14 March 2007
Pharos will be exhibiting on Booth SU8905 (South Hall, Upper), UK Pavilion, NAB 2007, Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada, April 16-19
Pharos Communications will demonstrate the latest additions to its Mediator broadcast workflow management system at NAB2007 in Las Vegas. Offering massive benefits over tape-based working routines, Pharos Mediator is an easily-understood and easily-implemented system enabling broadcasters to operate more efficiently and productively.
“Mediator is a modular system which can be tailored to a broadcaster’s exact requirements and then upscaled in line with a fast-evolving market,” comments Pharos Mediator product manager Jason King. “Ingest, quality-control, editing, compliance, on-line storage, archiving and transcoding are all handled by a single system. Mediator’s web-based user interface is inherently easy to operate, giving all the information required for each process, from programme acquisition to playout. On successful completion of each task the material is automatically delivered to the next operator in the right format. In this way, content is forwarded for transmission at the right time with alerts being raised to inform supervisors of any items missing from the playlist before they are required on-air”.
“Mediator eliminates the engineering issues that distract creative staff in traditional broadcast workflow environments,” adds Pharos’ Technical Director Spencer Rodd. “Based on standard IT platforms and networked digital storage with a high level of integral redundancy, it is easy to monitor and maintain. All source material is converted into a digital file on first arrival using Mediator’s comprehensive suite of ingest tools. This removes the problem of lost tapes and immediately makes the resultant files available to every user, effectively sharing material which previously could only be accessed by the tape holder. File-based operation also reduces the cost of running and maintaining the system.”
8 March 2007
Harris Corporation has strengthened its leadership position in the Middle East region with an order in Lebanon from leading pan-Arab satellite broadcasting network, Orbit, for a range of products from the Harris SD/HD-compliant portfolio. Products purchased include the Harris IconMaster modular master control and branding solution, IconLogo channel branding solution, Inscriber RTX custom broadcast graphics systems, Integrator router and a range of solutions for infrastructure support. Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network is the worlds first fully digital, multi-channel, multilingual, pay television service. With digital technology able to support a total of 45 television and 21 radio channels, Orbit provides premier programming including movies, live sporting events and up-to-the-minute news from around the world.
As a pan-Arab satellite broadcaster, Orbit is received in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The company also offers a select bouquet of Arabic-language services in Europe with plans to expand this service into Asia and North America.
8 March 2007
Vizrt has signed a deal with Australia’s Network TEN to provide a comprehensive Media Asset Management (MAM) system from Vizrt’s recently-acquired subsidiary, Ardendo, for a total contract value of US$5m, to be delivered during 2007 and 2008. This deal follows hard on the heels of a previous contract with Network TEN for a large Vizrt graphic system signed during Q4 2006, for a total value of US$1.7m, which is due to be fulfilled during this year. Vizrt holds the lead position in the Australian broadcast graphics and MAM market sectors and now has the following major customers in Australia:
Network TEN: graphics & MAM
ABC – Australia’s national broadcaster: video archive
Channel 7: graphics
Channel 9: graphics
Sky Channel: MAM
Premier Media Group: MAM
The strategic acquisition of the leading MAM (video storage) and electronic map software providers by Vizrt over recent years is now starting to pay dividends as broadcasters like TEN realise the benefits of investing in a fully-integrated system from a single supplier.
8 March 2007
Peter Winkler, a Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment & Media Advisory Practice with more than 15 years of marketing, brand strategy and management consulting experience, has been appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Teletrax, the global broadcast intelligence company. Teletrax is a subsidiary of Medialink and provides digital video watermarking and content tracking service offering vital television intelligence on a global scale to video providers such as entertainment studios, news organisations, sports leagues, TV syndicators and the advertising industry.
Winkler served for six years in New York, London and Los Angeles as Global Marketing Director of PwCs Entertainment & Media Practice, leading all marketing and business development efforts. In this role, he oversaw PwCs Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, the industrys top five-year international market forecast. He has been a frequent press commentator on the Outlook and entertainment and media industry trends, speaker at industry conferences, and author of numerous white papers and articles on industry topics. More recently, Winkler was a management consulting Director in PwCs Entertainment & Media Advisory Practice, where he specialised in advising multinational companies regarding the impacts of digital technology and industry convergence on their businesses. His clients included some of the leading international entertainment and media conglomerates, as well as top software, telecommunications and technology services companies.
Peter is emblematic of the world-class breed of senior talent that Teletrax is now attracting, said Laurence Moskowitz, chairman of Teletrax and chief executive officer of its parent, Medialink. He has proven himself to be not only a leader of media in the 21st Century, but a visionary who now will bring that skill, along with his experience, energy and enthusiasm to the management team of Teletrax.
8 March 2007
EuroNews, Europes leading news channel, is now available on mobile phones in Scandinavia following the launch by Swedish mobile operator “3” of EuroNews Live in Sweden and Denmark. This latest agreement brings to 32 the number of mobile networks on which EuroNews is across 20 European countries.
Scandinavian customers will now have access to EuroNews world news from a European perspective 24 hours a day in English. They can watch breaking news as it happens as well as the regularly updated bulletins on the hour and half hour, containing in-depth coverage of the day’s top news, sport, business and European affairs, together with a comprehensive weather forecast. EuroNews also brings viewers a wide range of Current Affairs and Lifestyle features including space, science, sustainable development, web-news, arts and entertainment.
“This is an important step in the development of EuroNews on the European mobile telephone market,” said Philippe Cayla, Chairman and CEO of EuroNews. “We have already assured distribution with 3 in Austria; and for the first time EuroNews will now be broadcast in Scandinavia via 3G mobile phone devices thanks to our agreement with “3”, the first operator in Scandinavia to offer a mobile video communication service. It is also important for EuroNews to cement partnerships with strong companies such as “3” who have world-leading industrial and technological experience. With this new agreement; EuroNews now broadcasts on 32 mobile offers (3G, VOD) in 19 countries. EuroNews lends itself perfectly to the mobile TV market with its all image and multi-lingual format and this is why our service on mobile phones has become a real success for us.”
Brian Laffan, Nordic Product Manager TV of 3, said: “At 3 our goal is to provide the best mobile TV service available anywhere. This means that we have to work with only the strongest partners which made EuroNews an obvious choice. 3 focuses on delivering state of the art solutions and we are proud that a broadcaster like EuroNews recognizes the opportunities created by the new distribution channels we have made available.”
1 March 2007
S4M – Solution for Media´s Video Production Management System (VPMS) is now also used for production of the Tagesschau, Germanys best known and most successful news programme. VPMS is S4M´s solution for professional creation, management, editing and distribution of digital video material.
In the Tageschau VPMS is used together with Quantels SQ System – as part of an overall solution and handles diverse tasks:
The so called ingest process, i.e. the fully automated recording of video material that reaches broadcasters via satellite for example, is controlled by the VPMS module JobControl. This module also realizes the ARD video-file transfer connection. Another module, the VPMS PlayOut Control, is employed for controlling the tape play-out process for the archives i.e. the possibility to copy stored digital video material from video servers to regular tapes.
A further advantage: The Quantel zone concept which is in use by the Tagesschau is supported by the VPMS system. VPMS synchronizes the video material and thus creates permanently available backups of the videos. So VPMS manages video material through both zones used at the Tagesschau. That way for example recording as well as deletion of video material is possible for the different zones with just one user interface.
Tageschau
The Tageschau is the most popular and longest running news programme on German TV. It was broadcast for the first time in 1952. Since 1961 the Tagesschau is on air daily at 8p.m. In 2006, the 8 oclock edition reached a daily average of over 9 million viewers at ARD, 3 SAT, Phoenix and other German public stations. This is a market share of about 33% and makes Tagesschau the market leader by far. The Tagesschau is produced by ARD-aktuell, a collaboration of the nine affiliated German public broadcasters. ARD-aktuell is based at NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) in Hamburg.
