The agreement provides Microsoft with the rights to create exclusive interactive experiences through products such as Xbox One and Surface, transforming the way fans will experience the NFL in the years to come. The NFL on Xbox will provide fans with an all-new viewing experience through innovations around Skype and Xbox SmartGlass; an all-new, innovative fantasy football solution allowing fans to view players and live competition side by side on a single TV screen; and a personalized NFL destination featuring information about the players, teams and games fans care about most. Xbox also retains the exclusive rights to extend these interactive experiences to tablets, enabling fans to use Xbox SmartGlass technology to enhance game day.

“We love the passion that players, coaches and fans bring to the NFL game; it’s what makes the NFL game-day experience so unique,” says Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. “We’re excited to apply our passion for technology to the NFL experience, both on the sidelines through the innovative use of Microsoft Surface devices, and for fans through an enhanced NFL viewing experience on Xbox One.”

“When we started working with Roger Goodell and the team at the NFL we knew that we could create great new experiences that fans would love,” adds Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “This partnership will redefine NFL experiences through exclusive and interactive content that you will find only on Xbox. For fans, the NFL on Xbox will provide the most complete way to enjoy live football by bringing the first fully-integrated fantasy football experience to the TV, exclusively through Xbox.”

This partnership also changes the game for NFL teams because coaches and players will soon have access to a variety of cutting-edge Microsoft solutions, including Surface tablets to enhance on-field communications, photo viewing and play calling. Microsoft and the NFL envision a sideline of the future with players reviewing in-game photos from different camera angles directly from the sideline and head coaches calling plays off connected Surface tablets instead of today’s static paper products. With Microsoft technology, NFL coaches, players and other personnel will have the technology they need to improve decision-making and on-field performance.

“From the use of instant replay to the yellow first-down line that has become an important element of the at-home television viewing experience, the NFL is committed to leveraging technology to improve our game for coaches, players and fans,” says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “We’re thrilled to be teaming with a true innovator like Microsoft to shape the future of the NFL game experience, both on-field and in the living room.”

Debris covers the ground after a powerful tornado ripped through the area on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma. The tornado, reported to be at least EF4 strength and two miles wide, touched down in the Oklahoma City area on Monday killing at least 51 people. (Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images)

The Sports Broadcasting Fund is requesting that any sports broadcasting professionals, freelancers, or employees of equipment manufacturers or production companies impacted by the terrible tornados of May 20 apply for assistance in the coming days.

“The Sports Broadcasting Fund was established for just sort of events,” says Ken Kerschbaumer, Sports Broadcasting Fund, co-administrator. “It is unclear if there is any need for assistance from our community but we want anyone in the area to know we are waiting to assist as best we can.”

All applicants will require a second industry associate to fill out the application to verify its legitimacy. There is a pre-determined limit to the amount of assistance that can be supplied but the goal is to be available to help with temporary housing payments and other short-term needs.

Those interested in applying should click here to download the application form.

This one-day event will feature presentations by league and network executives designed to help you understand how each of them are approaching the challenge of asset management from ingest to archive. SVG sponsors will also be taking part as they discuss the latest technology developments related to this important and growing field.

Stay tuned for more details on the venue and CLICK HERE to check out the full conference program!

Integrating within the company’s DigiLink video transport platform, both single-slot modules are the ideal solution for broadcasters, CATV operators, telco operators, and video service providers looking to aggregate Ethernet traffic across a single optical or electrical connection.

The versatile DLM205 and DLC205 feature innovative designs for aggregating up to nine channels of 10/100/1000 Ethernet traffic for transport across electrical or optical networks. Nonblocking, and supporting a total capacity of 18 gigabits of Ethernet traffic, the modules combine three electrical and two multipurpose SFP cages with four internal ports supporting traffic from other modules in a chassis, plus chassis management into a single Ethernet connection. The DLM205 features integrated DL-Manager HTTP and SNMP capabilities to enable DL4000 chassis in-band management.

“More users are looking for a solution for transporting a combination of contribution quality video and Ethernet data across a single optical link,” said Richard Dellacanonica, president of Artel Video Systems. “The DLM205 and DLC205 are designed to maximize efficiencies and cost savings for broadcasters, video service providers, and other users by aggregating up to nine channels of Ethernet data and video-over-IP traffic, including chassis management, for transport across a single optical or electrical link.”

The latest additions to the DigiLink Video Transport Platform, the DLM205 and DLC205 Ethernet aggregators continue Artel Video Systems mission to simplify broadcast-quality video transport by providing the most reliable, cost-effective, and fully integrated solutions.

In January 2012, the Giants installed an Avid ISIS online shared storage system and Avid Interplay PAM system to begin their transition to a digital workflow. The SGL FlashNet archive followed in January this year allowing the Giants to begin the process of digitising their huge catalogue of material dating back to the 60s and 70s. This material, which is currently stored on various tapes such QIC and Beta, has significant historical value for the club and for future generations.

The Giants are also constantly creating a large amount of new material for the scoreboard, the website, TV and advertising. This continuing acquisition of content means that the ISIS operators need to run the system as efficiently as possible, pushing old material off as new material comes in.

“The ISIS is always running at about 60/70 per cent capacity,” says Paul Hodges, Executive Producer, San Francisco Giants. ”We have to make the decision as to which material stays online and which gets sent to the archive. Some of the very old material from the 70s is kept on the ISIS because when a player from that period comes to see a game we like to show footage on the scoreboard to welcome them. It’s quite hard for us to pull those clips quickly so we have to keep that type of material online. On the flip side all the material from 2009 – 2011 is being archived because we’re unlikely to need to use that for a while.”

He adds, “We’re really happy with the system. The workflow between SGL FlashNet and Interplay is seamless; it’s been a great investment and installation and training was very quick and easy. We made a huge investment in Avid with Interplay and ISIS and required an archive that fully integrated with that workflow. We looked at a couple of other systems but nothing was as seamless as SGL. Cutting Edge did a great job, they were really behind SGL and they’re fully trained on the entire workflow so it was a no brainer.”

Doug Wynn, SGL’s VP Sales Americas concludes, “This installation is an excellent reference for other sports production facilities. The material held by these teams has huge historical value that needs to be preserved for future generations. Using a digital workflow, facilities can digitise their material and also find new ways of working that enable them to run with greater efficiency and save money.”

During the 2013-2014 academic year, the MWC will grow to 12 constituents, with Utah State and San Jose State joining the Air Force Academy, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawai‘i (football only), Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV and Wyoming. Having made the decision to contemporize its athletics web site with a “flood” of internet and social media videos, the conference hired award-winning sports broadcaster Jesse Kurtz as Executive Producer of its newly-formed Digital Network, and outfitted him with an HPX600 for wide-ranging production assignments. Panasonic’s latest P2 HD camcorder, the 6.2 pound HPX600 features native 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra recording and its future-proof options include an upgrade to AVC-ULTRA recording.

Having spent more than 15 years as a reporter and sports anchor for local CBS affiliate KKTV, Kurtz is experienced in shooting and editing video, as well as anchoring and sideline reporting, all assets that come into play on his various assignments throughout the conference. Recent major events at which the HPX600 was utilized as the “A” camera include the MWC’s Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship, held in San Antonio, TX in February; and the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship, held in Las Vegas, NV in March. Live streams of every swimming/diving final could be seen on line at www.themwc.com, and all 16 basketball games were likewise streamed live.

After games, Kurtz would supervise editing and posting highlights packages for web consumption, both on You Tube and the conference web site, as well as post-game interviews with coaches and athletes. Beyond these marquee events, Kurtz routinely shoots interviews and games across the conference’s 18 sports, often working solo. Also, he provides 30- and 60-second highlight spots to local news stations. As the school year winds down, he has made plans to conduct interviews with conference alumni in the NBA and MLB, and at NFL training camps.

Having worked with P2 HD camcorders at KKTV, Kurtz was familiar with a solid-state work flow, and easily migrated to operating the HPX600. “The HPX600 is truly top-of-line, with tremendous picture quality, remarkable in its clarity when tracking sports action,” said Kurtz. “The four-channel digital audio is terrific: during the basketball tournament, I was able to record the natural sound of the crowds using the front ports, while capturing multiple radio calls on the third and fourth inputs.”

“The Gigabit Ethernet connection is crucial for our live streaming work,” he added. “I like the fact that the color viewfinder is switchable to black-and-white. The camcorder’s digital display is different from those of earlier P2 cameras, but once I mastered it I came to appreciate its user-friendliness and easy accessibility to the camera’s extensive functionality.”

Kurtz said he has outfitted the interchangeable-lens HPX600 with a Fujinon telephoto lens with doubler; he typically shoots 1080/29.97 (“good for TV”), and edits on Avid Media Composer 6.5.

At the heart of City Montreal’s new schedule will be the locally produced BT (Breakfast Television) morning news program, running from 6 to 9am every weekday. This will complement the nationwide line-up of BT, already produced in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, Saskatchewan and Edmonton. Rogers also plans to add a one hour sports news program to the schedule, with the emphasis on local sports.

“The demands of a three hour live TV news program are heavy,” said Frank Bruno, Rogers Broadcasting Vice President TV Engineering. “We already have Enterprise sQ systems in other Rogers locations across the country, so we know the Quantel workflow will deliver on time, every time, even under extreme pressure. QTube also plays a major part in our production workflow, enabling our journalists and editors to view and share media between all our stations. Choosing Quantel for City Montreal was therefore a pretty straightforward decision for us.”

The City Montreal system includes 200 hours of HD storage. File ingest is handled by two sQ Load applications, scheduled and video recordings with sQ Record, and playout is controlled with Quantel’s sQ Play. Journalists and producers can review and cut edit all stored media, including live ingests, via 20 sQ View desktop applications, fully integrated with the Autocue Newsroom Computer System and Ross Overdrive Automation. Craft editing is handled by three sQ Edit seats – also integrated with the NRCS. Four QTube Browsers connect journalists and editors with media in all the other Rogers stations countrywide.

“We’re delighted that Rogers has once again come to Quantel to meet its fast-turnaround news and sports production requirements,” said Quantel CEO, Ray Cross. “Our two companies have a very strong relationship, built on mutual trust and understanding. Rogers has been a key partner in helping us further develop Enterprise sQ and a pioneer in realising the huge connected workflow benefits that QTube unlocks.”

Episode Engine was selected for the Festival de Cannes official website to replace multiple technologies that had previously been used to encode and deliver videos to multiple destinations. This year’s Festival is going on through May 26 in Cannes, France.

“I chose Telestream Episode Engine because it allows us to input watch folders at the start of the chain, process several videos simultaneously, and save files both to remote FTP folders and locally,” said Anthony Verpoort, video project manager for the Festival de Cannes official website. “In addition, I was able to link up all five Mac Pro computers using Episode Engine’s clustering capability to maximize processing power.  That has made a huge difference!”

As the official website for the prestigious film festival, Verpoort and his team receive film trailers and clips that must be converted to the proper format and encoded into six different resolutions and bit rates for online viewing and press download. Additionally, videos from TV Festival, which covers photo calls, interviews, press conferences and all the red carpets events, must be processed and put online promptly. All TV Festival content is produced in both French and original-language versions and encoded into three different compression resolutions and bit-rates.

“Episode Engine is a perfect fit for organizations such as Cannes, which need to process loads of content and quickly get it out in multiple resolutions, bitrates and language versions,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of marketing at Telestream. “Episode combines broad format support, automated workflow capability, and the ability to distribute the encoding among clusters of machines for maximum speed and efficiency.”

With Episode, Verpoort can take a 40-minute press conference video and compress it in six formats and uploaded in less than 30 minutes. Episode Engine speeds the entire encoding workflow, allowing Verpoort and his team to quickly get videos online and keep their viewers up-to-the-minute on what is happening at the Festival.

On April 27, the sound system at Crew Stadium in Columbus caught fire just before a Major League Soccer match between the Crew and D.C. United.

According to Daktronics, its video display and scoreboard “were not the cause of the fire and did not catch fire.”

“The Columbus Fire Department Inspector’s report stated the fire started in the subwoofer cabinet of the audio system and was electrical in nature,” said Ryan Smith, Crew Stadium General Manager. “We were very pleased the video board was not damaged.

“The Daktronics team was very responsive and great to work with as we assessed the situation and were able to utilize the video board for our next home game the following weekend. We’d like to thank Daryl Mihal and his team for all their support.”

As one of the first ever video systems in professional soccer, the video display and scoreboard were installed in 1999. This equipment was in working condition the next day and in regular use at the next match played at Crew Stadium.

PacTV owns three UFM-30FRC units and has been using its up/down/cross converting capabilities for wide-ranging format conversions to transmit feeds around the world.

As PacTV constantly works with incoming feeds via satellite and their proprietary global fiber network, the UFM-30FRC’s built-in frame synchronizer is an important tool for the service provider.  This feature clears up any drops in incoming signals that have the potential to cause issues in signal conversion and distribution. Both the frame sync and ‘any format in/out’ functions of the UFM-30FRC minimize the need for additional processing gear and simplify PacTV’s conversions of various standards. Another feature of the UFM-30FRC that makes production simpler for PacTV operators is the Web graphical user interface (GUI), which affords them quick, easy setup and control from any of their three facilities.

“The UFM-30FRC offers motion compensation that rivals that of top-of-the-line converters while being very affordable,” said Jakob Nielsen, PacTV’s Projects Coordinator. “PacTV is a longtime user of FOR-A’s products. In addition to the UFM-30FRC, we also rely on other FOR-A solutions, such as their video switchers, playback systems and other frame rate converter units. We have always found their quality, delivery, and technical support to be exceptional.  The bottom line is that FOR-A enables us to better support our broadcast clients.”

PacTV has utilized FOR-A’s UFM-30FRC for numerous international sports broadcasts, including boxing, tennis, golf, wrestling, racecar driving, and martial arts events, as well as live news productions. The UFM-30FRC is part of FOR-A’s UFM Modular product series and can be installed into a FOR-A UFM universal frame.

When that will happen depends largely on advances in distribution, compression, and set-top–box technology in the coming years, but don’t be surprised if viewers are watching 4K sports from their couch in the very near future.

DIRECTV’s Henry Derovanessian: “[4K programming] is going to be mostly focused on sports, because that is where you get the differentiating factor.”

CE Manufacturers on Board
Much of the optimism regarding 4K distribution to the home is due to the fact that 4K sets are already being marketed and sold to consumers. Growing consumer interest will likely spur technology manufacturers to develop the necessary solutions to complete the end-to-end 4K ecosystem, which currently includes a variety of holes between capture and display.

“I think that, with 4K displays being sold to consumers right now, it is not hard to look ahead a few years and see the possibility, if not the likelihood, of getting 4K images to 4K displays to consumers’ homes,” said AGP Principal Adam Goldberg, who moderated the FutureSPORT session.

Further development of HDMI standards will also play a crucial role in delivering 4K to the home, although there is still plenty of work to be done in that sector as well.

“There has been a lot of work on HDMI; the existing standard is 1.4b,” says Quantum Data CTO Mark Stockfisch, a member of the HDMI Forum, which oversees development of the next HDMI standard. “The HDMI 1.4b [specification] does have a 4K capability, but it is limited to lower frequency and lower frame rates.”

Not Surprisingly, Sports Will Be Primary Driver
Regardless of when — or if — the 4K revolution takes place, one thing is sure: sports will be key in terms of content. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is expected to be a coming-out party of sorts for 4K, with Sony and FIFA producing three matches in 4K using a new Telegenic 4K mobile-production unit. Although the content will not be distributed to the public (as of now), the World Cup will serve as a valuable opportunity to test new 4K distribution technologies in addition to Sony’s production at Estadio Mineiro in Belo Horizonte.

“Major sporting events — the World Cup next year and Olympics 2016 — are going to be the drivers,” said Derovanessian. “Like it or not, the consumer [manufacturers] are going to take that opportunity to push 4K TVs. They are going to expect some programming. That is going to be a catalyst for the service providers, including us, to provide [4K programming]. And from our perspective, that [programming] is going to be mostly focused on sports, because that is where you get the differentiating factor. It’s pretty impressive to watch sports on the 84-in. screen at a bar or on your home entertainment center.”

HEVC/H.265 May Provide the Key
Many see HEVC/H.265 (High-Efficiency Video Coding), the next iteration of MPEG’s compression standard, as the key to distributing live 4K content to the home. With four times the amount of data being pushed into the same distribution pipes, the 4K signal must be compressed more efficiently if the format is to take off on the consumer level. Enter HEVC.

AGP’s Adam Goldberg (left) and Quantum Data’s Mark Stockfisch discuss development of the HDMI 1.4b specification.

The new compression standard, which has nearly been finalized as the next international compression standard by MPEG, requires 50% less bandwidth than the current MPEG-4/H.264 standard to deliver the same video quality. This will allow twice the data to be pushed through existing pipes, opening the door for widespread 4K delivery.

“From a bandwidth standpoint, for us and everyone who is looking at 4K, H.265/HEVC is mandatory; it is a must-have,” says Derovanessian. “For us, we are looking at a higher bitrate [for 4K]. For that higher bitrate, because there is so much information to be processed, advanced codecs are what we need to have.

“But even within H.265,” he continues, “you are looking at the different variable rates. What is good enough? The wow factor for 4K comes with a 64-in. or larger screen. It is not as impressive [on smaller screens], so, if you ratchet down the bitrate, it is more or less the same [visual quality].”

The company will be in booth #43 and will showcase its Premier PL 4K+ cine lenses and Cabrio cine/ENG-Style lens series.

The Premier PL 4K+ Series features the fastest T speeds available in a family of zooms, with unprecedented color matched 4K and beyond optical performance. The Premier PL lenses are available in 14.5-45mm T2.0, 18-85mm T2.0, 24-180mm T2.6, and 75-400 mm T2.8-T3.8. All four PL Mount zooms are similar in size and weight, and uniform gear placement and front barrel diameters (136mm). Focus, zoom, and iris gears are all in the same position—which speeds up lens changes, since follow focus accessories and lens motors can stay in the same position on the rods. Focus barrel rotation is a uniform 280 degrees on all four zooms.

Premier PL 4K lenses have been used by several acclaimed DPs for feature films including Oblivion and Iron Man 3.

In its Cabrio series, the PL 19-90 (model ZK4.7×19) and PL 85-300 (model ZK3.5×85) will be on hand at Cine Gear. These Cabrio lenses feature an exclusive detachable servo drive unit, making them ideal for use as standard PL lenses or as ENG-style lenses. The PL 19-90 and PL 85-300 FUJINON lenses offer exceptional optical performance with a 200-degree focus rotation, are equipped with flange focal distance adjustment, self-aligning servo drive, a macro function for extreme close-up focus, and coverage of a 31.5mm diagonal sensor. The digital servo on both lenses has 16-bit encoding, so operators can be assured that all lens data output is extremely accurate. Each lens can be controlled using cinema industry standard wireless controllers or with existing FUJINON wired and wireless units.

With a 19-90mm focal range and weight of only 2.7kg including servo motors, the compact PL-19-90 boasts the longest focal range available in a light weight zoom. The PL 85-300 Cabrio offers a longer lens that makes it ideal for shooting in demanding production environments, such as documentaries, wildlife and car commercials.

Cabrio lenses are being used in TV series and feature film production, including several 3D features currently in production.

“Cine Gear always provides a great opportunity to connect with our current and with potential customers,” said Thom Calabro, director, marketing and product development, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Optical Devices Division. “The expo continually draws an audience of key decision makers in entertainment production, and we look forward to showing off our popular products and latest technologies at this year’s show.”

Fujifilm on Cine Gear Panel
The Digital Cinema Society will hold a panel during Cine Gear on Friday at 2:15 p.m. in the Sherry Lansing Theater.

Among the topics to be addressed will be the challenges inherent in lens design with the need for increased coverage areas and resolution while camera pricing is decreasing. Chuck Lee, Technology Manager, will participate on behalf of the Optical Devices Division of FUJIFILM.

Representatives from Angenieux, Canon, Cooke, Leica, Schneider Optics, Service Vision, and Zeiss will also participate in this event.

Tritium is a full 3MLE modular production switcher with 48 x 32 multi-definition inputs and outputs, 6 real 3D DVE’s, 16 channels of internal media stores, 16 keyers, UltraChrome chroma keys, built in Dual Head MultiViewers, and external device controls.

With Vision Tritium, Ross’ customers can now own a Vision series modular 3MLE panel with a choice of 24 or 32 direct access crosspoint buttons. Vision’s unique AuxKeys, Color Correction and MultiDSK are included in Tritium’s extensive feature set and is fully compatible with standard Vision Octane options. Tritium also offers the ability to convert to a full Vision Octane 3G system as production needs change.

“This is a very exciting announcement,” stated Nigel Spratling, Switcher Business Development Manager, Ross Video.  “With Tritium there is no basic package – no options necessary, as the system is fully loaded with an amazingly powerful feature set that is unmatched. .When we introduced Carbonite we reset expectations for cost and performance of 1 and 2MLE systems, and I am convinced Tritium will do the same thing. All the power and modularity of Vision rolled into a truly cost effective new package.”

Tritium comes with all of the Ross protocols for full integration with XPression Graphics and BlackStorm Playout Servers. It also talks to Ross’ DashBoard Control System and can provide control of entire productions, as well as build task specific control interfaces via DashBoards’ unique PanelBuilder application. Tritium is also fully compatible with Ross’ industry leading OverDrive Automated Production Control system.

Available Tritium models include the Tritium V3M with a 24 button 3MLE panel, and Tritium V3 with a 32 button panel. Vision Tritium – The Budget Friendly Powerhouse, are available for immediate delivery.

“Our newsroom automation technology is the undisputed market leader in Europe and, more recently, also in Oceania, with growing adoption in other markets as well,” says John Kjellevold, managing director at Mosart Medialab. “David’s familiarity with the U.S. market and his connection with broadcasters across the country will be critical as we strengthen our focus on this area. A U.S.-based organization under David’s leadership will be valuable not only in fostering awareness of Mosart automation, but also in assuring the high quality, consistency, and availability of our sales and support services.”

Workman takes on leadership of the Mosart USA organization with three decades of industry experience, most recently as senior director of the Live Broadcast market segment at Grass Valley. He also has held senior technical and management positions at Abekas Video Systems and at Microsoft, where he worked on video technologies including the VC-1 codec used in Blu-ray Disc mastering.

“As the only newscast automation system built from the ground up to perform in a 24-hour automation environment, Mosart automation offers broadcasters the best solution for telling their stories,” adds Workman. “Whether for news, weather, sports news, or other recurring programs, Mosart automation dramatically reduces the cost of production, offering users an unparalleled ROI. I look forward to demonstrating this value for broadcasters across the United States.”

“Our partnership with Bittree goes back to the 1990s, and every truck in our fleet depends on Bittree patching systems,” says Butch Mueller, director of engineering, Crosscreek. “Since live sports production is our primary focus, there’s no room for error and equipment changes often have to be made on the fly. The Bittree patchbays are highly reliable and we have complete confidence that they will always perform as specified.”

Mueller adds that Bittree’s unique programmable patching means Crosscreek’s team can quickly change the normalling with a single jumper, “a highly valuable capability as we adapt our trucks for different types of productions over time.

The latest addition to the Crosscreek lineup, Voyager 11, is a complete rebuild of one of the company’s original SD trucks to equip it for full HD production. Voyager 11 features a Grass Valley Kalypso switcher, eight Sony HDC cameras, a Calrec Artemis Light audio console and PESA Jaguar routers. The audio production chain is tied together with 24 Bittree high-density TT Bantam patchbays with an E90 rear interface.

“One of our main objectives with Voyager 11 was to build an economical truck in the most cost-effective manner possible. Bittree helped us in this regard by giving us very competitive pricing,” adds Mueller. “Also, since space is always at a premium in a mobile production unit, Bittree has been able to provide a shallow chassis depth that allows us to maximize available space without sacrificing performance.”

…Tiger Woods’ victory at TPC Sawgrass drove big audiences for NBC and Golf Channel’s Players Championship coverage, May 9-12. NBC’s final round coverage of The Players Championship on Sunday garnering 7.6 million viewers (up 59% YOY), 5.0 rating, making it the most-watched final round at The Players in more than 20 years. NBC’s third round coverage on Saturday pulling in 3.7 million viewers (up 12%), 2.6 rating, which was the best since 2009.

Golf Channel’s first round coverage on Thursday posted the most-watched first round in the history of THE PLAYERS with 1.7 million viewers (+54% YOY). In addition, Golf Channel posted its most-viewed week ever for THE PLAYERS on record as more than 11.5 million unique viewers (up 23% YOY) tuned in to Golf Channel during the week…

…NESN earned a series-best 16.8 average household rating in the Boston DMA (26 Share) for the Bruins dramatic game 7 victory over the Maple Leafs on May 13. NESN’s game coverage during the Bruins Eastern Conference Semifinals series against the Maple Leafs averaged a 11.7 HH rating, which included two of the top five highest-rated Bruins games in NESN history. NESN’s highest-rated Bruins game ever was game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals (4/25/12), which received a 19.6 HH rating (31 Share) in the Boston DMA…

…Meanwhile, Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals between the Islanders and Penguins handed MSG+ with a 2.21 average household rating, making it the highest-rated Islanders game ever on the network. Through five games on MSG+, the series averaged a 1.51 household rating, which was the highest rating for an Islanders playoff series since 2001-02 vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs (1.78 HH). (Cynopsis Media)…

…The first NHL Conference Semifinal game between the Rangers and Bruins generated a new record for NBC Sports Network, with an average of 1.6 million viewers watching Thursday night’s game, making it the most-watched Conference Semifinal Game 1 in network history. Meanwhile, Game 2 between the Sharks and Kings averaged 805,000 viewers. The two-game series average is 704,000 viewers, up 2% over last year’s Conference Semifinal series through two games. (Cynopsis Media)…

…Game 1 of the Grizzlies/Spurs NBA Western Conference Finals drew a 3.9 overnight rating on ABC Sunday afternoon, down 41% from Celtics/Heat Game 1 on ESPN last year (6.6), and down 26% from Thunder/Mavericks Game 1 on ESPN in 2011 (5.3). Compared to Game 1 of last year’s Thunder/Spurs WCF on TNT, the 3.9 is also down 32% from a 5.7 overnight. Grizzlies/Spurs Game 1 ranks as the lowest rated conference final opener in the metered markets since 2007, when Cavaliers/Pistons drew a 3.5 on TNT and Jazz/Spurs drew a 3.8 on ABC. (SportsMediaWatch)…

Ready or not, the warm-up for next year’s World Cup — the Confederations Cup — begins in a month at six stadiums across Brazil. It will be the first major international football tournament in this vast South American country since the 1950 World Cup. Many will be watching to see if Brazil can handle this modest eight-team tournament, and then the full focus will turn to next year’s 32-team World Cup. Six new or renovated stadiums are in various states of readiness for the Confederations Cup. Six additional ones will be used for next year’s World Cup, and none is ready yet…

…After more than three decades spent playing in the suburbs, DePaul basketball is finally getting its own place in the city. On Thursday, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans for a new 10,000-seat arena that will serve as the home floor for DePaul men’s and women’s basketball. Construction on the facility is scheduled to begin in 2014, and the school is hoping to open in time for the 2016-17 season. The $173 million arena will be built across the street from McCormick Place — the largest convention center in North America — in the city’s Near South Side neighborhood. The school will pay rent at the building but will retain naming rights and permanent internal and external signage space…

…Sports Authority Field at Mile High — home to the NFL’s Denver Broncos — is planning to go after a future Super Bowl, and is upgrading its digital signage as part of the effort of improving the overall stadium experience. While stadium executives say the ongoing $30 million renovations aren’t tied directly to the city’s and the arena’s Super Bowl bid, having the most up-to-date fan experience possible certainly isn’t going to hurt. In addition to larger high-definition LED video boards and ribbon displays in the stadium bowl and digital signage screens in the stadium concourses, Sports Authority Field concessionaire Centerplate also is upgrading the stadium’s concession digital menu boards with the help of Ping HD…

…Miami and San Francisco are the finalists for the 50th Super Bowl, to be played in 2016. The loser will compete against Houston for the 51st. San Francisco and Houston are considered the favorites. But Miami — until a few weeks ago the favorite to land the 50th game — will loom over the vote, wondering if it is in danger of joining San Diego as a favored sun-drenched Super Bowl site handicapped by its stadium. South Florida, which has hosted 10 Super Bowls and remains one of the league’s preferred destinations, quickly emerged as the favorite. But that favorite’s status was largely contingent on improvements by the Dolphins to Sun Life Stadium, opened in 1987. Although the Dolphins said the stadium needed $350 million in improvements to make it competitive in the Super Bowl market, including a canopy to shield spectators from sun and rain, the team owner Stephen Ross has made it clear he is unwilling to pay the entire bill himself…

…A Boston development team wants to build a pair of towers in front of TD Garden that could reach 600 feet in height, creating a gateway for the arena with stores and restaurants, 500 residences, offices, and a 200-room hotel. The project, by Delaware North Cos. and Boston Properties, would dramatically reshape the area around the Garden and North Station. At 1.7 million square feet, it would be among the largest developments in the city, adding shopping, dining, and living options to an iconic sports property. The developers submitted an outline to the Boston Redevelopment Authority Thursday. They must undergo a monthslong review process but indicated they hope to start construction early­ next year.

At this year’s NAB Show, Calrec showcased its Hydra2’s ability to interact with third-party control and production automation equipment. To give broadcasters a sense of Hydra2’s potential as a networking solution, Calrec exhibited its equipment in a scenario akin to how it would be used in an actual production environment. In addition, the company showed  Artemis Light, the newest member of its Artemis family of Bluefin2/Hydra2 audio consoles.

To learn more about Calrec’s product offering, visit the company’s website at www.calrec.com.

Earlier this year, Chyron signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Hego Group. With the acquisition, Chyron, which already claims more than 90% of the graphics market in North American mobile-production trucks, adds a number of key data-visualization elements to its product portfolio, including Hego’s AKI Paint telestration, Virtual Placement, and other image/player tracking applications.

Visit Chryon’s website at www.chyron.com.

At last week’s FutureSPORT Summit in New York City, leading manufacturers of 4K production tools discussed their products and more that are paving the way for the production format.

From left: FOR-A’s Jay Shinn, Canon USA’s Larry Thorpe, Sony’s Hugo Gaggioni, Evertz’s Vince Silvestri, and FUJIFILM’s Thom Calabro

“A lot of media customers are interested in this technology,” said Jay Shinn, Northeast account manager, FOR-A. “[At NAB], they already had some knowledge of what 4K could bring to the table so they were happy to see other products emerging in 4K besides just the camera, from us as well as from other manufacturers. It was quite encouraging to see continued interest.”

However, with interest comes a barrage of questions, and inevitable comparisons to the transition to HD.

Larry Thorpe, senior fellow, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Professional Engineering & Solutions Division, Canon USA, noted the difference between the introduction of 4K and the launch of HD: this time, consumer products and production tools are appearing at the same time. “The products are rolling out almost simultaneously, and that did not happen with HD. There was a 10-year gap between early HD production equipment and [when] the consumer-electronics industry joined in, and that made the transition to HD long and painful.”

Of course, he continued, the transition to 4K may still be painful (and not everyone has the room or the resources for an 80-in. display), but the sheer number of products shown at NAB 2013 was encouraging.

Also encouraging is the accessibility of 4K. Although complete 4K workflows are still a way off, broadcasters are finding ways to integrate 4K technologies into HD productions.

“I think the eye-opener is when you say you can use 4K now in an HD production and augment and enhance that HD production,” said Vince Silvestri, VP of software systems, Evertz. “We showed some of the things we’re able to do with [Dreamcatcher slow-motion replay technology]: zooming, panning, scanning stuff and fit it right into your production and tell the story.”

As the major networks have demonstrated, 4K technologies can be integrated into HD workflows and will continue to be a key production tool for sports events.

“[There are] three major sporting events in the coming years: the Confederation Cup this coming June, the World Cup next July, and the Olympic Games [next winter]. All these events will be pushing 4K very aggressively,” said Hugo Gaggioni, chief technology officer, Sony Broadcast & Professional Solutions Division. “We have been developing equipment to support fully a complete production in 4K.”

When it comes to producing full end-to-end 4K workflows, however, the rules of HD may no longer apply. Producers and directors need the opportunity to experiment with 4K technologies now to see which HD techniques work and which need to be adapted. Through experimentation, creatives can also provide feedback to manufacturers for future technology iterations.

“[What you need] to do a game — whatever the game is — all in 4K with today’s restrictions is a new choreography,” said Thorpe. “My personal belief is, if you’re going to have 4K [and] have the large screens, why not open up the angle of the lens? Why do we need to zoom as much as we do today? Perhaps we don’t need to switch as fast as we do between 20 cameras; maybe we switch between seven or eight cameras.”

At several times during the FutureSPORT Summit, experimenting with 4K was likened to a science experiment. Manufacturers have long focused on their specific cogs in the 4K workflow, requiring end users to take a mix-and-match approach to integrating the format.

“All the ingredients aren’t quite there, so it is a bit of a science project — from lenses to fiber to routers to the infrastructure — to make this thing hum,” said Shinn. “I see a lot of … scientists trying to make all the pieces work together like they used to [with HD]. But it’s coming together. Within the next 12 months, I think that process will be much more commercial than it is today.”

If 4K workflows are to go mainstream, they need to be streamlined. Beautiful images aren’t enough; production teams need both speed and ease of use to tell their story.

“Speed is the most important thing,” said Silvestri. “If they’re struggling to tell the story, if the guys can’t create fast enough, then it adds a lot of friction.”

The future of 4K may be up for debate, but the panelists vehemently agreed on one thing: 4K will not face the same problems that hindered 3D.

“3D was quite unique in its shooting, in how it was seen or not seen in the home. It was always a problem because, until quite recently, you’d need active glasses. You also had a host of problems, [including] angle of view,” said Thom Calabro, director, marketing and product development, Optical Devices Division, FUJIFILM. “No, I don’t think we’re going to see the same issues with 4K as we did with 3D. I think [4K] will come; it’s certainly in Hollywood, for sure. They’ve embraced it, and I don’t think there’s any looking back.”

The big takeaway of the day is that those looking to produce a sports event in Ultra HD and have it delivered to viewers have a solid 12-18 months before they really need to worry about being left behind by an Ultra HD movement that sweeps the industry. There is currently no way to deliver Ultra HD signals at 60 or 120 frames per second (fps) to 4K-capable consumer sets.

First, there needs to be the ability to connect an Ultra HD set to an Ultra HD source. Last year, the HDMI 2.0 specification was supposed to be available, making it possible to pass Ultra HD signals at 60 fps to a 4K set at 18 Gbps. But that release has been delayed and is now expected to take place toward the end of this year.

And then there is the bigger challenge of getting 4K- and Ultra HD-capable set-top boxes into the marketplace so that cable and satellite operators can deliver 4K signals to consumers. There are no boxes currently available, and it will take a while for those boxes to hit the market (again, think 2014).

Even when they are available, they will be in a similar position to HD boxes in the early part of the past decade. Many cable operators had made the leap from analog set-top boxes to digital set-top boxes, which, when HD arrived, had still not been fully amortized. As a result, HD set-top boxes were deployed much more slowly and required an additional surcharge for the set-top box (not to mention a $10 a month upcharge for the HD tier). There is little doubt that Ultra HD set-top boxes, at least for cable and satellite operators, will undergo similar growing pains.

The wildcard, however, is the role that over-the-top boxes can play. Companies that manufacture those devices will provide a competitive pressure on cable and satellite operators so that, if online networks like Netflix, Amazon, or Apple, begin delivering a flavor of 4K or Ultra HD (most likely something along the lines of 24p), there will be a greater need to meet consumer expectations.

The Upside of Delay
Delay in the delivery mechanism of Ultra HD and 4K to homes, however, is good news for the live-sports industry because it allows the production side to catch up.

Ultra HD acquisition, for example, is very different from HD and SD acquisition. The use of full-frame camera sensors greatly limits the focus range, requiring much more production planning and a new skill set for camera operators, who, for decades, have put most of their energy into properly framing a shot. With full-frame acquisition, they will need to consider focus and change it dynamically while covering the action.

Delay also opens up the potential development of 4K acquisition using ⅔-in. sensors. That move would have some negative impact on the richness of the Ultra HD image, but it would make Ultra HD acquisition more akin to HD. It would also allow ⅔-in. lenses to be used, cutting the expense required to gear up for Ultra HD production.

And a number of other product areas will be refined during the ramp up to Ultra HD. Lenses, storage and networking technologies, graphics equipment, replay devices, and production switchers are all at the beginning of 4K- and Ultra HD-compatibility. So another 12-18 months of product development (think NAB 2014 for full 4K product lines, NAB 2015 for more-affordable 4K product lines) will allow for a maturity in equipment that could make the move to 4K seem more evolution than revolution.

Can Patience Prevail?
The challenge between now and the day Ultra HD becomes a reality in living rooms is to make sure that realistic expectations are the norm, not only for those within the industry but for the consumer-electronics industry and the consumer press. The rush to judgment on 3D and the very public growing pains of the 3D movement did nothing to help the format. Hopefully, there are a few things the industry can do between now and then to put some true momentum behind Ultra HD and 4K.

First, content distributors need to begin publicly discussing timelines for 4K content creation and distribution as soon as possible. An attempt to set a collective target that puts the broadcasting, cable, and satellite industries in the driver’s seat rather than reacting to every new-product offering from the consumer-electronics industry would do wonders for all. It would give the Ultra HD transition a sense of momentum, allow salespeople in big-box retail stores to have actual talking points, and limit the number of stories next CES that will call Ultra HD a failure.

And speaking of the consumer-electronics industry, it does need to do a better job of marketing Ultra HD than it did with 3D. The 3D movement was hamstrung by exclusive sponsorship deals that may have sounded great on paper (and in bank accounts) but ultimately did no one any favors. Having Ultra HD-set manufacturers create a program to push Ultra HD collectively would help prevent consumer confusion (8K will no doubt do its share of confusing everyone by 2015, if not sooner) and avoid fights like 720p vs. 1080i, LCD vs. plasma, SACD vs. DVD-Audio, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, and passive vs. active glasses, which did nothing but discourage consumers from buying products.

What role will SVG and SVG Europe play in this process? As with HD and 3D, we will provide plenty of opportunities to discuss the technologies, learn about new workflows, and provide the type of market intelligence that will help you better understand the role Ultra HD could play in your organization.

Based on ATEME’s FPGA design, the Kyrion CM5000 is fully upgradable, allowing broadcasters, satellite uplinks, service operators, and DSNG professionals to benefit from state-of-art video-compression technology.

The STAR Awards are designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the media industry. A judging panel of broadcast industry experts reviewed a variety of products and services, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then submitted their award nominees.

SMPTE fellow Mark Schubin kicked off the discussion with a quick overview of the importance of higher contrast ratios, illustrated with a slide featuring the same black-and-white–striped pattern but only a 3% difference in contrast. The result? The one with less contrast appeared to have less detail, demonstrating the simple relationship between higher contrast and higher perceived resolution.

Larry Thorpe, senior fellow, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Professional Engineering & Solutions Division, Canon USA, agreed on the importance of contrast, noting that lenses that have higher contrast ratios can allow more sharpness and detail.

“HD image quality still needs a lot of help, and the frontend is ever so important,” he said of the need for quality cameras and lenses.

As a signal passes through production and distribution, he pointed out, the high-quality parts of the signal are degraded with each successive step in compression. But artifacts and distortions do not get smaller and, thus, become more pronounced and noticeable by the time the signal gets to the home viewer.

“You have got to get the best-quality signal going into the system,” he added. “A cheap lens on a good camera compromises a lot of things, and a really good lens on a cheap camera is a compromise. The only way to not compromise is to get a good lens and a good camera.”

The Importance of Light
With field lenses having as many as 36 lens elements, Thorpe noted, there is the potential for hundreds of millions of variables in performance. And then there is the use of up to 20 glass materials.

“You can have the best glass and optical coatings, but, if they are not precisely aligned, things will move and chew away at optical performance in [excessively cold or hot] temperatures,” he explained. “For example, a piece of glass will let in 100% of the light but will have 4% of refraction, so you lose 8% of the light. When you have eight elements working in tandem, you lose 52% of the light.”

Lighting designer Alan Adelman discussed the importance of having a good lighting director involved with studio and other operations and also focused on two key decisions for any project: what will the exposure be and what is the desired color temperature.

“Those are basic decisions, but they affect all of the colors on the set. If you balance for tungsten lighting or for daylight, all of the colors will be different,” he said, “and, in different situations, you may want a different look.”

Those looks, ideally, are part of a conversation between the lighting director, the director of photography, and the director of the production. “They need to meet on a regular basis because how you light impacts the style of the shoot,” Adelman added.

Another consideration for lighting is the massive numbers of LED screens that are now part of nearly every set. Consideration has to be given to ensure that the displays look great without affecting how the hosts look.

“And you have to be more careful about how everything in the frame looks,” he explained, “because cameras are more sensitive and viewers can see more detail in dark areas.”

Adelman also advised that, if possible, material that will be edited later should be recorded in RAW format.

“Recording in RAW opens up new possibilities of what can be done in post,” he said, “and we are seeing a lot of movies, for example, doing color balance and effects in post. It is an enormous change for what is possible when shooting HD video.”

One word of caution: be careful when using LED lighting since LED lights can cause flicker in the video because not all lights are manufactured to the same standard. He recommends making sure there is no flicker in the image before making any multimillion-dollar lighting commitments.

Steve Mahrer, senior technology alliance manager, Panasonic Systems Communications Co. of North America, laid out Panasonic’s vision of an HD-acquisition environment where customers have ultimate flexibility and can use the resolution that best suits the need. But the challenge in all that choice is that the eventual need for transcoding and crossconversion leads to compromised image quality.

“Crossconversion is not a good idea, so a neutral format, like 1080p/60, which is quite possible and feasible today, can allow for easy conversion to 1080i and lossless and full-resolution 720p,” he explained. “It’s a win-win as you can originate beautiful 1080i or 720p images.”

He cited the new AVC Ultra format as offering Class 200 recording for visually lossless acquisition suitable for master-quality–content needs. His company’s Varicam 3, he suggested, can be an important workhorse for sports production, offering wide dynamic range and powerful color management.

NEP’s Trio Video, Corplex, and Screenworks are on site along with producers Blink TV/UK supplying trucks, crews and technical support/design to the MTV family of networks for the live coverage.

This year’s headliners include Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Stevie Wonder, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar. The hub will feature dedicated hosts Vinny Guadagnino, Dillon Francis, Chrissy Teigen, Katherine Webb and iJustine interviewing artists and fans throughout the festival.

Hangout coverage will continue through early next week, with segments on MTV’s “AMTV” and EDM show “Clubland.”

The four-year-old Hangout Music Fest debuted May 14, 2010, and featured performances from Trey Anastasio, The Zac Brown Band, John Legend, the Roots and others.  The third Hangout in 2012 completely sold out its 35,000 capacity, with this year’s also a sell-out as of earlier this week.

Turner Sports’ Tom Sahara (left) with CBS Sports’ Ken Aagaard. The two paired on a 4K test at this year’s Final Four in Atlanta.

In the opening discussion of the day-long event at the New York Hilton, network representatives discussed some of the successful and practical applications of 4K and lessons that have been learned in early testing on some major broadcasts.

“I think we [as an industry] are on to something,” said Ken Aagaard, EVP of Engineering, Operations, and Production Services at CBS Sports, who used 4K throughout last NFL season and during the Super Bowl in New Orleans. “For me, it’s not about using technology for technology’s sake; you want it to tell a story. I think this 4K technology in this specific application that we’re all trying to use is very effective.”

4K has found its most valuable production application as a replay tool in an HD show. During the NFL season, CBS, Aagaard, and VP of Engineering Bruce Goldfeder used FOR-A FT-ONE camera systems (60 frames per second), an Evertz Dreamcatcher replay system, and integration help from NEP Broadcasting to run tests during the regular season. They then used six Dreamcatchers and six FOR-A cameras at the Super Bowl.

Fox Sports’ Jerry Steinberg noted that from four to six 4K cameras would be used during next year’s Super Bowl broadcast.

Although they did not get as many opportunities to showcase the technology as they would have liked, Aagaard did recall a controversial play in an Indianapolis Colts game where 4K replay revealed that quarterback Andrew Luck’s knee was down before he threw an interception. The call on the field was overturned.

“When you get into these new technologies that are immature, you’re taking some risk,” he said, “but it was calculated, and I feel really good about the experience. I think that we are going to continue.”

Fox Sports has also been a pioneer in 4K replay technology, beginning as early as two years ago when it started using a Vision Research 2K camera on NFL games. This past football season, the production team made the jump to 4K with a Sony F65 used on every NFL A game each week.

“There’s Sundays where it just doesn’t make air because the story isn’t there. Then there’s Sundays when it makes air a lot,” said Jerry Steinberg, SVP, field operations, Fox Sports, who noted that the network could use as many as four to six 4K cameras on its coverage of next year’s Super Bowl. “To me, it’s a specialty device. Today, it’s about bringing clarity and resolution to replays.”

MLB Network’s Mark Haden outlined his network’s usage of 4K during the World Baseball Classic.

Some of the hesitancy that existed around 4K at last month’s NAB Show stemmed from the fear of whether 4K might be another 3D, which has turned out to be pretty much a gimmick in many people’s eyes.

“4K doesn’t feel like 3D. 3D had this big promise and very little to deliver, whereas, in 4K, we are seeing the benefit to the production using it right now,” said Turner Sports VP of Operations & Technology Tom Sahara, who headed up a successful 4K production at this year’s Final Four. “So is there traction? I think there is. Will 4K replace HD? Probably not in my lifetime, just because there is so much inertia in the existing distribution systems that we can barely do HD, much less anything better than HD. So we have to work on that first.”

MLB Network showed off some clips from this year’s World Baseball Classic, where the production team was able to use 4K technology on replays throughout the tournament. VP, Engineering and IT, Mark Haden outlined how the network used two Canon C500 cameras (one topped off with a regular photographic lens, the other with a cinema lens) tied to a Dreamcatcher system.

H.264 (AVC) encoding enhancements in Stream 3.8 include increased quality, significant performance gains — as much as 25% faster depending on host system and content characteristics — and support for 4K Ultra HD encoding. Featuring quadruple the number of pixels per frame (3840×2160) as 1080p HD, 4K Ultra HD enables superior viewing experiences with corresponding displays. Version 3.8 also features increased quality and performance for MPEG-2 encoding, plus improved DVCPro output quality.

Stream 3.8 extends the Stream software’s support for automated, live advertising and monetization workflows with new support for the latest updated SCTE-104 specification and the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol. Cueing messages in live input sources are detected to automate the insertion of markers into HLS outputs for triggering subsequent ad insertion or replacement.

The new project files for Netflix asset preparation enable the streaming service’s content suppliers to easily and consistently create high-quality deliverables meeting Netflix specifications.

Additional new features in version 3.8  include enhanced MXF compatibility including support for uncompressed YUV video; improved MOV file format handling; expanded support for up to 64 audio tracks in Transport Streams; live 5.1-to-stereo and stereo-to-mono audio down-mixing; enhancements to the optional HLS (e.g. iPhone and iPad) encoding and segmenting module; and a variety of minor additions and refinements.

“We’re excited that the advances in Stream 3.8 are now available to our customers,” said Darren Gallipeau, Product Manager at Digital Rapids. “The encoding performance and quality gains in the new version will bring immediate benefits for most media transformation applications, and with a broad range of specific yet powerful new features and enhancements, users from post production facilities and studios to multiscreen content distributors will each find operational improvements for their particular needs.”

Digital Rapids Stream encoding solutions deliver high-quality, multi-format video capture, encoding, transcoding and streaming in versatile configurations that integrate easily into any professional environment. Offering the industry’s deepest feature set, they provide superior quality, flexibility, format support and efficient automation for transforming media for applications from post production and archive to live and on-demand multi-screen distribution.

A special three-hour All-Star edition of NASCAR RaceDay Fueled by Sunoco begins at 4:00 PM ET with hosts John Roberts, Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds leading into live coverage of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. NASCAR Race Hub hosts Steve Byrnes and Danielle Trotta handles driver introductions.

Mike Joy, NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and McReynolds call the action once live racing begins with the Sprint Showdown, the final opportunity for drivers to race their way into the main event. SPEED’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on-air team also includes Chris Myers from the famed Hollywood Hotel, Jeff Hammond, Krista Voda, Byrnes and Matt Yocum. In addition, Hall of Fame broadcaster Keith Jackson narrates a pre-race All-Star retrospective. Jackson called NASCAR’s first three All-Star events, including Dale Earnhardt’s famous “Pass in the Grass” win in The Winston in 1987.

“We are seeing more and more of the market moving to a video-centric platform, and ThunderCloud Recruit enables coaching staff to manage their time scouting players more efficiently and effectively,” McCleary said. “With the variety of packages available, Recruit is an affordable and practical solution for all FBS and FCS teams.”

XOS ThunderCloud Recruit is a comprehensive digital recruiting and scouting platform with an extensive online video library of full games, highlights and detailed player profiles. Recruit is NCAA compliant and the only program in the market that works seamlessly with XOS Thunder, the most widely used suite of video-editing software in the Football Bowl Subdivision. More than 8,000 of the nation’s top recruits are added each year, and the database currently has detailed analyses and video footage of more than 37,000 players.

ThunderCloud Recruit is part of the XOS ThunderCloud Suite, a cloud-based platform XOS Digital officially launched in early 2013. This digital media management platform integrates data and video on a single platform to manage, distribute and analyze content for game preparation.

Many programs have been using ThunderCloud Recruit since its inception including USC, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Stanford, UCLA and Clemson. With the ability to customize packages, schools of all levels and budgets can identify the ideal recruit for their team. Since the 2012-2013 college football season ended, XOS has welcomed a significant number of new Recruit users including South Carolina, Appalachian State, Maryland, Duke, Old Dominion, The Citadel, Campbell, Youngstown State, and Coastal Carolina, among others.

“Clemson chose XOS Digital’s ThunderCloud Recruit because it offers a first-class platform and does an excellent job of obtaining video on top prospects in each regional territory,” Jeff Scott, Clemson Recruiting Coordinator, said. “We have found their service to be very helpful in our evaluation process.”

ThunderCloud Recruit includes specialized recruiting features such as The XOS Rodgers Report, produced by Texas football veteran Randy Rodgers, and XOS Insider Sophomore Report, focusing on in- depth evaluations of the nation’s up-and-coming recruits. ThunderCloud Recruit reports also integrate directly into all data management systems including JumpForward, Recruiting Radar and ACS Athletics.

XOS Digital will display ThunderCloud Recruit, along with the rest of the ThunderCloud Suite, at Booth 20 at the 2013 Collegiate Sports Video Association Conference. The conference is located at the Grand Hyatt-Tampa in Tampa, FL, this week.

Root Sports Rocky Mountain will annually produce and televise approximately 10 football games featuring Mountain West teams, and a minimum of 25 MW intra-conference and non-conference men’s basketball games, beginning with the 2013-2014 season. All events will be produced and distributed in high definition.

“We are pleased to partner with the Mountain West Conference to bring these games to fans throughout the region,” said Patrick Crumb, President of DIRECTV Sports Networks. “The Mountain West offers competitive, compelling match-ups, and we look forward to providing a platform to showcase the conference and its teams.”

“Our entire Root Sports Rocky Mountain team is excited to be the regional home of the Mountain West Conference,” said David Woodman, General Manager of Root Sports Rocky Mountain. “With many member institutions located within our network’s footprint, these games will be a great addition to our collegiate sports programming for years to come.”

“This unique partnership will provide enhanced coverage and promotion for the entire MW membership,” said Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson.  “Root Sports Rocky Mountain is an important component in an innovative, multi-platform exposure plan for the future of the league.”

“We are thrilled to have Kirk join our TSE family,” TSE’s President Bob Masewicz said, “His vase experience will greatly contribute to our consulting services division along with his operator experience which will enable Kirk to empathize with our clients insuring the best solutions are explored.”

Goodman began his career as an intern with the Boise (ID) Hawks, Los Angeles (CA) Dodgers, and Batavia (NY) Clippers before landing his first full-time job with the Jacksonville (FL) Suns.

After being promoted to Assistant General Manager of the Suns at the ripe age of 23, Goodman moved to Portland, OR, in 2000 to be a part of the return of Triple-A Baseball and professional soccer to the Rose City, along with re-opening PGE Park after a $38.5 Million renovation.  He returned to Jacksonville in 2002 in advance of the opening of the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in April, 2003 and served as Assistant General Manager for three years before a promotion to General Manager prior to the 2006 season. In 2007, Goodman moved to Davenport, IA to assume the helm of the Quad Cities River Bandits under a new ownership group.  In four seasons as the Vice President/General Manager of the River Bandits, the team saw unprecedented growth in both revenue and attendance, a complete rebranding of the team’s image and its game day presentation, completed over $8 Million in stadium renovations and hosted the 2011 Midwest League All-Star Game to rave reviews.

“I am very honored and extremely happy to be joining the TSE family,” Goodman said, expressing his excitement, “As a former TSE client during my minor league baseball days, I have always had a great respect and trust in this company and am thrilled to have an opportunity to be a part of the continued growth.”

“I am thrilled to announce that Mark and George have joined the executive team where they will be instrumental in leading our sales organizations to drive worldwide business growth,” said Dan Castles, CEO at Telestream. “Their proven sales leadership skills combined with a deep understanding of our products, applications and markets will help us move into the next phase in our company’s history of aggressive growth.”

Wronski is responsible for managing Telestream’s enterprise direct sales team and distribution network across North and South America. He brings over 30 years of leadership experience in both sales and corporate management to the Telestream team.

“File based workflow requirements for digital media have evolved from their simple watch folder roots to highly automated, decision based processes needed to save users both time and labor expenses,” said Wronski. “Telestream leads the industry in offering these expanded capabilities to the market, and I am excited to be working with our clients in the Americas to deliver them.”

Boath expands his role in managing the company’s enterprise sales teams in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, to include the Asia-Pacific region. Following his start in the telecom industry, George has spent 27 years selling and marketing broadcast video technology products.

“I watched Telestream as a startup and always liked the energy, creativity and culture of the company which customers like and trust,” said Boath. “It has been enormously satisfying to develop the sales channels and help grow our business in Europe, and I look forward to doing the same in Asia.”

Additional Telestream sales management positions recently announced in all regions include:
. North America: Larry Gooman has joined the company as Western Regional Sales Manager, and Bob Barnshaw has joined the company as Northeast Regional Sales Manager.
. Europe, Africa, Middle East: Nick Kayworth has been promoted to the position of Sales Manager, Systems and Solutions, and Christian Martinsen has joined the company as Sales Manager for Northern Europe.
. Asia Pacific: Josh McMahon was promoted to Regional Manager for APAC, and Ferdinand Stoer has joined the company as Sales Manager for Japan, Korea and India.

Telestream holds a dominant position in the file-based video transcoding and workflow automation market. According to the October 2012 Multimedia Research Group, Inc. Report Growth in Video Streaming Good News for Multiformat Transcoders, the multiformat transcoder market is expected to grow from under US$200 million in 2011 to over US$500 million in 2016.

Other Broadcast Asia debuts will include new NVISION router options; Version 1.1 of the iTX Render Service for Adobe After EffectsCS6 software, new fiber connectivity options and a high-density streaming media encoder module, SME-1901, that is now part of Miranda’s Densité modular range.

Kaleido-MX and Kaleido-Modular-X
Credited with inventing the modern multiviewer, Kaleido-MX and Kaleido-Modular-X extend Miranda’s leadership with no-compromise video scaling quality that delivers true “any source, anywhere” processing that enables the operator to place any signal on any display at any size. Sources can repeat on up to four different displays without the need for an additional multiviewer. With configurations ranging from 8×1 up to 24×2 in 1 RU, and up to 48×4 in 3RU, Kaleido-MX is equally at home in large studios and outside broadcast trucks.

Kaleido-Modular-X is a modular version optimized for space, power and weight considerations. Each takes advantage of Miranda’s unique FlexBridge technology to reduce cabling requirements and remove the risks associated with HDMI extenders. FlexBridge is a coax cable interconnect that enables input and output modules to be connected within a frame or across multiple frames. For example, input modules can be installed in a frame adjacent to a router while output modules can be installed in a separate frame adjacent to the display. This enables input/output cards to used as building blocks to simplify system design. To further simplify connectivity between its routers and multiviewers, Miranda will also feature its new “M3” cable, a single, bundled router cable that replaces up to 16 coax cables from router to multiviewer.

NVISION 8500 Hybrid Router Series
New options for the NVISION 8500 Hybrid include a single, eight-input frame sync card, two powerful new control panels and a substantially upgraded router control system.

Traditional applications require eight processing cards to drive eight frame synchronizers. Now, Miranda has designed the NV8500 Frame Sync Input Card, a single input card that can take wild feeds or inter-facility signals of various video formats and sync them all to a house standard.

The NV8500 router also now features an optional DEM/EMB Output Card, a hybrid, 16-channel disembedding and embedding card that provides the ability to embed audio into any embedded audio channel – anywhere – while preserving the integrity of other embedded audio channels.

Miranda has also launched a significant upgrade to its NV9000 Router Control System which includes an all-new tieline management architecture that is more efficient and scalable that ever, even when using hundreds of tielines.

iTX Render Service
Miranda’s iTX Render Service automates and manages rendering of Adobe After Effectsprojects into fully finished graphics, ready for playout from an iTX integrated playout platform or Vertigo Suite graphics device. The service eliminates the need to use real-time character generators to play back graphics templates and enables graphics departments to produce stunning visuals and text effects with no limit on creativity, all within a familiar and popular authoring tool.

Telecast CopperHead
Miranda’s Telecast Fiber Solutions brand will highlight camera connectivity via lightweight fiber in its CopperHead camera-mountable transceivers. Requiring only two strands of fiber optic cable to carry all bi-directional signals, including video, audio, intercom and data, to an OB vehicle, the CopperHead series replaces a multitude of copper coax cables found in typical OB applications and provides enormous savings in weight, power, and resources.

SME-1901 Streaming Media Module
The SME-1901 streaming media encoder is designed for a wide range of IP-based monitoring applications, including use as an in-plant CATV replacement to provide IPTV access to multiple sources for anyone who requires access over in-house IPTV.

“I would submit to you fairly categorically that we expect the audience for the US Open to increase, not to decrease,” ESPN President John Skipper said during a conference call in reference to the tournament’s move from broadcast to cable. “With all the platforms that we have digitally … every match during the course of this agreement will be made available  on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPN3. Moving to ESPN allows an opportunity to reach more people across more platforms, and that’s what we believe will happen.”

The new deal, which is reportedly worth upwards of $770 million (according to SportsBusiness Journal) will push ESPN’s current 100 hours of live US Open matches to more than 130 hours in 2015, including the addition of three full days of coverage during Labor Day weekend and the men’s and women’s Semis and Finals. ESPN will also benefit from the new US Open scheduling format set to begin in 2015, in which the women’s and men’s semifinal matches will be televised in primetime on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The Finals then take place the following Saturday and Sunday, giving a day of rest for all players before the final.

A Very Different Truck Compound: ESPN To Take Over the World Feed
In addition, ESPN will begin producing the world-feed telecast for the USTA in 2015, a task that has historically belonged to CBS. ESPN and CBS have long worked hand-in-hand in the truck compound at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, often sharing facilities and coordinating their production operations. That will all come to an end in 2015.

“There will, of course, be some changes [in ESPN’s production plan],” said Skipper. “CBS has done a fantastic job at providing a world feed. We have benefited from that. We appreciate that. In 2015, ESPN will become the provider of the world feed.”

CBS failed to come to an agreement during its 60-day exclusive negotiating window, which ended at the end of April, according to USTA Executive Director/COO Gordon Smith. At that point, ESPN entered the equation and, with the new deal in place, will now take over as the head honcho of the sprawling Flushing truck compound in 2015.

Streaming Every Point From Every Court
The deal also includes the rights to live-stream every match from all 17 tournament courts on ESPN3 and simulcast the linear feed to the network’s WatchESPN TV Everywhere offering. In recent years, USOpen.org has streamed every match from the six TV courts (Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, the Grandstand, and Courts 11, 13, and 17), but ESPN is now guaranteeing that ESPN3 will carry every single point from all 17 courts.

“On the first day of our discussions, the USTA asked us about the possibility of providing coverage of all 17 courts,” said Skipper. “There right now is what I hope will soon become an anachronistic phrase: they have six television courts. We were happy to give our answer pretty quickly that our intention during the course of this tournament is to make every one of those matches available, and we’re excited by that.”

This will necessitate addition of the necessary video-production infrastructure and camera complements to the remaining 11 courts, but Skipper stopped short of offering a specific timetable on when that will become a reality at the Tennis Center.

According to Skipper, these feeds will also be streamed via an ESPN video player on USOpen.org, which has streamed every tournament match for the past two years.

Tennis Channel Out of the Mix?
One aspect that has yet to be fleshed out is the role of Tennis Channel, which has sublicensed a smaller US Open package from ESPN in recent years. Skipper would not confirm that Tennis Channel will remain in the mix in 2015.

I have not had a chance to talk to [Chairman/CEO] Ken Solomon at the Tennis Channel yet,” he said. “We have a many-year relationship and a history of looking at whether there’s mutual benefit for us to sublicense back and forth. We expect to have a conversation. I can’t really comment on what we might do because we haven’t had that conversation yet.”

The Rain-Delay Question
Inclement weather has pushed the Men’s Final from Sunday to Monday for five consecutive years. While ESPN has a bevy of platforms to offer, that Monday-night timeslot will be occupied by the opening week of network’s marquee property, Monday Night Football, likely pushing the Final to ESPN2.

While Skipper said that ESPN does not “have any concerns about rain delays or contingencies” and that “we and the USTA have a plan,” the potential move to ESPN2 would likely be a blow to the tournament’s exposure. And, barring the addition of a long-rumored roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, the move would be a distinct possibility when the deal commences in 2015.

“Certainly, we think the Final on ESPN would be fantastic,” said STA Chairman/President Dave Haggerty. “We also know that ESPN2 has great coverage as well. Given the choice, ESPN would be where we would want to be. They have many platforms, but again, that would be our hope.”

Thanks to digital audio, instead of a few dates of an entire tour being recorded for release as the occasional live album, fans are able to buy a recording of every show. The ability for fan to have a recording of a gig they were at is a powerful incentive to purchase, providing satisfaction for the fans and more income for the artist.

Swindon-based Live Band Audio’s new mobile studio is aiming to make this even more accessible, by making live recordings of both entertainment and corporate events available on USB wristband flash drives almost immediately after the gig.

After graduating from Australia’s prestigious SAE Institute in Byron Bay, Australia, Live Band Audio Director Adam Mardell has spent the past six years honing his craft as a mixing engineer. With a lifelong interest in live recording he believed that there was a market to sell live albums, which not only gave the fans the ‘Magic of the night’ but also provided the artist with an additional revenue stream. “By selling the music on USB bracelets we found we could make copies faster”.

Having decided to build a mobile facility that could achieve this, Mardell’s choice of mixing console was straightforward.

“I had used DiGiCo consoles before. I liked the preamps, the reliability and the fact that the audio quality makes them a good choice for this kind of work,” he says. “The SD8’s channel count was the right size – we’re currently running 48 channels, but it can run up to 60 channels locally – and the effects are really good. We also have the Waves SoundGrid, which gives us extra creativity and is industry standard. Being able to use both the DiGiCo and Waves effects is brilliant, we can bring in any particular sound that an artist wants.”

Feeds for the system come from an onstage house splitter or, when one isn’t available, the MaDiRack purchased with the SD8. MADI lines are run out to the mobile studio, where multitrack recordings are captured on two separate Pro Tools systems, for later mixing if required. Two stereo mixes for the ‘instant’ USB wristband recordings are output from four of the SD8’s outputs to a pair of Tascam SS-R200 digital recorders.

“One of the main reasons for providing this facility in a Transit-sized van is that we can work outside the venue,” says Mardell. “We speak to the production company in advance to organize how the multitrack split is going to happen, but we don’t want to be in the production team’s way at the venue. Once we’re hooked up, we just run in the background. They can get on with the job and forget about us.”

Advance meetings are also held with the artist, to confirm any branding required on the finished USB wristbands and any particular requests regarding the sound. At the venue, Mardell and the team will record the soundcheck, which they will then ask the artist to spend a few minutes listening back to for final approval.

“It is their art, so we make sure that the artist is 100% happy with everything before the show,” says Mardell. “The reaction has been very positive and the DiGiCo system has been really reliable.”

Once the show has finished, Mardell’s aim is to have around 300 recordings ready for purchase on USB wristbands within three-to-four minutes. Good news for the audience, but perhaps even better for the artist.

“The service doesn’t cost the artist anything and they can profit from the sales “the money we all make is distributed from the sale of the USB wristbands,” says Mardell. “A lot of bands are touring on exceptionally tight budgets, so any extra bit of money is everything to them. This service provides extra revenue for them and something different for the audience.”

Escenic Content Engine is part of the Vizrt Online Suite and will replace a number of homegrown online content management systems and become an integrated part of the CCI NewsGate-based editorial publishing platform at McClatchy.

Christian A. Hendricks, vice president, interactive media for McClatchy, said moving to the Escenic Content Engine will provide faster development cycles and enhanced publishing tools.  Another important factor in the decision to adopt the Escenic Content Engine, Hendricks said, is the seamless integration between Escenic Content Engine and NewsGate.

“The NewsGate-Escenic Content Engine combination will further accelerate our move away from linear-based publishing workflows to continuous and concurrent publishing workflows. This will be beneficial both to our readers and to our advertisers,” Hendricks said. Currently, a number of McClatchy titles, including The Charlotte Observer, The Miami Herald and The Kansas City Star, are using the common NewsGate publishing platform. The implementation of the combined NewsGate- Escenic Content Engine solution will extend NewsGate to McClatchy’s remaining papers and replace a number of different front-end systems and homegrown online systems.

The move to the NewsGate-Escenic Content Engine is expected to improve editorial workflow and enhance McClatchy’s mobile publishing. The objective is to publish McClatchy content to multiple digital channels as a story develops and not as an additional step after the publishing cycle is completed.

Moving to NewsGate-Escenic Content Engine is also part of a long-term strategy to react quickly to new technology and market changes.

“Ultimately, we believe that systems have to be flexible and advanced enough to enable us to meet both today’s requirements and those that are going to come down the road,” Hendricks said. “With the NewsGate-Escenic Content Engine solution, we will be able to more easily integrate any future editorial tools required to publish to new channels.”

In the combined solution, NewsGate is the core editorial system for creating and editing content and metadata, whereas Escenic Content Engine handles the digital publishing component.

Dan Korsgaard, CEO of CCI, said: “It is greatly satisfying that The McClatchy Company has chosen the NewsGate-Escenic platform as a vehicle to pursue important strategic objectives.  The Escenic Content Engine project at McClatchy is proof of the value of the strong partnership between Vizrt and CCI and the tight integration between our respective solutions, Escenic Content Engine and NewsGate, that has resulted from this partnership.”

Martin Burkhalter, CEO of Vizrt, said: “We regard CCI as an important strategic partner in the market for multichannel publishing solutions for the news industry. Our long-standing collaboration has allowed us to develop a flexible and efficient publishing platform that combines two best-of-breed systems, and we are confident that CCI’s implementation of Escenic Content Engine at McClatchy will be successful.”

The first rollout of the combined publishing solution is scheduled for October 2013 at The Kansas City Star.

“The Wohler professional audio and video monitoring product line offers an optimal solution for virtually every application and budget,” said Graciela Llamas, Central and South America regional sales manager at Wohler Technologies. “Our Telemundo product demonstrations will reflect the breadth and depth of our product offering, developed to meet the specific functional and cost requirements of broadcast customers, including leading media groups across Mexico.”

From its acclaimed audio-monitoring product range, Wohler will show its AMP2-E16V 16-channel audio monitor, which supports Dolby E, DD+, and D decoding and boasts a complete suite of tools for analyzing and managing audio quality, level, and loudness; metadata; and more. For applications requiring simple and compact low-cost solutions, Wohler will highlight its new user-friendly and budget-friendly 16-channel 3G/HD/SD-SDI monitor, the AMP1-16M.

Part of the HDM Series, Wohler’s 17-inch HDM-170 professional monitor allows broadcasters to monitor two video sources simultaneously and control each image independently. The state-of-the-art monitor will be shown configured as a dual split display, as a large screen with one smaller view, and as a single large display screen. The HDM-170 supports advanced 10-bit digital processing technology and features a 3D comb filter, deinterlacing, an accurate scaling engine, gamma correction, and color temperature adjustment. It also offers full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution with a wide (178-degree) viewing angle. With a flexible screen layout and rich processing capabilities, the HDM-170 and other HDM Series monitors are ideal for news and transmission control rooms, program production, channel branding, and other intensive monitoring environments.

Wohler’s RMQ Series quad-split video monitors — available in 23-inch, 20-inch, and 17-inch screen sizes — allow users to watch video and monitor data in up to four display windows on a single 1920 x 1080 LED backlit screen. Broadcasters can mix and match 3G/HD/SD-SDI, analog composite, and HDMI inputs in varying configurations tailored for different monitoring applications. The Wohler monitors can display video and monitoring features in four uniform areas, as a single full screen, or in one large and three smaller windows. The latter configuration is ideal for broadcasters using a PC workstation screen and A/V confidence-monitoring simultaneously. The 23-inch RMQ-230 monitor being featured at Telemundo will demonstrate the series’ waveform and vectorscope display, as well as its ability to provide audio de-embedding and metering of up to eight channels, along with UMD, timecode, and various markers.

The RM Series HD is a full-featured, low-cost range of in-rack HD/SD-SDI audio/video monitors ideal for the many feeds in mobile trucks, news and transmission control rooms, and duplication and postproduction applications. Standard features include in-monitor level metering, selectable video waveform and vectorscope, safe and title markers, labeling, tally, and familiar CRT-style picture controls. RM Series monitors cover the gamut of screen count and size. At Telemundo, Wohler will highlight the RM-2443W-HD, which features four 4.3-inch screens, and the RM-4290W-HD, which features dual 9-inch screens. All models feature speakers and/or headphone jacks for audio monitoring.

The Artist Level Meters application can monitor and control up to eight freely assignable audio inputs of an Artist Digital Matrix Intercom system. The app gives the intercom administrator a new way to manage the 4-wire input levels of a system without having to be in front of a computer running the Director configuration software. The Level Meters can be configured wireless directly on the iPad.

The Artist Input Monitor App is available in the iTunes store.

Kentucky Derby-winning Orb will be the centerpiece of NBC’s coverage of the 138th Preakness Stakes.

“The Preakness for us is a little bit, from a technical standpoint, less challenging than the Kentucky Derby in that the Stakes barn where all the Preakness horses are is literally about a pitching wedge or less away from our production trucks,” says Rob Hyland, coordinating producer, NBC Sports. “Unlike the 150-plus acres at Churchill Downs, it’s a little bit easier to navigate around the grounds of Pimlico.”

Camera Count Scaled Down
The smaller footprint at Pimlico means a lot less cabling and fewer cameras needed to cover the action; 35 in all as compared to the 48 cameras needed at Churchill Downs.

“That’s no slight to the Preakness,” says Hyland, a veteran of NBC horse racing coverage since 2001. ”It’s simply a much easier venue to showcase and shoot from a camera standpoint so we don’t really need as many cameras.”

The camera arsenal includes a pair of super high-speed cameras and four wireless RF cameras.

The truck compound is also consolidated some with NEP’s ND3 (A, B, C, and D units) back again as the compound for both NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network coverage. Not making the trip from the Derby is SS24 (A, B, and C) which was used in Louisville for NBC Sports Network’s pre-race coverage of the Derby.

Inside the truck, two sets of producer/director teams will split the coverage on NBC Sports Network and NBC. The coverage on NBC Sports Network is produced by Billy Matthews and directed by Patrick McManus. The two hours leading up to and including the race itself will be produced by Hyland and directed by Sunday Night Football and NBC Sports’ Triple Crown director, Drew Esocoff.

All Eyes on Orb
After a stunning victory earlier this month, the Triple Crown onus is now on Orb. Naturally, the Derby-winning horse is always the star of the Preakness broadcast.

In addition to a slew of pre-produced pieces on Orb and its jockey Joel Rosario, many production elements will be pointed at the horse. A robotic camera will be stationed on the starting gate and a POV LPS camera with no pan or tilt will be set up on the 1 post position to capture the loading of Orb.

Sports Media (SMT) and Sportvision will again work closesly with Hyland and race analysts Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey to use various graphics tracking technology to tell the story of the race. Both companies’ services can supply live horse tracking, top speeds, and distance traveled.

Digital Extras
NBC Sports’ new online streaming platform, NBC Sports Live Extra, will be fully utilized for the Preakness on Saturday. The majority of Preakness on-air coverage will be streamed to desktops, tablets, and mobile devices via the TV Everywhere authentication process. Extras include an online-only stream of the iso camera on Orb.

Live Extra will also offer exclusive analysis by NBC Sports commentators and a video simulation of the race to predict its outcome based on track conditions and past horse performances.

“The People’s Party” Gets Social
NBC Sports Group’s social media strategy offers a opportunities for viewers to interact with the broadcast on Saturday. In fact, a dedicated social media producer will be on site monitoring social media traffic and posting behind-the-scenes video, photos, and breaking news from Pimlico.

NBC is encouraging viewers to use the hashtag #PREAKNESS and will post reminders on screen throughout the broadcast, in addition to live tweets from celebrities, horse racing experts, and even fans. Viewers can follow @NBCSN and @NBCSports.

On Facebook, fans at home can pick the winner with the “Choose the Winning Horse” poll. Vote totals will be shown on air during the pre-race coverage.

Alliance Productions is behind productions in live sports, entertainment, corporate events, news events, religious broadcasting, and webcasting on local, regional, national, and worldwide telecasts. Members of Alliance Productions include Corplex, Crosscreek, CSP, IMS Productions, Jones Mobile TV, Mansion Mobile, Mira Mobile, MPS, NCP, SDTV, Token Creek, and YES Productions.

For more information, visit Alliance Productions at www.allianceproductions.com.

Alpha Video specializes in products, systems, and services for video and digital media content creation, management, and distribution. Alpha Video offers many types of communication products that can be combined to create a one-of-a-kind solution for any application.

Visit Alpha Video online at www.alphavideo.com for further details.

PACSAT provides mobile production services in the west, midwest, southwestern, and southeastern United States for major news, sports, entertainment, advertising, corporate and government clients. PACSAT’s Satellite Division provides fully redundant High Def C and Ku-Band digital satellite trucks located in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Houston and Orlando.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.pacsat.com.

PGA Digital Golf Academy will also launch as a part of the new YouTube subscription platform, making PGA.com’s instructional content one of the first sports YouTube subscription-based channels. The content will be available at youtube.com/PGAGOLFACADEMY.

PGA Digital Golf Academy will leverage an extensive library of existing golf instructional material produced by PGA Professionals and newly created exclusive content to provide users with a series of tips, tools and techniques for an in-depth, online learning experience. As a subscriber, for $4.99 a month or $34.99 for a full year, users can receive unlimited streaming of videos and classes available anytime, anywhere via broadband and mobile.  Highlights include:

 - Topic Playlists: A collection of 5-10 minute videos organized by topics such as putting, driving, fitness and trouble shots, for a complete selection of tips to help improve a golfer’s game.

 - Classes:  Divided into a series of chapters on swings, chipping, rules of the game, game management and more, the PGA Digital Golf Academy classes will help users build skills step by step.

 - One-on-One Lessons: Users can view complete 30-40 minute personal lessons shot on location with top PGA Instructors and their students.

 - Golf Instruction Series: Users have the option to watch 15-minute vignettes covering key instruction for a 12-16 week period or four to five-minute segments on particular topics including Get Golf Ready, Taking Your Game to the Next Level, Course Management and Getting Back into Golf.

The PGA Digital Golf Academy also offers golfers an opportunity to connect with a PGA Professional in their area for further one-on-one instruction.

“The ultimate way to learn the game of golf is by taking personal lessons from a PGA Professional who can tailor the instruction to the individual,” said Gary Treater, Turner Sports’ senior director of business operations for PGA.com. “The PGA Digital Golf Academy bridges the gap between content that is typically available in magazines, online and through personal lessons, to provide a robust digital learning experience.”

“The launch of the PGA Digital Golf Academy is yet another exciting opportunity for consumers to benefit from the expert instruction provided by PGA Professionals,” said Ted Bishop, President of The PGA of America. “The PGA is pleased to continue partnering with Turner Sports to present the premiere teaching skills of our Professionals through various platforms.”

There was discussion about the future of the second-screen experience (expect fans to demand more video, deeper stats, and more analysis), creating better HD (make sure your lighting is as great as it can be, improve those contrast levels, and never skimp on buying a quality camera/lens combo), and cloud-based workflows (invest in pipes capable of plenty of data, expect content creators at home to tap into all assets in the production truck, and design today’s trucks with IP in mind). But the main focus was the panel discussions on how 4K is impacting HD workflows today, what equipment providers are up to in terms of next-generation production gear, and how it will, eventually, become a consumer service alongside HD.

Little more than a month ago, the industry gathered in Las Vegas for the NAB trade show, and 4K was the big story for attendees pondering the future of broadcasting. Only three months earlier, CES heralded the launch of Ultra HD and all the consumer press hype that came with it. But the talk at NAB 2013 (and at CES, for that matter) raised plenty of questions: When will an end-to-end Ultra HD production workflow be available? What will it take to get Ultra HD into the home? And will Ultra HD become the next 3D?

Heading into FutureSPORT, it was clear that the event would be defined as a success only if it could shine a light on some of those questions and help attendees understand how, exactly, Ultra HD should be affecting their near-term and long-term plans. And, surprisingly, there was plenty of light shone, thanks to forthright panelists who understand that Ultra HD, much like HD, is going to take years to perfect.

Is Ultra HD the next 3D?
A consistent question across all the panel sessions, comparison with 3D was also the most important. Only four years ago, the big news at CES was 3D, with suppliers of top-level HD sets looking to fight off up-and-coming manufacturers — such as Vizio and Haier — of cheaper HD sets by embracing a 3D format that required refresh rates that such manufacturers were incapable of matching. A rush to market led to a number of missteps that have damaged the growth potential of 3D and rendered it a niche product awaiting the arrival of glasses-free technology.

3D also suffered for another reason: from the beginning, it was possible to deliver 3D signals to viewers at home. At first glance, that should have been a great thing; the problem was (and still is) that the amount of bandwidth dedicated to 3D programming reduces much of the resolution that the production team sees in the truck. Add to that the terrible marketing in consumer-electronics stores, confusing content carriage deals, and challenging and costly productions, and the 3D movement is in limbo.

But Ultra HD, it appears, will be different from 3D and, in fact, could be different from the HD transition, which itself was fraught with doubts and dismissive attitudes.

Why will it be different? Future Sport laid it out.

1. There is already a market for 4K equipment
4K-capable equipment is already being used as a production tool for HD football, baseball, and NASCAR coverage. Sports coverage has become, increasingly, about getting the perfect replay angle, and 4K makes the replay experience even better. It allows the replay operator to freeze a 4K image, zoom in, and extract an HD-quality close-up of, say, a foot touching a bag in baseball or a sideline in football. Replays, ultimately, are about giving the viewer more information about the game and more reasons to tune in. As an HD production tool, 4K shines and gives viewers even more reasons to tune in.

And, perhaps most important, its use as a production tool today means there is actually a business, albeit a small one, for manufacturers of 4K-capable gear.

2. Using 4K within HD productions gives the format visibility today
Although 4K broadcasts seem to be at least 18 months away, the use of 4K within HD broadcasts will give the new format something HD and 3D never had: an opportunity for those watching an HD sports event to see how much better 4K is than HD. One can imagine that the consistent use of 4K will not only give broadcasters ample opportunity to accustom viewers to the concept of Ultra HD but will also open up a marketing opportunity for Ultra HD set manufacturers. Imagine the 4K zoom applications’ being sponsored by Sony, Panasonic, or Samsung with related commercials airing directly after the replay. The HD transition and 3D never had such a one-two punch.

3. Those who see it today quickly see the benefits…
Discussions of the 4K screenings during the Final Four NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament focused on how some viewers watched a 20-minute 4K loop three times in a row. Another session mentioned how consumers simply ooh and aah when they experience 4K. So the interest is there today. The only question is whether the oohs and aahs will continue once consumers see the price tag.

4. …and it is easier to demonstrate than 3D or even HD
It’s easy to forget how lame HD demos in consumer-electronics stores were for the first eight years of HD broadcasts. Someone shopping for an HD set was lucky if the store received an over-the-air signal from the local PBS station, which was the only consistent 24/7 loop available. Blu-ray and HD-DVD were still years away, so the only other option was SD broadcasts (stretched) or SD-resolution DVDs. Buying an HD set was often a $4,000 gamble that, by the time the consumer got the set home and set up with an HD over-the-air, cable, or satellite receiver, the experience would be worth the investment.

And, when 3D came along, the requirement for glasses (if they weren’t stolen) to be mounted on a pole where they would be worn by person after person made for a demo that felt about as sanitary as licking an airline tray table. So people would often simply walk by the programming loop — even if the loop was more than just the 3D Blu-ray menu.

But 4K will be different. Sony already has its Ultra HD server, so content will be displayed from day one. And even HD content, upconverted, will exceed the current HD experience. From day one, the sales experience will be a great one.

5. Prices will continue to drop
And perhaps most important, set prices will continue to drop. Two sets that Sony introduced at NAB 2013 are priced below $7,000, a massive decrease from even three months ago. By the time Ultra HD broadcasts begin sometime next year, the price of an Ultra HD set will probably be as low as $3,500 and possibly $3,000.

These five factors seem to set Ultra HD up nicely to find success in the marketplace. But there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome. Next week, the second installment of this report will delve into what those are and how the industry will address them.

Stan Kasten, named president/CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, made certain that his first Opening Day with the team would be a memorable one.

“We have worked extremely hard during the off-season to create the best possible experience for all our fans for the 2013 season,” said Kasten in a statement. “The upgrades were designed with particular emphasis on the Top Deck and Reserve levels and outfield pavilions that had been essentially untouched since the stadium first opened. Our goal is to provide the most pleasurable experience from the time fans arrive at the stadium until the time they depart, ideally after a Dodger victory.”

Returning to Two Hexagonal Boards
On April 1, Dodger Stadium opened its gates for Opening Day, revealing new hexagonal videoboards in left and right field. The Dodgers, who helped to lead the charge toward in-venue color video screens more than 30 years ago, once again find themselves in the forefront of technology in baseball: the two screens are the league’s first 10-mm surface-mount LED displays.

The 1080p-capable displays measure 77.69 ft. wide and range from 38 ft. high in the center to 24 ft. high at the ends, for a total viewing area of approximately 2,488 sq. ft. The team sought to maintain the iconic shape of Dodger Stadium’s original outfield scoreboard displays (the left-field hexagonal display was replaced by a rectangular videoboard in 1980).

“The goal was to bring back those shapes in both areas [and] also maximize the amount of square footage that the Dodgers would have available for the displays,” says Chris Mascatello, EVP, technology sales and services, ANC Sports. “We knew, and the Dodgers knew, that they didn’t want and couldn’t undertake a project to redo the footings and the vertical uprights for the scoreboard structures so they needed to maximize what they could do with the existing support infrastructure.”

ANC Sports, which spearheaded the video portion of the renovation, built the two video screens using rectangular LED segments arranged in a hexagon. The segments create a jagged, stair-step look around the edges, which were then covered by flashing to create the seamless shape. ANC’s VisionSOFT 64-bit content-render system powers the videoboards.

The new scoreboard structures feature a 10-mm LED strip measuring approximately 6 ft. high by 69 ft. wide beneath each video screen. ANC also installed two outfield video-wall displays, each measuring approximately 6 ft. high by 61 ft. wide and an LED ribbon system along the club fascia that runs for 1,121 ft.

As part of the renovation, the team completely gutted the existing SD control room to make way for a new 1080p-capable control room contracted by Sony and integrated by Diversified Systems.

Getting Every Point of View
In addition to the renovation, the Dodgers purchased three Sony HDC-2400 cameras and installed 11 HD pan-tilt-zoom robotic cameras — including nine Canon BU-46 cameras, one Sony BRC-H900 camera, and one Sony BRC-H700 camera (the only pre-renovation PTZ camera to be reused) — around the stadium. The robotic cameras are located in center field, the home and visitor bullpens, low first and low third, mid first and mid third, the press box, at the top of the elevator tower, in the right-field scoreboard, and in the interview room.

Less than a year after changing ownership, the Los Angeles Dodgers unveiled a $100 million renovation.

In an unusual display of collaboration, the cameras are shared by in-venue game presentation, the television broadcast, and baseball operations. Although certain angles, like the bullpen cameras, are necessary for all three video teams, the Dodgers experimented with angles to create unique perspectives.

“We found a place where we could mount the camera [and] look into the bullpen but also spin all the way around into the bowl,” explains Tom Darin, director of broadcast engineering, Los Angeles Dodgers. “[With] the camera we have on top of our elevator tower, we can see downtown L.A., we can see the Hollywood sign, we can see the beach, we can see Mount Wilson, we can see into the bowl. That one camera gives us an extraordinary range of beauty shots that we can use for everything.”

Connecting the Fans
To better connect fans in the venue, the Dodgers partnered with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to install a WiFi network and distributed antenna system. The team expects to complete the system in June. The Dodgers also installed an electrical-power grid and seven new substations, which required some of the stadium renovation and equipment testing to be done under generator power.

A Short Schedule
Plans to renovate Dodger Stadium were announced in early January. The renovation process, which culminated — save for a few punch-list items — on Opening Day, had been set in motion just a few months earlier.

“We basically did the design, the build, the testing, and the completion in five months, a project that would normally take a year to a year and a half. Everything was accelerated,” explains Darin. “The challenge was that we weren’t just trying to do what everybody else does. We were trying to take what other teams do, not only baseball but all sports, and go a step beyond that.”

Virtually every corner of Dodger Stadium was enhanced during the renovation. From expanding the concourses and restrooms to improving the sound system and concession areas, the Dodgers have transformed the third-oldest and one of the most storied ballparks in Major League Baseball into a 21st-century venue.

“This new ownership group was extremely committed to doing everything that they could … to impact the fan experience, which is one of the main pillars that they talked about in the beginning,” says Erik Braverman, senior director, marketing and broadcast, L.A. Dodgers. “It was an ambitious and aggressive timeline, but we all worked extremely long hours, and it got done.”

Stripping the room down to the concrete pillars, the pair took over portions of the press dining area and concourse to create a more spacious video-replay area. Located behind home plate on the press level, the 1080p-capable control room occupies a space nearly double the size of its predecessor.

The Dodgers’ revamped control room during a game against the Washington Nationals

“[The Dodgers’] goal was, as with any of these facilities, to enhance the fan experience and their presentation throughout the stadium,” says Duane Yoslov, SVP, sales and operations, western region, Diversified Systems. “They were upgrading the LED boards and, at the same time, upgrading the control room to high definition, and the decision was made early on that the control room should support 1080p.”

The room features a Sony MVS7000x production switcher, Evertz EQX router, Chyron graphics engine, EVS replay server and IPDirector, and Elemental Technologies systems for storage, game recording, and transcoding.

Sony also supplied monitors for the control room and three Sony HDC2400 cameras to feed the video boards and began replacing the HD TV sets around the Stadium. Besides integrating the control room, Diversified subcontracted Bexel to replace or rerun structure cabling to the control room and mount the 11 POV cameras throughout the ballpark.

Dodgers Technical Director Dan Valdivia mans the new Sony MVS-7000X switcher.

The team upgraded its edit capabilities last year, moving its Apple Final Cut Pro workstations and ingest racks from a temporary facilities near the truck docks to a permanent location in the stadium. An additional Final Cut Pro workstation was installed in the control room during the renovations.

The project schedule was tight. Having received notice to proceed with the control-room integration in late October, Sony and Diversified had to have the room ready for Opening Day on April 1.

“As everybody knows in the sports business, Opening Day doesn’t move,” says Chris Sullivan, national sales manager, sports venues, Professional Solutions of America, Sony Electronics. “[We] needed to allocate the manpower and put more people on the job, from both us and DSI, to make sure that everything was completed by Opening Day. It was a tight timeframe, but we made it.”

“The two big challenges [for existing venues] are the physical architecture of the building, where materials like concrete and aluminum can interfere with signals, and, in the largest venues, the density of the network that you need to manage all those endpoints,” explains Rick Capstraw, who runs Verizon’s strategic team for media and entertainment verticals.

He cites the WiFi retrofit at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the L.A. Lakers and Kings, now under way, as an example of the former. “We had already done a lot of work on cellular-antenna distribution there and found there was a lot of aluminum used in its construction, which just does not work well with WiFi. It causes all kinds of weird reflections.”

He adds that fan interactivity via mobile devices is going to become an expected service at all levels of sports venues in the near future. Various dedicated apps are already being developed for this purpose, and the sports and wireless industries are coming together to address the issue. This is seen as a key strategy to reverse some declines in attendance and revenue that some leagues — most notably, the NFL — are experiencing as the home-broadcast experience continues to improve with enhanced audio and video.

But adding to the challenge of retrofitting WiFi into large, densely built structures are the costs of doing so. Capstraw estimates that it costs between $3 million and $5 million to outfit a typical stadium for WiFi. That may not seem like a lot in a multibillion-dollar sports industry, but it becomes just that when multiplied by hundreds of major- and minor-league parks, stadiums and arenas, and collegiate venues.

“The problem is, the ROI for all of this is not very well defined yet,” says Capstraw. “How does the team owner or league justify the costs when they’re not sure what the business model is going to be to generate revenue from it?”

Various models are being looked at in the industry, including paid access to WiFi, paid apps to access in-venue premium content, and ad-supported connectivity, including merchandise sales within the venue. It’s an issue that’s also being faced by the hospitality industry, with hotels finding that guests expect high-speed broadband connectivity, often for free, on which they will access their own entertainment options, reducing hotel revenue from lost PPV-content delivery.

(In fact, Verizon partnered with iBAHN — which provides Internet Protocol-based information services for the hospitality, meeting, conference. and retail industries — to build and install the AU Guest WiFi network at Auburn last year, which is paid for via user subscription fees. Verizon is providing the connectivity and backhaul to the public Internet, and iBAHN is helping process payments and provide customer support, as it does for thousands of hotel customers.)

Spectrum Issues
Verizon and other WiFi providers are also running into spectrum issues. With the 2.4 GHz frequency already crowded with consumer devices, says JT Timmons, VP of strategy for Verizon enterprise solutions, WiFi has to move further into the 5 GHz range. Higher frequencies usually require a larger distributed-antenna system inside large facilities since they’re more vulnerable to being blocked by concrete and steel. And the number of consumer devices in the 5 GHz range is growing as well.

He says the response is to use the edge channels of the 11-channel band: “Those are less congested, and we can also use high-gain directional antennas to increase coverage.”

The problem, says Capstraw, is that, even when devices aren’t in active use, phones and tablets with their WiFi activated are constantly pinging the wireless systems’ access points, straining them. What’s remarkable, he adds, is that, once sufficient coverage has been achieved in a venue, even very large loads can be managed. He cites the temporary WiFi system put into place at the Staples Center for this year’s Grammy Awards event (the current WiFi project Verizon is installing there is a permanent system), which was able to handle about 22,000 devices in and around the arena. Auburn’s stadium routinely handles as many as 10,000 devices during a game.

“It’s not about bandwidth, necessarily; it’s about how many connections are made between access points and endpoints,” he states. “The equation is population [at the event] divided by the number of access points.” However, even with the 1-GB networks being installed now, bandwidth will eventually become an issue as more fans in the stands start watching HD video of multiple games.

WiFi in sports venues is still a relative rarity, but it won’t stay that way long. Timmons calls it an “exploding market but still in its infancy.” Some ways to address the costs of retrofitting venues include leveraging the proliferation of the LTE standard (adopted by Verizon and Sprint in the U.S.) and the use of IP-based networks. However these WiFi networks are funded and charged, it’s clear that fans want them for entertainment and information, and venues need them for revenue and attendance. Those two massive forces guarantee that some kind of solution will be found.

As director of broadcast engineering services for the Dallas Cowboys, Dwin Towell provides facilities and engineering management for all broadcast– and television-production–related activities at Cowboys Stadium. Previously, he managed the Audio/Visual Department at the American Airlines Center. SVG talked with Towell about his 40-year career in production and engineering, his role in design and construction of Cowboys Stadium, and his goal in serving on the SVG Venue Technology Committee.

Dwin Towell, director, broadcast engineering services, Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys Stadium must be one of the busiest stadiums in the world.
Very, very busy. It’s funny because people always [ask] what do you do when it’s not football season? We probably do less football than anything else here, when you think about it. We do multiple corporate events every week, sometimes several a day, and then other sports as well, and then concerts… We’ve got so many events scheduled in the bowl that the field will only physically be down about a hundred days.

Tell us a little bit about Dwin Towell
I’ve been working in the business for a little over 40 years. I’ve kind of always walked the line between production and engineering, which I think is good because it’s allowed me to work on and design systems that are friendly to both sides. I pretty much worked my way through the business since I started, which was at the age of 17 as an intern over at KARE-TV in Dallas, then went to school and worked at the college studios and then the local television station.

I went to school to do television, and let me put it this way: I worked my way through school doing TV so I could do TV when I got out of school, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I’ve always enjoyed it; it’s been a fun career. I’ve done a lot of different things: traveling all over the world, engineering, shooting a variety of things, and now I’m at Cowboys Stadium. This has been a fun ride.

When did you get involved in the venue side of the industry?
I worked freelance primarily as a video engineer so interfacing to different venues wasn’t unusual for me. The full-time [position] at American Airlines Center was around three years [2005-08], and then, over here, I’ve been consulting with the Cowboys since 1990 and then went on staff six years ago to do design and complete the stadium.

Tells us about your role in the building of Cowboys Stadium.
From the very start, this facility was interesting because you had the architects designing the building, various other companies trying to design a technical infrastructure, and it was difficult getting the point across [that] it is a football stadium but, if you listened to what Mr. [Jerry] Jones was saying, he wanted this to be an all-occasions facility. I took that to heart, doing the technical design in here. WJHW was involved in the design, but we ended up taking that as kind of a baseline and then made a lot of changes [to accommodate] the variety of events we do here.

We’ve done everything from bowling to football to rodeo to large entertainment events. We did our first funeral a few months ago: Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who was killed. We do a variety of events, and I wanted to design a facility that would be able to handle them well without having to go to any extreme lengths, and that includes the Super Bowl. When we did the Super Bowl here, on the technical side, that went very, very well.

How about the fiber infrastructure?
When we started the whole design and that end of the infrastructure, we were assuming SMPTE. [But when we] installed the networks and they wanted triax, so thus triax. But knowing what was coming, we went ahead, and all the network panels are at least 12 strands of single-mode fiber.

Fiber is what makes the building technically flexible, right?
It really does. We’ve used that fiber not just for cameras but for audio or even data going to lighting panels, pyro panels, and things like that. Fiber is a very flexible tool for us.

What features or infrastructure-design aspects did you implement to accomplish the vision of being more than a football stadium?
One of the simplest things to do from our perspective was plenty of fiber, because you can try to second-guess the needs of the future at the various I/O panels around the building, but we were determined to provide fiber as well as triax and audio and BNC at all of the I/O panels and then make sure there was plenty of power at each I/O panel to provide power for any device you want to interface. With the fiber, that could be data, audio, video — whatever you want it to be — so that gives us a lot of versatility, especially now with the transition going to SMPTE fiber.

Do you have SMPTE fiber in the building?
Not yet. [We’re] proposing to put that in in the near future. We do have fiber at all of the panels, though — single-mode — and all the trucks pulling in lately have their breakout boxes that they throw down, and they use two fibers and the local power.

What is the difference in preparing and supporting the big-time events like the Super Bowl over a Cowboys game?
The difference to me primarily is, it uses more of our infrastructure. The Cowboy games [are] pretty much the same game after game for us, and we do a really big show here. It’s not unusual to put out 12 cameras of our own before we take any feeds from the network trucks, and that includes wireless cameras. We’ve even got a wireless blimp that flies around and sends pictures back.

When we get NCAA events or the Super Bowl, we use more of it, and the nice thing about the building is, it’s there to use; you don’t have to run a lot of additional fiber or cabling to various points. In fact, for the Super Bowl, I was expecting to sleep here at the stadium on occasion, but I went home and slept in my own bed every night because we had the infrastructure to support a lot of what needed to be done.

What has been the most surprising aspect of operating Cowboys Stadium?
I think the variety of work that we do. Even though the vision was to build a stadium that would do all types of projects, I think people are sometimes surprised at the variety of things that we do here. If someone proposed to do swimming and diving, we wouldn’t turn them away; we would bid on doing swimming and diving.

We have that huge board hanging in the center of the stadium, which is unique not just because of its size but the fact that it’s hanging in the center of the stadium. Instead of just being a display device, now it’s become kind of a centerpiece; it’s often used as part of the actual staging for events in the bowl.

What do you enjoy most about your role with the Cowboys?
What I really enjoy [about my role is] it calls on a number of different talents. You have to be flexible and available. Clients will come up with different things they want to do, and I take great joy in being able to pull it off.

What kind of engineering staff does it take to keep Cowboys Stadium running?
My core staff for video and audio here is three people: myself, an audio engineer, and a general tech. We have a lot of automation built into the facility. Now, for a game day, obviously, we have 35-40 people working, but, for day-to-day managing events, a lot of things I can do from home. If the owner of the stadium calls me at 11 p.m. and says, “I want to take the mayor on a tour of the building, can you turn it on?” I can turn the big board on, I can turn the lighting on… We put a lot of automation into the building to make it cost-efficient.

This month, Cowboys Stadium celebrates its fourth birthday. You could say that the Cowboys started the wave with fan engagement and big LED scoreboard technologies. What are your thoughts on recent scoreboard designs, and how are the Cowboys staying on top of the wave?
There are a lot of big boards going up around the country, and it’s funny, it’s like they’re using the Cowboys board as the target board. But there’s a slogan that goes along with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders: often imitated but never equaled. I kind of apply that to the board technology as well.

One of the unique things about this entire facility is that, yes, it is a football stadium; yes, it does do a variety of events; but the things that you discover when you visit: for instance, we have a pretty amazing art collection here. We even do art tours, [and] we’re on the National Art Gallery list.

After four years, what areas of infrastructure are you looking to improve on?
One of the things we’re looking at right now, for instance, is that center-hung board. [It’s] more than just the board; it’s become a hub for WiFi, our wireless camera antennas when we have third-party events come in, audio clusters are hung from there, and it’s not unusual for us to hang a quad of scoreboards underneath our main board for NCAA-type events or for the NBA All-Star Game. We’re going to add more fiber infrastructure up there to make it more versatile and also additional power in that area. We never really thought about that becoming a technical hub; it was a display piece. But now it’s become a technical hub as well: the FBI set up shop up there [during the Super Bowl]. It’s amazing what goes on.

Other than the impressive scoreboard, how is technology being used to enhance fan experience?
The ability to handle branding. We want everything to be done in a tasteful manner. That’s why, when you look at the big board during a game, you’re not going to see commercials running on it. You may see some sponsorship or replay, but we’ve managed to integrate all the sponsorship branding in a very tasteful manner. I think one of the trademarks of this particular stadium is, you walk around, [and] there’s signage, but it’s not obtrusive [or] gaudy.

A lot of thought is put into captioning. Captioning is very important. There are people who need captioning, but we kicked around: do you put it on the main board? do you put it on small monitors? how do you handle it? If [fans] need captioning or [are] hard of hearing, [they] can check out free of charge a small handheld device that has captioning. It also has high-level audio in English and in Spanish, and it’s very subtle.

Do you currently provide, or plan to provide, an in-venue experience for the fans on their mobile devices?
Yes, we do. That’s a number-one priority because everyone has a smartphone. We’ve come up with a couple of unique ways — I’m sure they won’t be unique for long — to use them, and that’ll be premiered in the upcoming season.

What is the primary objective for Cowboys Stadium?
It really is all about the fan experience, but we were counting that even before NFL itself jumped on that bandwagon. That’s why the building is built the way it is: for the fan. It’s here to meet their every need at every level, and that’s what we’ve tried to fulfill, and that’s what the whole NFL experience is supposed to be about at this point in time. We took it to heart during the actual construction and design of the building.

Can you tell us about your IPTV system?
We’re using the Cisco StadiumVision system. We have over 3,000 television sets around the facility, and we’re adding an extra hundred primarily to take care of the standing-room-only areas to give the fans a better experience.

Over your career, do you have a most memorable moment or accomplishment?
It’s kind of a geek accomplishment, but, a number of years ago, I worked on a project for the Japanese television network, doing a documentary on the American space program. I designed and built underwater housing for an Ikegami HL-79 that was umbilical to the surface and did some shooting in the NASA neutral-buoyancy simulator when they were practicing the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. To me, that was one of those cooler moments you’ll always remember, because I designed and built the equipment I was working with and I was there in the middle of people I’d looked up to for years — the astronauts — working on a pretty important project. That was a lot of fun and one of the highlights of my career

I would certainly say that Cowboys Stadium is quite the accomplishment.
Watching it being built, imagining it, seeing the stages it went through in construction, and seeing how it operates today, it’s a pretty cool thing to view. It really goes back to the man who had the vision to do it. I’m not just touting Mr. Jones because he’s my boss, but it took a lot of guts to think this big and then bring it to fruition. That’s quite an accomplishment, especially in the economic times we live in, and to make it work every day is yet another giant accomplishment.

What is your purpose in serving on this SVG Venue Technology Committee, and what would you like to accomplish as part of it?
I’d love to see the improvement overall [of] the set of standards. One thing I learned as a freelance engineer and going from facility to facility [is,] there’s a very wide spread in terms of capability. I think that, if nothing else, if we can establish a minimum daily vitamin allowance of what’s necessary to pull off a show, that would be a great accomplishment. Some sort of standardization, a baseline that everyone can achieve, would be good because of the time you can save crews. It’s been kind of scattered in the past, and, if we can bring it all together, that would be a major accomplishment.

However, the switch from a minor-league to a major-league team underscored the difference in sound that the venue would have to handle. The existing sound system, designed for AHL-size crowds, was no match for the vociferous vocalizing of 15,000 fans. The solution for the 2012-13 season was a new Electro-Voice XLC-based line-array system, which was designed and installed by local AV integrator Sound Art.

“The MTS Centre is good-sounding arena,” says Sound Art owner Dave Cousins, noting that the venue’s acoustics were surprisingly well balanced: “They did a good job of making the room live enough to be good for sports without being a nightmare for music.”

Switching from AHL to NHL, MTS Centre got a new sound system to match sell-out crowds.

But he adds that, as soon as the arena became home to the Jets, all the season tickets sold out immediately, which meant that the old sound system was “completely buried” by the noise of capacity crowds. “I did my initial prebid site survey at a sold-out Jets game,” he recalls, “and I was blown away by how loud the crowd was.”

According to Cousins, Sound Art has had extensive experience with Electro-Voice systems in the arena, having provided production systems for hundreds of shows in the MTS Centre since it opened. “Depending on the type of event, we deploy X-Line, XLC, and XLD line arrays,” he says. “We use them every day, so we know what they can do.”

The system deployed at MTS Centre includes a total of 54 XLCs in six clusters using different array lengths at the various hang points encircling the center-hung scoreboard. “The clusters in the end zones are 10 boxes deep, the two west-side clusters are nine boxes deep, and the two east-side clusters are eight boxes deep because the press boxes shadow some seats on that side,” he explains. “We repurposed some of the old sound system to cover those shadowed seats.”

Four of the arrays are supplemented at the top of the hang with three XLCi215 front-loaded dual 15-in. subwoofers. “The XLCi215s match the footprint and rigging of the XLCi127DVX,” Cousins says. “Twelve subwoofers represents half of what we would normally use in a tour rig with this many mid/high cabinets, but, in this situation, they are being used as a bass cabinet more than a subwoofer. And they produce a significant amount of output even in this small quantity.”

The system is powered with 51 CPS2.12 amplifiers. Although Sound Art uses Electro-Voice Tour Grade series amplifiers in its production systems, Cousins says, the Contractor Precision Series was a good match for the MTS Centre installation in terms of both functionality and budget. System routing, FIR filters, and limiting functions are all provided by a set of NetMax N8000-1500 system controllers.

“We installed the RCM-810 cards to put all of the amplifiers on IRIS-Net. That lets the operator in the booth turn on the amps remotely in a structured pattern so as not to draw a huge rush of current,” he explains. “And the operator can monitor each amplifier’s operating temperature and live load impedance in real time.”

Still to come for the MTS Centre system is a phase-two expansion with EVU-1062/95 ultra-compact two-way loudspeakers that will be mounted under-balcony for press boxes and owner’s rooms.

“Once the owners heard how good the sound was for the fans,” Cousins says, “they wanted in on it as well.”

SVG Chairman Tom Sahara officially began his chairmanship yesterday at the Future Sport Summit in New York City.

The Future Sport event held yesterday in New York City was highlighted by many lively discussions but it was the official passing of the torch from former SVG Chairman Steve Hellmuth to new SVG Chairman Tom Sahara that provided the highlight.

Sahara, who is also Turner Sports, Vice President of Operations & Technology, has been closely involved with SVG since its early days and has led by example both within the organization and with those he works with on a daily basis. Within SVG he has had key leadership roles in education initiatives and outreach programs and also helped make the DTV Audio Group and the Sports Production Safety Group two beacons of how industry associations can change the industry for the better. But in his new role he will not only continue to play a role in those important industry offerings but guide the direction of future SVG events and the organization as a whole.

Following the event Sahara wished to share the following statement with SVG members and sponsors.

“Today was my first event as SVG Chairman and I thank all of you for your enthusiastic support of SVG and my appointment. Ken Aagaard and Steve Hellmuth leave an extensive legacy and I am honored and humbled to be selected to carry the mission forward.

“There are two programs that stand out from the impressive array of initiatives; the Hall of Fame and the Broadcast Fund. The Hall of Fame brings recognition to those who have grown and guided our industry through their inventions, leadership, and creativity.

“At the other end of the spectrum, the Broadcast Fund enables SVG members to give back to those whom we work with everyday but have been toppled by unforeseen hardships. In the year since the fund’s inception 18 broadcast professionals and their families have been helped in their greatest time of need.

“The future holds many challenges for the industry and I am proud to be a part of an organization dedicated in meeting them.”

The Sports Broadcasting Fund was established in 2013 as a way to help industry professionals, whether freelance or staff at sports networks, leagues, teams, or related manufacturers and service providers, find financial assistance in times of need. The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, held each December in New York City, serves as the primary fund raiser for that event as all table sales for that event are donated to assist those in need.

To learn more about the Sports Broadcasting Fund please click here and to learn more about the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame click here.

“This venue is obviously a challenge since it is Grand Central Station, so we are keeping the show simple but still trying to capture the [essence of the] location,” says Carr-Hughes co-owner and senior director/producer Jim Carr. “It should be great coverage with a nice intimate setting [in Vanderbilt Hall] at a unique venue like Grand Central Station, where people will be walking by and peeking in to watch.”

A Small Footprint
Carr-Hughes is tasked with producing two live wrestling telecasts — 3:30-5 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network (and streamed on NBC Sports Live Extra) and 6-7:30 p.m. on Universal Sports — surrounding an ultra-hectic rush hour at Grand Central. With that in mind, Carr-Hughes is making an effort to maintain a small footprint, rolling out Dome Productions’ 40-ft. Kodiak production truck for the six-camera show.

“We are very limited in terms of space since we have to park right there on East 42nd Street,” says Carr, who will be directing both telecasts at the front bench alongside veteran NBC Olympics wrestling producer Mike Molinari. “It’s a 40-ft. truck, and we don’t have a whole lot of room to move in there, but it gives us that small footprint we need.”

At one point, Carr-Hughes entertained the idea of bringing in a combo production/transmission truck but instead opted for Dome’s compact Kodiak unit and a American Satellite Uplink truck for transmission.

The Challenges of Grand Central
In addition to cramped quarters, Carr-Hughes will have to deal with a rushed set-and-strike schedule at one of America’s busiest transportation centers.

Located adjacent to Grand Central’s Main Concourse, the 12,000-sq.-ft. Vanderbilt Hall is playing host to a separate event early this week (the venue regularly hosts corporate events and exhibitions), preventing the Rumble on the Rails team from building the venue until Tuesday evening. Carr and company will then arrive with Kodiak in tow Wednesday morning to begin setup.

“The venue guys can’t get in there and start building the bleachers and everything until late Tuesday, and then we come in very early Wednesday morning with a mobile unit,” says Carr. “So we have to wait until everything is in place to get our gear in. It is a very tight turnaround because we are then on the air by 3:30.”

As one final test of Carr-Hughes mettle, a dense transportation mecca and tourist destination like Grand Central always presents the additional challenge of heightened security.

“Being in that environment with all the security concern and precautions complicates things, too,” says Carr. “We have to be very vigilant about that, and we’ve had a lot of discussions about it to make sure we are prepared for the extra time that is needed for security checks.”

NBC Sports Network’s coverage of the USA vs. Iran freestyle wrestling dual meet begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday with play-by-play caller Jason Knapp, color commentator and Olympic champion Rulon Gardner, and reporter Jimmy Roberts. Coverage continues on Universal Sports with USA vs. Russia at 6 p.m. 

Adobe’s Creative Suite tools (including Premiere Pro, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver) are now branded CC, and, while Creative Suite 6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products. Although not all Adobe users are happy with the move (as seen by the 9,000-signature-strong petition against it), Creative Cloud has garnered more than a half million paid members and more than 2 million free members since its launch in April 2012, giving Adobe the validation it needs to embark on a fully cloud-based future.

“Look at the progress we’ve made on Creative Cloud in 12 months — and it’s only going to get better and better,” says Bill Roberts, director of video product management, Adobe Systems. “First and foremost, Creative Cloud has to deliver the tools, which it has done and will continue to do. Now we are trying to build out the community and bring all the information and users together. Then we can continue to layer on richer and richer services from there.”

The latest version, Adobe CC, which will be available in June, also includes the next generation of software for all the previous CS platforms, including a revamped Premiere Pro non-linear editor.

The Big Move: From the Suite to the Cloud
Creative Cloud allows files to be stored, synced, and shared on multiple workstations or devices (Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android). With Creative Cloud membership, users can also sync settings in Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC, enabling them to synchronize preferences, including keyboard shortcuts and workspaces, across multiple computers. In addition, the Balance online creative community is now integrated with Creative Cloud, so customers can showcase work and get feedback on projects remotely.

“I think this fits very well with where a lot of things are going in the [video-production] business right now,” says Roberts. “As we make our way through this transmission, a lot of people have the concept that they have to buy something that they physically touch or see the file on their computer. When you talk about the tools of our business, this makes so much sense. People just have to keep going until they feel comfortable about it.”

The Pricing Question
Adobe will offer different levels of CC subscriptions for individual members ($49.99, or $29.99 for existing CS users), teams ($69.99 per month per seat, $39.99 for existing CS users), and enterprises (varies depending on number of users). The CC individual version includes 20 GB of online storage; the team version has 100 GB of storage along with centralized deployment and administration capabilities.

Much of the consternation from existing CS users regarding the move to Creative Cloud revolves around the new pricing model, which shifts from the traditional single-software-purchase model to this new monthly-subscription model. However, Roberts sees it as a huge advantage for both individual and team users moving forward.

“Aside from the annual subscription, you can do short-term subscriptions for the software that allow people to ramp up and down when they are busy,” says Roberts. “I think that makes a lot of sense for the cyclicality of [the broadcast] market. For the really large groups, they can have an enterprise term license agreement and have all the software they can eat for a certain amount of time. But the smaller guys are going to love the flexibility of being able to ramp up and have everyone on the same version and then ramp back down.”

Where Does Anywhere Fit in?
Adobe’s biggest news at the NAB Show last month centered on its Adobe Anywhere platform, which promises to allow producers and editors that use Adobe video tools (primarily Premiere Pro and Prelude) to access, manage, and edit centralized media and assets across virtually any network, even standard Ethernet or WiFi. Targeted primarily at enterprise organizations, Anywhere (powered by the Mercury Streaming Engine) does not require heavy file transfers and does not rely on proxy files, enabling producers and editors to work directly with hi-res media files remotely.

Although the prospect of marrying Creative Cloud and Anywhere opens up a wealth of possibilities for sports-media producers looking to create unique new file-based workflows, Roberts says that likely will not be a reality in the near future. “I don’t think we are at the stage where we are marrying the power of Anywhere with the power of Creative Cloud. That said, I hope, 12 months from now, we will be having a conversation about how Anywhere and Creative Cloud are collaborating. But I can’t say exactly how that’s going to look at this point.”

The Next-Gen, New-Look Premier Pro
The Creative Cloud update also includes the next generation of Adobe’s flagship software applications, including the company’s video-production platforms.

The Adobe Premiere Pro CC NLE (non-linear-editing) software includes new editing features, including a revamped, simplified timeline, enhanced closed-captioning features, and a Link & Locate clip locator. In addition, the latest version of Premier Pro features more-powerful color workflows with the addition of the Lumetri Deep Color Engine to easily apply rich-color-grading looks.

Adobe After Effects CC allows motion-graphics and visual-effects artists to work more easily in 3D with the new Live 3D Pipeline with Maxon Cinema4D integration.

There are also all-new versions of Adobe SpeedGrade, Audition CC, Prelude CC, and Adobe Story CC Plus.

APM Music
APM offers over 375,000 tracks and thousands of CDs from 35-plus libraries. APM’s content is produced by some of the industry’s most respected libraries including KPM Music, Bruton, Sonoton, West One Music Group and Kosinus. APM provides a full range of music services including music replacement services, its interactive music library and application Quantum Tracks, custom scoring, and music director assistance to help customers find the best tracks for their production. Additionally, APM offers a wide variety of choices for digital access to our music, including search and download, and its project management application, MyAPM, as well as local server installation, portable drives and more.
www.apmmusic.com

FirstCom Music
Established in 1980 and headquartered in Dallas, FirstCom offers 30 music catalogs containing more than 176,000 copyrights and updated six times a year. Among the tools the company has developed are MusiQuick Online, the industry’s first online production-music–delivery Website, established in 2000; LiquidTrax, allowing editors to remix or create surround soundtracks from its libraries; MusiQuick SQL, among the first hard-drive search and delivery systems for clients on-site. Another industry first is a surround-sound series on DVD Audio/Video/ROM.
Sports-related links:
www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=74
www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=335
www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=533
www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=596

Killer Tracks
Killer Tracks offers more than 2,000 digital albums from 21 global libraries with original works from award-winning composers and producers Chuck D, Lamont Dozier, Alex Band, Rev Theory, RedZone Entertainment, Ennio Morricone, Christopher Franke, and many others. Sports clients include ESPN, Fox Sports, and NFL Films. Features include complimentary music-supervision services, along with music access online and on interactive hard drive.
Sports related links:
Action sports: bit.ly/KWc7pi
Dramatic sports: bit.ly/JO1zFh

MegaTrax
Offering more than 60,000 tracks, including alternate and underscore versions and complete edits, MegaTrax’s new Website provides an ease-of-use interface and improved search system with custom coding. Features include portable hard-drive–update system for faster music updates and accurate metadata, full-time tech support and music supervisors with live chat, and online Spanish and Portuguese translations. Payment options include the ability to do radio and TV barter deals. Custom scoring is available via Aircast Custom Music division.
Sports-related link:
megatrax.com/browse.php?bLibs=0&bCats=1273&bSort=DESC&bRecs=25&bPage=1

Pro Sports Music Marketing
Pro Sports delivers music to professional and collegiate sports. Through a network in professional and collegiate sports, it has become a resource for all the professional sports leagues for music and talent for such events as the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Daytona 500, World Series, and NHL and NBA All-Star Games. www.prosportsmusic.com/

Sound Ideas
Sound Ideas offers more than 500 distinct royalty-free collections to broadcast, postproduction, and multimedia facilities, with unlimited lifetime synchronization rights with every purchase, on formats including DVD-ROM, hard drive, and CD. All .wav files are provided with full keyword metadata for search applications. Sister company Westar Music also features unlimited licensing (www.westarmusic.com/products/sports).
Sports-music link: www.sound-ideas.com/musicmenu-sports.html
Sports sound-effects link: www.sound-ideas.com/sound-effects/sports-sound-effects.html

Warner/Chappell Production Music
Warner/Chappell unites successful independents Non-Stop Music, 615 Music, Groove Addicts, CPM, and others. Its brands have composed works for TV shows, films, and such organizations as ESPN, British Open Royal & Ancient, World Cup South Africa, Major League Baseball, Cox Communications, and Speed channel. www.warnerchappellpm.com