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October 2017
NEWS & VIEWS
Media 2020 addresses major issues facing today ’ s broadcasters
SINAIA – Disruption is the new watchword for the broadcast and media industries , said Dr Javad Mottaghi , secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union ( ABU ).
Welcoming delegates to the Media 2020 conference held last month in Sinaia , Romania , Dr Mottaghi added : “ The world is both divided and interconnected as never before . We are in the midst of a new world order where media and the Internet reaches people like never before .
“ The only certainty is uncertainty , [ and ] media companies need to navigate the uncertainty .”
Jointly organised by the ABU and Radio Romania , Media 2020 welcomed more than 150 delegates
Seminars to discuss how IP can future-proof media facility
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transitioning to IT and IP-based infrastructures .
Welcoming SMPTE ST 2110 , Proulx stressed : “ Converting to IP is not just about replacing SDI , because there is a bigger transition at play . Inside a TV facility , for instance , there are two key transitions taking place — replacing SDI infrastructure with IP , and replacing dedicated hardware devices with software and virtualisation .”
As to why broadcast TV facilities should transition to IP , he cited the following reasons : the ability to leverage IT innovation and scale ; “ dramatically reduced ” cabling and infrastructure ; putting in place a future-ready , format-agnostic facility ; and to enable the transition to software and virtualisation .
And virtualisation , Proulx believes , is what IP is truly about . While IP brings benefits such as reduced wiring , scale and flexibility , he argued that virtualisation and software-defined networks bring even more flexibility , agility and serviceability .
“ I visited NBC Universal in Nov 2016 to talk about playout and virtualisation ,” Proulx recalled . “ They are aggressively pursuing virtualisation not only in playout , but across its entire media operation , and recently moved a virtualisation expert from IT to the TV Engineering Group .”
He also cited a presentation at NAB Show 2017 , where Thomas Edwards , VP of Engineering and Development , Fox Networks from 32 countries across Europe and Asia to discuss various issues and the major challenges facing broadcasters in the 21st century .
Public service media remains “ the glue in our society ”, suggested David Jordan , director of editorial policy and standards at the BBC . He pointed out that while some media tended to polarise the community , the job of public service broadcasters had never been to coalesce the population to a single view , but to reflect the many views of people in the country .
Fayyaz Sheheryar , director-general of India ’ s Prasar Bharati , shared that the biggest problem facing his country ’ s national broadcaster was to “ reach the last man ” — to get media to every person in the country at the lowest cost to them .
He urged broadcasters to continue to focus on content , saying that the problem of people in South Asia is the loss of identity in the face of so much foreign media , which the media could correct by bringing them the world in their own dialects .
In the face of new media challenges , some traditional strength , such as bringing people together and quality storytelling , is still important to broadcasters , reminded Sally-Ann Wilson , CEO of the Public Media Alliance .
She called on broadcasters to “ invest in media literacy ” to let people know who was selling something and why , including the selling of political policy ideas .
Michel Proulx , former CTO of Miranda Technologies , will headline two seminars on Professional media over IP : Building a future-proof media facility that will be held on Nov 3 in Hong Kong and Nov 6 in Singapore .
Engineer ing and Operations , USA , said that in Fox ’ s network centre , the real interest in IP stems from the virtualisation of Fox ’ s media processing . “ IP is the on-ramp to virtualised media processing ,” Edwards explained .
To enable virtualisation , however , broadcasters need to start replacing SDI infrastructures with IP , Proulx stressed , and suggested that IP today , might be most appropriate for a facility of “ significant size ”, for facilities already operating in 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ) or planning to in the near future , as well as a greenfield installation .
In Singapore , terrestrial broadcaster Mediacorp has completed its move to Mediacorp Campus , a new 79,500sqm production and digital facility located within the Mediapolis @ one-north digital media hub .
The broadcast systems in Media corp Campus are sitting on a multi-layer network architecture , where IP is playing a key role in the broadcast environment , from production to playout , revealed Wang Yin , assistant vice-president , broadcast engineering , Mediacorp .
For example , Mediacorp “ relies heavily ” on IP to automate daily operations , as Wang explained : “ With studio automation and broadcast control systems that adopts IP infrastructure , we effectively unite technical devices and operators under one roof to greatly reduce human errors and improve production efficiency .
“ It is also crucial to have network / server monitoring embedded in the broadcast ecosystem to prevent unplanned happenings , and to mitigate the risks before they develop into crisis or a fullblown disaster .
“ By leveraging IT-based platforms and IP networks , we are able to monitor mission-critical components in our network for abnormalities . Information such as server health status , application logs and service availability are retrieved via IP , and closely monitored and analysed with IT service intelligence .”
Overall , IP has enabled Mediacorp ’ s operations to be flexible and cost-effective while offering a future-proof broadcast infrastructure , Wang reviewed . Because systems are designed on common standards , Mediacorp is able to rapidly deploy software-based equipment using standard network connectivity , at a fraction of the
4K / UHD TV trial a success – but not at expense of HDTV
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of 4K / UHD programme is demonstrated by sports event with live broadcasting ,” he explaind . “ However , without technologies like high dyna mic range ( HDR ) or high frame rate ( HFR ) in place , the change in resolution really does not make any difference when compared to an HD programme .”
The Summer Universiade trial broadcast , which was conducted over the period of two midnight hours , aired the delay-live opening and closing ceremonies of the games , using the DVB-T terrestrial broadcasting standard .
To enable the operation of the 4K / UHD channel , PTS had to suspend two HD channels off-air , which , in Cheng ’ s opinion , is an “ unnecessary sacrifice ”. He urged : “ If the regulators and policymakers are able to allocate the spare spectrum obtained from ASO ( analogue shutdown ) in 2012 and restacked it , the market is feasi-
cost of traditional baseband ones , he added .
The current infrastructure in Mediacorp Campus is still deploying SDI for live video distribution because live IP video distribution was not matured at the point when Mediacorp was designing its system for the new facility , Wang said , adding : “ Moving forward , we will progressively implement IP distribution as and when the need arises .
“ All-IP is definitely the way to go in our future , but it will be driven by business instead of technology .
“ In live production , where SDI baseband still dominates , an all-IP transition will probably only take place after we move into 4K / UHD .”
To delve deeper into how broadcasters , particularly those in Asia-Pacific , can more effectively plan their transition to IP , APB , in collaboration with systems integrator Ideal Systems , will be holding two seminars — one in Hong Kong on November 3 and the other in Singapore on November 6 .
Titled Professional media over IP : Building a future-proof media facility , the seminars will be headlined by Proulx , who will discuss issues such as how IP is now being considered as a replacement for SDI for the transport of real-time video and audio inside TV facilities , and the benefits of using IP for realtime video and audio .
For the Singapore seminar , Wang will also share more details and insights into the role IP is playing in Mediacorp Campus . For more information , turn to page 9 . ble enough to be equipped with another 18 channels , each at the bandwidth of 6MHz . The amount of spectrum available can then support a new thriving platform , and not at the expense of current HDTV services .”
Cheng also believes that DVB- T2 would be a better choice to support 4K / UHD services , because in comparison to DVB-T , DVB- T2 offers a number of technical enhancements , including support for SD , HD , 4K / UHD , mobile or any combination thereof .
Taiwan completed the digital switchover ( DSO ) in 2012 , and Cheng lamented how broadcasters in Taiwan do not have the opportunity to propose the migration to DVB-T2 “ due to political issues ”.
He continued : “ Faced with a political stalemate , PTS struggled with the challenges of conducting the 4K / UHD trial over the DVB- T standard . However , the trial is timely , as it allows us to leverage the economic value of sports broadcasting .”
Prior to the Summer Universiade trial , PTS organised a workshop in August last year . With the stated aim of demonstrating the capability of DVB-T employed on HEVC / H . 265-equipped 4K / UHD TV sets , PTS ’ lab researchers found that the adoption of different bitrates — from 13.5Mbps-18Mbps — would enable PTS to export broadcast streams comparatively .
Following the successful trial , Cheng explained that the majority of the 4K / UHD TV sets sold in Taiwan were able to capture the broadcast stream . Additionally , the trial has enabled TV sets manufacturers to continue the integration of the DVB-T standard with HEVC / H . 265 on their displays , he suggested .
“ This trial is a reasonable proposal from us to the government in seeking for their revision on policies regarding Taiwan ’ s terrestrial broadcast industry . However , PTS might not take another step forward on the launch of 4K / UHD TV before the government resumes talks on the future of digital TV industry ,” Cheng concluded .
During the 2017 Summer Universiade held in Taipei , Taiwan , last August , Taiwan Public Television Service ( PTS ) conducted a broadcast trial of the opening and closing ceremonies in 4K / UHD over terrestrial TV .