC Penney’s production studio encompasses three sound stages, five edit suites, two control rooms and a live link to the main meeting room at headquarters. Hamil says they’re starting to shoot everything in HD, down converting when necessary. “Our decision to upgrade to DVCPRO HD was influenced by our extremely good track record with the DVCPRO50 gear,” he said, “as well as the format’s attractive price point and good word-of-mouth.”
Hamil has rented VariCams in the past, so his staff of operators and freelance photographers is well-acquainted with the camera. “The HVX200 is a terrific catch-all, back-up camera to the VariCam,” he said. “We’ll use it when we need to be extremely portable, and when we don’t want to lock up a VariCam on routine assignments. Also, working with the HVX200 gives us a chance to evaluate the P2 workflow.”
AJ-HD1400 compact DVCPRO HD VTRs have been installed in the facility’s edit suites, and the VTRs transfer material to Avid Media Composer Adrenaline NLEs via their HD SDI outputs. Three Panasonic 42-inch HD plasmas are installed in edit suites for client viewing.
All projects are mastered to DVCPRO HD, with copies made in formats that can include standard-definition uplinks to stores, Windows Media Player files for cash-register play-out, and others as needed.
Hamil said there are no immediate plans to put HD displays in Penney outlets: “We have designed the system with that ability in mind, but as for today it is not a requirement.”
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Understanding HD Imaging
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Larry Thorpe
National Marketing Executive
Canon Broadcast |
With the DTV transition 18 months away, stations across the country will begin their final digital push in about six months. All face a similar quandary: how much HD should they expect to produce, or will digital versions of standard-def content suffice? Larry Thorpe, Canon Broadcast national marketing executive, discussed the challenges facing the industry.
Q: How would you best explain the cost of the HD lens investment to a non-technical COO or CFO type who might suffer sticker shock?
A: The most important point that I would attempt to convey is the vital importance of the lens to HD origination. The HD video from an HD camera is literally only as good as the lens mounted to that camera, a point not widely understood or accepted. For example, the HD lens must deliver 2.7 times the imaging information of SDTV and over 3.0 times that of NTSC. The lens is totally physical and there is no equivalent to Moore's Law (in the digital world) available to elevate its performance capabilities while also progressively lowering its costs. And making a lens is VERY time consuming and, of course, time is money.
Q: Can you explain how not all HD is created equal?
A: The full embodiment of the SMPTE HDTV Production Standards can support very high sharpness imagery on large screens. The quality of that imagery is also determined by the contrast and dynamic range and color reproduction. The lens predetermines all of this, as the role of the camera is to transform the created optical representation of the scene delivered by the lens into a digital electronic representation. The larger the image format, the better the lens performance, especially with respect to sharpness.
Q: Is the assumption that HD means the image quality is always "super sharp" wrong?
A: Quite wrong. There are "levels" of HD and you literally do get what you pay for, whether it’s an HD lenses, HD camera, or HD recorder. You can liken this to what went on for 100 years in motion picture film as 65mm, Super 35mm, 35mm, Super 16mm, 16mm and Super 8mm have a broad range of performance levels with associated broad range of costs [but are all film].
Q: How can a station make the right HD buying decisions?
A: It is absolutely impossible to predict from technical brochures how the HD image quality will manifest itself for all of these HD camera/recording systems. First, the published performance specifications themselves are scanty at best and almost impossible to relate to picture performance. Second, the multiplication of all of the technical variables within a lens, camera, and recorder is utterly impossible to specify. Only very careful testing will reveal the picture quality for a particular genre of HD production. Interviewed by Ken Kerschbaumer
--Interviewed by Ken Kerschbaumer
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GalleryPlayer Adds More HD
(From a July 23 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
GalleryPlayer, the Seattle-based company that provides high-definition still images of fine art and photography for flat-panel HDTV sets, is releasing 80 new half-hour blocks of HD programming aimed at cable's video-on-demand platform. The company has offered high-resolution stills from such sources as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Geographic magazine to Comcast's video-on-demand (VOD) platform since last year. The Comcast ON DEMAND service features 12 30-minute blocks of still images, accompanied by music, which refresh about every minute. Comcast has run limited advertising against the free service from TV-set manufacturer Panasonic.
For more…
WTTW Brings HD To Israel
(From a July 16 article in Broadcasting & Cable)
A crew from PBS station WTTW Chicago recently traveled to the Judean Desert, in southern Israel, to film a sunrise concert by Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza atop the historic Masada fortress. Shot with 10 cameras in high-definition, the production could have turned into an utter disaster at several points along the way, says Executive Producer Nicolette Ferri: “A number of things could've gone horribly wrong in one second. But none of them did.” And with a paucity of HD equipment in Israel, gear had to be shipped in from England, then trucked down desolate desert roads to the concert site.
For more…
Waterman Broadcasting Adds JVC ProHD
(From a July 13 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
Waterman Broadcasting has purchased JVC GY-HD250 ProHD high-definition cameras for WZVN, the ABC affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla., where they will be used as the station’s primary studio cameras.Waterman, which had previously purchased ProHD 100 Series cameras for WZVN for field acquisition, has installed the GY-HD250 cameras on Telemetrics robotic mounts for full pan-and-tilt control. It is one of several station groups, including Scripps, to commit to the format.
For more…
TiVo Offers Lower-Priced HD DVR
(From a July 24 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
Digital video recorder (DVR) supplier TiVo is unveiling a $299 high-definition DVR that will use CableCARD conditional access technology to control access to premium programming and a broadband connection to pull on-demand content. The unit, unveiled at the CTAM cable marketing convention in Washington, is expected to be available in early August.
For more…
Universal HD Adds Sundance HD Content
(From a July 10 article at BroadcastingCable.com)
Universal HD, NBC Universal's high-definition network, will begin carrying HD programming from Sundance Channel next month thanks to a sponsorship deal with Microsoft. Beginning next Wednesday and running through Dec. 26, Universal HD will air a weekly, branded programming block, sponsored by Microsoft, of Sundance series Iconoclasts, Big Ideas for a Small Planet and Live from Abbey Road in high definition. Universal HD is available to 54 million homes and has over six million subscribers.
For more…
NBA’s Suns to Shine in HD Every Game
(From a July 20 article at MultichannelNews.com)
Beginning next season, the Phoenix Suns will become the first National Basketball Association team to broadcast all of their games in HD. It represents a cooperative effort between the Suns and its TV partners, KUTP My45 and FSN Arizona.
For more…
Cable Blasts Dual Must-Carry at FCC
(From a July 17 article in Multichannel News)
Cable operators and programmers strongly oppose on legal and policy grounds proposed federal rules that could furnish certain local TV stations with greater carriage rights on cable systems. Comcast, Discovery Communications, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the American Cable Association all condemned the proposals, rejecting Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin’s position that new carriage rules were needed to ensure a smooth national switchover to digital broadcasting in February 2009. Martin’s plan “proposes an unlawful command-and-control approach over the cable operator’s property, using the broadcast digital transition as [a] cloak to disguise a perpetual violation of the Constitution,” the NCTA said in
comments filed at the FCC Monday--the first phase in a battle that could eventually involve the courts and Congress.
For more…
LG Unveils ‘Opus’ LCD TV Series
(From a July 20 article at TWICE.com)
LG Electronics staged a summer line review at art auction house Christie’s to unveil what it calls its own consumer electronics “masterpieces.” Highlighting the presentation was the company’s new flagship LBX LCD TV series, dubbed “Opus,” which features 1080p HD resolution and 120Hz frame-rate technology. The LCD TV line also features a new styling design that uses more rounded edges and corners; a gloss piano-black bezel; and a re-engineered pedestal base, which will take advantage of the growing trend of placing large flat-panel TVs on tables and cabinet tops, rather than mounting them on walls, the company said.
For more…
JVC Intros Hard-Disk-Based HD Camcorder
(From a July 19 article at TWICE.com)
JVC will ship a hard-disk drive-based HD camcorder to dealers in September, the company said today. The Everio GZ-HD3 features a 60GB hard disk drive (HDD) and 3-CCD imager for recording 1440 by 1080i resolution MPEG-2 video. The 60GB HDD can hold up to five hours of 30Mbps video in XP mode and up to seven hours of 22Mbps HD video in SP mode. A 1440CBR mode captures close to five hours of video in an HDV-editable format. It will retail for $1,300.
For more…
HD DVD Shows Sales Growth
(From a July 18 article at TWICE.com)
Overall sales of HD DVD hardware grew 37%, while software sales rose 20% in the first quarter of 2007, according to a quarter over quarter analysis conducted by the North American HD DVD Promotional Group. The group said the results were determined using data from Nielsen Netratings, the NPD Group point-of-sale data and movie studio sales figures. During the same time-frame, overall Blu-ray Disc hardware sales saw a 27% decline from Q1 to Q2, and Blu-ray software sales were down 5%, the group said.
For more…
Hitachi Blu-ray Camcorder Inches Closer
(From a July 23 article at TWICE.com)
Hitachi had announced its intentions to launch the first Blu-ray camcorder last year. Now word is percolating that the camcorders could be introduced in fall. The model reportedly boasts a 5.3-megapixel CMOS sensor for 1920 by 1080 resolution recording directly onto Blu-ray discs.
For more…
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DTV Transition a ‘Train Wreck’
Broadcast Engineering reports that the upcoming digital television transition continues to be the subject of contentious debate among the nation’s policy makers. One prominent critic insists it’s a “train wreck” waiting to happen, while the administration expresses confidence it will go smoothly. Andrew Schwartzman, president of the nonprofit law firm Media Access Project, warned a media conference last week that the turn-off of analog television is plagued with problems. He is critical of the government’s failure to provide adequate funding for public information about the transition. Schwartzman said non-English speakers, the elderly, and the poor will probably never know of the public-service campaigns planned to tell consumers that older sets
won’t work without converter boxes after the digital transition. “I really fear for it,” he said. “The people who are going to be hurt are the people at the bottom.”
For more…
Dish Network Addresses Need For External DVR Storage
BigPictureSound.com reports that Dish Network's soon-to-be-released ViP722 HD DVR and its current ViP622 HD DVR will have their USB ports enabled later this summer via a firmware upgrade. This will give them the ability to record and playback high definition and standard definition content from their internal hard drives as well as from an external hard drive connected via USB. The result for consumers will be the ability to purchase external hard drives and store HD content on a long-term or even permanent basis. The ViP722 DVR will offer an internal hard drive that supports up to 55 hours of HD recording (350 hours of SD recording) as compared to the current ViP622, which supports 30 hours of HD or 200 hours of SD recording. The 722 also offers support for High Definition Video On
Demand.
For more…
Big TVs With 1080p Resolution
PC World Canada reports that just because an HDTV display is 1080p it doesn’t mean it will deliver top-quality images. The magazine recently tested three 1080p displays and only one, the HP MD5880n, met their expectations. The other two, a 56-inch JVC set that upconverts signals to 1080p and a 62-inch Mitsubishi that can accept 1080p sources, disappointed when it came to image quality. The Mitsubishi's picture was the least sharp, marred by blurry and grainy patches, and the image crawled at several points. The JVC's picture sometimes looked sharp, but with certain programs, areas of “sparkling color” distracted viewing.
For more…
Hues at 11
The Boston Globe reports that local TV stations are facing tough choices when it comes to redesigning news sets and graphics for HDTV. Russ Nelligan, WCVB creative services director, says the station doesn’t want to overwhelm people with visuals and sounds. Instead, the trick is having a contemporary look without “the old Technicolor and impersonal look.” He and the creative team settled on the reds, blues and golds that were familiar to their viewers, but would also play well on high-definition broadcasts. Earlier this year, WBZ changed its graphics from navy blue and white to a brighter teal and yellow to differentiate itself from the reds, whites, and blues found so predominantly in its competitors' graphics. Wendy McMahon, WBZ's creative services director, says
the colors convey a fresher look to the audience.
For more…
Breaking News…Disc at 11
TV Technology reports on the steps taken by station groups to move from tape-based news acquisition to tapeless HD. Currently, 15 of the 21 Belo stations produce news, of which 11 operate in a tapeless newsroom environment. “Our stations have been shooting Betacam SX but we’re now shifting everything to Sony XDCAM-HD so we’ll be disk-based in the field,” said Craig Harper, Belo executive director of technology for broadcasting. “To make this change for all 15 stations at once is extremely expensive and difficult to do.” Hearst-Argyle, Pappas Telecasting, and Albritton Communications have also adopted Sony XDCAM-HD. CNN plans to use XDCAM for its HD news launch, expected later this year.
For more…
Why I Was Wrong About HD DVD
CNet Reviews Executive Editor David Carnoy reports that Toshiba, the HD DVD Promotion Group, and Microsoft can talk all they want about interactivity and in-movie experiences, but the only way HD DVD is winning this war is on price. He sees the battle with Blu-ray as a “race to the bottom,” and says a format war is good, in that it keeps recorders affordable. For more…
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