28 February 2011
Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. on Tuesday reported successful testing of international transmission of Super Hi-Vision video over the regular shared network, Asia Pulse reported.
Super Hi-Vision is a next-generation video format with a pixel resolution 16 times that of today’s high-definition television.
The goal is to begin test-broadcasting in Super Hi-Vision around 2020. Initially, the format would be used for public viewing on giant screens of sports events.
The Super Hi-Vision technology has already been developed to the point where signals can be transmitted internationally over leased lines and via satellite. Being able to use the shared network will significantly lower communications costs.
For the test, the Super Hi-Vision video was compressed to reduce the volume of data, then transmitted via the shared network of high-speed fibre used by such entities as universities and research institutions.
The signals originated from NHK’s Science & Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo, travelled via Britain to the BBC in London, and came back to an NTT centre in Tokyo. The total distance travelled came to roughly 80,000km, with a time lag of only 0.3 second or so. In comparison, Super Hi-Vision transmission via satellite over the same distance has a time lag of around 1.2 seconds. (Source: ABU)
28 February 2011
The ABC is seeking expressions of interest from media practitioners across the Pacific for the 2011 ABC International Pacific Fellowship Award.
The Award Fellow will spend four months at the ABC in Australia on a professional development program focused on enhancing their content making skills across a range of media platforms and maximising audience engagement.
The Fellow will be assigned a senior ABC Mentor for the duration of their program. This Mentor will be responsible for ensuring the Fellow receives appropriate opportunities to develop their skills against an agreed professional development plan.
The Award Fellow will receive full funding support from the ABC.
Expressions of interest are sought from Pacific Islanders with at least five years experience as a content maker in the region.
For further information, contact Tanya Scott on +61 (0)3 9524 2747 or email internationalprojects@abc.net.au
28 February 2011
Thirteen broadcasters from around the world have indicated interest joining Eurovision TV Lab, including Japan’s NHK, Korea’s KBS, Germany’s ZDF and Britain’s BBC. The project is part of the Eurovision TV Lab Week in September.
The Eurovision TV Lab is a showcase for new innovative programme formats created by public broadcaster NPO/Nederland 3 where it has already been run successfully twice. The EBU supports the new initiative to extend the project to the rest of the world.
Roek Lips, NPOs channel manager and creator of the TV Lab in the Netherlands, says, This first-of-its-kind project will link younger audiences to new public service television formats. He adds, Broadcasters have opened themselves up to innovation and that is a brave thing to do.
Public broadcasters joining the Eurovision TV Lab will contribute at least one pilot programme to a pool, as part of the Eurovision TV Lab Week for one week in September. Whether current events, drama, music or chat, all these shows will be broadcast on TV for the very first time to see whether the new programmes are a hit or not. Each broadcaster will use the same technology to involve the viewers. Social media tools and applications will measure how the pilots work with the audience.
28 February 2011
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd., a leading provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it is providing uplink, playout and connectivity services for fashiontv H3, the 3D programming on the Fashion TV Paris High Definition channel.
Beginning February 18, 2011, for the duration of one week, fashiontv H3D began daily 3D broadcasts between 2pm and 11pm (local Paris, New York and Hong Kong time) in 10 minute programs, in order to collect feedback from viewers and operators. As a result of the positive feedback, FTV has doubled the shows broadcast as part of the FTV HD programming played out and distributed by RRsat on its DTH platforms on the Intelsat-805 satellite over North, Central and South America, on the EUROBIRD-9A satellite to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and on the Asiasat-5 satellite to Asia and Australia.
Michel Adam, President and CEO of Fashion TV said, “FTV is among the pioneers in delivering high quality 3D programming over DTH networks. Based on the feedback we are receiving from our viewers we expect to launch fashiontv H3D, a 24-hour 3D channel over DTH, during the summer of 2011 to a myriad of satellite, cable, IP and mobile platforms all over the world. Fashion never looked better and we appreciate RRsats ability to get us launched with quality programming, meeting a very tight schedule.
We are proud to be responsible for the technological side of launching fashiontv H3D on RRsats Intelsat-805, EUROBIRD-9A and Asiasat-5 DTH platforms, commented Ziv Mor, CTO and VP Business Development of RRsat. Following RRsats delivery over terrestrial fiber of a live 3D interactive event between Tel Aviv and London together with BT, and our subsequent real-time delivery by satellite of 3D sports events over Europe, this effort is another testament to our ability to play out and deliver 3D content in multiple languages, over multiple satellites integrated within an HD platform. We look forward to broadcasting our first 24 hour 3D channel in 2011.
28 February 2011
The Associated Press has announced the latest new ENPS signing in South Asia, further strengthening its position in the region.
Somoy TV will join the nearly 800 newsrooms across the globe already using APs Essential News Production System to create, manage and deliver their video news content. The Somoy deal will see the installation of ENPS to manage the broadcast content of the new and soon to launch 24-hour TV news channel based in Bangladesh.
The new signing brings ENPSs South Asian client list up to nearly 20 news broadcasters operating across the region. Somoy joins an impressive client list of leading broadcasters including Indias Doordarshan one of the largest terrestrial broadcasters in the world and Delhi-based Sahara TV.
South Asia is seeing a rapidly growing broadcast market with many new channels emerging every year, says Keisuke Kayaba, Middle East, Asia & Southern Africa Sales Manager for ENPS. Our customers in the region are ambitious and dynamic and technically very forward-looking. We aim to meet their ever-growing needs and exceed them by providing an ENPS solution which meets all of their technical requirements whilst at the same time providing ease of use for both journalists and system administrators.
A number of Somoys technical management team are formerly of Desh TV in Dhaka – an ENPS customer for two years – where they gained first-hand experience of ENPSs easy-to-use functionality and the flexibility ENPS gives them to choose their server, automation and graphics systems.
In the Somoy newsroom, ENPS will run alongside a Quantel Enterprise sQ server with Quantel sQ view, cut & edit fx editors and Apple FCP for craft editing. News automation will be provided by OmniBus Columbus, and the graphics system will be by VizRT, with prompting by Autoscript.
ENPS works alongside Shaf who have an impressive 10 year track record of selling, installing, training and supporting ENPS in more than 25 newsrooms in India. Shaf have recently started to widen their interests to cover territories outside India, and Somoy TV is the first ENPS project they have won in Bangladesh.
At BES in Delhi, ENPS will be showcasing the latest version of ENPS, which features full NRCS integration with both YouTube and Twitter, reflecting the increasing importance and influence of user generated content in the news landscape – particularly for 24 hour channels such as Somoy TV which feature a lot of rolling news coverage. Customers who enable these features can now see their chosen Twitter feeds come into ENPS in real time and view them as they would view their standard agency wires. Users can also tweet directly from ENPS. The YouTube integration allows users to search for video in YouTube directly from ENPS and drag links into ENPS scripts. They will also be showing the ENPS mobile suite on iPad and a smartphone version.
