August 9, 2013
Warner Bros.’ Gewecke to present Keynote at SMPTE ConfabWHITE PLAINS, NY——Thomas Gewecke, chief digital officer and executive VP for strategy and business development at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., will be a keynote presenter at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition. Gewecke will speak on the future of content in an increasingly Internet-based world.
“In various leadership roles over the past decade, Thomas has repeatedly found innovative ways to leverage the Internet to bring consumers popular content and services,” said SMPTE Education VP Pat Griffis. “Engineering online and mobile strategy at media giants Sony and Warner Bros., Thomas has played a key role in shaping the media and entertainment industry’s use of the Internet to deliver digital content…His keynote session promises to be highly engaging and informative.”
The SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition is an annual event for motion-imaging and media technology, production, operations, and the allied arts and sciences. The event draws technology thought-leaders from motion picture studios, broadcast and distribution networks, production and postproduction communities, software companies, systems integrators, manufacturers, display technologies, distribution providers, over-the-top providers, and others leading the evolving motion-imaging industry.
Gewecke is among the technology thought-leaders shaping the motion-imaging industry today. At Warner Bros. Entertainment, he is responsible for driving the studio’s worldwide digital growth and managing its global business strategy. Gewecke coordinates the company’s digital distribution strategies to maximize the value of Warner Bros.’ content across all current and emerging digital exhibition platforms. He also oversees Warner Bros. Technical Operations and Corporate Business Development, as well as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Direct-to-Consumer, Business Development, and Flixster group. Prior to joining Warner Bros. Entertainment, Gewecke was senior VP of business development in the Digital Services Group for Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
The SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition is being held Oct. 22-24 in Hollywood, Calif., at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. The SMPTE Symposium is held in conjunction with the Annual Conference on Oct. 21 and online registration for both events is available at www.smpte2013.org.
Grass Valley To Demo Nonlinear Live Production Solutions at IBC
SAN FRANCISCO–Grass Valley will be demonstrating its portfolio of nonlinear live production solutions at this year’s IBC Show, (September 12-17, 2013), RAI Amsterdam.
The company will be introducing updates to its GV Director non-linear production center, GV STRATUS workflow toolset, and LDX Series of upgradeable cameras at the show. The company brings its advancements to the region to help content owners and operators across Europe to create and develop multiscreen, multiplatform futures. European customers will be able to get a first-hand look at the numerous enhancements added to those products over the past several months.
Making its worldwide debut at IBC 2013 is EDIUS 7, the latest version of Grass Valley’s nonlinear video editing application. EDIUS 7 edits content in real time, making it the perfect collaborative system for news and studio environments. Its enhanced functionality includes support for real-time 4K editing and the newest file formats, as well as software integration with third-party input and output hardware. It will be publicly demonstrated for the first time at the show.
FOX Sports 1 launched with Quantel Enterprise sQ HD system
NEWBURY, UK–FOX NE&O has expanded its Quantel Enterprise sQ HD production system to support the new FOX Sports 1 network, due to launch on August 17. FOX Sports 1 will broadcast a daily sports news program and will air coverage of multiple sports including college football and basketball, NASCAR and UFC, with Major League Baseball to become part of the schedule in 2014. FOX NE&O provides technology and services to USA national sports broadcaster FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG). The expansion increases the number of ingest ports and adds more editing capabilities to support the new channel.
FOX’s Quantel system, based at its headquarters in Los Angeles, is built around 10 sQ servers, split into two production zones, providing more than 1,700 hours of HD media storage. The system supports around 80 simultaneous users working on 24 sQ View applications, eight sQ Cut, 12 sQ Edit and four Qube craft editors. There are also 14 Media Viewer applications supporting Dixon Sports Hilite Loggers. The system also supports multiple sQ Play applications for playout and Livetouch applications used for instant playback of live sports action.
Telestream to launch Post Producer at IBC 2013
NEVADA CITY, Calif.–Telestream, a provider of video transcoding and workflow automation products, announced a major new product to be launched at the International Broadcasters Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam this September. Post Producer is a postproduction and delivery engine that automates repetitive production processes, which would otherwise tie up editors and NLE workstations. Based on user templates, Post Producer assembles a segment or spot, compositing video, graphics, titles and captions or subtitles, and applying audio processing as required. Alternate versions are automatically created by simply substituting the necessary elements. Running on the latest version of Vantage 6 software, Post Producer will be available for purchase prior to IBC.
“One of the major pain points in file-based workflows is the repetitive rendering of different versions of media for today’s multi-language, multi-platform distribution,” said Paul Turner, VP of enterprise product management at Telestream. “Post Producer addresses this issue, offering an automated, efficient, and cost-effective solution for versioning and packaging.”
Telestream extends its reach into the post market by also enabling direct ingest of DPX sequence files and acquisition formats such as RED RAW, by adding Dolby E encoding, and 24 to 25 frames per second audio conversion. The new Post Producer product and these new features will be available in Vantage 6. In addition, Vantage 6 will offer new analysis and QC capabilities and further integrations with third party products.
Vantage is a video processing platform for a range of transcoding and file-based workflow automation products. It supports single-server installations for automated transcoding, to very large, multi-server media processing systems that automatically produce and assemble millions of finished media packages. Vantage makes content production, multi-screen delivery, and device interoperability a hands-off process. The Vantage platform brings transcoding, media capture, metadata processing, analysis, and content assembly into a unified system.
SGO unveils it lineup for IBC 2013
MADRID–SGO will be showcasing at IBC 2013, its line of 4K+ Mistika DI and Stereo 3D postproduction solutions. Unveiled will be Mistika Post Version 7.4 and further developments will be revealed including Mistika’s new Shape Tracker providing colorists and compositors with a fast and powerful tracking tool at the mere touch of a button.
Other highlights will include the introduction of Mistika Air, the complete real-time Ultra HD Solution for Intelligent Broadcasting, including highly paralleled HD-Ultra HD-4K-8K operation with multiple codecs, enabling broadcasters with cost-effective, high-end production tools. Mistika V7.4 combines next generation colour grading tools, in an ACES Compliant environment, with advanced editorial, VFX and finishing.
