What Constitutes a Standard? (Or Why I’m Not Buying Into 4k Live Switching Right Now)

It has been about a month and a half since NAB 2013 and the Internet is still abuzz with news about BlackMagic Design’s 4k Cinema Camera announcement and the ATEM 4k Video Switcher.  The reason I bring both items up is that they are part of what I see as a problem in the industry right now which is new technology being passed off as a new standard: 6G SDI.

What constitutes a standard?

Well, frankly in my industry SMPTE decides.

The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers are pretty much wizards who do magical things related to making film and television actually work with some semblance of order amongst the chaos which is visual storytelling.

I sort of imagine SMPTE members as all vaguely resembling Gandalf The Grey:

Source: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/File:Gandalf-2.jpg#filelinks
Image Link: http://images.wikia.com/lotr/images/8/8d/Gandalf-2.jpg

A bunch of wizened old grey-hairs who absentmindedly wander around talking to themselves who have forgotten more than the rest of us will never know about arcane topics like refresh rates, raster and aspect.

So why do we need standards?

In fact, on a web forum recently, I read a disturbing piece of opinion lightheartedly masquerading as fact that since BlackMagic Design has developed and released what they call 6G SDI on a number of their products that they have in fact designed the new standard for 4k.

Let me start by offering an analogy:

Imagine that the Fiat 500 engineers designed the first motor car to meet an all new classification that all new roads would be built to around the world.

Without outside influence by a governing body, what could happen is that all designs from that point forward would reflect solely the needs of that development team and their design.

• Tunnels would be built to a height of a little over 5 feet
• Roadways would have lanes a little over 6 feet wide
• Street parking spaces would be approximately 14 feet long
• Overpasses, bridges and parking structures would be built for vehicles weighing less than 2500 lbs
• No diesel fuel would be available for sale

By only considering the perceived needs from such a myopic view, the needs from a larger industry perspective could potentially be ignored.

What about transport vehicles?  Emergency vehicles?  Taxis, buses and other mass transit?

So what does this all have to do with 6G SDI and the BMD implementation?

Right now, 6G is solely the playground of BlackMagic Design, with a number of their products supporting the format.  You’ll notice I said “format” and not “standard”.  They have cameras, switchers and recorders available to work within their system.

• What about displays?
• What about projectors?
• What about scalers?
• What about matrix routers?

<chirp chirp chirp>

Real world application:

On my way back from NAB I ran into a fellow I know from my past as a musician in Winnipeg.  He too has moved to Vancouver and is working with one of the easier to find video producers in this city.  He was excited about the company committing to buying a bunch of 4k gear to work live events with.

So…  how do you integrate a presenters laptop PowerPoint presentation into the system?

“Simple.  You take an HDMI feed out of the laptop and plug it in”.

Currently, the hardware does not support video scaling on the input side.  According to the BMD website, the input resolutions for HDMI input are: NTSC, PAL, 720P, 1080i and 3840 x 2160 (4k or Quad HD).

As of the day I write this, Apple is advertising their MacBook Pro with Retina Display as “The world’s highest resolution notebook” with a screen resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels.

MacBook Pro Retina Display – 2880 x 1800 pixels
Source: http://www.apple.com

So in short, today’s highest resolution notebook is some 3.1 million pixels short of being recognized and displayed by the BMD ATEM 4k.

“Okay smart guy.  I’ll use a scaler”.

At NAB, I talked with a representative from one of the most respected and industry leading manufacturers of pro A/V systems integration products about their support for the BMD 6G products.

He laughed.

In fact, if you do a search at Extron Electronics website for 6G SDI solutions, this is the search result it will return.

Extron.com 6G search results

These guys are the leaders in the industry, in my not-so-humble opinion, and are frankly priced accordingly.

So, while the BlackMagic Design 4k solutions ARE groundbreaking, they are currently an island unto themselves.

And that is being overlooked by fanboys who are hot to be the first on their streets to offer a service to their clients that isn’t completely thought out yet.  (also see: “hyperbole”)

If you want to record your own studio production live switched using BMD 4k Cinema Cameras through an ATEM 4k to a 4k enabled HyperDeck Studio Pro for later editing and graphics integration, go ahead.

But to market this solution as the next big thing in live event coverage to screens is asinine, shortsighted and downright disrespectful to our mutual potential clients.

Until the rest of the industry decides on (remember what I said about SMPTE earlier…) and begins to support a new standard, whether based on this technology or not, I’m staying out of this segment of the market because frankly I don’t ever want to have to tell my client “Well… I THOUGHT it would work because someone on the Internet said it should”.

And if the video production service provider you are talking to about your event disagrees with my position, ask yourself this question: what do they stand to gain by disagreeing with me?

Likely they are trying to sell you something.

I have the ability to go out and buy a complete BMD 4k system right now if I wanted to start playing in this sandbox.  I choose not to for valid and well thought out reasons.

To be clear and fair – the big issue I have here isn’t that BlackMagic Design are pushing the boundaries and introducing groundbreaking products – I’m concerned by the absolute glut of misinformation surrounding 6G as a standard and the sales pitch of the fanboys.

And BMD Fanboys are a loud and numerous bunch these days.

I own a fair bit of  BlackMagic Design gear and most of it works quite well even though not always as advertised.  The core of my multicam setup is based almost exclusively on BMD gear.  I feel pretty confident and justified in espousing the opinions I hold from actual Real World application.

Thus endeth the sermon.

Thanks for reading!

Times They Are A Changin’… A Look Back At My Time At Winnipeg Stadium

I started my video career while I was still in media college – I was asked by one of the producers on a show that our college produced to look after an ISO recording sourced from the Dome Productions mobile production truck at a CFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers game back in the autumn of 1998.  So I sat in the back of a Ford Explorer for 5 hours with no heat and changed tapes in a Sony UVW1800 BetacamSP VTR and watched the game live on site at Winnipeg Stadium, albeit from the parking lot in near freezing temperatures.

The rest as they say is history.

My friend and long time mentor Peter Young, a storied Winnipeg sportscaster I grew up watching on CKY television (now part of the CTV network) recruited me after he and I got into a rather heated disagreement over camera availability during the run-up to the 86th Grey Cup CFL Football Final held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 22, 1998.  He told me later that if I had that much guts and that little smarts, I’d do great as a sideline camera man.

The creds may say West side but I spent my entire field level career on the East side of Winnipeg Stadium

When the Blue Bombers announced that they were installing a Sony Jumbotron in the North End zone for the 1999 CFL season, guess who Peter tapped to operate the East side camera?

Proud East Side camera operator at Winnipeg Stadium with Sony UVW100 Betacam

I was suddenly on a video crew with some of the very best talents in live sports production and working alongside others working for host broadcasting for televised games.  When I went out in public, people recognized me as The East Side Camera Guy.

The very first game the Jumbotron was turned on for turned out to be a near washout torrential downpour.  The newly installed video board panels started to fail, one by one, due to the soaking they were receiving in a Prairie rainstorm.

We camera operators were asked to frame the action further and further to one side as the panels slowly shorted out so that 40,000+ screaming fans could watch the action live on the big screen.  As it became readily apparent this was an exercise in futility, Peter called the West Side field level camera operators to pack up and come inside and up to the control room.  Until the last panel gave up, it was only the upstairs hard camera positions and me, standing on the East Side visitors’ sideline, drenched, shooting kickers warming up and diehard Bomber fans weathering the uh… weather.

Over the years, I worked all sorts of events at the Winnipeg Stadium, which later became known as CanadInns Stadium, first as a camera operator and later as technical director switcher.

Me operating the ROSS Video RVS210 video switcher that fed the Sony Jumbotron at the old Winnipeg Stadium

I have a lot of fond memories of that place and how it and the people I worked alongside launched my career.

The interesting part is I was never really all that much of a sports fan, although much of my career has revolved around live sports production.  In fact, directing and switching all sorts of live sports and sporting entertainment is among my very favourite things to do as a working videographer.

I have worked at the Winnipeg Stadium/CanadInns Stadium, CanWest Global Park (home of the Winnipeg Goldeyes), Winnipeg Arena (former home of the Manitoba Moose and former home of the 1972 – 1996 Winnipeg Jets) and the MTS Centre in Downtown Winnipeg where the Manitoba Moose moved to in 2004 until the current Winnipeg Jets returned to the city in 2011.

In fact, I technical directed and live switched most of the first events held at the new MTS Centre including the official launch of the facility, the Northern Lights Northern Stars concert as the designated TD Lloyd Fox was often tied up elsewhere in the building looking after those little things that always come up with the launch of a new facility.

First official event at MTS Centre – Northern Lights Northern Stars

Until my departure from the organization, I switched approximately half of the events held there from a dark little non-descript room adjacent to the loading docks.

CanadInns Stadium news story at Winnipeg Sun website.
Credit: David Larkins
CLICK THE UNDERLINED TEXT BELOW FOR THE VIDEO

The facility that started my career in live sports is currently being demolished to make room for a new Target retail store in Winnipeg as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are moving to a new facility currently being built close to the University of Manitoba.  This will be the first sports facility with video production screens in Winnipeg that I have not been there working the launch of.

In fact, I ran into several folks at NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters convention and trade show) this year in Vegas from the Winnipeg video production community who I reminisced with about just that.

As well, when I went to the ROSS Video booth for my one hour one-on-one product consultation for a new vision switcher for Road Dog Media, I ran into Scott Bowditch, a former Synergy trainer with ROSS Video who is now the Marketing Product Manager of the OverDrive line at ROSS.  He recognized me instantly and placed me at the MTS Centre, even though we haven’t seen each other in 9 years.  He and one of his colleagues trained me on the Synergy 1 video switcher I drove for many a Manitoba Moose game and concert in that control room that reeked of diesel fumes.

It was a sexy desk to sit behind.

Scott Bowditch and Katie from ROSS Video training us on the SYnergy 1 video switcher at MTS Centre.

Scott and I chatted about the new facility and some of the challenges of launching a new venue.  I felt nostalgic as I remember how little was actually ready at the MTS Centre when we launched.  Everything the public saw was spectacular.  Behind the scenes, it was chaos.  But we all worked together to put on one heck of a show.

Sometimes I miss those days.

I also miss the old stadium.  It smelled and the shine had long ago worn off.

But it was my home many, many late nights.

I love the old girl, wrinkles and all.

Farewell, ma chère amie!

Thanks for reading!

Focus on Lenses – A Play on Words

I think by now it is readily apparent to anyone who has been following my Blog for any period of time that I’m not sold on the large format sensor revolution for every application.

Don’t get me wrong – if you are making an indie film or shooting beauty shots of products in a controlled environment, there is something to be said for the shallow depth of field that can be achieved by using larger sensors (4/3″, S35 or full frame).

Having said that, the “shallow depth of field movement” as I refer to it, which started with the advent of the spinning ground glass adaptors which mounted stills lenses onto video cameras starting about 8 or so years ago, has overtaken all good sense.  The search for a cinematic look has overridden best practices in video production.

I come from a live television background.  Live sports, news…  that sort of thing.  I also specialize in multicamera live switched environments such as conferences and conventions.

Our “Gold Standard” is 2/3″ chip cameras.

Why?

Pretty simple, actually.

2/3″ is derived from the old 16mm film days, which is how events were captured for playback after the fact until the “portable” VTR and camera combo was created.  It is a great balance of image quality, light sensitivity and power considerations.

A fairly ancient Fujinon 16x zoom lens on a Hitachi Z-One 2/3″ studio camera, complete with zoom and focus demand controls.

As well, lenses for these cameras have existed for quite some time that meet the requirements for live use:

• parfocal – lenses maintain focus throughout their zoom range.
• servo zoom – a small electric motor with precise speed control is used to drive the zoom mechanism.
• fast – maximum aperture on most 2/3″ zoom lenses is under F2 and very little light is lost as one moves toward a telephoto lens position, depending on the overall zoom factor
• large zoom factor – even short zoom lenses often offer 16x or more of zoom, with the most notable exceptions being wide angle zooms.  In fact, some “box lenses” offer zoom factors in excess of 100x without engaging the 2x optical “doubler”.  For example, this Fujinon zoom lens has a maximum focal length of 900mm without the doubler.  In reference to Full Frame 35mm, this lens would be equivalent to a 3600mm lens.  At 900mm, this lens maintains F4.7.  Try that with a S35 lens.
• standard bayonet mount – virtually all 2/3″ zoom lenses use the same standard bayonet mount, allowing for virtually seamless ability to interchange lenses and cameras.  There are some differences in the electronic matings of lenses and cameras but that discussion is beyond the scope of this discussion.
• back focus adjustment – virtually all lenses at this end of the spectrum all have an adjustment to compensate for the minute differences in manufacturing tolerances and differences that ambient temperature can have on the materials both the lens and camera mounting hardware are made of.

A recent forum thread I have weighed in on has a proponent suggesting that 2/3″ is dead and that with the advent of more cost effective S35 (or larger) ciné cameras, the move will be toward large format imagers in cameras aimed at live television and event video production.  The truth is that ciné and stills lenses are built for very different purposes than ENG/EFP/Studio lenses.  Even ciné zooms are typically much shorter in zoom factor and cost a great deal more in most cases.

Which is not to say that an Angenieux Optimo 28-340 isn’t a STUNNING lens;  it is… it is just engineered for a different purpose altogether.  And at $70k, it is still “only” a 12x zoom.

The bane of stills lenses for video production IMHO is that very few lenses are parfocal – by which I mean most stills lenses do not maintain focus throughout their zoom range.

This beast of a lens is a LOMO 20 -120 Russian Ciné zoom lens mounted on a Sony FS100. The lens is parfocal with a constant aperture throughout its zoom range. Please note the size of the objective (front) lens element. It also weighs in close to 20 lbs.

What a number of camera/lens manufacturers are doing these days is introducing a Look Up Table (LUT) that alters the back focus of a lens “on the fly” relative to its focal length (zoom position).  This is being done with varying degrees of success, depending largely on the size of the image sensor the lens is designed for.

JVC has added the functionality to its HM600 and HM650 “twins” which are industry leading in their zoom factors on small imager/form factor cameras.  These are 1/3″ 3-chip cameras with 23x optical zoom lenses.  At NAB 2012, the prototype was hand-carried to the show floor and exhibited what I considered to be unacceptable “hunting” for back focus as the lens focal length was changed.

This year, I spent a significant amount of time at the JVC booth trying to force the lens to “fail” to track back focus.  I was not able to.

Contrast that result with a much anticipated servo zoom for an S35 sensor that a rival camera company was exhibiting.  The 18 – 200 servo zoom exhibited a great deal of “hunting” as I used the servo motor drive to change focal length of the lens, causing the focus to drift in and out, regardless of whether it was a fast or slow zoom.  Again, this is a S35 lens.

Does that make the 18 – 200 servo a bad lens?

Hardly!  It just limits the usefulness of it to non-live zooms.

Horses for courses.

Finally, there is no definitive standard mount for these stills lenses that are being used with ever increasing frequency on video or digital cinema cameras.  Whether Canon EF, Nikon F, 4/3″, PL, OCT-19 or Alpha, most practitioners are adapting their lenses to the mount on their cameras.

Remember when I talked above about broadcast zoom lenses having back focus adjustment?  Stills lenses almost exclusively do not.  They were/are designed to be used on the cameras that sport the mount that they were designed for.  Several manufacturers of varying Quality Assurance and manufacturing tolerances are manufacturing adaptors, with varying degrees of success.  Some end users are complaining about mounts flexing under weight or use, others are noting sections of the focal length and/or focal distance range have become unusable, especially with zoom lenses.

Why?

These lenses were never designed to be used the way they are being used.

Don’t get me wrong – lots of folks are getting great results with stills lenses, new and old, on their dSLRs and S35 digital ciné cameras.  Just don’t expect every lens to work flawlessly with every adaptor on every camera.

I have mentioned that a good friend of mine operates an Indie-friendly ciné rental house.  I spend a lot of time there.  It never ceases to amaze me just how frequently DoPs and cinematographers mix and match lenses on their projects.  Not just zooms and primes, but manufacturers as well.

Ciné lens manufacturers spend a lot of time, effort and resources to “match” lenses for colour, clarity and other characteristics within a given line of lenses so that the appropriate lens can be used to get the image required “on the day” but also so that the image will match that of every other lens in the line.

Stills lens manufacturers have built lenses to differing specifications over the years to meet differing requirements.  A “portrait” lens will have differing characteristics than a “copy” or medical imaging lens.  Mixing and matching without knowing what that classic Nikon prime was originally intended for is a recipe for disaster.

Most new practitioners (and some aging folk who never learned better) select lenses based on very simple criteria:  focal length and maximum aperture.

There is so much more to imaging than that.

<steps off soapbox>

Thanks for reading!

It Has A USB Port For Firmware Updates – Why Don’t You Add My Feature Request???

Another somewhat technical and cranky-old-man post…

Much of the equipment I have purchased over the last three or so years has been equipped with a USB port on it to allow end user updates of firmware: hardware’s underlying “Operating System”, although that may be overstating the capabilities of say a Component to SDI converter.  This has been a blessing for practitioners like I who buy based on current need only to find out that a new “standard” (how I love that word…) is released months afterward.

As long as the hardware internally is capable of handling the new and improved capabilities, a new firmware update makes the requisite instruction set changes to allow new and different functionality.

The underlying issue here is that the HARDWARE needs to support the new functionality.

SOURCE: http://xkcd.com/644/
IMAGE LINK: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/surgery.png

At NAB this year BlackMagic Design released a particularly interesting new product that shares some components with its 2 x 9″ rackmount LCD video panel.  This new product is designed for highly technical monitoring of video and audio signals, both for aesthetic as well as for standards compliance.  The device is called SmartScope Duo.

Wall of monitors and scopes at NAB… just the way I like it.

I will be buying at least one and likely more, once the reports from early adopters are in.

Where things get ugly is when folks who have no background in production start assuming that because an item shares a physical similarity to another AND has a USB port that automatically the new functionality is capable of being enable with a simple firmware update.

One of the more civil discussions taking place on a web forum is here.

It isn’t my intent to make anyone look particularly foolish personally so I chose that thread.  There are a great number of threads and posts on numerous different forums about such perceptions of upgradability from the benign to the hostile.  Some posters are accusing manufacturers of deliberately crippling features so that they can charge more for an unlocked version.

At the same time there is a movement afoot amongst the “young’ens” to have new features added to products that either don’t have the hardware capabilities in the first place or are simply not well thought out.  There appears to be a lot of knee-jerk feature requests out there to try and get everything into one box without giving any thought to how that would affect the Big Picture.

One of my many “problem solvers”.

I come from an era of buying independent problem solving pieces of kit for individual problems.  I do have a couple of devices in my arsenal that serve multiple purposes but they are typically complimentary.  For example, the devices I bought to convert VGA to HD-SDI also double as a scaler and an analog audio embedder.  That is like having a toaster with a bagel setting.

Some folks are requesting “features” that are akin to having a bathtub/washing machine/kettle because they all use water.

I have less hair than when I started out…  You can probably figure out why…

I acknowledge that I can be cranky but at least I’m well informed.

Thanks for reading!

NAB 2013 Thoughts Part 2

The future of webcasting in the opinion of LiveStream is the Millennials, who have forsaken traditional M/E buss switching and want a new paradigm, for better or for worse…

In this second instalment, I seek to expose some of the video production industry & manufacturers half-truths that comes to light in the wake of a series of product announcements like those at NAB…

I think it is safe to say that I’ve done my fair share of multi-camera live switched and webcast events.  I started switching back in 1999 and webcasting as an operator in 2010, although I did live switch the official launch webcast for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission town hall meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba back in 2009, the on-demand stream of which is no longer live.

I started as a neophyte, working under and alongside seasoned pros in the field, who increasingly gave me opportunities to show my stuff while giving me just enough rope to hang myself…  There are some ligature marks but I’m still here so apparently I passed inspection.

The South Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Centre was all abuzz with folks talking about both disciplines.  Some folks obviously knew their stuff while others were looking to get into the game for a fraction of the cost of what I perceive to be a comprehensive solution.  And the manufacturers had products to appeal to them ALL!

One of the exciting products for me was a new hardware series by LiveStream, my live webcast solution of choice.

LiveStream HD500 mobile webcast studio at NAB 2013.

The LiveStream Studio HD500 is an interesting solution on a lot of fronts.  It has the core capabilities to do 5 source live switching for webcast and has a built in titler and playback engine.  As well, there are (limited) audio mixing capabilities.

I am looking very seriously at picking up one or more up for my highly mobile live event webcast model.  A tremendous amount of bang for the buck.

Where the solution fails is where most folks are going to try to use it – simultaneous webstreaming with output to venue screens in an IMAG (Image MAGnification) scenario.

Upon talking to the kind folks at LiveStream, there is a 6 frame delay internally from input to output.  This is to facilitate syncing non-synchronous sources, the ability to enable live keying and other such mundane tasks that the average user doesn’t want to consider.

The problem is, we can SEE 2 or more frames of delay of video from audio.

In a live webcast, the audio and video are received simultaneously and in sync.  No issue there.

In a live-to-screen environment, one of two things happens:

• The operator is using only the LiveStream HD500 box for both audio and video mixing and output to screens and house audio, in which case the speaker has to deal with a very unnatural delay hearing their own voice back.  For seasoned pros like LiveStream’s demo artist, this isn’t an issue.  For the average person, this is massively disconcerting.  Imagine your keynote speaker being completely distracted during their presentation and losing their place.

• More likely, the room audio will be handled by an A/V company supplying the room with mixed audio to speakers arranged around the room or in the ceiling.  Your video feed to the projectors is now going to be 6 frames (or 1/5th of a second) minimum delayed to the screens.  Depending on the exact signal path to the projectors or video displays, you may need to add 2 or more frames of delay to that.  For people in the first several rows, this is incredibly distracting.  As you get further and further back in the room, it becomes less of an issue because it takes time for sound to travel through the air but let me tell you, 6 – 8 frames of video latency is an eternity in live event.

I agonize over video latency in my practice.  At a recent Vancouver Community College convocation event, I had my latency down to 2 frames from my position in the balcony to the rear projection screen on stage and one of those frames was incurred converting HD-SDI to DVI for the projector.  You can see the delay if you look REALLY hard in my 720P60 recording of the event when the screen is in the shot.

My setup at the Vancouver Community College Convocation at the Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver. We are feeding a MediaSite live webcast as well as the screen on stage.

I get compliments everywhere I go on my professionalism and attention to detail, especially around latency and audio considerations in general.  I very often choose to work in 720P60 for live projection instead of 1080i30 to halve the delay time, which is ALWAYS incurred in frames, not fractions of seconds.

The LiveStream solution is fantastic!  I am buying at least one if not multiples, but it must be used appropriately and frankly too many new practitioners only see what it can do for the price and not what it does in the real world.

I worked on a live recording of my friend’s dad’s band in a church environment over a year ago on Vancouver Island and the inhouse A/V guy bent my ear to get some ideas on how to minimize latency; they had a parishioner who was very upset about the lip sync issues in the sanctuary.  After spending an hour looking through every phase of the setup, I concluded they were 2 frames latent at the projectors (consumer/boardroom projectors flown behind screens).  My opinion was there was no way they were going to get any better results.

Then I asked an informed question:

“Where does the parishioner sit?  He sits in the front row, doesn’t he?”

The A/V tech and I both smiled.  We knew what the solution was.

I got an email two weeks later that the gentleman now had a “place of honour” in the back row next to the sound booth and said “whatever we had done had fixed it!”

Sometimes you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

Thanks for reading!