James Cameron and Vince Pace join forces with Grass Valley to promote 3D

Grass Valley is willing to accompany the industry's accelerated trend toward innovation with complete solutions that go beyond products. Stereoscopy will be one of the areas in which they will collaborate most closely with their clients, now with the invaluable help of two 3D gurus: James Cameros and Vince Pace.

Alain Andreoli, CEO of Grass Valley, began his speech at the press conference at IBC 2011 by stating that “we are experiencing accelerated innovation, especially in terms of software.” Based on the strong business and investment commitment that the current owner, Francisco Partners, is making in the company, Andreoli has assured that at this moment they are looking very closely at the emerging markets in which 50% of their activity is already concentrated, “reinforcing at the same time our model of services and solutions.”

IBC will be a good opportunity to learn about new additions and changes in the mission of some executives such as Aengus Linehan, now in the vice presidency of client support and professional services; Alan Wright, VP EMEA; Marcos González-Flowe, VP for services in EMEA; o Francoise Semin, VP for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Regarding the main market trends, in the opinion of the CEO of Grass Valley, we are experiencing an exponential increase in the number of channels (although broadcasters invest less per channel) at the same time that television remains strong in the advertising market compared to other offers although it will tend to offer multiplatform content anywhere, anytime and on any device with higher viewing qualities every day (migration from SD to HD and from there to 3D).

On the other hand, both production companies, post-production companies and broadcasters are tending to unify their islands of content by creating unified workflows, increasing efficiency, and GV is playing a great role in this transition. Andreoli has also highlighted the rise of models based on over-the-top proposals.

Given this panorama, Grass Valley will focus on products and solutions that help customers accelerate all these transformation processes. Alain Andreoli has listed the company's priorities in this order: software, services, differential products, adjusted prices, and greater monitoring of emerging geographic markets and vertical segments.

In the always classic section of purchasing operations, Grass Valley announced this Thursday at IBC that its subsidiary in Australia has acquired Evolution Pty, a modest but interesting high-tech company based in Sydney specialized in solutions for live production workflows. Founded in 2008, this company has been actively collaborating with Grass Valley in the joint development of systems such as K2 Dyno Production Assistant (Dyno PA).

Stereoscopic alliance

When everything suggested that the Grass Valley press conference would conclude without the magic word, 3D, Grass Valley has struck a chord by announcing a collaboration agreement with Cameron Pace. James Cameron and Vince Pace have traveled to IBC to confirm that they will work with Grass Valley in the development of a much more affordable, natural and friendly 3D, so that all their production systems can be aired in 2D and 3D simultaneously and with

Vince Pace and James Cameron will work collaboratively with GV to develop new solutions, workflows and technologies such as telemetry that bring 3D production even closer to everyday life.

Cameron Pace Group had already used Grass Valley production systems to create the world-class edition of the live and 3D production of the concert Glee Live! In Concert! para Twentieth Century Fox Television y Twentieth Century Fox Film, estrenada recientemente.

CPG used the Grass Valley Kayenne advanced production system. Grass Valley supported CPG with technical training on the table and its creative capabilities to ensure the production team was fully up to speed with the Kayenne fully integrated into the Fusion 3D mobile unit. This unit was also equipped with a Grass Valley K2 Dyno repeater system for multi-channel playback in stereoscopic.

Main news

At IBC 2011, Grass Valley is introducing an innovative software concept in Europe and around the world, the Stratus media workflow application system aimed at streamlining a wide variety of tasks and processes for media production management. Through a suite of fully integrated task-specific tools, Stratus facilitates efficient workflow throughout the content creation process and distribution chain, all from a single, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI).

Stratus tools can be deployed for use in studios, sporting events, entertainment programs and newsrooms. With its integrated proxy, all staff, regardless of level, will be able to access content and tasks. Stratus tools can be arranged individually and according to task requirements, making them easier to use and ensuring maximum efficiency.

Stratus Media Workflow Application Framework takes advantage of the latest version of the Grass Valley K2 Summit server platform (v 8.0) for maximum efficiency in media storage, distribution and sharing. K2 Summit now allows you to instantly have proxy files over a network according to different privileges. In addition, it provides the management, capacity and bandwidth necessary to ensure the success of complex production processes, turning the workflow into something more efficient and easily adaptable to the rapid changes that business models are experiencing.

Grass Valley also presents at IBC 2011 a 9II (225 mm) diagonal LCD color viewfinder for its LDK camera series – the LDK 5309/10. The new 16x10 viewfinder (16x9 active video with a 16x1 on-screen menu) which includes a large display with supporting functionality, will provide access to many of the controls, making them easier to use.

The new viewfinder includes advanced features that will help operators capture the perfect image. When it comes to fine focus and shot adjustment, the system can zoom in size pixel-by-pixel, with full-screen picture-in-picture simultaneously. The viewfinder can be installed directly on the camera or on the SuperXpander large lens adapter. If the scope's auxiliary arm is used for positioning, it can be placed in any location that is convenient for the user and the application.

Grass Valley today announced another addition to its Storm line of Edius I/O drives. The Grass Valley Storm Mobile, which is available in different configurations for laptops and computers and offers a variety of video and audio inputs and outputs for use with Edius 6 non-linear editing software – thus covering the wide spectrum of editors, from private consumers working on personal projects to professional broadcast users who are editing on location.

To adapt to the growing demand for editing that exists in the sector, Storm Móvil allows laptop users to edit with Edius to ingest a wide variety of video and audio sources. If required, HD live video output is also available during editing and playback. This replaces the functionality of the popular HDstorm product line.

Grass Valley will demonstrate how easily any live program can be automatically formatted for web and mobile devices, including the ability to replace ads in the live stream with its turnkey MediaFuse, automated content repurposing and distribution system.

This plug-and-play streaming solution offers dynamic direct streaming in Flash, HLS-5 and Windows Media formats. This allows broadcasters and all types of multi-platform content providers to automatically convert linear content and direct it live to 95% of the multimedia consumption devices (such as the Apple iPad, iPhone and Google Android) in use today.

MediaFuse Live also includes the Show Builder, which allows non-technical users to group stand-alone clips and combine them into a live show.

Grass Valley has released its new version of the Xensium CMOS camera, the LDK 3000, and added functionality normally only found in higher system cameras. The new LDK 3000+ includes secondary color correction and new software algorithms to get the best possible lens performance, all without raising prices.

In order to solve the problem of chromatic aberration, that is, changes in color registration that are detected at the edges of a lens, Grass Valley has developed a solution they call CLASS – chromatic aberration and sharpness solution – which represents a software process that works in conjunction with the lens data using standard interface protocols. In addition to minimizing the effects caused by chromatic aberration, the process also improves the overall sharpness of the image by 40% on the left and right edges of the image. Grass Valley has also added secondary color, responding to customer demands.

career

Grass Valley has leveraged its extensive engineering expertise with the Kayenne video production center and Kayak switchers, as well as introducing a new low-cost switcher platform, the Karrera video production center, which includes high-end production capabilities for more applications and users. At IBC 2011 Grass Valley will be presenting Karrera's flexible features and intuitive user interface, which ensures that operating with Karrera is familiar not only to Grass Valley switcher operators, but also to new users.

With the release of the updated K2 Edius Connect option, Grass Valley is excited to announce further workflow integration between the popular Edius 6 non-linear video editing software and K2 media server systems. The K2 Edius Connect option provides seamless integration between Edius and K2 for improved efficiency in production environments such as studios and newsrooms. Compared to other server-publisher combinations, the advantage of this integration for users is represented by faster and simpler production cycles. The K2 Edius Connect option allows you to directly edit K2 clips, broadcast lists and programs in Edius 6.

Grass Valley will demonstrate the extensive functionality of the Karrera video production center switcher with its Ignite automated and scalable production system.

By using the Ignite Konnect live control automation system, users will be able to affordably transition from both production solutions to live production automation and thus benefit from the many technical and resource-saving advantages that the Ignite system offers.

With the latest version of Ignite Konnect software and hardware, professionals will be able to use the new Grass Valley Karrera switch panel to automate daily news programs, as well as studio productions. This new integration also includes the ability to link Ignite software directly to the newsroom computer system (NRCS), providing staff with more control and capabilities, as well as improved audio combining capabilities.

The biggest logistical challenge broadcast companies face every day is camera connectivity outside the studio: triax or fiber? Previously, for a mobile unit to be able to cover different large-scale events, such as a golf tournament, which requires fiber, and then travel to a football game in a stadium that has triax, it had to change all the cameras, cables and base stations, but that is now a thing of the past. Grass Valley now unveils a unique system that eliminates the triax/fiber problem, without compromising quality or operating flexibility.

The first element of the new 3G transmission system was unveiled this year at NAB. Fiber 3G and Triax 3G offer all the functionality fiber users expect – including 1080p50/60 transmission and two return paths of digital HD video – over both types of cable and without loss of quality or limitations of any kind. This new system is added to Grass Valley's powerful camera control and diagnostic system and is already transforming operations in some of the world's leading companies, because the 3G triax expands the traditional triax range by 25%, which represents 1,500 meters.

Regarding the operations carried out in recent months, Grass Valley has unveiled a multitude of installations, among which Alfacam, SIS Live, Mobile Tv Group, SVT, Sky Racing or Dutch View stand out, to name just a few cases.