Exploring the future of media technology
VIEWER BIOMETRICS ESPORTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONTENT MANAGEMENT FACEBOOK’S LOCAL NEWS BOOST
M U S E U M S C O M E A L I V E W I T H V I D E O
3 CLOUD FOCUS Wildmoka WELCOME
We think of museums as ways of looking at the past, but their real value is in unlocking our present – and opportunities for our future. Museums aren’t backward looking at all. They inform our experience with new ideas about how we might live, think, act and
EDITORIAL EDITOR Neal Romanek +44 (0) 1223 492246 nealromanek@bright-publishing.com
believe. So it makes sense that new technologies are being used to boost the experience of museum visitors and to trial different visions of the future. Admittedly, installations and AV are on the frontier of FEED’s remit, but there are so many interesting things going on with video streaming in physical spaces we felt we should address the sector. Looking at the field through the lens of museums, we learn how digital content in these institutions has become more than just an informational video or a badly scratched-up kiosk. We also kick off our first Region Focus, where we take a closer look at the challenges, opportunities and technology of a specific geographical region. Since we are, after all, based in the United Kingdom, we have chosen the UK as the first stop on our world tour. We talk to Facebook about new UK initiatives to help local news outlets, and we discuss B…B…The B Word...with an organisation trying to protect the UK gaming industry from any negative repercussions of…of The B Word. We’re also extremely excited to announce the expansion of the FEED staff! Join us in welcoming FEED’s new staff writer, Chelsea Fearnley!
CONTRIBUTORS Ann-Marie Corvin David Davies Adrian Pennington FEATURE WRITER Chelsea Fearnley
CHIEF SUB EDITOR Beth Fletcher SENIOR SUB EDITOR Siobhan Godwood SUB EDITOR Felicity Evans JUNIOR SUB EDITOR Elisha Young ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Matt Snow +44 (0) 1223 499453 mattsnow@bright-publishing.com Andy Jennings DESIGN MANAGER Alan Gray SENIOR DESIGNER & PRODUCTION MANAGER Flo Thomas DESIGNER Man-Wai Wong DESIGNER Lucy Woolcomb PUBLISHING MANAGING DIRECTORS Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck DESIGN DESIGN DIRECTOR
NEAL ROMANEK, EDITOR nealromanek@bright-publishing.com @rabbitandcrow @nromanek
Need to update or cancel your FEED subscription? Email us at feedsubs@bright-publishing.com BRIGHT PUBLISHING LTD, BRIGHT HOUSE, 82 HIGH STREET, SAWSTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE CB22 3HJ UK
TO SUBSCRIBE TO FEED GO TO PAGE 66
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06 NEWSFEED
48 NEWS BOOST UK FOCUS
Dispatches from the world of online video
12 MEET THE TEAM
Welcome our new features writer, Chelsea Fearnley
Facebook is trialling a new programme to boost local news reporting INTERVIEW We talk with George Osborn, head of anti- Brexit campaigning group Games4EU
16 YOUR TAKE
Tips for cutting through your video analytics fog
52 GENIUS
32 ROUND TABLE
Our experts answer questions about a hypothetical archive that could be a gold mine – or a disaster
38 ROUND TABLE – ONE ON ONE
62 XTREME
An alternative take on the problem with archives
Live streaming of dirt track racing from the heart of the USA
42 THE LIVE LIFE
A new AI-driven production solution completely automates sports broadcasting Esports takes hold in the Middle East and the CABSAT trade show launches an esports conference; Las Vegas doubles down on a new esports arena
68 FUTURE SHOCK A German start-up is measuring everything
about viewer experience – absolutely everything
58 ESPORTS BLAST
70 START-UP ALLEY
This month’s start-ups offer automated metadata, music videos on demand, and quiz show apps
26
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22 SEE PAGE 66
AV AND INSTALLATION
14 YOUR TAKE
From amusement parks to sports stadiums, video is making a day out even better
22 MUSEUMS – VR
An exhibit at the Hermitage Museum shows how 5G, VR, and robotics combine to make the museum of the future
26 MUSEUMS – AUDIO
New museum installations are using immersive audio to blow people’s minds
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Words by Neal Romanek
BREAKING NEWS FROM THE STREAMING SECTOR
NETFLIX TESTS INSTANT REPLAY
What’s that you say? You really want to watch that bad guy getting shot again? You want to watch it over and over and over? Netflix wants to help. The streaming service has started trialling an instant replay feature that lets
users review key scenes with a single button tap. The replay feature has only been sporadically available on selected Netflix content and apparently only in North America. In a Los Angeles Times article, Netflix outlined the feature,
which is accessed via a pop-up on screen that asks the viewer, ‘Watch this scene again?’ Users wasted no time in complaining vociferously. Netflix has emphasised that the feature is only a test...
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Updates & Upgrades NEWSFEED 7
MEDIAPRO LAUNCHESGLOBAL SPANISH-LANGUAGE ESPORTS PLATFORM
Spanish TV group Mediapro has launched U-Beat, a global Spanish-language esports OTT platform. Announced at the third Barcelona Games World, the U-Beat will be a global platform and will offer VOD and live content, viewable across multiple devices. U-Beat will have its own in-house production crew, and will offer viewers exclusive competitions and content
CSGO and Call of Duty. Content will also include competitions and events produced for the esports giant LVP (Liga de Videojuegos Profesional) – Mediapro acquired majority rights to LVP owners Fandroid in 2016. Live events will feature analysis by leading Spanish-speaking commentators such as Ibai Llanos, Ulises Prieto and BarbeQ. U-Beat is kicking off as a free service with a premium content model to follow.
from popular games including League of Legends, Clash Royale, Fortnite,
NINTENDO CALLS A TRUCE Whether it’s an amusing gif, a game play-through or a new Star Wars Bad Lip Reading, the amount of content generated from previously existing IP is vast and is a source of endless anxiety for rights holders.
Until now, Nintendo has chosen to deliberately restrict the use of imagery from its games solely to those online creators who had signed up for its revenue-sharing plan. This meant the average vlogger or gamer creating videos around Nintendo content was subjected to – sometimes threatening – legal action from Nintendo. From a rights protection perspective the Nintendo Creators Program seems like a sensible strategy, but in the real world of online content, it’s suicidal. Nintendo has finally decided that taking its fans to court is not in the company’s best interest. A statement on its website read: “We are humbled every day by your loyalty and passion for Nintendo’s games, characters and worlds, and respect that you want to be able to express yourself creatively by sharing your own original videos and images using content from our games.”
In its statement, Nintendo laid out some new guidelines:
• You may monetise your videos and channels using the monetisation methods...specified by Nintendo. Other forms of monetisation of our intellectual property for commercial purposes are not permitted. • We encourage you to create videos that include your creative input and commentary. Videos and images
or commentary are not permitted. You may, however, post game play videos and screenshots using Nintendo system features...without additional input or commentary. • You are only permitted to use Nintendo Game Content that has been officially released, or from promotional materials officially released by Nintendo (such as product trailers or Nintendo Directs).
• If you want to use the intellectual property of a third party, you are responsible for obtaining any necessary third-party permissions. • You are not permitted to imply or state that your videos are officially affiliated with or sponsored by Nintendo. • We reserve the right to remove any content that we believe is unlawful, infringing, inappropriate, or not in line with these Guidelines.
that contain mere copies of Nintendo Game Content without creative input
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8 NEWSFEED Updates & Upgrades
KOREA TURNS ON 5G NETWORKS Three Korean wireless operators, Korea′s SK Telecom (SKT), KT Corp and LG Uplus,
SPORTS STREAMER DAZN EXPANDS TO BRAZIL
of 5G smartphone rollout starting in March of this year. KT Corp has been recovering from a disruption caused by a fire in one of its Seoul headquarters, but according to Korean business news outlet Pulse (pulsenews. co.kr), KT is nonetheless preparing frequency transmission for its commercial 5G service that is up to 20 times faster than the long-term evolution network. US operator Verizon launched a limited commercial 5G service last October.
activated 5G networks on 1 December. SK Telecom 5G service has launched in Seoul and six other cities, and expects to launch the 5G service nationwide by the end of 2019. Its first services will be aimed at the corporate sector with the supplying of routers and other customised services. LG Plus has been aggressively installing 5G base stations across the country in anticipation
Sports streaming service DAZN is launching in Brazil in March. The news came hot on the heels of DAZN’s announcement of a launch in Spain later this year. Catering to Brazil’s national obsession, the ‘Netflix for sports’ has acquired exclusive rights for all Copa Sudamericana football matches from 2019 from CONMEBOL, South America’s football governing body. DAZN will also show all Serie A TIM and Ligue 1 games exclusively until 2021, with more rights acquisitions to be announced soon. Prior to launch, DAZN is offering select Serie A TIM and Ligue 1 matches free via Facebook and YouTube. Simon Denyer, CEO of DAZN Group, said: “Launching in Brazil with such significant rights is a huge moment for DAZN, cementing us as the fastest-growing sports broadcaster in the world. We’ve expanded our footprint to nine countries on four continents in just over two years, and that is only the beginning.” DAZN is available in Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Italy and the US.
MY PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY SENSE IS TINGLING Can you patent an artistic technique? Sony Pictures thinks so.
According to a story broken by industry news site Deadline Hollywood, Sony has applied for patent protection for the process it employed in its new film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse . The film’s animation design and style, which uses CG techniques enhanced with manual touch-ups by human (yes, real human) artists has been widely praised. Deadline summarised Sony’s application to the U.S. Patents & Trademarks Office, which claims “unique rendering and compositing technologies that can artistically modify the smooth shading of a surface via ‘stylised quantisation’. Those technologies can add specific patterned-controls over the break-up of light hitting skin and also integrate half-tone dots and hatched lines”. Also outlined in the application were a new type of ink-line software, a machine-learning
component that predicts the position of lines on the next frame, and “stylised abstractions of reality” constructed with new shading tools. Whether Sony’s claim is a good old fashioned big studio marketing stunt, or an animation revolution in the making, FEED would love a behind-the-scenes peek!
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10 NEWSFEED Updates & Upgrades NEW CHAMELEON AT POLLS
Bannister Lake’s data and graphics management solution Chameleon has released an upgrade, with some new tools for displaying and broadcasting election data now included. Chameleon Version 10’s election module improves how election data is ingested and managed. The release expands the ability to enter manual election results when data feeds may not be available. This kind of feature is useful in less populated districts or jurisdictions where real-time results are unavailable or impractical. The new features also include a fail-safe for instances when the results feed may be interrupted. Chameleon 10 has also added improvements in managing referendum and proposition results, with more
options for displaying down-ballot data.
The new release features the ability to feed data to web widgets, too, allowing producers to visualise data interactively online or on mobile devices. Bannister Lake is also introducing support for automated tweeting based on Chameleon data conditions. The updated version includes enhanced security features aligned with NIST guidelines, with improved password protection. “We realise that elections are more than just national events. These new features help ensure that broadcasters covering races in remote locations or in smaller communities can use data on-air more effectively,” said Bannister Lake’s president, Georg Hentsch.
ESPORTS COMES TO CABSAT
This year’s CABSAT show in Dubai has joined the esports gold rush. MENA’s biggest media tech trade show will debut the Esports Showcase. CABSAT has launched the new theme with the aim of “providing an opportunity to showcase and understand monetisation models”. In contrast to esports’ homegrown, DIY beginnings, the Esports Showcase will feature an invite-only networking event for high-level executives to create a marketplace for esports deals, as well as a conference including panels and keynote speeches. The Esports Showcase founding partners are Arabic esports streaming start-up Rawa.TV and MENA esports platform ESME. See p.58 for more.
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12 MEET THE TEAM Chelsea Fearnley
WE’LL BE ABLE TO PLUG INTO THE INTERNET LIKE IN THE MATRIX AND DOWNLOAD SKILLS FEED is growing by leaps and bounds. So we have brought on another full-time writer who will be providing more great content, working on our 'away team’ at events and contributing to FEED’s expanding digital presence. Meet Chelsea Fearnley!
NAME? Chelsea Fearnley. OCCUPATION? Features writer.
LANGUAGES? English and – although not actually a language, it′s something I pride myself on knowing – pig Latin. WHERE WERE YOU WORKING BEFORE YOU CAME TO FEED? Spotify. WHAT DID YOU DO THERE? Content writing. This involved writing and editing reader-focused content for the creator and consumer support sites, collaborating with front end and back end designers, creating infographics and networking with industry people in order to attain the latest info and news. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE INTERNET WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE YEAR 2050? We’ll be able to plug into the Internet, like in The Matrix , and download skills, not for kung fu fighting but skills for life – such as learning the splits. WHAT TECHNOLOGY OR DEVICE DO YOUWISH SOMEONE WOULD INVENT? A device that enables my cat to talk to me. In an episode of Rick and Morty , Morty’s dog had a device on his collar that translated barks into words. I imagine it being something like that.
HOW DO YOU LIKE TO WATCH YOUR VIDEO – TABLET? TV? CINEMA? I don’t currently own a TV but I catch my favourites online. I have a projector at home that I use and I hook this up to my mobile. It also provides that cinema feel everyone knows and loves, though popcorn is not usually included. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING ON YOUR PROJECTOR LATELY? A lot of Christmas TV. I think I watched Home Alone three times. I also saw Sir David Attenborough’s new BBC documentary series, Dynasties , as well as the new interactive Black Mirror episode, Bandersnatch, on Netflix.
VIDEO GAMES OR BOARD GAMES? Can I say both? Peggle and Trivial Pursuit are my faves. ZOMBIES OR VAMPIRES? Vampires. The not-so-sparkly The Lost Boys kind.
CAKE OR COOKIES? Cookies.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST AT FEED ? New opportunities. Talking to people within the industry, learning about the cutting edge of broadcast, and writing creatively and passionately about it!
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14 YOUR TAKE AV Focus
PLAYTIME IS SCREENTIME Video can enhance entertainment spaces, turning a day out into a rich media experience ELIOT FULTON-LANGLEY, SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, CDEC LTD
hen thinking about content in spaces such as sports
information that people need or are interested in, to encourage eyes on the screen.
in one area of the park. Well-positioned wayfinding kiosks will receive high dwell time and footfall, with customers keen to interact with something they know will help them. This can make them great tools for advertising content and QR codes linked to shops and restaurants offering special offers at quieter times. In addition to getting lost, queue times are one of the biggest bugbears of thrill-seekers at amusement parks. Often a relatively small number of major rides will be the focus of many people’s visit, so managing wait times is a key use of technology here. Digital signage content can be used to engage and distract queuers, offering park information, music videos, trivia and accurate wait times. As AR/VR becomes increasingly popular
venues or visitor attractions, it’s easy to think of passive technology such as content on advertising or promotional displays – content that you’re aware of in the background but you either aren’t able, or don’t feel the need, to engage with. But this is changing rapidly. While just a few years ago a touchscreen in a museum would have been seen as an innovative use of technology, the focus now is very much on the user and creating engaging, unique and personalised experiences that can’t be recreated at home. And this means content is more crucial than ever. In these environments, however, the word ‘content’ can mean very different things – from wayfinding and helpful information, to supportive content such as player interviews and match stats at a sporting event. The key is supplying
QUEUES AND QR CODES Let’s take the visitor attractions market as an example. Technology is being used throughout museums, theme parks and other venues to provide information, cut queue-time boredom and make rides more immersive. In the past you’d look for a static map and work your way around your favourite theme park, but now apps provide all the information you need before you set foot on site, as well as providing offers, queue updates and the latest news to enhance your visit. Once on site, it can be easy to get caught up in the crowds, but effective wayfinding tools can be used to guide people around what is often a sprawling location, even encouraging visitors to take specific routes to ease congestion
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15 YOUR TAKE AV Focus
in theme parks, it’s only a matter of time before this is used in supporting content as well as on rides. READY PLAYER ONE Sports venues are another sector that has been quick to realise the value of engaging content. As ticket prices for many sporting events have gone up and consumers have increasingly high-quality TVs in their own homes, the industry realises it needs to offer more if it is to keep filling seats, and content can play a major role here. As video screens in stadiums get ever bigger and are placed in ever more eye-catching configurations, there’s a huge opportunity to provide a real value-add. Digital signage for stadiums can deliver live and engaging content to create fully immersive event experiences. Development in this area is ongoing, with the potential of using 360° cameras or even player-worn cameras to offer unique angles on the action via a big screen. The installation of 360° screens is underway, ensuring every seat gets a perfect view of the action,
AS AR/VR BECOMES INCREASINGLY POPULAR IN THEME PARKS, IT’S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THIS IS USED IN SUPPORTING CONTENT AS WELL AS ON RIDES
their own subscription-based TV channels, venues can provide a captive audience to whom you can showcase your latest features. CONTENT EVERYWHERE Delivering content on a large scale is a great way to inform and promote, but personalisation is perhaps the best way to build brand loyalty and interact with the fan or consumer. It is here that technology such as Bluetooth Low Energy, RFID, Mifare and others come into play. These tools are designed to provide
bespoke content to users when they check in at a particular location. Using beacons and sensors, it is possible to see where someone is sitting and offer them seating upgrades or deals at their nearest food outlet. Fan quizzes and contests are guaranteed to encourage interaction. Taking this one step further, events such as soccer skills or virtual races against top athletes can lead to huge levels of interaction. This gamification is possible with the use of RFID technology with wristbands registering a person’s participation, posting automatically to social media and even creating leader boards so winners receive a prize. Similarly, a recent project with Heineken in Ireland analysed the largest age group in the venue’s bar at a given time and targeted age-related content on the bar fridges. This was tied in with the PoS equipment to identify if sales tracked the targeted content on the screens. Analytics tracked the content and provided near- real-time feedback to the customer on sales and signage. These joined-up approaches to content can have a real impact, especially in engaging specific audiences, while providing valuable data to venues at the same time.
not to mention of any additional content. And with many major sports teams now streaming
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16 YOUR TAKE Quality of experience
SIMPLIFY YOUR DATA CLUTTER
Just because you have lots of data doesn’t mean you have lots of insight. Datazoom’s Diane Strutner offers tips for cutting through your video analytics fog Remember the oft-cited Cisco statistic, which states that by 2019 80% of internet traffic would be video?* Well, 2019 is here! But for all the advancements the video market has made in some areas, there is still some catching up to be done in others. As viewers demand an ever-improving experience, there has been a rush to perfect content’s ‘kingdom’, but the data that makes its reign possible has been given less than equal attention. More than mere jargon, data is truly the fuel for OTT. For some companies, the data-driven revolution has long been underway. In an effort to emulate the likes of Netflix, media companies built their video stacks around a mish-mash of pre-built ‘best of breed’ technologies. This strategy gave managers access to innovative solutions that independently worked well, and could theoretically be tailored to fit the organisation’s unique needs, but omitted the crucial component underpinning Netflix’s success – data. Netflix realised that in order to scale and operate efficiently, and maximise the value of their video delivery stack investment, they required end-to-end visibility, and the ability to make adjustments to key services and infrastructure. This was achieved by t’s a critical time for content providers. That fabled moment when streaming would eclipse traditional television is upon us.
DIANE STRUTNER, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, DATAZOOM 2019 is here, and it’s time to prioritise data to improve video operations
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17 YOUR TAKE Datazoom
As the streaming industry became more sophisticated, the number of services, dashboards and amount of data morphed into today’s debacle: each OTT provider must log into multiple dashboards, viewing metrics which cross-over between mismatched systems and reducing the usefulness of data, in terms of end-to-end optimisation, to effectively nothing. What good is knowing about buffer affecting a video stream if we can’t determine whether the encoder, transcoder, stitcher, CDN, transit network, ISP, third-party-embedded- service, or a setting on the video player itself caused the issue? GET FOCUSED Looking into 2019, every company should have a new focus: using data to improve video operations. Here’s how you can start: 1. Standardise data: Not data roll-up or aggregation, but cleaning. A ‘play’ event from your iOS player will have a different raw data read-out than your HTML5 player. But they represent the same thing. At Datazoom we have our own Video Data Standard which you may consider leveraging. 2.Data must be available in one place: Think data lake. Data is less useful when left in silos. 3. Data needs to be assembled: How useful is collecting player data, CDN log data, encoding log data and ad server
data if you can’t identify the interplay of one service with another? Less useful than understanding their correlation by aligning all of them together. formatted, in the right place, and in the right context, how do we turn it into action? If you’ve purchased outside services, those are your data’s new stakeholders who must have access to this data in order to adjust their systems on your behalf. 4.Data needs to be put to work: Once we have the data, properly As OTT enters its next industry-wide iteration, data which ties vendor technologies, departments and business units together will allow video distributors Otherwise, the business of video will stay more art than science, and the question of how to reliably, and profitably, stream video at scale will remain unanswered. * “Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Trends, 2017–2022”: https://www.cisco. com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service- provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white- paper-c11-741490.html to finally compete, leveraging the technology’s full array of benefits.
WHILE SERVICES MAY BE PURCHASED INDEPENDENTLY, THEY DO NOT TRULY OPERATE INDEPENDENTLY provisioning the collection and integration of data in and between these systems, across the technology stack. The difference between Netflix’s approach to data versus the rest of the streaming industry lay in their vision for data’s role – supporting the growth and optimisation of an end-to-end network. Even when Netflix purchased outside services, they maintained focus on that service’s ability to be included within an end-to-end system. It was essential that each new service be monitored and adjusted in the context of all other systems in the network. This realisation – that while services may be purchased independently, they do not truly operate independently – guided Netflix toward their holistic approach to data. The linchpin of Netflix’s data strategy is their ability to collect data from any one source and then establish context, correlations and causation amongst any coexisting source. DUMB ABOUT DATA New entrants trying to catch up with Netflix raised cash and loaded up on independent, best-of-breed technologies. Taking the new service live took precedence, while long- term strategies – like how to gather, use and incorporate data – were deprioritised. Collected data was used for individual service monitoring and often provided by vendors. As new technologies were adopted, more data and more dashboards entered the picture, all lacking context, correlation and the ability to determine causation from one service to another. Data was used as a way to monitor the performance (and the investment) of each service individually. Each service came with its own dashboard (and services that lacked dashboards became filled by yet more outside vendors, like QoE analytics for video players), and data turned into metrics which were specific only to that service.
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18 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
WIDE CLOUD
The increasing global demand for immersive sports content can only be met by the cloud F SPORTS f you were a sports fan in the mid- to late-20th century, you waited… and you waited. Finally, the weekend came and for a few
hours, you devoured as much sports content as you could. If you lived in the US, it all kicked off with ABC’s Wide World of Sports on Saturday afternoons. It was a miracle of sportscasting, ‘spanning the globe to bring you constant variety of sport’ – and all within 90 minutes. Dedicated cable sports channels eventually displaced the weekend sports magazine, making sports TV available on a more or less continuous basis. But the major cable networks who specialised in high-quality coverage of top tier sporting events still fell short of covering the entire human drama of athletic competition. Today, online technology, augmented by the cloud, gives fans not only the ability to consume sports content anywhere, any time, but allows the full wide world of sports to become available globally, offering new kinds of services to fans that were undreamed of just a few years ago. IMMENSE CHANGES Live sports production has undergone immense changes. In a pre-Twitter world, a ‘tape-delayed’ broadcast of key events was normal and video production required thousands of dollars in capital expenditures and expertise. Today, all it takes is a smartphone and a YouTube channel to become a global broadcaster. Live sports broadcasting has made the switch to an agile, mobile, ‘right now’ offering with flexible, world-class technology accessible to all.
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19 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
ADOPTINGA CLOUD APPROACHOPENSUP YOUR OPERATION TOHAVING THE LATESTANDBEST ALWAYSAVAILABLE The fan base has changed, too. Today’s sports world is truly international. A Premier League fan is as likely to be found on the streets of Seattle as in a pub in Tottenham, London. Fans can interact directly with their favourite athletes on social media, watch replay clips from smartphones while in the stadium and listen to live post-game press conferences. There’s a digital relationship between fans and the game that can lead to increased engagement and increased revenue. MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR ASSETS Those in the business of delivering live OTT sports experiences are racing against the clock to offer world-class fan experiences. Making cloud technologies a key part of sports broadcast workflows can yield practical benefits right away. Cloud services allow for a pay-as-you- go IT model, which allows for provision according to audience size and demand. Instead of saddling themselves with big infrastructure investments before the audience has even tuned in, infrastructure can be deployed appropriate to the use case. The last set of a Grand Slam tennis final, or the final two minutes of the Super Bowl will need a huge surge in capacity, but it doesn’t make sense to have that capacity sitting idle for the rest of the year. Cloud infrastructures can be spun up on-demand, allowing for extra coverage of major events, or special channels for one-off tournaments. This agility can save time and resources on IT management that can be better spent on developing new fan experiences and new ways to monetise. Infrastructure in the cloud can be provisioned around the world, too, so that target audiences can be reached with low-latency, high-availability video offerings that stream smoothly on all devices.
Not only does the cloud allow for flexible and easily evolved production workflows, but the cloud itself is a flexible and evolving landscape. Cloud-based tools are easily upgraded, with new integrations, new services and new solutions being deployed all the time. Adopting a cloud approach opens up your operation to having the latest and best always available, with the opportunity to trial or deploy solutions when you’re ready. THE DISRUPTORS Outlets like fuboTV make up a new ecosystem of nimbler, disruptive video production and distribution companies fully at home in the cloud. fuboTV offers more than 35 streaming sports channels for ‘cord-cutters’ who have moved on from traditional cable TV packages. Cloud-based disruptors, such as fuboTV, can provide custom content to superfans who are unplugging from traditional cable providers. Using cloud-based technologies, they can serve tailored ad content to fans or deliver extras based on the viewer’s location. fuboTV’s business model is built on an ad-based service that uses these targeted ad solutions in clever new ways. Last year, TVNZ, New Zealand’s free-to- air TV provider, used the cloud to quickly
deliver a solution for the Commonwealth Games that had to cover the 24/7 streams, as well as multiple concurrent live events. Cloud technologies were utilised to encode channels and to prepare and distribute live streams to multiple platforms. For Pac-12 Networks, one of the largest live sports producers in the US, the cloud has enabled coverage beyond the 850 event capacity it had previously with the potential for more than 1000 hours of additional live content per year. Covering sporting events from universities in the western region of the US, Pac-12 Networks uses the cloud for end-to-end delivery of content for web and consumer-facing digital experience apps. It now enjoys live, linear encoding for seven linear channels for Pac-12 Now and standardised workflows for consistently high video quality, delivered to any device. The cloud is not only a delivery platform or space for virtualisation of hardware. It’s a field of evolving digital solutions that can be scaled to almost any size and over any geography. If you want to capture the wide world of sports and bring it to
the wide world of fans, the cloud is your future.
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20 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
Cloud is becoming a viable and reliable path for live broadcast CONNECTING WITH THE CLOUD
t wasn’t long ago when the perceived wisdom was that live broadcast video via the cloud was a dodgy proposition. Today, it’s not
only becoming a viable option, but could become the preferred delivery method for some applications. The processing, packaging and delivery of live video content continues to shift away from rigid on-premises infrastructures to flexible cloud-based services. Last November, at its annual re:Invent conference, AWS Elemental announced a new application in its Media Services family of cloud-based workflow tools. AWS Elemental MediaConnect is an application for live video transport that enables content owners to send high- value live content into the cloud, securely transmit it to distribution partners and replicate it to multiple destinations globally. MediaConnect is aimed at companies that need to build mission-critical live video transport workflows with broadcast- grade monitoring. The service functions independently or as part of other AWS Elemental Media Services. HOST OF BENEFITS AWS Elemental MediaConnect supports a range of protocols for video delivery, including the Zixi protocol, Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) and RTP with forward error correction (FEC). Using these protocols, MediaConnect enables a quality- of-service layer over IP network transport, which maintains stream integrity through packet recovery, for reliable live video contribution into the AWS Cloud using AWS Direct Connect or the public Internet.
Industry-standard, end-to-end AES encryption is incorporated into MediaConnect, with the ability to limit access to trusted sources via whitelisting. The service is integrated with AWS Secrets Manager for key storage and retrieval, and users can configure unique encryption keys for video going to each destination.
Using the cloud allows content owners to more easily reach a much larger number of customers. MediaConnect’s entitlement tools allow users to control and assign access to content and revoke or adjust it as and when necessary. Accounts granted full access can also create their own video
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21 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
workflows using MediaConnect and other AWS services. Network operators can share content within the AWS Cloud at lower cost than satellite or fibre, while maintaining robust security for these transmissions. MediaConnect supports trusted security protocols including AES-256 and Zixi encryption and decryption. It integrates with AWS Key Management Services (KMS) for centralised key management, allowing operators to supply a key at the receiver end, either through the UI or the API, to decrypt content when needed. MediaConnect provides metrics on the health of the network carrying the video signals, as well as the active video streams. On the network side, it provides packet loss metrics that quantify the end-to-end network performance and can advise when the bit rate of the input stream needs to be reduced to improve quality of service. Alarms using the TR-101 290 broadcast standard can identify and flag issues with the transport stream to enable a timely response to any issues. CONTENT SHARING A number of benefits are available to the user of cloud services over traditional
THECOSTSOFCONTRACTINGFORSATELLITEAND FIBRE FOR LIVE VIDEO TRANSPORT ARE SIGNIFICANT
having to invest in satellite trucks or live production facilities. The increasing popularity of MVPDs (multi-channel video programming distributors) has made content-sharing a priority for major TV networks and big broadcasters. Easy sharing through the cloud allows these networks to deliver a localised version of a channel to centralised MVPDs (D-MVPDs) so that customers can receive regionalised content as part of their subscription. MediaConnect is available in the US East (Northern Virginia), US West (Northern California
satellite and fibre distribution. When a broadcaster uses satellite or fibre for live video transport, they are relying on a solution that is optimised for a simple, less flexible workflow. It’s hard for these fixed technologies to be augmented or adapted to new workflow requirements without significant expenditure and an effect on other uses of the network. The costs of contracting for satellite and fibre for live video transport are significant, too, and are largely the same, regardless how little the infrastructure is used. Users of AWS Elemental MediaConnect can contribute content from mezzanine or master sources from any wired Internet connection, while contribution workflows can be easily set up to capture and ingest any type of live content. Using MediaConnect, broadcasters can distribute live events easily, without
and Oregon), Asia Pacific (Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo) and EU (Frankfurt and Ireland) regions.
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22 AV FOCUS Virtual Reality HAPTICS AT THE HERMITAGE An exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum in Russia shows off the future of 5G and VR
Words by Neal Romanek
23 AV FOCUS Virtual Reality
display amid the Hermitage’s 18th-century grandeur and employ a mix of virtual reality, haptic technology and robotics, using the 5G test network in the 3500 MHz frequency band that has been supplied by Rostelecom. One demonstration, for example, shows the restoration of a work of art – a statue, in this case – using a remote-controlled robotic arm. The arm, gripping a delicate restorer’s brush, is operated remotely. It serves to illustrate how 5G’s low bit rate, low-latency characteristics could enable restoration experts to conduct art restoration work with a high degree of accuracy from anywhere in the world. It is a window into a future where an expert in London might be able to restore a painting that is in Sydney. On the other hand, another use case demonstrates the remote learning possibilities for 5G. In this one, an art master uses a remote-controlled robotic arm to show students precision techniques for restoring works of art. Both demonstrations use a 4K video stream that is transmitted to VR glasses. This creates the effect of real presence for both the teacher and the students.
useums are places we go to experience and examine the past. But an exhibit at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint
LONG-DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP It’s hoped that 5G will enable experts to remotely perform ultra- precise tasks from across the globe, such as restoring works of art
Petersburg gives visitors a glimpse into the future. The exhibition consists of a 5G trial zone, which showcases innovative applications that are combined with immersive technologies and run on 5G networks. People often regard 5G networks as a cure-all for every type of technological woe – like the hypothetical cold fusion of nuclear reaction – that will bring about an IOT (Internet of things) paradise. However, it’s hard to deny that 5G, when it’s rolled out widely, is going to be a game changer for everything, from latency to reliability and from battery life to data access. When exactly 5G will arrive is a moving target, and will vary from country to country, or region to region within countries. But it will come. And the 5G trial zone at the Hermitage Museum offers a snapshot of what might be possible in the future. Opened in May 2018 and running until the end of the year, the 5G trial zone is sponsored by Ericsson and Russian digital services provider, Rostelecom. The 5G use cases, open to the public, are put on
WE HAD USED OTHER STREAMING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PAST, AND KNEW THERE WAS AN ISSUE WITH LATENCY, SO THAT ISWHYWEWENTWITH NDI
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24 AV FOCUS Virtual Reality
TOUCH AND GO One exhibit involved VR headsets and
haptic devices, allowing for a sense of touch and immersive vision
IMMERSIVE DESIGNING The exhibition was built by immersive design expert, Room One. It was a complex undertaking, requiring communication between robotic and haptic devices, which users (wearing Oculus Rift VR headsets) can use to interact with remote physical objects in real time. The force feedback haptic devices enable delicate manipulation of the remote-controlled robot arm and allow restorers and students to observe and physically feel the sculptures being worked on. This is combined with a 360º 4K video stream transmitted to the virtual reality headsets. The virtual reality technology was provided by Focal Point VR, who have a wealth of experience in livestreaming VR and 360 content for sport, music,
art, education and culture. The company contributed a 360° video camera rig, live stitching and a streaming solution for the 5G trial zone installation. The team deployed a three-camera VR rig, composed of Blackmagic Micro Studio 4K cameras, explains Paul James, head of production at Focal Point VR. “We used Blackmagic cameras because, at the time we put this together, there were very few cameras out there that used single-cable SDI for 4K,” he says. “We have multiple cameras, so we don’t want quad-SDI coming out of each – that’s just a pain. And the form-factor works. They are very small and we can fit them close together. They are well-ventilated, don’t overheat and they run forever. We did some testing with other camera technologies, but they seemed to get to a certain temperature and then just stop working.” The camera outputs were live stitched and sent to the Focal Point VR Player, which was running on Oculus Rift headsets. Focal Point’s stitching solution employs Blackmagic 6G-SDI ingest cards in addition to the Focal Point VR live streaming software. BETTER CONNECTIVITY Despite the theme of the exhibit, 5G was not capable of providing 100% of the installation connectivity. Focal Point VR needed a robust connectivity solution to transport the ultra-low latency, very bandwidth-intensive live VR. After looking at a number of protocols, including
WebRTC, the company went with NewTek’s Network Device Interface (NDI) technology. NDI is a royalty-free software standard that enables video-compatible products to communicate, deliver and receive broadcast-quality video over IP networks. NDI is a way to get very high bit rates and resolutions without having to lay cable everywhere. Running over a GigE network, the lens-to-headset display latency was less than 200 microseconds, which technologies in the past,” explains James, “and knew there was an issue with latency, so that is why we went with NDI… But we have just done exactly the same thing – minus the robot – using 5G for real at an event held by Huawei.” Live museum and installation projects continue to play a major part in Focal Point’s work. Recently, the company has been working with Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK on proof of concept for a project, which will be rolled out as a full version in a museum. It has also been working with the University of York on a VR/AR project. “Most of the interest at the moment is coming from university and museum people,” says James. “At the moment they’re in the UK, but we’re not stuck with the UK only – that’s just where we happen to be working right now.” If 5G makes good on its promise, Focal Point VR will be able to work everywhere from anywhere. outperformed the original brief. “We had used other streaming
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26 AV FOCUS Audio
A new generation of museums and exhibition spaces is placing audio – particularly immersive audio – at the heart of its visitor experience. The results are hugely captivating
uman beings are fundamentally visually driven, owing largely to the path of evolution and the need to be on the lookout for food,
just as true in a museum or gallery as it is in a Broadway musical or arena concert.” Second, there is a growing recognition that immersive audio can play a part in “attracting visitors and achieving higher footfalls”, says Ben Blackler, co-founder of PastPorte, a company that specialises in immersive storytelling for museums and heritage attractions. It can provide an element to the experience that “people will talk about to their friends and will therefore bring more people through the door”. Increasing the numbers of loudspeakers (often more than 30) in conjunction with ever-higher-resolution visuals ensures that exhibits resonate more strongly with younger audiences, namely those engaged in the all-encompassing worlds of VR and gaming. As Blackler notes, the boundaries between those pastimes and the kind of exhibits that can be delivered in the museum space are “increasingly thin”. INCREASING INTEGRATION Zero in on the specifics of audio delivery in most areas of professional AV and it won’t be too long before you encounter someone bemoaning the disparity between the levels of investment in the ‘A’ and ‘V’ in AV. But as the awareness of immersive audio’s capacity to transform an exhibit has
predators and mates. It is no surprise that this visual emphasis is writ large in museums and exhibition spaces the world over – to the extent that the capability of audio to evoke places, people and experiences has sometimes been overlooked. But recently, several distinct trends have combined to effect a significant change in the importance placed on audio in the museum sector. First, the advent of a greater range of immersive audio systems has made an impact on curators and producers, encouraging them to realise that an experience in sound can be every bit as captivating as a visual one. “The idea of creating an ‘immersive’ exhibit is far from new – older technologies such as channel-based surround sound have been deployed in these kinds of projects for many years,” says Bjorn Van Munster, founder of leading object-based 3D sound company Astro Spatial Audio. “The difference now is that the creators of these experiences have so many more possibilities open to them as a result of object-based audio. We often say that the only limit is your imagination – and that’s
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27 AV FOCUS Audio
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28 AV FOCUS Audio
improved, so has the willingness to spend money on sound installations. Tighter integration between the various systems has also proven to be highly advantageous. “The integration of object-based audio with both video and lighting systems is becoming more advanced and commonplace,” says Van Munster. “There has been the notion for many years that, in so-called AVL systems, the video and lighting tend to get more attention than the audio. [But] the growth of 3D sound is helping to create a more balanced environment in which AVL systems work in harmony for spectacular results.” According to Van Munster, easing the incorporation of object-based and other immersive audio systems into AV installations is their ability “to support communications with a wide range of third-party products and their integration with common control platforms such as Crestron, AMX, TouchDesigner and many others”.
There is no doubt that the advent of integrated solutions – often based around single hardware products – has played a crucial role, as they make immersive audio more easily deployable. For example, Astro Spatial Audio offers the opportunity to implement an object-based design via a single, rack-mountable hardware unit, which hosts the SARA II premium rendering engine. Another prominent solution, Meyer Sound’s Constellation acoustic system, has been developed to be inherently scalable. A wide range of products that can be deployed within the Constellation architecture allow it to be applied to environments ranging from relatively conventional concert halls to large-scale artistic exhibitions and planetariums. As well as flexibility, aesthetic discretion is another important consideration in any immersive audio installation, especially when 30 or more speakers can be involved. “Exhibits and spaces in museums need to
THE GROWTH OF 3D SOUND IS HELPING TO CREATE AMORE BALANCED ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH AVL SYSTEMS WORK IN HARMONY FOR SPECTACULAR RESULTS
be creative, flexible, easy to operate and trouble-free,” says Steve Ellison, director of Spatial Sound at Meyer Sound. “Products such as the Meyer Sound MM-4XP, UP-4slim and MM-10XP subwoofer can all fit into very tight spaces, be colour- matched and provide great sonic impact.” Among a cluster of recent major projects in the museum and exhibition space, Ellison points to a deployment at the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, situated within the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “The planetarium uses more than 30 discrete loudspeaker channels controlled with D-Mitri digital audio processing to create custom immersive soundtracks with dynamic spatial mixing using SpaceMap,” he says. WOWING AUDIENCES Being able to surround and wow audiences with sound is one very obvious benefit
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