Partyline Brings Production Teams, Talent and Tools Together with HD Video and FullAudio/Video Synchronization Using the Cloud and IP

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – May 29, 2020 – TVU Networks, a technology and market leader in IP and cloud based live video solutions, today announced the introduction of Partyline, a groundbreaking development for social production. With Partyline, call participants can achieve a unique level of communication and interaction from remote locations as though they were in the same physical studio while producing live and pre-recorded programming. Partyline enables production personnel, talent and tools to collaborate remotely in real time with full HD video quality and perfectly synchronized audio and video. Partyline is making its debut as an integrated part of award-winning TVU Producer, a simple and scalable cloud-based solution for broadcast quality production, and will also be incorporated within the TVU ecosystem for use with other TVU solutions.

TVU Networks is holding a webinar today, Friday, May 29th at 10am PT, to unveil Partyline as a part of TVU Producer and demonstrate its capabilities for social production. The recorded video will also be available after the completion of the webinar at the TVU website.

“The global COVID pandemic has shifted the dynamic of TV production collaboration, requiring talent and technical staff to produce programming from their living rooms,” explains TVU Networks’ CEO Paul Shen. “Thus far, they’ve relied on readily available videoconferencing solutions that have significant limitations when it comes to professional studio production, particularly for true team collaboration. The challenge is how to bring the production crew, technical team, talent and tools together in a virtual studio environment, while producing a full HD/4K broadcast quality video remotely. Professional broadcasters require the ability to interact in real-time while producing programs in fully synchronized and broadcast quality audio and video. When achieved, that’s what we’re calling social production. It should be as close to in-person communication and interaction as possible. Producers shouldn’t have to settle for something that makes creating their important work more cumbersome.”

The virtual environment within Partyline is made possible with a Real Time Interactive Layer (RTIL) TVU’s patented Inverse StatMux Plus (IS+) technology delivers well-established quality and stability, and RTIL adds a layer of real-time interaction. All participants are granted access to a Partyline through a shared URL, which allows them to watch all program feeds live and interact, discuss, control and participate the production together in real time, as if they are in the same physical location. Thanks to TVU’s IS+ transmission algorithm, full HD/4K quality and perfectly synced audio/video signal are able to meet the demands of professional video productions.

Partyline delivers the following:

• Real-time participant interaction with unobservable video and audio delay
• Mix minus feedback elimination without special wiring for audio
• Perfectly synced signals
• Program feeds viewable in real-time
• IS+ enabled full broadcast quality and synced audio/video signal transmitted to a TVU Transceiver, TVU Grid or TVU Producer
• Signal routing to any location
• Easy participation using a simple URL

How Vizrt used Viz Mosart 4 and NDI to remotely control studio facilities when most employees are working from home

Advised by Norwegian regulators after returning from a business trip abroad, I stayed home for 14 days. My employer, Vizrt, is a globally-scaled organization that operates at a local level, so flexibility is in our DNA. However, like any global organization, we have a heightened need to communicate with our people who are located in cities all around the world.  We need to engage with them and keep them informed as to our ever evolving ways of working as we respond to the developing situation.

In our current “new normal,” many of my colleagues  in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A., are now remote workers. In these conditions, traditional internal communication techniques like physical town hall halls and daily standups have to adapt as we seek continue to update our colleagues of the rapidly changing conditions.

Being in the live broadcast business, we already communicate with our people through our internal channel, VizrTV. We run live productions regularly through this platform from our studios in Bergen, Norway and San Antonio, Texas. As the product manager for our Automation products, I volunteer to run the control room internally for our Communications department, and my recent home status meant I had to create a remote set up to sustain the live content creation.

All television control rooms are built for specific tasks like switching video, mixing audio, playing video, keying graphics. The VizrTV control room is no exception. Our VizrTV  production studio in Bergen may be small compared to many broadcasters, but we are facing some of the same challenges that our customers are also grappling with at this time.

This article describes how we solved some of these challenges, but it certainly does not cover all aspects. We still relied on, for example, our studio facilities and our digital communications platforms.

 

Using Viz Mosart 

Like many of our customers, we use Viz Mosart to coordinate devices to simplify and control our entire live production. We use this powerful tool to enable us to produce our show without being physically present in the control room.

Viz Mosart has, for over a decade, integrated with broadcasting devices through their native APIs. This effectively means that all essential operations can be executed from a single interface which is defined by software. This unlocks all the benefits that are inherent with a modern IT infrastructure, including the ability to leverage remote control.

Why was the new Viz Mosart 4 a key component? (release date 31st March, 2020)

In this latest update, live video is included within the user interface of Viz Mosart, merging the multiviewer with production control into a single tool. This means a single interface can be opened on any computer connected to your network that can control everything in your production setup, allowing direct interaction with the live content.

We quickly configured our sources from our Vizrt software-driven switcher, and we were ready to go. Our line-of-production control tools with a switching component (Viz Vectar and Viz Verdi) runs NDI® natively, so every input and output is instantly available for any NDI-enabled device on the local network.

Note that for a baseband control room, you are able to do the same with our Vizrt SDI IO module. This would allow up to 8 SDI sources (One of these could be your multiviewer), to be instantly converted to NDI sources on the network. Once these are available, any Viz Mosart 4 GUI on the network will pick them up and display them as Program, Preview, individual sources or as a full multiviewer.

This is where it got interesting. I was able to see sources, visualize the rundown and at the same time, operate the broadcast from a single computer.

Everything was all set for remote control.

Remote control at home

Once both the live sources and control are available in a single interface, standard remote connection tools can be used. There are broadcasters already using off-the-shelf solutions like TeamViewer to remote control their Viz Mosart systems, and this is the tool I decided to use as well. On VizrTV I connected my home office in the suburbs, with our control room located in downtown Bergen, Norway.

With this connection we could do a full production from the home office. This includes running opening sequences, clips, cutting cameras and creating box effects – all from the same software-based user interface.

In short

We are now able maintain operation for our live shows that we create for both internal and external communication. Viz Mosart 4 in combination with NDI could potentially help broadcasters create similar workflows.

In a world where everyone needs to adapt their workflows to a more flexible normal; where it may be necessary to go on-air anytime from anywhere – and with minimal staff – broadcasters need tools that allow full control of their powerful on-site setups from a single interface. This will allow them to leverage that power fully – even when it is not possible, desirable or there is not enough time to fully staff a studio before going on air.

Cutting-Edge, IP-Based Solutions Reduce Operational Costs Through Centralised Control of Remote Broadcasts

Sky News Australia has made a major investment in state-of-the-art robotic camera support systems from Vinten and Intelligent Prompting solutions from Autoscript for its six remote studios located throughout Australia. With the latest build-out just completed in Sky News’ Canberra Parliament House studio, the Vinten and Autoscript equipment is a vital link in the network’s strategy to reduce operational costs through centralised, IP-based control of remote broadcasts.

Sky News is a 24/7 multi-channel network providing international news, local news, and current affairs programmes to viewers throughout Australia and New Zealand. With headquarters, master control, and main studio based in Sydney, the network operates remote studios in Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

In the newest project, Sky News has fitted out its Canberra Parliament House studio with three Vinten FH-145 robotic pan/tilt camera heads, driven by the Vinten HD-VRC control system, three Vinten Quattro pedestals, and three Autoscript EPIC-IP 19″ prompting monitors with integrated talent feedback monitors, driven by Autoscript WinPlus-IP News prompting software. Amber Technology, a Vitec Production Solutions Premier Partner, supplied the Vinten and Autoscript solutions and is partner for the build-out.

“Cost is a significant factor in today’s television production environment,” said Rick Zecevic, chief technology officer, Sky News Australia. “By allowing us to control all of our remote studios from Sydney, IP-based networks and technologies like those from Vinten and Autoscript are playing a huge role in helping us operate as cost-effectively as possible. At the same time, we have the flexibility of local control at each location when the need arises.”

Zecevic added, “The Vinten robotic heads and pedestals, coupled with Autoscript’s prompting solutions, are a perfect choice because of their outstanding remote-control-over-IP capabilities, renowned reliability and performance, and advanced features. Plus, Amber Technology is providing us with outstanding local support throughout the process.” With the completion of Sky News Studio 1 in Sydney, all six of the network’s studios will be fitted out with robotic heads from Vinten and pedestals working in concert with Autoscript Intelligent Prompting solutions.

“Sky News Australia is already reaping the benefits of lower overhead and operational costs since implementing our cutting-edge Vinten robotics and Autoscript prompting systems, which can be remotely controlled over an IP network with minimal local operator involvement,” said Tom Pavicic, regional sales manager for Australia and New Zealand, Vitec Production Solutions. “The ability to reduce costs while increasing quality is an ongoing goal for so many of our broadcast customers, and leveraging state-of-the-art robotics and prompting technologies, particularly within IP-based workflows, is allowing our customers to achieve this goal, just as we’ve seen with Sky News.”

Rental Division of Leading UK Broadcast Equipment Provider Visual Impact Adds 40 flowtech100 Video 18 systems to Inventory

VI Rental, the hire division of UK broadcast equipment provider Visual Impact, has made a major purchase of Sachtler’s flowtech100 carbon-fibre tripods and Video 18 S2 fluid heads. In response to customer demand, VI Rental has replaced its entire inventory of tripods with 40 new flowtech100 Video 18 systems.

As someone who has built a 35-year career on the foundation of producing, directing, and shooting corporate video, I’ve learned a few things along the way that can save time, streamline the workflow, and ultimately result in better quality videos. As strange as it may sound to others who may harbor dreams of directing festival-winning indie films, producing music videos for rock stars, or getting a top job in Hollywood, I am passionate about corporate video production.  Here’s a secret:  Opportunities in corporate video are growing by leaps and bounds every year!  It offers the best chance for financial security, a stable career, independence, and creative freedom.

To get a head start in the corporate video world, here are some quick tips for producing better corporate video:

1. Put Your Client’s Interests Ahead of Your Own 

The key to success with corporate video production is repeat business, so you must become a team player and ensure that every production you work on is successful for the client.  Wrapping up production of a video and getting paid by the client or collecting a paycheck at the end of the week is not the goal.  The goal should always be to produce a video that actually accomplishes whatever the client needs it to do for them.  That purpose might be selling a product or service; training in-house employees on safety procedures or orientation; instructing customers on how to assemble or operate a product they have purchased, etc.  If the videos you produce are successful at doing what they are intended to do, you will also be successful.  It is just that simple. Those two things go hand in hand.  So having a handful of satisfied clients that can count on you to produce one or two videos per year can easily lay the foundation on which a very successful career can be built.

2. Invest in a Teleprompter

When I talk to students at my workshops or speak to other professionals, it never fails to surprise me how few people realize the benefits of having their own teleprompter.  There is no single piece of equipment you can buy that will pay off more than a prompter.   Whether you’re shooting a company CEO, a government bureaucrat, or top-notch professional talent that you’ve hired for your shoot, a teleprompter will speed up the production, shorten the shooting day, and vastly improve the performance of anyone you put in front of the camera.  These days you might be able to get by with a low-cost solution that runs on an iPad, but I highly recommend getting a real prompter with high-quality glass, a hood, and powerful Mac or PC software that permits a wide range of formatting control.  I have chosen and definitely recommend a 15” Autocue prompter and its built-in software program Q-start. I can honestly say that the investment paid for itself in the first three shoots and years later it is still going strong. It would be impossible to calculate just how much time and money that teleprompter has saved me over the years.

3. Learn to Write and/or Edit Corporate Video Scripts

Writing for video requires a totally different style and technique than writing for printed materials.  If you can’t write well or don’t want to write scripts from scratch you might be able to get away with it, but you must at least learn how to dissect a script, edit it, and get it ready for shooting – that is crucial. Consideration must be paid to how the script flows from topic to topic, making it conversational.  You must have detailed planning of the visuals and it must be written and printed in a format that is easy for the crew, talent, and clients to understand. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of having an excellent script and a detailed shot list before the camera ever begins rolling. As the producer/director of the production, you must do that work and nobody else.

4. Most Importantly, Make the Switch to LED Lighting

LED lighting is the biggest thing to hit video production since the camcorder was invented.  Technological improvements such as HD, 4K, LOG, digital formats, tapeless recording, and big sensors are all great things to have, but in my opinion, they all pale in comparison to the introduction of LED lighting.  What’s so great about LED?  Well, there are several things:

1) Rather than pulling blinds and closing curtains at a location as we had to do with tungsten lights, daylight balanced LED lights allow us to embrace natural light and use it to our advantage.

2) I only use Litepanels’ wide range of LED lights and every instrument in my kit can be dimmed from 100% to zero simply by turning a knob, thus saving a lot of time getting contrast ratios just the way I want them and allowing me to choose the precise f-stop I want to use on my camera.  For example, if I want to shoot at f/2.8 to achieve shallow depth of field on an interview, I just dim the lights until I get the right amount of light I need to allow that f-stop.

3) My Litepanels LED lights are highly energy efficient and every one of them can run on batteries – from the Anton/Bauer bricks that power my robust Astra 1×1 to my tiny little Croma 2 lights with AA batteries.  It is hard to describe the freedom you’ll feel and the time you will save when you’re no longer running power cords around the set, looking for outlets, tripping breakers, or worrying about heat. My setups and strikes are much faster with LEDs, which ultimately saves me time and money.

4) I have a wide variety of LED lights in my kit rather than just a collection of flat panels.  Having Litepanels Fresnel lights as part of my kit is essential for long throws, cutting the beam with barn doors, precisely focusing a narrow spot of light, and being able to create shadows wherever and whenever I want them.

Doug Jensen is a cinematographer, producer, director, editor, and founder of Vortex Media, who frequently teaches production workshops all around the United States. For the past six years he’s been at Maine Media Workshops focusing on proven techniques for interview lighting and for producing and directing high-end corporate video.

LONDON — Sept. 7, 2017 — Autoscript, the world’s leading teleprompting company and a Vitec Group brand, today announced that its all-new Intelligent Prompting solution has received China’s coveted BIRTV Award in the Outstanding Product category. The award specifically recognizes the solution’s WinPlus-IP, an updated version of Autoscript’s WinPlus teleprompting software that includes powerful new functionality and key features enhancing ease of use.

Intelligent Prompting is the broadcast industry’s first completely IP-enabled teleprompting solution, delivering the connectivity, flexibility, ease of use, and reliability critical for the modern broadcast operations of today and tomorrow. Launched at the 2017 NAB Show in April, Intelligent Prompting was just introduced to the Asia-Pacific market at the 2017 Beijing International Radio, TV and Film Exhibition (BIRTV) in Beijing, where it was presented with the BIRTV award.

Intelligent Prompting’s IP-enabled prompting workflow creates endless opportunities for broadcast operations to collaborate across geographies and provide cost-effective resource allocation. One operator can control the script in multiple locations and instantly switch control to another operator anywhere in the world when necessary. Likewise, IP connectivity provides powerful redundancy, since a second master software application can be installed and then take over control seamlessly as required.

Intelligent Prompting is driven by the WinPlus-IP software, which builds on existing procedures in WinPlus, such as shortcut keys and layouts, while including improvements to the software’s ease of use, such as clearer menu structures and added functionality. The software’s modern user interface includes a device-status tool to enable monitoring and management of all Intelligent Prompting devices on the network. These new features ensure that broadcasters avoid the downtime and errors associated with learning a new system and benefit from simple, centralised management of all devices.

Presented every year at the BIRTV Exhibition, these awards are the most prestigious in the Chinese broadcast industry. Prizes are awarded to the most innovative products, the most anticipated products, and products with the most practical applications. The BIRTV awards program is sponsored by China Central Television (CCTV), the national TV station of the People’s Republic of China, and executed by China Radio & TV Co. and the CCTV modern TV technology editorial office.

“The BIRTV award for Intelligent Prompting is a tremendous honour. It reflects the great care taken by our engineering teams to design every component of the solution around an IP-enabled workflow that’s both reliable and flexible, with a scalable architecture that supports users at any stage in their transition to IP operations,” said Ginny Grove, Product Marketing Manager, Autoscript. “This award is just the latest validation of our market leadership in APAC, where Autoscript is an established and trusted brand. In fact, our solutions are in use by every major TV station and broadcaster in China, including CCTV and Hunan TV.”

More information on Autoscript’s new Intelligent Prompting solutions is available here