IBC 2010 Preview

3D is one of the big topics at this year’s IBC 2010, held in at the RAI Amsterdam from September 9-14. I’ve covered that topic extensively at StreamingMedia.com, so I won’t spend too much time here, except to mention an invitation-only session I’ll be moderating on the two most important aspects: how to produce it and how to monetize it.

The other two big topics this year are HD SLR live production, covered as part of the Canon Rebel T2i review from the summer issue of EventDVLive, and the live production encoding options for iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, and other SD/HD streaming devices.

On the HD DSLR front, Peter Owen, Chairman IBC Council will chair a session called “Lights, Which Camera, Action” which debates camera choices: digital SLR or the more traditional choices.

On the live production encoding side, a number of solutions are being presented, some of which I’ve had the opportunity to run through extensive comparison testing over the past few months.

One that looks interesting, but I’ve not had a chance to put through rigorous comparison testing, is the new ViewCast Niagara 4100. The ViewCast Niagara 4100 is the portable version of a more robust product Niagara 7500 (which I also hope to compare in the near-term to industry-leading units such as the Inlet Spinnaker and Elemental Live).

Niagara 4100 is geared toward ingest and run-time encoding of high-definition video for web delivery.

“With the Niagara 4100, we’ve synthesized our best-in-class streaming capabilities and rich system design expertise to elevate the state-of-the-art for on-location streaming,” said Dave Stoner, ViewCast’s CEO. “Organizations with the desire to capture and stream live action wherever it happens, have access to Niagara 4100′s accessible, cost-effective hardware and more intuitive user interface.”

According to the company, the Niagara 4100 is ideally suited for live sports, news, and event coverage, webcasting, or any other in-the-field streaming application. The unit simultaneously streams in multiple resolutions at multiple data rates in multiple streaming formats, according to the company, although like most systems, the number of simultaneous streams in different bitrates / formats is limited by the trade-off in portability versus processing capability.

Still, the specs ViewCast lists for the Niagara 4100 are impressive: formats and codecs including base MPEG-4, Adobe Flash H.264, Windows Media and Apple HTTP Live Streaming. The Niagara 4100 can ingest SD or HD video sources through its 3G-SDI input, including embedded SDI audio (and AES/EBU and analog balanced or unbalanced stereo audio).

It’s uncertain whether the unit can do Adaptive Bitrate, the minimum requirement for most of today’s professional run-time encoding solutions, but we’ll check that out if the company’s willing to run a comparative test.

As a portable HD solution, the Niagara 4100 has a front-panel video monitor that allows for confidence monitoring of incoming signals. The system can be configured via a web interface or through the front-panel interface, with its A, B, C buttons that can be pre-configured to activate different streaming profiles.

The units also has several hardware and software pre- and post-processing capabilities, including scaling, cropping, deinterlacing, inverse telecine, closed-caption extraction and rendering capabilities.  In addition, a bitmap overlay can insert logos and/or graphics to ensure prominent, consistent branding.

Another portable solution that will be showcased at IBC 2010 is the Monogram Broadcast Case (BCC) video mixer. It takes a different approach from other portable self-contained units, such as the TriCaster, but the BCC contains an integrated touch screen.  Its user interface isn’t as robust as the TriCaster, but the touch screen opens it up to a number of users who may not feel comfortable with a keyboard or even a T-bar as part of their user interface experience.

I can attest to the power of touchscreen video mixing, as I was tasked with creating one in 1997, using a Crestron video touchscreen and a Videonics video mixer. As the typical end user was an MBA at a large consulting firm, we hid the Videonics mixer in a nearby drawer – with easy access in case the touch screen failed – and only showed the end user the video touchscreen with three camera images and a fourth output image (for confidence monitoring). Within two minutes of seeing the touch screen, these MBAs were switching video, including choosing between transitions.

Back to the Monogram BCC: the unit has 4 or 8 HD-SDI inputs, onboard audio mixing and an H.264 run-time encoder. In addition, for archival purposes, the BCC also has a 4:2:2 disk-based recorder. It also has an intercom system built in, in addition to the ability to pull in Internet-based audio and video for remote applications.

I’ll provide more insights from the show throughout the weekend.

Tim Siglin (tims [at] braintrustdigital.com) is chairman of Braintrust Digital, a digital media production company specializing in training, corporate communication, government, historical preservation, documentary, and business marketing and development. He is a contributing editor to EventDV and Streaming Media.