Archive for the ‘NAB’ category

« Older Entries

A New Age of ENG

April 28th, 2012

So last year at NAB I saw two companies showing off Cellular Bonding technology, this year there were quite a few showing it off. I even attended a seminar on it and I heard that CNN is only using it for remote broadcasts.

What it is of course is tying several different cellular networks together (bonding) to create a larger data pipe than any one cellular network could provide. They use to do this in the old days with multiple dial-up modems. Now with this larger data pipe you can compress an Audio/Video feed and send it over that pipe back to the station. Much cheaper than a full-blown ENG truck with the associated microwave receivers and dishes.

Its being used right now to stream live video and audio from protests in the middle East as well as many other live events. 3G and 4G are being used, you just have to sign up for a data plan, usual from various Cellular providers to increase the likelihood of getting a signal and there being available bandwidth.

Some of the problems associated with Cellular Bonding is that you are using a system never designed to carry such large amounts of  realtime data, and there’s no QoS (Quality of Service) so you never know how good the link is. Any event that brings out a news crew is bound to bring more than one and with them will be John and Jane Q. Public also taking pictures and video and uploading them to social media sites. All these means your going to be competing with everyone else at the event for the available bandwidth of the cellular data networks.

Most of the new entries to the Cellular Bonding market used very small boxes, they fit right on top of the camera, about the size of a paper back book (like a Kindle but made of paper). Then I go over to StreamBox, who I saw last year, and see that they have a full backpack for their Cellular Bonding / Encoding setup. So I ask them why is their’s so big?

Brian from StreamBox explained that their system has several advantages over the other, smaller systems. First is their encoder, it’s integrated with the cellular bonding technology in that to two talk to each other. As the bandwidth changes, due to network activity or signal strength, the encoder can dynamically change they way in which the video and audio are encoded making for much better pictures under changing circumstances. Plus they use a one touch encoding selection system, this allow the non-technical operator to choose a low latency connection for faster video streaming or higher quality which many times entails more latency, all at the touch of a button.

StreamBox Extender

Another feature is the use of the range extender kit, this consists of a box to hold the Cellular Network adapters as well as power amplifiers for both G3 and G4 networks. Theres also a telescopic mast that allows for mounting the combined antenna, getting it above the crowd.Together this extends the range of the system to several miles, well beyond your typical cel phone, it’s even been used on a moving train.

Newer systems from companies like TVU will incorporate both Cellular Bonding and ASI out to directly feed an ENG Trunk after it has been setup. While others promise to use both cellular and WiFi to expand the bandwidth even more. Panasonic is looking to put Cellular bonding directly into their cameras. And JVC now has FTP upload ability into their camera.

It will only get more interesting.

 

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

No comments »

Posted in Antenna, Broadband, Broadcasting, Educational, Engineering, H.264, Live Events, Mobile, NAB, Production, RF Microwave

Tags:

The Fifth Day at NAB 2012

April 19th, 2012

First it was a Broadcasters Breakfast with ERI, they laid out a really nice setting and then got down to business. They had the story of  KJAV and the new Chief who found the tower about ready to fall. ERI worked with the station to take down the old one and put up a new one in just a few weeks. They showed video of how different tower are taken down with controlled falls and how they  make sure the TX building is not damaged. Very interesting.

Then I went by their booth and asked if they would help with a video I am thinking of on guyed towers. They were very cooperative and I hope to use ERI to make sure I don’t make any mistakes in the tutorial.

Later in the day a seminar about Cel Phone ENG. I know they have been doing this for at least a year or two now but it has really grown now. They talked of a news piece covered by ABC with both a Truck and a Cell Pack and when it started sooner than expected the Truck was not ready and it was covered with just a Cel Pack. Other events have been covered on moving trains even.

The 3G networks can be hard to get thru as more and more smart phones are used and latency is a problem, thats why multiple cel phone network adapters are used (lots of Rabbit Ears as I call them). But even with 4G it will fill up too. Even with great compression it’s still a lot of data to move over something designed to get you your Google map or update your phone Apps. They see a combination of Cel Networks and WiFi as an answer when the system can use both at the same time to off load some of the data. Panasonic is even working on a ENG camera with LTE networking built right in.

One company, TVU, is working on a backpack with both Cel Network connectivity and ASI out to feed a remote truck so both can be used as needed.

Stopped by the FEMA booth and they had a little model of a Primary Entry Point facility. Very interesting and something I will go into more detail later on.

I met Steve Mareen of RF Specialties Group over at the Hitachi / Linear booth where I met the guy who is going to setup one of their exciters at my transmitter next week. They want to show it off working on a real high powered transmitter and I agreed to let them do in. They tell me it should take all of 1/2 hour to get it going. I will report on this next week.

Before that I was over at the Thomson booth and talked with Michael Roosa our salesman and Richarad Fiore Director of Transmission & Mobility about their new exciter the ATSC 8000 which I was told the story of a station that wanted to increase it’s power level from 40KW to 50KW as I recall but pushing the tube that much made correction so difficult that after several exciters were tried only the ATSC 8000 had the correction range to get the job done.

I walked over to TeraDek and saw how small they make the SDI to Cel Network adapters now little bigger than a paperback book. They also make one that uses WiFi to stream to a local laptop or to iPads for remote monitoring. Pretty cool.

 

Time to get out to the show for an early start on the last day and then it’s back home.

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

No comments »

Posted in ATSC, Broadcasting, DTV, DTV Exciter, Educational, Engineering, FCC, FEMA, H.264, IP, Live Events, Mobile, NAB, Networks, New Product, People in Engineering, Riggers, Tower, Transmitters

Tags:

Day Three (or Opening Day) at NAB 2012

April 17th, 2012

So this is the first day exhibits are open and we can see new products but my first priority was Fiber Optics, for my upcoming tutorial. I talked with Neutrik about their F/O connectors and they offered me all sorts of art work and even video to help with my video.  I see that all the rugged outdoor F/O connector incorporate some type of auto capping system where the optical ends are protected when ever the connector is not inserted to it’s mate to reduce the possibility of dirt blocking the light transfer.

Then it was on to Belden and their field installable F/O connectors. I saw these last year but now I’m much more interested. They can do many popular connectors in both Single Mode (SM) and Multi Mode (MM) cable. They gave me a demo of how it works which I taped on my iPhone for the tutorial. Belden does not recommend their connectors for permanent install as the loss,or attenuation is much higher than a Fusion splice. Each connector is about $10 to $14 each but can be used up to 5 times. I think we should get a kit from them for the tower now that we are working in F/O so we can quickly make up cables in house while we wait for factory built ones.

There’s  a lot of small F/O to video adapters now, not much bigger than RG-11 coax cable in thickness. Now these would be converting video to analog light, by which I mean the brightness follows the amplitude of the video signal (analog video). For SDI I guess it can be just flashes, or digital, which is what most F/O is these days.

The difference it that if you send analog light you really need angled F/O ends. This is where the end of the fiber is at a 5° to 8° angle and mates to the same degree end. This reduces light reflections at the connector, for digital light this does not seem to matter as the reflected light is bounced back down the Fiber to the transmitter, where it bounces again back to the receiver. This causes noise in the received signal, but with digital light, you  know, just on-off-on-off the reflections and thus the noise is not a problem. So today there’s not much call for angled ends in F/O.

I then talked with Emcore who makes a lot of F/O equipment for broadcast. They just resently announced a 120Gbps fiber cable, WOW!

Over at Advanced Fiber Products I saw the first Self Normalizing Optical Patch Bay, now that’s a feat. I still don’t quite understand how they are doing it but they assure me it does. They also have a unique system of Fiber to Coax adapters that you can monitor via a Web GUI. Some come with a readout on top as well and even that can be remoted to a near by panel.

I was over at Evertz to get more information on how to install their L-Band Router. We plan to start with a 64 x 64 but to leave room for expansion for up to 128 x 128. I want to make sure I put the equipment in the right places in the rack and not have to move them later. Then I was over at ETL Systems and to look at their L-Band router, it’s bigger than Evertz but it also comes with some stuff external, like the LNB power supplies, where as the Evertz is integrated. Not a bad system, and it’s used a lot.

On Tuesday it’s off to a Dielectric breakfast and a talk with Yellow Brick and their F/O offerings.

To see pictures of NAB 2012 take a look at my NAB board at Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/theole/  and keep up to date by checking out my Twitter Feed here - http://twitter.com/#!/theOLEOrg

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in Broadcasting, Educational, Engineering, Fiber Optic, NAB, New Product

Tags:

Follow TheOLE@NAB through Pinterest and Twitter

April 16th, 2012

I ‘m posting pictures all day long from NAB 2012 on my TheOLE page at Pinterest, a photo pinup board. Also Check out my Twitter feed for updates throughout the day.

 

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in Broadcasting, Engineering, NAB

Tags:

Day Two at NAB 2012

April 15th, 2012

Today started off with Final Cut Pro X, I have been thinking about it since it was announced last year at NAB but have not done anything with it. I have not heard the best things about X but with todays session I have a very good feeling for it.

It’s redesign seems to be about metadata, FCP X is all about metadata. It works with ProRez 422 and will auto transcode to it from almost any other codex. I liked it.

Next it was Harris trying to convince Radio engineers that they should use liquid cooling instead of air. Water is able to cool much more than air and it seems Steam can cool 20 times the amount of water. My old RCA TTU UHF transmitter used steam cooling. In air cooled transmitter you can’t hear yourself think with all the A/C.

Then I listened to Charles Kiefer who talked about “Just Start: Take Action”. It was all about taking your idea, your passion and moving forward with it, don’t plan it to death but take small steps, using what you have on hand and asking for help. And Just Start.

Sound Design, using sounds to make better Bumpers and Zingers in videos. The big points where to not depend on just canned sounds from libraries. Either make your own sounds through recording live sounds and then alter them or just add to library sounds by altering them in multiple ways.  We watched several bumpers and anlyzed the sounds used.

The last session of the day for me was about making better training videos. This was a great session tougt my Douglas Spotted Eagle, he knows his stuff. I took a lot of notes and really hope to improve my future videos form attending.

So after two days of session I have learned a great deal and starting tomorrow there’ll be more sessions and products to see on the floor.

 

 

1 person likes this post.
Unlike
Share

1 comment »

Posted in Audio, Broadcasting, Computers, Educational, Engineering, NAB, Post-Production, Something Interesting, Transmitters

Its Water Proof, Shock Proof, it recharges it’s self…

March 10th, 2012

Aqua Tek is a new iPhone case made for engineers on the go, and anyone else who has an active life style. It has a solar cell back that recharges the internal battery that doubles the battery time of the iPhone’s internal battery. It’s water proof so you can swim with it and still operate it’s touch screen. It should be on sale soon as they have exceeded their funding goal on KickStarter.com.

You can see it here along with a video.

 

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in Broadcasting, Engineering, New Product, Riggers, Tools, Tower

Tags:

Going to NAB, need passes?

February 23rd, 2012

Several companies are offering free passes to the 2012 NAB Show, here’s a couple  of them,

Go here to register then use one of the codes below

Belden code to use – LV3638

Nilla code to use – LV2675

 

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in Broadcasting, Educational, Engineering, NAB, Something Interesting

Tags:

Edit Video on the iPad

February 23rd, 2012

Avid has a new App called Avid Studio that lets you edit video on your iPad and upload it to YouTube. YouTube and FaceBook seems to be the only places you can send your edited video to for now though. But it looks interesting, and more possible than editing on your iPhone. It seems you can do effects and add titles.

So now the news department can send their reporters out in the field with just an iPad and Avid Studio and have them send back fully edited stories. What a change  from Film at Eleven.

And it’s only $4.99

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in Apps for SmartPhones, Broadcasting, Computers, Editing, Engineering, Networks, New Product, Production, Something Interesting, Television

Tags:

SD to HD

February 23rd, 2012

There’s a new product/service that will up convert your SD video to HD, so they say. It’s called BetterView, and they say it’s conversions are much better at increasing the perceived resolution of the HD output. They have a YouTube video that shows a before and after image (see below), it has an annoying vertical line moving back and fourth showing the SD then the HD. I would prefer them to hold still in the middle and let the subject move from one side to the other letting me get a better look at the two.

What I see is a normal enhancement, like the old detail enhancers from the three tube camera days. Edges have a black and then white edges added to make them clear & share, not fuzzy and it looks like the face is smoothed over, almost like a blur filter.

When I read their web material they state that they use multiple low res images to create a higher res HD output. I think this is similar to when you watch an SD video and some text goes by, it’s easier to read the text in motion than in still frame because there is more information in the multiple frames than the one that you froze. They offer it as software, hardware and as a Cloud Service.

Don’t get me wrong, it does look better after their enhancements, but it’s still not HD. Part of me just feels that the more we get used to enhanced/artificial video the less real reality  looks. It’s a bit like back in the old days when you’d walk into your parents home and find the TV adjusted so that  all the people looked orange and were glowing. It was color so there was suppose to be color, it didn’t look anything like reality and us TV engineers would cringe as we spent so much time trying to get NTSC to look good, look natural.

 

Take a look and see what you think!

 

Be the first to like.
Unlike
Share

Comments Off »

Posted in ATSC, Broadcasting, DTV, Educational, Engineering, New Product, Something Interesting

Tags:

Finally an FM Radio in a Cel Phone

January 13th, 2012

BlackBerry Curve 9380Blackberry has announced that it’s latest version of OS allows for the control of FM radio hardware in the cel phones. They have already put an FM radio in their Curve 9360 and 9380 phones. This is a big step forward and what NAB as been asking for to help expand the role of EAS during emergencies when the Cel Phone system is down or over worked. By having FM radios built right into a device that almost everyone has, then with a single broadcast from an FM station tens of thousands of citizens can be kept up to date during emergencies.

During an emergency the simplest most direct channel to the public is a broadcast station received over the air. Hopefully other hand set makers will follow suite.

1 person likes this post.
Unlike
Share

1 comment »

Posted in Broadcasting, EAS/CAP/IPAWS, FEMA, Fire/Flood/Storm, Free-Over-The-Air-TV, Improved Product, Mobile, Radio, Safety, Transmitters

Tags: