PANELLISTS
14
April March 2012 2016
The significance wTVision celebrates successful 2015
“ 2015 was a memorable year for wTVision !” said Mário Sousa , CEO of wTVision , which is “ one of the most relevant companies in the world ” in the business areas in which it operates : real-time broadcast graphics and playout automation . “ We have overcome all the goals set in the beginning of the year ,” he added , “ consolidating our strategy of international growth , based on innovative technological development in a wider range of solutions , adapted to each market , in different geographic areas .” In 2015 , wTVision travelled to 55 countries to deliver the most varied types of projects and services , including 16 electoral projects , more than 5,500 live broadcasts in several sports , and the participation in over 39 national and international football competitions .
An eye for new presentation formats
eyevis ’ EYE-TOLED-5500 becomes transparent wherever black image content is shown ! As a display installed on top or in front of products and exhibits , the EYE-TOLED-5500 creates a two-layer impression : fixed and moving images are superimposed on real objects , leading to a new presentation format , said eyevis . This display type can also be integrated in a room , standing freely between object and viewer , and draws the attention of the viewer back and forth between the background and the display .
Next Month @ Creation
Post-Production Solutions and Special Effects
PANELLISTS
Joseph Jerome T Francia
Vice-President & Head of International Operations GMA International
Amitabh Kumar
Director , Corporate Zee Network
While they may be routinely overlooked , lip-synching and closed captioning are potentially key components in broadcast TV transmission , as Shawn Liew discovers …
Premiering on the Spike cable network last April , Lip Sync Battle has grown into a global phenomenon , as fans around the world watch their favourite celebrities battle each other with lip synch performances .
And the celebrities have hardly missed a beat , as they continue to deliver stellar performances that synchronise perfectly with the music playing in the background . How the broadcast TV industry could do with attaining similar levels of efficiency , as the loss of synchronisation between the video and audio portions of a TV signal remains one of the most prevalent issues in broadcast TV today , François Gourvil , market segment manager , Playout at Grass Valley , points out .
He explains to APB : “ Commonly referred to as ‘ lip synch ’ errors , incorrect audio / video synchronisation remains today one of the most widely invasive impediments on the quality of TV broadcast signals . However , the expectation by the viewing public worldwide for high-quality signals , with highresolution video and multi-channel audio is continuously increasing .”
Gourvil believes that this has led broadcasters and TV service providers to be “ keenly aware ” of the negative impact of delivering TV signals with incorrect synchronisation of pictures and sounds ; the challenge therefore is in identifying the source of sudden lip synch errors in their networks .
He continues : “ In the Asia-Pacific region , where a multitude of TV channels aired today include multilingual content , the ability to proactively detect for the presence of lip synch errors on all audio tracks is a daunting challenge , especially if operators managing channel playout and transmission are themselves not familiar with all languages in which the channels are aired .”
To contribute to the detection and measurement of lip synch issues , Grass Valley has developed a solution
based on the generation of audio / video “ finger prints ”, which are a lightweight and non-intrusive way of analysing and comparing baseband signals , and which allow for the detection of even the most subtle conditions of lip synch errors .
Several of Grass Valley ’ s Densité modular processors are equipped to generate fingerprints on the signals they process , allowing for detection and measurement of audio-to-video synchronisation . The Densité HLP-1801 , in particular , is an HD / SD audio / video synchronisation probe that performs lip-synchronisation detection and measurement between two HD / SD signals with embedded audio .
Gourvil explains : “ Because an overwhelming proportion of lip synch issues are a result of the audio and video compression necessary for signal transmission , Grass Valley ’ s Densité modules are typically used to identify whether lip synch errors have been introduced between ‘ Programme ’, the signal fed to the transmission chain , and ‘ Off Air Return ’, the signal resulting from transmission compression and representing what viewers would receive .”
“ This process sees a Densité HLP- 1801 module first identifying whether the two signals fed into it represent similar video and audio content , where a high level of correlation between the
Matrox DSX Developer products support current and evolving closed captioning standards .
Grass Valley ’ s Densité HLP-1801 is an HD / SD audio / video synchronisation probe that performs lipsynchronisation detection and measurement between two HD / SD signals with embedded audio .
video fingerprints will be the first condition for establishing the relevance of measuring changes in audio-to-video synchronisation .
“ Once the unit has identified that a strong resemblance exists between the two signals , it then measures whether any delay exists between the video portions of the SDI , establishing the importance of the video programme delay . Analysis is then performed individually on each audio channel , allowing the Grass Valley probe to report on a wide range of audio formatting , including two-channel stereo or 5.1 surround .
“ If the calculated audio programme delays are not of a similar value to the calculated video programme delays , and exceed a user-defined threshold , the HLP-1801 will report a lip synch error ,” adds Gourvil .
While failure to eradicate lip synch errors is a source of potential viewer annoyance , another important aspect in enhancing the viewing experience , particularly for deaf and hearing-impaired audiences , is closed captioning ( CC ). For broadcasters , a number of techniques are used around the world to enhance traditional broadcasts with text overlaid on video to represent the audio content , says Dan Maloney , technical marketing manager at Matrox Video .
He shares with APB : “ In analogue broadcast , CC information is found as sequences of black-and-white dashes on Line 21 of the video frame . In an SDI signal , it is kept as digital data in the vertical ancillary data ( VANC ) portion . With our CC support for Final Cut Pro ( FCP ) on our MXO2 and Mojito MAX editing products , we sought to provide a means of preserving and previewing CC information during editing operations and printing it back to tape if necessary — to aid our broadcast customers