16 November 2009
The Future TV Advertising conference is being held in London on 11th December and AIB has negotiated a 20% discount for members.
The conference will bring together broadcast and advertising to analyse and debate the evolution of TV advertising. Television is inexorably losing ground to online which is gradually offering greater accountability. The conference will address how the advertising community can work with broadcast so that this threat, embodied by new technologies and user behaviour, becomes an opportunity.
The event will provide a great opportunity to hear and network with key stakeholders in TV advertising: Brands, Media Holding Companies, leading European Cable, Satellite, IPTV Pay-TV providers and Content Owners.
Key speakers include:
Benny Salaets, Vice President Product Marketing TV, Telenet
Mark Simpson, marketing Director, Ford
Rachel Bristow, Marketing Comms and Buying Director, Unilever
Casey Harwood, SVP, Turner Broadcasting
Adam Rattner, Media Manager, Coca Cola
Bartlomiej Kasiñski, Director of Strategy, Multimedia Polska
Ed Couchman, Commercial Controller, Future and Digital Media Advertising, Channel 4
Simon Orpin, Creative Solutions Director, ITV
Amanda Collins, Campaigns and Events Manager, Co-Operative
Richard Griffiths, Director of TV and Entertainment, Eircom
Visit www.futuretvads.com for further information.
For those unable to attend the conference in person, there will be a live stream of the event.
12 November 2009
GlobeCast has expanded its next-generation global fibre network with the opening of a new point-of-presence (POP) in Moscow. It has also signed new Russian TV channel STRANA as its first customer for the new link with a distribution and capacity deal to reach Pay TV (IPTV, DTH and Cable) platforms across Russia and Europe. The channel will be delivered from Moscow to Paris for uplink to HotBird via the new POP.
This latest addition to the network is part of GlobeCasts ongoing expansion of its fibre and satellite connectivity and will greater connect this key region with points-of-presence in Asia, America, Africa and Europe. It will also allow GlobeCast to continue to differentiate its broadcast delivery service by offering a hybrid satellite and fibre solution.
The STRANA channel which was launched on HotBird on 2 November, has taken advantage of this hybrid network with a combined fibre and satellite solution. GlobeCast receives the STRANA signal at its new Moscow POP before sending it via its international fibre network to Paris for uplink to the HotBird satellite. As well as fibre and satellite capacity, GlobeCast is providing STRANA with a 24 hour, 365 day a year, monitoring service across the entire network from its Master Control Room in Paris.
The new Russian-language TV channel, which is one of only a handful of Russian channels available on the HotBird platform, describes itself as Russias Voice and will provide a range of programming including factual, educational and cultural shows, classical, popular and original films as well as self-produced documentaries, talk shows and music programmes. It will also encourage independent film making throughout Russia with the STRANA Award, a competition for independent movie producers to have their works broadcast on the channel.
GlobeCasts DTM fibre network has been built to support the increasing number of high definition channels and to provide a more cost effective route for broadcasters to go global. This new connection to Moscow comes at an ideal time when a growing number of content owners are looking to bring their channels securely from Eastern Europe to the rest of the world and vice versa.
9 November 2009
London-based Can Communicate is nearing completion of a challenging Stereo3D project for the UK’s Channel 4 Television. The project involves the complete production of four one hour Stereo3D programs, and also the processing of three full length Stereo3D movies. Two of the documentaries go under the banner ‘The Queen in 3D’ and feature footage shot in the last couple of months as well as rare Stereo3D footage from ‘Royal Review’ which was shot on film in 1953 at the Coronation. The latter is being aired in public for the very first time, having languished deep in the BFI archive for the last 50 years. Both films are co-productions with Renegade Pictures. All the Stereo3D correction and grading is being carried out on Can Communicate’s Quantel Pablo color correction and finishing system.
Channel Four will broadcast the programs throughout the week of 16th November. It will utilise ColorCode display and viewing technology, a development of anaglyph which gives superior results and also allows viewers without glasses to view the material in 2D without the ghosting usually associated with anaglyph. Millions of pairs of ColorCode viewing glasses are being distributed through one of the UK’s leading supermarket chains.
The timescale for production is extremely tight, with Stereo3D online and correction work only started on 19th October. But thanks to the power of Pablo, and Can Communicate’s three Pablo stereographers working round the clock, Can Communicate is well on target to complete all the work in time. “The beauty of Quantel is that if you shoot it right you can do it in realtime in post,” says Can Communicate partner, David Wooster.
The documentary using the 1953 stereo3D material of the Queen is the centrepiece of the week’s broadcasting, and the trigger that persuaded Channel 4 to undertake the whole venture. It was shot by Bob Angel and Arthur Wooster (father of David Wooster), who developed considerable expertise in Stereo3D production and put all those skills to use in producing their film. David Wooster went in search of the film at the BFI after his father told him about it in 2007.
“Very few people understand shooting or posting 3D,” adds David Wooster. “My father clearly did though, and the principles of good 3D remain the same today as they were in 1953 It’s all about being meticulous in the set-ups and not asking the audience to work too hard to watch the film, which means the choreography needs to be much slower paced in terms of edits than it might be in a 2D production.
“Great care also has to be taken over color balance between the eyes,” Wooster continues, “and the Pablo has great tools to help with this in the hands of an experienced 3D grader. In fact good grading can considerably enhance the 3D experience by helping to add depth to the image. If they’d had a Quantel Pablo in 1953, they would have produced a perfect Stereo3D result!”
This project also represents the first use of eMotion Engines’ Pure+ restoration application integrated into Quantel’s Pablo to eliminate the dust, sparkle and flicker from the footage. The result of all the work, according to Wooster, is a brilliant Stereo3D experience that he likens to “looking at living history through a window”.
The second ‘Queen in 3D’ documentary follows the Queen today. This includes considerable Stereo3D footage shot by Can Communicate in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and at other Royal events. The third original Stereo3D program is a Derren Brown-hosted magic show, and the final one a compilation of clips from a number of Stereo3D movies old and new, much of which required considerable correction. Both of these were produced in association with Objective Production Company. The three movies that complete the week were also processed through Pablo at Can Communicate and include the Hannah Montana concert tour movie from 2008 (originally posted on Pablo at FotoKem in Los Angeles) and two 1970s 3D films, Flesh for Frankenstein and Friday the 13th Part 3. The latter films required considerable 3D correction in Pablo to fix 3D problems that simply couldn’t be corrected at the time they were made.
The final word goes to David Wooster “Pulling this off in the timeframe is an absolute miracle! We couldn’t have done it without our very dedicated, creative staff and also the Quantel Pablo.”
9 November 2009
For the 9th annual Transat Jacques Vabre, a transatlantic sailing competition, GlobeCast has equipped French multihull yacht Crêpes Whaou with its GlobeCast Content Exchange solution. The trimaran leaves Le Havre, France on 8 November destined for Puerto Limon, Costa Rica by early December.
At any time during the four week crossing, the yachts two skippers can send video reports to their sponsor, Crêpes Whaou, via webcam with GlobeCast Content Exchange, using an on board satellite connection. The solution will also allow the shipmates to chat in real time with their sponsor and teammates on land so the whole team can enjoy a live experience of the most exciting moments of the race.
For this operation, GlobeCast, partnered with IEC Telecom a distributor for Inmarsats FleetBroadband solution, which allows for simultaneous voice and data transmission with a compact antenna.
The user-friendly nature of the equipment makes it easy for the client to assimilate the system in order to send video files without an audiovisual specialist onboard. GlobeCast Content Exchange is a reliable solution that guarantees its users optimal performance no matter what the environment air, land or sea.
9 November 2009
Support services company VT Group has secured a contract to broadcast 20 hours a day of analogue and digital output from the Polish state broadcaster Polskie Radio using its network of European and global transmission sites.
VT will deliver the programming on short wave to listeners in Europe and Israel. Broadcasts by Polskie Radio’s External Service, Polands international radio service, will be delivered in Polish, English, German, Hebrew, Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian.
Programming, originating in Warsaw, will be brought into VTs Media Management Centre in London for scheduling and distribution to various transmission sites using VTs Global Media Network – a combination of fibre connectivity and satellite delivery. The majority of transmission will go out from VTs site at Woofferton in Shropshire, supported by other sites including Rampisham and Skelton, and partner sites in Dhabiyya in the United Arab Emirates and at Moosbrun in Austria.
Most of the programming will be analogue but there is also provision for 1.5 hours a day of digital output using DRM digital short wave.
VTs John Prior, General Manager Broadcast and Security, commented: We are delighted to be appointed as Polskie Radios exclusive short wave transmission partner supplementing their existing output by satellite and internet. The move demonstrates a continued commitment to short wave from a major European broadcaster.
The four-year contract with Polskie Radio, which started in late October, is worth some £1.5 million and means VT now has nearly 40 customers for its transmission services. Polskie Radios daily output will place it in the companys top ten broadcast customers.
9 November 2009
RRsat Global Communications Network Ltd, a rapidly growing provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, announced today that it has been chosen by KidsCo, a joint venture channel owned by leading media companies NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment Inc. (Nelvana) and Cookie Jar Group, to provide playout to Australia.
RRsat will be providing comprehensive playout and uplink services, as well as distributing the channel to the Foxtel DBS platform in Australia via the Asiasat 5 satellite. KidsCo also has the option to leverage RRsats Global Network to provide additional playout to Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia in the future.
Mr. Paul Robinson, Managing Director of KidsCo commented: KidsCo needed an innovative flexible partner for playout to Australia and we chose RRsat because they proved themselves to be very customer focused and dedicated to finding high quality business solutions.
“We are very excited that KidsCo has chosen RRsat as part of its international expansion strategy, targeting prime new geographies, reaching millions of new households and potential viewers, commented Mr. Lior Rival, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RRsat. We look forward to further expanding the channels coverage in the future, taking it to new regions and countries in Europe, Middle East, Asia and South America, further leveraging the advanced RRsat Global Network. (Source: RRsat press release)
