Watch the full video from Silicon Valley Video below:

Learn more about NDI HERE

The post delves into Cross’s early interest in computer graphics, starting at the age of twelve, and his academic journey, earning a degree in computational physics and a Ph.D. in computer vision. His passion for using computers to create images led him to develop innovative tools, including one that simulated camera depth of field.

The article emphasizes Cross’s pivotal role in revolutionizing video production over his 20-year tenure at NewTek. His vision was centered on the belief that real-time video processing using general-purpose computers could democratize video production. The creation of NDI is highlighted as one of Cross’s significant contributions, enabling real-time video processing and transforming the industry.

Interestingly, Cross identifies the early products developed at NewTek as the most consequential, laying the foundation for the democratization of video production. He emphasizes the impact on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch, where individuals, sports leagues, and schools can now easily produce and share video content.

The article sheds light on the inception of NDI during Cross’s negotiations on healthcare rates for the company, realizing the inevitability of video moving to IP. Despite his current focus on hiking during spare time, Cross remains dedicated to contemplating the future of the video production revolution. He expresses the importance of loving one’s work and underscores the joy of making great images and enabling students to produce video content with their friends.

Ultimately, the post acknowledges Cross’s profound impact on the Pro AV industry, highlighting his role in changing how humans consume information and perceive the world through the ability to produce and share real-time video.

Read the full article by Wayne Cavadi for AVNetwork HERE

Learn more about NDI HERE

Make sure to read Key Code Media’s Article here to learn more!

Released in 2015, NDI is a royalty-free technology that implements low-latency video, audio, tally and control over gigabit networking. Since 2015, NDI has grown in popularity immensely and is now very widely used within AV, live streaming production and in cloud workflows. Developed by Newtek, now part of VizRT, it allows computers to easily push video from programs onto the local network whether from Teams or Skype, a video Editor, OBS or anything else. Many vendors have taken the NDI binaries and integrated them into their products.

On The Broadcast Knowledge we’ve explored how NDI compliments SMPTE’s ST 2110 suite of standards which primarily help move uncompressed payloads around a broadcast suite. In this panel put on by the IET at IBC we explored the benefits of 2110 and NDI to understand where the overlap lies. And for a deeper dive into NDI including some demos, we also featured this talk by SMPTE and VizRT.

In today’s video from Key Code Media, we hear from Newtek’s Dr. Andrew Cross, creator of NDI on what’s new in NDI’s latest release, 5.0. Jeff Sengpiehl from Key Code Media explains that NDI 5.0 brings with it improvements in multi-platform support including native support for Apple Silicon. 5.0 also includes plugins for any program to share its audio over NDI as well as a way of sharing a link to get someone to share their video and audio by NDI. Part of the big changes, though in this latest version is the addition of ‘reliable UDP’ and ‘NDI Bridge’. Based on Google’s QUIC this provides a way of sending NDI over lossy networks allowing for it to recover lost data and deal with network congestion. This ties in nicely with ‘NDI Bridge’ which allows two or three separate locations to share their NDI sources and destinations seamlessly. These additional features bring NDI outside of the LAN. Being a layer 2 protocol, it’s always been seen as a local protocol even when deployed in the cloud.

The majority of the video features Dr. Cross answering questions from Jeff and viewers. These questions include:
What are the pain points with audio? Is NDI Audio Direct a replacement for Dante? Maintaining synchronization in multi-location systems. The significance of support for ARM chips, bidirectional use of NDI, NDI Bridge security, 10-bit color support, NDI’s place in the ProAV market and the possibility of NDI becoming open source or a standard.

Read the original article here!

Read the article from Key Code Media here!

Learn more about NDI here!

Learn more about NewTek here!

The article is a great look at the current state of live sports production, newsrooms, and the difference between Non Linear and Linear editing. Check out some highlights from that article, below.

Software is changing the world of broadcast because it is built on top of the economics of commoditization in technology coming from other sectors. Computer games drive down the cost of GPUs and drive up the performance for processing video. CPUs and memory are very affordable and deliver incredible performance. Adapting these commodities is causing broadcast workflows to change dramatically. The internet makes distribution affordable. Mobile devices that shoot great video use the same sensors used in higher-end cameras. The 4K selfie trend has lowered the cost and increased the availability of high-quality equipment, even outside of the tools used by broadcasters.

The cost of storage, computer power, and LED lighting have also all come down because these technologies have become commoditized in other markets. This all benefits broadcasters greatly. Software is now the icing on the cake of commoditization. Smart companies ride the wave of commoditization instead of ignoring it. They are the ones that disrupt the industry they work in. We have seen this time and again whether in online sales, phones, delivery and much more.

Ultimately, we are in the process of making shows, which means we will always need cameras and monitors, but even those have been commoditized by the broader consumer markets. Software sits in the middle. You no longer need to be in one place tied to some big piece of equipment.

Live sports production

For the last 50 years, live sports producers have believed they gained something by showing up on site and they are entirely correct, the big shows like the Super Bowl will always be better on site; there is a feel that exists in the stadium that you need to make an amazing show.

But for most other events it is becoming clear that a remote setup using broadcast talent in their own home or local office has the potential for ten games to be produced for less money and less time than it took previously for a single game. That is nine more games now taken to air that would never have made it before. This means more people are watching their teams more frequently, and the feeds can be made more personal to them.

This drives engagement and is ultimately how we make a difference. It might be on channel two, three, or four for a particular network, but they are still there where they weren’t before. Imagine getting a 10x salary increase and how that would change your life; remote production just gave you one.

The only way you get to that scale is by allowing the internet to bring camera feeds back and produce it remotely. There are companies and leagues that revolutionized this before COVID. What COVID did was reaffirm that we’re heading in that direction and force us to get serious about changes. For now we probably still need a camera operator on-site – although even that may change with affordable PTZ cameras and AI software with the potential to revolutionize the process even further.

Check out the full article, here.

Learn more about NewTek HERE.

One of the major contributions from NewTek to live streaming is NDI, an exciting protocol that allows for video to be sent to a production system over a single ethernet cable from anywhere on your network.

Check out the interview below:

Whether broadcasters wanted it to or not, 2020 turned into a real-world test of cloud production. From it, new workflows and technology are emerging to allow for better creation and distribution of content.
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Cross, president of research & development at Vizrt, joins the Broadcast Exchange to discuss how the pandemic has shaped broadcast storytelling and what changes in workflows and toolsets might remain as more organizations look to the cloud. Plus, we talk about the democratization of broadcasting and how the changing toolsets are allowing new creators to become broadcasters.

NewsCastStudio

Check out the interview on YouTube HERE.

Expanding upon its position as the leader in software defined visual storytelling (#SDVS) and IP video production, NewTek will demonstrate the universal power of IP video at IBC2019, giving customers breakthrough capabilities and unprecedented options that seek to transform the way video is made.

“It is clearer than ever that IP is not only the standard for video production, it is the future of video,” said Dr. Andrew Cross, president of R&D for Vizrt Group, the new parent brand for NewTek. “Our mission is to empower video storytellers and expand their reach, making it fun and exciting to create shows and get your message out. Our newest products like Live Story Creator, TriCaster 410 Plus and NewTek Spark Plus 4K offer something extraordinarily powerful for any level user.”

NewTek is demonstrating these themes, new products and more at IBC2019, Hall 7 Booth #C12 at the RAI in Amsterdam from September 13-17:

Redefining the possibilities of production and automation

NewTek Premium Access software allows storytellers to optimize their total cost of ownership of NewTek production systems with the latest cutting-edge features. Leading the pack is Live Story Creator, a groundbreaking approach to program automation using Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Using the world’s two leading word processing programs, simply build a script in Google Docs or Microsoft Word with triggers for actions, and easily execute a show once loaded into TriCaster or VMC1. Premium Access also includes scalable NDI recording and replay with full synchronization for easy multi-camera production, digital media aspect ratios and frame rates for delivery to digital screens as well as LiveGraphics, NDI KVM, LivePanel, Advance Audio, Virtual PTZ, and more.

The most complete video production systems on the planet

The latest line-up of TriCaster systems equip digital media professionals with an entire suite of media production capabilities putting quality, consistency and efficiency at your fingertips. The newest addition is TriCaster 410 Plus, a rack mountable system with 8 external inputs, 4 M/Es, 4 mix outputs, real-time social media publishing, live streaming, multi-channel recording, video playback, integrated multiviewers, graphics, compositing, virtual sets, audio mixing along with NDI integration for video, audio and data transmission over IP. Powered by innovative software defined technology, these tools unleash your inner artist and turn every frame of video into an artistic masterpiece.

Video over IP Has Never Been Easier

NewTek Spark converters capture video directly from connected cameras or devices for transport over the network as visually lossless. Newest to the line is Spark Plus, a high-bandwidth NDI device supporting resolutions up to 4K from HDMI-to-NDI, with virtually no latency. Spark Plus devices are the smallest, fastest and easiest way to acquire a 4K video source from anywhere on the network. Future proof legacy capture devices by augmenting your hardware investment with NewTek Spark converters to unlock the possibilities of IP-based software defined visual storytelling.

See my related Spark Plus article Is your HD camera “shy” in 1080p mode?, illustrated above.

Check out the full article HERE

Learn more about NewTek HERE

Check out the video on YouTube HERE

Learn more about NewTek HERE