Author: Russell Trafford-Jones

Webinar: 12 GHz Coax, the New Frontier: Exploring 4K Coax Cable Technology

Posted on by Russell Trafford-Jones


On-Demand Webinar

When will copper fail us? From the beginnings of electronic media, broadcast engineers have struggled with the bandwidth limitations of interconnecting cable. When 4K and other high data rate services first appeared, it seemed only fiber could handle the bandwidth. But we thought the same when SDI was introduced. Belden first introduced 4794R and now 4855R. Will these be the new 8281 and 9209? Have we reached the limit of electrons in cable, or are there new technologies that will extend the convenience of cable and connectors into the next generation of broadcast?

With each advance in interconnection, new methods for installation and use come with new limitations along with the improvements in bandwidth. This webinar covers interconnection in the 12 GHz world, and what is likely to be the technology for the next generation.

In this webinar, you will learn:

  1. If you can use existing cable for 12 GHz 4K applications.
  2. If there is a difference between 6 GHz 4K and 12 GHz 4K when choosing cable.
  3. Connectors you can use for 12 GHz 4K applications.

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Video: Discovery’s cloud workflows and Channel Origination. AWS re:Invent.

Posted on by Russell Trafford-Jones


On-Demand Video of a talk at AWS re-Invent 2016
Discovery Communications is well known in broacast circles for their move the the cloud, arguably ahead of the curve. But their partnership with AWS continues and appears to have resulted in a felxibly, reliable infrastructure which has gone hand in hand with a move of Enterprise IT to the cloud.

This talk walks through Discovery’s migration of broadcast playout supporting hundreds of channels worldwide to AWS. It shows how Discovery has not only reduced their Total Cost of Ownership but also has improved their agility by launching new channels on demand. We also walk through how channel origination is being deployed in a secure, automated fashion, and with a level of high availability that exceeds what is possible in a traditional data center.

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On-Demand: DVB UHD HDR Webinar

Posted on by Russell Trafford-Jones


On-Demand Webinar

DVB recently updated its audio-visual coding specification, adding support for High Dynamic Range (HDR), Higher Frame Rates (HFR) and Next Generation Audio (NGA). You can now learn all about the new features in a webinar by the editor of this impressive specification, Virginie Drugeon (Panasonic) on January 18th, 2017. The webinar and Q&A time should take around 1 hour. You can send your questions by the Webex chat function during the webinar and questions will be answered in a few blocks during the webinar.

The specification update has been published as BlueBook A157 and will be passed to ETSI for formal publication as TS 101 154 v2.3.1.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) significantly increases the contrast ratio and results in pictures with more ‘sparkle’. The DVB HDR solution supports Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) and Perceptual Quantizer (PQ) transfer functions. Furthermore, the new specification defines Higher Frame Rates (HFR), offering sharper images of moving objects by going beyond the current 50/60 frames per second. When it comes to audio, DVB has added the latest Next Generation Audio (NGA) schemes to provide immersive and personalized audio content using object- or scene-based coding.

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Meeting: Cybersecurity in Broadcasting

Posted on by Russell Trafford-Jones


Date: 18:30-21:30 Wed 25th October 2017
Location, Pincents Manor, There, RG31 4UQ | Map

RTS Thames Valley proudly presents an illuminating evening discussing the highly topical and relevant subject of Cybersecurity with the broadcast and media community. With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) just around the corner, broadcasters increasingly embracing file delivery (DPP, IMF, etc.) and going headlong into Live IP solutions (ST 2110, IS-04/5/6) are we leaving ourselves wide-open for hacking?
We have two very well connected speakers, one from a Corporate IT outsource company (Ramsac) and the other from one of the UK’s major broadcasters (Arqiva).
Robert May will discuss the subject from the Corporate Network aspect, covering all essential good practice and encouraging us to prepare for GDPR, which will be law on May 25, 2018.
Denis Onuoha will cover the broadcasters more specific concerns – from Cloud-based delivery through to staff using USB sticks on the playout system! With the world’s media becoming an ever-increasing target to hackers, are we just making ourselves even more vulnerable moving to IP?

Register