Broadcast Solutions UK

4K/ Ultra-HD primarily delivers a huge improvement to the amount of detail and clarity within an image. The resolution of Ultra-HD is four times that of a 1080p HD signal - 8 million pixels compared to 2 million

The huge level of data delivered by Ultra-HD (12Gbps) requires equipment that is able to process these signals. The availability of such technology is now at a point at which is it becoming more viable, both financially and functionally. Broadcast Solutions has seen a continual shift towards this improved format and is in a unique position to be able to provide the skilled resource to deliver these Ultra-HD systems.

Key benefits of introducing Ultra-HD technology include:

• Ultra-HD delivers sharp, crisp, high resolution images with 4x the quality of HD;
• It is an investment in a future proof technology with a long life span;
• It is an opportunity to be leaders in the market and technical innovators;
• It can open up additional production business which otherwise may not be targeted.

Broadcast Solutions have delivered a large number of UHD systems using both IP and baseband infrastructures to transport and are able to advise on the optimal solution which brings you both commercial and technical gains.

High Dynamic range (HDR) is one of the key improvements of both the HD and Ultra-HD format and provides a significant improvement to the end-user.

HDR is the ability to capture, process & display a much higher range of brightness than is currently possible. An image reproduced with HDR has much better detail within the shadows and highlights without either being lost in darkness or saturated (respectively).

The combination of High Dynamic Range and Wider Colour Gamut (WCG) provides huge increase in colour volume and as such an improved image reproduction to the end-user. Transfer functions such as HLG and PQ enable this large dynamic range to be compressed into a 10 bit sample depth enabling better consumer experience already supported by much of the existing infrastructure.

Broadcast Solutions technologies for UHD include support for increased colour volumes and this is now being extended to our HD solutions to enable better percieved resolutions with minimal impact to existing infrastructures.

IP connectivity is the new wave in Broadcast connectivity with ST2110 being largely regarded as the standard that all broadcasters and manufacturers will adopt. Whilst IP projects are still highly complex and subject to ‘incompatibilities’, the standardisation of ST2110 has provided a means for the industry to move forward and broadcasters are beginning to embrace this new technology.

Broadcast Solutions is at the forefront of this technology having previously delivered IP systems using both ST2022-6 and ST2110 to support HD and UHD production.  We work closely with IP product suppliers and network switch manufacturers to ensure systems are interoperable and can dovetail into today’s legacy SDI based environments. Importantly systems are designed with the future in mind and products are selected to maximise the system reuse and simplify system expansion.

Whilst ST2110 represents the pinnacle of IP technologies for uncompressed live production, other technologies such as NDI and the eventual adoption of IPMX into the ProAV market have their place within the broadcast professional world and Broadcast Solutions is able to offer advice and expertise into these technologies also.

Broadcasters recognise that the move to IP is a game-changer and one which requires a ‘reskilling’ of their maintenance/ administration staff. Broadcast Solutions are able to support customers in gaining the appropriate skillset by facilitating training courses and providing 1^st line support to customers during the initial bedding in phase for a project.

Up until recently, there have been many differing Audio over IP technologies adopted by broadcasters for different purposes, each with their benefits. These include Dante, Ravenna, Livewire, WheatNet-IP & Q-LAN. The principles of these technologies are to use the 7-layer Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model and standard networking protocols to transport audio data between enabling audio to propagate standard LAN and WAN network connections.

The advantages of the network-based AoIP systems provided include:

• Higher channel counts
• Flexible signal splitting & routing
• A consolidate synchronisation architecture

This adoption of different technologies has led to challenges when exchanging signals, with media companies often relying on traditional MADI or Analog/ AES/EBU connections to exchange audio. The Audio Engineering Society recognised this and defined the AES67 standard as a minimum set of conditions, which used existing protocols where possible but which, when adopted by the differing AoIP technologies, would allow for the exchange of audio signals. In effect, by complying with the AES67 standard, AoIP technologies guarantee they are interoperable.

Importantly, AES67 was adopted as the core audio transport mechanism for ST2110-30 and therefore is used within IP systems as the mechanism to carry audio data. These standards are adopted within Broadcast Solutions IP based systems (ST2110) and our engineering team can advise on the optimal design to allow AoIP enabled products to communicate.

Cellular bonding of 3G/4G and now 5G connections to provide high data rates for video transfer allows for production from anywhere at any time. These systems use highly effficient H.264, H.265 or HEVC codecs to transfer HD and UHD signals over mobile phone connections.

The mobile connectivity provides speed-to-air for direct connection into broadcast infrastructure or social media platforms which were previously inaccessible by large satellite uplink vehicles.  This means reporters are able to get close to the action with minimal equipment and support crew.

Broadcast Solutions partner with Mobile viewpoint for the provision of encoding/ decoding products which use cellular bonding.

The use of Virtual reality and Augmented Reality has become more prevalent recently as the graphics processing engines have become more powerful, cost effective and the graphics more sophisticated.  The latter Augmented reality is being used extensively within large scale productions (i.e. FIFA World Cup, Elections etc.) to enhance the user experience and provide more engaging ways to display important data and statistics.  Virtual reality has been a popular technology for broadcasters for many years providing simple ways to change the look and feel of a program with minimal cost.

Broadcast Solutions has close relations with graphics suppliers such as Zero Density who are able to create the latest hyper-realistic VR and AR graphics by using Reality Engine® as the real-time compositing solution.

The live production environment is one which is traditionally requires lots of skilled resources to operate. Studio automation systems are becoming increasingly popular and sophisticated and offer an opportunity for broadcasters to free up their operational staff to focus on being more creative. Furthermore, the automation systems provide a way for broadcasters to bring structure and standardisation across their programming by applying a brand ‘look-and-feel’ through production templates.

Broadcast Solutions are seeing a need for these automations systems to be used in a more self-op mode, with presenters now having the freedom to control their own productions whether this be from the studio floor or in the field. This means deploying automation toolsets to mobile devices such as laptops and mobile phones.

Automation and control systems such as Broadcast Solutions Human interface, Mosart, Ross Overdrive and others are bringing efficiencies into production workflows by allowing for more creative productions with fewer staff.

Virtualisation is nothing new to the broadcast industry and software suppliers continue to improve support for virtualisation technologies such as VMWare, Hyper-V, with an end goal to be platform agnostic.

Broadcast Solutions looks to design solutions that are as advanced as possible and can make use of such technologies as Hyperconvergence and software defined storage to optimise the platform usage and enable customers to easily scale up/down with minimal disruption.

This includes cloud centric solutions for processing, production and playout using cloud technologies such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.  Installations of systems within the cloud offer customers differing revenue models with fast scale out capabilites, access from anywhere and no on-prem equipment.

Cloud really becomes a benefit to broadcasters when deployed as a hybrid environment with a mix both on-prem and off-prem compute, relying on the cloud processing to provide ‘scale-up/out’ processing as the production dictates. A cloud platform, mixed with the predictive data usage that AI/Machine offers makes for a very powerful and intuitive system.

Broadcast Solutions has close links to major IT suppliers and service providers who can provide platforms to meet both off- and on-prem models and are able to tie broadcast upgrade projects into customers’ wider office IT upgrades/ migrations.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is an area that is developing extremely rapidly and is expected to bring efficiencies into the broadcast industry to provide more effective ways to analyse and manipulate data.  Many areas will be strongly impacted, such as:

• Process automation
• Network optimisation
• Predictive maintenance
• Audience insights
• Recommendation, search and discovery of content
• Automated content annotation
• Content creation.

Broadcast Solutions sees a number of start-up companies and existing software providers developing products or ‘add-ons’ that utilize AI or ML to help improve the efficiency and capability of broadcast systems.

Importantly suppliers recognise that these systems need to facilitate and enhance existing workflows rather than totally replace them and as such AI solutions are integrated into existing production platforms to offer improved indexing and media manipulation.

The ability to ‘follow the story’ and ‘produce from anywhere’ is the current and future demands for broadcasters facilitated by the improved availability of high-speed networks and the move of production into the cloud.

Whilst OBs are still prevalent, the demand for remote production increases and will eventually replace the need for large onsite facilities. Technologies using low latency, visually lossless codecs enable content to be transferred over the internet or leased lines rather than expensive satellite links.

Broadcast Solutions has had first hand experience in deploying these remote produciton solutions with the Finnish Ice Hockey league being an example of remote production for one of fourteen Ice Hockey clubs across the country.