Client News

Mo-Sys Expands LA Sales and Commercial Team

Mo-Sys Engineering (www.mo-sys.com), world leader in virtual production and image robotics, announced today the appointment of Tanner Woodward as Sales Director, West Coast US.

Arriving at Mo-Sys with extensive industry experience, Woodward joins from RED Digital Cinema, where he spent five years managing existing channel partners and establishing new dealer networks, as well as creating the corporate creative vertical. Working with a wide variety of creatives, from small content creators to large scale live and in-studio production teams, Woodward built on his previous work as a camera operator and systems workflow manager for live events, specializing in speed, reliability, and efficiency all the way through from pre- to post-production.

“I am extremely grateful and excited for this opportunity with Mo-Sys,” said Woodward. “The one thing I’ve learned in my time working with creatives, is that the most valuable tools are those built to empower creativity while making life easier and more efficient. Mo-Sys creates such innovative tools and solutions, and I couldn’t be more honored to be part of this team.”

Part of an expansion plan on the US West Coast, Woodward’s appointment reflects an ongoing investment in the LA sales and support team, which has doubled in recent months, and precedes the imminent announcement of the opening of the Mo-Sys LA office.

This news follows the earlier appointing of Mike Grieve as Commercial Director and he brings with him extensive industry experience across production and post-production, most recently in virtual production having held CCO roles at Ncam Technologies and The Future Group.

“Mo-Sys has such an incredible range of yet-to-be released virtual and remote production products, combined with significant plans in image robotics, that it represented an irresistible opportunity” Grieve said. “Growth last year verified the potential the company has, but 2021 looks even more promising, so it was an easy decision to join the Mo-Sys leadership team.”

Boasting 25 years' experience in virtual technologies, Grieve’s role is to expand Mo-Sys’ market share of virtual production, remote production, and image robotics.

Michael Geissler, CEO Mo-Sys commented, “We welcome Tanner and Mike to Mo-Sys when we are seeing significant expansion, directly related to the increase in demand for virtual and remote production technologies. We are expanding our amazing team for the future and, with pros like Tanner and Mike onboard, I know we are in safe hands.”

Tanner and Mike will be attending the ASC Awards on Sunday 18th, 7pm BST, where they will be previewing an exciting and unique focusing technology for LED volume use, which will be officially announced and released the following week.

Rohde & Schwarz Introduces Advanced Dolby Atmos Audio and IMF Packaging Capabilities to CLIPSTER

With advanced Dolby Atmos and IMF capabilities, Rohde & Schwarz strengthens R&S®CLIPSTER brand as high-quality content creation platform for cinematic, episodic TV and home entertainment markets.

Rohde & Schwarz, a global leader in post-production media technologies has announced the release of the latest version of its R&S®CLIPSTER feature film and episodic TV mastering system. The latest software upgrade (version 6.9.1) includes extended support for Dolby Atmos multi-channel surround sound production technology as well as the latest IMF (ST2067-X) delivery standards.

With a global installed user base numbering thousands, CLIPSTER is the de-facto production tool of choice for visual QC, DCP and IMF mastering as well as generic file transcoding. This new software version targets content producers delivering premium home entertainment content. It ensures that whether the need is for a spine-tingling audio experience or stunning full motion video, media content can be mastered and delivered via the widest range of IMF-compliant streaming service providers.

In recent years, Dolby Atmos has re-written the rulebook for immersive audio experiences within the home, spanning the widest range of multichannel surround sound environments including 5.1 and 7.1 soundscapes. Now, with just a few mouse clicks, CLIPSTER users can add all variants of Dolby Atmos files to their edit timeline and can edit them in the same way they would edit any other file. Users can create IMF packages that feature Dolby Atmos audio to help ensure that the highest quality content is provided right to the home entertainment user, and perform real-time QC including the immersive audio tracks prior to and after the creation of the deliverable.

Whether it's for streaming services from the major studios adding their own channels or the disruptor OTT services, IMF has revolutionized the international content creation market, helping to produce a level playing field for all sizes and scales of production operation from the Hollywood studios to small independent producers. In addition, broadcasters around the world are increasingly adopting IMF as a way to streamline their workflows for packaging content to their global partners.

Now CLIPSTER supports the latest IMF standards, as well as supporting legacy content that was created using previous IMF standards. The revised IMF standards simplify the distribution and archival of IMF content packages by removing previous constraints regarding the required types and number of assets referenced by the Composition Playlists.

“With nearly twenty years in the post-production market, CLIPSTER is renowned as a high-quality brand with best in class mastering capabilities,” commented Andreas Loges, vice president Media Technologies at Rohde & Schwarz. “This new IMF and Dolby Atmos functionality means that CLIPSTER is the go-to mastering platform for cinematic, episodic TV and home entertainment content in the highest quality.”

Rohde & Schwarz Introduces Scalable Distributed Multiviewer Functionality for R&S®PRISMON

Rohde & Schwarz claims world’s first in IP-based monitoring and multiviewer systems with R&S®PRISMON. New Scalable Distributed Multiviewer features increase system flexibility while reducing processing power required to support the network.

Rohde & Schwarz, a global leader in broadcast media technologies has announced the introduction of strategic new IP-related multiviewer functionalities within its R&S®PRISMON broadcast channel monitoring and multiviewer system.

Claimed by the company to be a world’s first in IP workflow multiviewing, the new Scalable Distributed Multiviewer feature offers unprecedented configuration flexibility for users through its ‘any to any’ function. This unique feature, which can be added to existing PRISMON installations, enables any input to any output connectivity through IP proxy networks for up to 36 remote devices.

This scalability option enables users to display a mosaic view on a particular PRISMON system with input services decoded on any other PRISMON system within the same proxy IP network. So, for example, users can render a view with multiple UHD inputs – beyond the decoding capacity of a single system. In addition, it helps overcome the fact that only a limited number of physical ASI and SDI interfaces are available on a single system.

With its Scalable Distributed Multiviewer functionality, Rohde & Schwarz is targeting a large market of studio galleries and master control rooms that are looking to migrate to IP-based workflows. At the same time, the multiviewer functionality can be used to adapt the specific production resources needed to support new ultra high definition production formats.

“As broadcasters continue to increase channel numbers and distribution methods to consumers they need technology that enables them to quickly adapt to everyday changes,” commented Andreas Loges, Vice President Media Technologies at Rohde & Schwarz. “This new Scalable Distributed Multiviewer function in PRISMON provides an extraordinary level of flexibility by allowing you to offer any input signal, decoded on any PRISMON within the IP network, to be displayed on any other PRISMON output within that same network."

In addition to this increased flexibility, the new Scalable Distributed Multiviewer Function has been designed to address several other common issues found within IP-based production and distribution networks. One of these is the thorny issue of resource allocation: the latest version of PRISMON requires significantly less CPU power and fewer decoding licenses. The SDM feature also provides higher network flexibility and is part of a series of new tool sets that will allow configuration of a large number of PRISMONs through a centralized control user interface – the Multiviewer Control Center.

iSIZE appoints Sherif Gallab as Vice President of Business Development

iSIZE Technologies, a pioneer in delivering deep-learning solutions to optimise the quality of video streaming, announces its appointment of Sherif Gallab as Vice President of Business Development. Sherif brings 25 years of experience across video coding and digital media systems. He will lead global business development for iSIZE as video streaming companies increasingly turn to technology to improve the experience of their users.

During his 12-years at Dolby Laboratories, Sherif held a global product management role working across North America, Asia, and Europe to promote the world’s first HDR solution in the entertainment space. This led to the creation of the licensing partnerships with most television manufacturers, MSO, Online aggregators, SoC, STB, and various standards bodies.

Earlier in his career, Sherif managed and marketed the first hardware-accelerated MPEG decoder for Sigma Designs which became the DVD decoding solution for many major companies such as Sony, Philips, and Intel. He also managed the technical business aspects of major client firms including HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, NEC, Panasonic, and Toshiba, and has worked on several rewarding M&A ventures since 2004.

“Sherif’s passion for innovation, and his extensive experience in the video entertainment space make him the ideal choice to lead our business development team in the U.S,” said iSIZE CEO Sergio Grce. “I am impressed by Sherif’s remarkable track record of execution, and his ability to help our partners deliver the best viewing experience possible to more people around the world and drive reductions in their energy consumption and carbon footprint.”

“I am excited to join the iSIZE team”, says Gallab. “The company provides state of the art AI and ML solutions to the video compression and streaming space. The incredibly skilled technical team led by Dr. Yiannis Andreopoulos is committed to incessantly delivering amazing technology to out-perform our partners’ and customers’ expectations.”

Gallab earned his Electrical Engineering degree from Cairo University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Colorado State University.

Intinor adds user-configured distribution delay

Intinor, Sweden’s leading developer of products and solutions for high-quality video over internet, has added a user-configurable delay to its Direkt encoders for streaming video distribution. The new functionality is in response to requests from esports companies, but the ability to add different delays to individual destinations from the same software encoder is valuable in many applications.

Using the simple web interface, users can set delays for each destination, up to a maximum determined by the amount of memory in the encoder, but typically some hundreds of seconds. The original request, from esports producers, was to be able to serve premium customers first, with others receiving a delayed signal.

The ability to delay each output individually also means that signals could be synchronised to remote commentary applications. This may also be important for betting applications to ensure every subscriber is fairly treated.

“Intinor encoding and distribution has become a market leader in streaming, not least in the esports market,” said Roland Axelsson, Intinor CEO. “In talking to our customers, it became clear that the ability to dial in delay was something they needed, so we are pleased to add the functionality. We look forward to seeing what other applications our users find for it.”

The new software, which adapts the web user interface as well as adding the functionality, can be downloaded now.

Find out more by watching our tutorial on youTube https://youtu.be/S6kaxgI0Eb4

NEP Connect adds Hitomi MatchBox to its MediaCity Network Operations Centre

Hitomi Broadcast, manufacturer of MatchBox, the industry’s premier audio video alignment toolbox, has announced that NEP Connect has purchased a 4K MatchBox system - Generator and Analyser complete with a Glass license - for use in NEP Connect’s MediaCity Network Operations Centre in Salford, UK.

NEP Connect (formerly known as SIS LIVE), is a leading provider of global critical connectivity services delivering thousands of hours of news, sports and entertainment content to millions of viewers worldwide via comprehensive satellite coverage and Anylive® fibre infrastructure.

Head of Network Operations for NEP Connect Phil Goulden explained, “MatchBox has been adopted by many of our partners and customers which clearly demonstrates the strength of the product. In order to align with their test equipment and ensure that we continue to add value during technical line-ups, this purchase was essential to expand our suite of test and analysis equipment.”

MatchBox is a state-of-the-art toolkit that streamlines live broadcast synchronisation and is relied on by broadcasters worldwide to ensure the timing of live sports, news and events. It offers an intuitive identing feature, rapid measurement of lip sync, audio coherence, audio levels, phase inversions and video timing. The MatchBox Analyser tool sits in the OB truck or MCR and looks and listens for the specific Hitomi video and audio signatures produced by the hardware MatchBox Generator (which produces 4K test patterns) and/or the Glass app.

A new essential for high-profile remote productions, the Glass app allows precision measurement of lip-sync and video to video timing alignment at the point of capture. The user holds an iPhone or iPad running the free iOS app in front of up to four cameras and feeds the signal back into the Analyser.

Hitomi Broadcast Director Russell Johnson said, “Eyes and ears can be highly subjective so Hitomi’s answer is to take the guesswork out of the equation, replacing human estimates with a fast and accurate, electronic testing system. MatchBox enables a reliable and consistent measurement of any signal delays and provides reassurance when everything is perfectly aligned.”

Goulden concluded, “NEP Connect continue to invest in the latest technology, not only for event contribution and distribution encoding, but also test and analysis. The Hitomi MatchBox fits into this strategy and enables us to deliver the highest possible levels of service to our biggest broadcast customers.”

Mo-Sys to Introduce a Near-Time Virtual Production Workflow at HPA Tech Retreat 2021

Mo-Sys Engineering www.mo-sys.com Industry leaders in virtual production and image robotics, is proud to be a gold sponsor of the inaugural 2021 virtual HPA Tech Retreat (15 – 24 March) and is looking forward to being part of this year's HPA sessions, hosting a thought leadership presentation on near-time virtual production workflow.

“The HPA Tech Retreat is widely recognized as a prestigious occasion and a great opportunity for the most innovative professionals in the industry to come together and have open and collaborative conversations,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “We're very excited to be taking such a prominent role in this event, especially at a time of rapid changes and turmoil when we’re seeing an increase in creative solutions.”

Today virtual production (VP) workflows are clearly split into two camps: real-time (on set finishing, final pixel, in camera VFX) and non-real-time (on set previz followed by post-production compositing). Real-time workflows force a graphics quality threshold in order to maintain real-time playback frame rates, which works well for most scenarios, but not so well when fine detail is involved. Non-real-time workflows provide an increase in graphics quality, but at the expense of significant increases in time and cost. Mo-Sys will be presenting a new dual pipeline virtual production workflow, one that combines a real-time onset VP workflow with a near-time VP workflow running in parallel, and will be explaining how it delivers higher quality graphics without the delay or cost of using a traditional post-production workflow.

Additionally, Mo-Sys will be leading breakfast and lunch roundtable sessions on ways to automate virtual production to increase graphics quality, and how to get enhanced resolution on LED walls without heavy hardware investments, and is joining with AWS to discuss virtual production in the cloud.

Full information on the event can be found here: https://www.mo-sys.com/news/events/hpa-tech-retreat-2021/.

Mo-Sys Launches StarTracker Sports Studio

Mo-Sys Engineering (www.mo-sys.com), leaders in virtual production and image robotics, and HYPER Studios (www.hyperstudios.co.uk), leaders in cloud broadcast graphics, have created the first virtual production system with data-driven sports graphics.

StarTracker Sports Studio combines a complete virtual production system, based on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and capable of generating moving camera virtual studios, augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (xR), with a state-of-the-art HTML5 sports graphics system.

An ever-increasing number of sports broadcasters use virtual studios and AR with data-driven graphics, where each graphic type is generated by two separate graphics systems. However, rather than simply keying standard overlay graphics on top of a virtual set, sports broadcasters are now asking to integrate data-driven graphics inside the virtual studio, for example, making them appear inside a virtual monitor or synchronising them to an AR animation where the graphics need to match the style and branding of the AR virtual graphics.

StarTracker Sports Studio enables in-context design of photo-realistic virtual graphics with data-driven sports graphics, simplifying the creation and operation of this new approach to virtual sports graphic presentation.

“We have engaged with many sports broadcasters in order to capture the full spectrum of graphics functionality and workflows that they need now and going forwards, in order to cover major events,” said Michael Geissler, CEO of Mo-Sys. “Working with HYPER Studios, we have designed a system that allows a sports broadcaster to create integrated and in-context virtual graphics content, and as a result produce more engaging and differentiated content for their viewers.”

Mo-Sys will launch StarTracker Sports Studio at the SVG Europe Sports Graphics Summit on 5 March (https://www.svgeurope.org/graphics-spotlight/). It is available to order 2 April 2021.

Wasabi for media-scale cloud storage solutions

GB Labs, innovators of powerful and intelligent storage solutions for the media and entertainment industries, is now a member of the Wasabi partner network. Wasabi is known for its Hot Cloud Storage, a disruptively simple storage technology that delivers speed, productivity and price benefits.

“Everyone is talking about cloud storage, but the typical cloud model does not match what media users need,” said Howard Twine, chief product officer at GB Labs. “Our industry needs to store a lot of large files, potentially for a long time, and it needs to be able to download those files when it needs to broadcast or repurpose content. The Wasabi cloud model plays straight into those requirements, making it the perfect fit for media.”

Wasabi has disrupted the cloud storage model by significantly reducing costs and eliminating the egress charges that distort the offering for media users and their large file downloads. Add faster and ready access, and Wasabi offers a simple route to effectively infinite storage capacity. This makes it ideal for media applications, and particularly for archive storage.

GB Labs identified Wasabi as an ideal partner for its Unify Hub appliance. This media management platform applies intelligence to combine on premise storage – from GB Labs and other vendors – with the cloud, providing a working environment which is simple and fast, with tools for maximum productivity in production, post production and continuing storage. Unify Hub’s ability to intelligently manage data presents all content as a single, secure and coherent source, while minimising delays in moving material between the user and the cloud.

“Unify Hub and Wasabi make a perfect partnership, because our software brings intelligent management of storage, moving content between local stores and the cloud, taking capacity and speed of access into account, so you get to be as productive as possible,” said Twine.

The new partnership, already benefitting one leading US production company, means that users can create their own Wasabi account online, which takes moments, and immediately integrate it into a Unify Hub network. Users without Unify Hub can still get all the benefits of Wasabi cloud storage by linking it to GB Labs on-site storage hardware.

GB Labs sets out vision for the future at HPA

GB Labs, innovators of powerful and intelligent storage solutions for the media and entertainment industries, is proud to be involved in the inaugural 2021 virtual HPA Tech Retreat (15 – 24 March) as a gold sponsor. Through debating the change, turmoil and incredible technological advancements seen last year, and being planned, GB Labs is looking forward to being part of this year's HPA sessions – giving a thought leadership presentation, as well as discussing how remote and home working can co-exist with top-end creative media workflows.

“We are taking a very active role in the HPA Tech Retreat this year because it is widely recognized as a place where professionals in the industry come together and really share knowledge and experience,” Dominic Harland, CEO/CTO GB Labs said. “The open and collaborative atmosphere reflects what we are looking to achieve in creating shared production workflows. We are excited to be part of a broad sweep of industry leaders debating the creative future.”

As well as presenting on how vision and ambition can work in harmony with powerful and intuitive technology, GB Labs is also hosting a number of roundtables debating the storage challenges of the future and how remote working can be designed for ultimate and secure workflows.

Full information on the event can be found HERE.