Rob Chickering is both a well-known radio engineer respected in his profession, and a pioneer in the growth of visual radio, wherein a radio show is live-streamed to more fully engage audiences. Chickering relates the transition of the legendary Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show: from a simple webcam to using a traditional switcher and multiple cameras, then finally to a fully produced live-streamed program using TriCaster® both for the live segments and to add pre-produced video segments from the DDRs during breaks. TriCaster also enabled them to replay the completed show on a loop the rest of the day, making it available to new viewers, anywhere in the world, on Ustream.

Chickering became a savvy television engineer along the way. In 2010, one of the folks who reached out to the Kraddick team about live streaming was Glenn Beck’s organization, which later bought a TriCaster. Years later, Chickering is now SVP of Engineering and Studio Operations for The Blaze, Glenn Beck, Mercury Radio Arts, responsible for a production pipeline covering broadcast television and radio, and internet distribution of both live and pre-recorded video and audio programming.

TriCasters are the mainstay of the productions. “We’re probably originating 8 to 10 hours of content per day, some of it “pre-taped” and fed to our distributors, but we have a lot of live content as well,” says Chickering. An example he cites: “We have a TriCaster now that does Facebook Live 3 hours a day.”

One of the changes that Beck wanted for his programming was to get away from the huge pedestal cameras and get a DSLR/film look. Chickering observed that most switchers can’t deal with DSLRs and other modern camera types, but TriCaster’s unique technology for frame sync on every input can handle virtually any cameras in any combination. “We use DSLRs, GoPros, anything we please.”

The production group is in progress changing over to NDI™ throughout the studios. “For us it’s the flexibility,” he says. “If you have one or two TriCasters and you can pull up any of those NDI sources on either TriCaster, that gives us the ability to do a remote from across the building, we can have TriCasters back each other up, we can do a new show and just throw in a few more sources, and we can share sources across TriCasters.”

“Being able to expand without running video cable, just adding nodes and network switches, that’s pretty cool,” Chickering concludes.

From NewTek blog

We all want to be able to use H.265 instead of the “old fashioned” H.264 to get higher efficient encoding and compression: the same quality at a lower size or bandwidth, or higher quality/resolution at the same size or bandwidth as before. First, at NAB in April 2017, Teradek announced new support for H.265 in some of its streaming hardware devices, and with its own online Core transcoding middleware service. Next, at WWDC, Apple announced native H.265 support in both the upcoming palindromic version 11 of iOS, and in macOS High Sierra, the upcoming replacement for Sierra 10.12.x. Since I haven’t seen such H.265 announcements from popular CDNs, I asked Teradek three key questions. Ahead you will see my inquiry, their answers and my conclusions.

Introducing the TriCaster TC1

To put things simply, the TC1 is the most complete and fully featured video production system on the market. It takes everything that we all loved about the previous TriCaster models and upgrades things with some new features that are set to change the way content is produced. Importantly, the TC1 isn’t just designed for high-end productions. It’s wealth of different features and possibilities makes the product a one-stop solution for almost every type of production – whether that’s in a concert venue, school, house of worship or conference hall. ..[continue reading]

LiveU – NewTek NDI Central Live at NAB 2017 from NewTek on Vimeo.

LiveU Solo offers the best-in-class ‘plug and play’ live streaming bonding solution, bringing LiveU’s broadcasting expertise to the online media market.

This robust and high-quality encoder is based on LiveU’s field-proven bonding technology, 10 industry patents, and integral LRT™ (LiveU Reliable Transport) protocol. Optimized for video performance, Solo delivers the rock-solid video streams LiveU is known for by using LRT’s integral adaptive bit rate and forward error correction technology.

Designed to fit seamlessly with web streaming workflows, LiveU Solo connects automatically to Facebook, Wowza Streaming Cloud, as well as other popular CDNs, OVPs and YouTube Live. Solo can be managed and controlled remotely via a web interface or smartphone.

On the transmission side, and as part of the overall streaming solution, this small, easy-to-use encoder includes full bonding capabilities.

ThinkTech Hawaii streams live on the Internet from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm every weekday afternoon, Hawaii Time, then streaming earlier shows through the night. Check us out any time for great content and great community.

Our vision is to be a leader in shaping a more vital and thriving Hawaii as the foundation for future generations. Our mission is to be the leading digital media platform raising pubic awareness and promoting civic engagement in Hawaii.

Watch on YouTube

One of the most intriguing things I saw come out of NAB 2017 wasn’t on the show floor of NAB but rather an image that popped up on Twitter out of the Avid Connect event held in the days before NAB began. It was the result of an Avid Customer Association survey as to what editors wanted to see in upcoming versions of Media Composer. Since this image was publicly tweeted out by Avid it’s worth dissecting.

I can’t remember another such detailed look at what is a potential roadmap for upcoming features and future development for any of the major NLEs. Usually this kind of thing is kept under wraps. I’m sure such a public discussion makes the engineers shudder in fear as there are a ton of things that can derail a planned feature release. Media Composer has been on a big update path in recent years getting a ton of much need features as well as some cool new stuff along the way so seeing what is on the horizon should give Avid editors more confidence in their tool. Kudos to Avid for showing this publicly…[continue reading]

Every year, I write about the new cool toys at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Because my background is video engineering, I realized that the NAB show is no longer a video trade show, but a computer products show (at least in the lower South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center where I spent most of my time). I decided to try to observe general trends in what is happening in our business, rather than to focus on every little new product that comes out. 

As an overview, it’s a bunch of generic computers, running different software applications, connected to a bunch of storage arrays. That’s modern post production – not routers, scopes, distribution amplifiers, converters, and all the “old stuff” that I had been brought up with. 

This overview was most noticeable from looking at monitors being used for demonstrations. I think back on recent shows, where everyone was raving about OLED monitors, or how they really needed CRTs to really see an accurate image. 

Well, those days are over. I was shocked to see that almost NO BOOTHS (other than the manufactures of broadcast monitors) had a broadcast monitor in their booth. There were overwhelming amounts of computer monitors with HDMI or Display port inputs being used at EVERY booth from companies like Dell, HP, or Eizo. And if a large 4K monitor was shown, it was a good quality consumer monitor from LG or Samsung. ..[continue reading]

At NAB 2017, Atomos announced new packaging on all of the Shogun and Inferno monitors | recorders | playback devices. These items are now available at lower price points and all include a soft travel case, Master Caddy drive caddy, power supply and XLR breakout cable. Full accessory kits or Power kits with batteries may be added separately.
 
We still have inventory of the Shogun Inferno and Shogun Flame with full accessory kits available – while supplies last!

Monitors

NEW! Atomos Shogun Inferno  HDMI 2.0 and QuadSDI 4K 60p Recording HD240p Recording Raw to CDNG 1500 nit ATOM HDR Mfr: ATOMSHGIN2 SKU: SHOGUNINFERNOTC $1,295.00 MSRP		NEW! Atomos Shogun Flame HDMI 1.4 and 12G-SDI 4K 30p Recording HD120p Recording Raw to CDNG 1500 nit ATOM HDR Mfr: ATOMSHGFL2 SKU: SHOGUNFLAMETC $995.00 MSRP		NEW! Atomos Ninja Inferno HDMI 2.0 4K 60p Recording HD240p Recording ProRes and DNxHR 1500 nit ATOM HDR Mfr: ATOMNJAIN1 SKU: NINJAINFERNO $995.00 MSRP		NEW! Atomos Ninja Flame  HDMI 1.4 4K 30p Recording HD120p Recording ProRes and DNxHR 1500 nit ATOM HDR Mfr: ATOMNJAFL2 SKU: NINJAFLAMETC $795.00 MSRP

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! Atomos Shogun Inferno with full accessory kit still available while supplies last! Mfr: ATOMSHGIN1 SKU: SHOGUNINFERNO $1,595.00 MSRP $1,495.00 PROMO expires 6/30/2017		SOLD OUT! Atomos Shogun Flame with full accessory kit stil available while supplies last! Mfr: ATOMSHGFL1 SKU: SHOGUNFLAME $1,195.00 MSRP		NEW! Atomos Accessory Kit Includes HPRC hard flight case, control cable, 2x5200mAh batteries, fast charger, usb docking station, dtap cable, 4x Master Caddy drive caddy, Power supply & HDR sunhood Mfr: ATOMACCKT1 SKU:  ATOMACCKIT $295.00 MSRP		NEW! Atomos Power Kit Includes 2x NP-F750 5200mAh batteries, charger and power supply  Mfr: ATOMPWRKT1 SKU:  ATOMPWRKT $149.00 MSRP

Atomos Master Caddies & Readers by G-Technology

New Sumo and 4K Cables

Atomos SUMO Pre-Order Now! On-set and In-studio 4Kp60 HDR 19″ monitor-recorder: The first production monitor that also records 4K 12bit Raw, 10bit ProRes/DNxHR, plus 1080p60 live switching and recording. The combined monitor-recorder in the larger 19″ size gives focus pullers instant on set access to footage with focus peaking, 2:1/1:1 zoom and the ability to tag footage as XML files. The high bright 1200nit monitor, sturdy built-in armor aluminium alloy design and variety of mounting options makes it a go-anywhere, do-it-all monitor-recorder for focus pullers. Get HDR on set in realtime with on the fly Log to HDR and PQ/HLG playback complete with mission critical scopes such as waveform, focus peaking, false color and vectorscope on the calibrated screen. Beyond monitoring, with up to 4Kp60 and 2Kp240 recording you can generate instant dailies and proxies direct to affordable and available SSD media. In the studio the 19″ Sumo becomes an affordable yet incredibly powerful HDR monitor. With 10 stops dynamic range, 10-bit processing and X-Rite calibration it will accept Log, PQ or HLG signals from your grading software and display HDR in all its glory.   Mfr: ATOMSUM019 SKU: SUMO $2,495.00 MSRP	4K Cables!! Atomos HDMI Cables   High Speed HDMI 2.0 4K 60p and HD 240p fully supported!   ATOM4K60C1 Micro HDMI 4K60p 30cm $99.00 MSRP ATOM4K60C2 Micro HDMI 4K60p 40cm $149.00 MSRP ATOM4K60C3 Mini HDMI 4K60p 30cm $99.00 MSRP ATOM4K60C4 Mini HDMI 4K60p 40cm $149.00 MSRP ATOM4K60C5 Full HDMI 4K60p 30cm $99.00 MSRP ATOM4K60C6 Full HDMI 4K60p 40cm $149.00 MSRP

Read the article on streamingmedia.com