NAB 2023 in Review: West Hall SportsTech Buzz From Dolby, NewTek, The Switch, Vizrt, and More By SVG Staff Friday, April 21, 2023 - 7:00 am
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The SVG and SVGE editorial teams were out in full force at NAB 2023, covering the biggest sports-technology news and delivering daily SportsTechBuzz at NAB 2023 roundups. Here is a look at the news from exhibitors in West Hall.
Featured in this roundup are Adder Technology, Advanced Image Robotics, AJA Video Systems, Appear, Arqiva, ATEME, Backlight, Black Box, Brightcove, Broadpeak, Dalet, Dolby, Domo Broadcast Systems, Eluvio, Eutelsat Communications, Imagine Communications, LTN, Magnifi by VideoVerse, Mediakind, Media Links, Net Insight, Newsbridge, NewTek, Nextologies, Osprey Video, Qvest Media, SSIMWAVE, ST Engineering iDirect, Synamedia, TATA Communications, Telemetrics, Telestream, Telos Alliance, Telstra Broadcast Services, The Switch, TVU Networks, Veritone, Vislink, Vivaro Media, Vizrt Group, and XD Motion.
Appear (Booth W.2512) is bringing its SRT acceleration solution to the market here at NAB 2023. Said CEO Thomas Bostr m J rgensen, One of the challenges the industry has is capacity and space. SRT is normally implemented on the server, but the SRT solution on our Appear X platform is implemented on FPGA. It's a complete game-changer on the capacity and number of possible connections it makes available. Broadcasters can do more with less; it's more dense with less expense. Added Brian Nelles, executive VP, PSSI Global Services, The Appear X platform's flexible feature set and density enable us to scale to meet our client's increasing volume of camera signals and super-slow-motion feeds for remote replay servers. To be able to encode and transmit within such a small form-factor saves money in power and dramatically reduces costs for shipping our field acquisition kits.
Magnifi by VideoVerse (Booth W1266) is conducting interactive demonstrations of its AI-powered solutions, including Digital Highlight Pro. This offering features ball-tracking technology and can be used to rapidly create and distribute short-form sports content. The company is also talking about how it is integrating ChatGPT within a video-editing dashboard. This theme will be explored today in the Connect Innovation Theatre in the West Hall (W3421), where company co-founder/COO Saket Dandotia is doing a showcase. In addition, VideoVerse has announced acquisition of Reely.ai, a U.S.-based AI-powered content-creation and social-media-distribution company focused on esports. The Reely.ai platform is capable of automatically identifying highlights and key moments within a videogame.
Domo Broadcast Systems' ONYX remote-production solution
UK-based Domo Broadcast Systems (Booth W3459) is highlighting its efforts on ONYX, a remote-production solution based on an IP-based encoder and decoder. Described as plug-and-play and having already been used on coverage of Formula E and FA Cup football matches, the pair of rack-mounted devices are designed to dovetail for applications using leased lines or satellite. They can handle four simultaneous HD or one UHD feed with end-to-end latencies as low as 40 ms. Streaming can be in a variety of IP formats, including SRT, at bitrates of up to 120 Mbps, and Genlock input is included for studio synchronization.
Mediakind (Booth W2100) is focusing on three key innovations at NAB 2023, particularly on energy efficiency for better sustainability. MediaKind Atlas delivers three significant workflows from the cloud: Live Catch-up and TV recording, AI-powered file-based encoding, and AI-based Upscale. It leverages public-cloud storage along with AI-powered services to aid the rollout of next-generation cloud DVR services. MediaKind Wave expands adaptive bitrate (ABR) to ultra-low-latency streams, provides instant channel change, and uses multicast technology to stream targeted ads to millions of simultaneous viewers. These benefits allow operators to combine their IPTV and streaming distribution networks and give media owners the chance to offer new immersive and interactive live experiences. MediaKind Aquila incorporates hardware acceleration to decrease power consumption and carbon footprint by 70% for live transcoding. A new AI-enabled video-analysis engine optimizes cloud consumption, and the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) codec reduces bandwidth requirements compared with H.264 and HEVC.
Fresh from delivering coverage of the American qualifying tournament for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship alongside Blast.tv, Vivaro Media (Booth W3921) is talking about its recently expanded service offering. The group not only provides video-distribution services, as CEO Daniel Gonzalez explained, but now also produces TV content in Latin America, as well as organizing, producing, and transmitting esports events. The group includes Vivaro Telecom, Vivaro Media, Vivaro Digital, Vivaro Video, Vivaro Gaming, Vivaro Properties, and Vivaro Comunidad. It operates 247,000 km of fiber network and 13 data centers. Its Liga Ace Esports is the biggest esports league in Latin America, according to Gonzalez. Announcements by the company include development of software that will automate distribution of content for federations and broadcasters.
Dolby Atmos Renderer
Dolby (Booth W3031) has long staked out the high ground for immersive broadcast audio with its Atmos platform. While the company has broadened its focus to video, sound remains its foundational field. Dolby has underscored that at NAB 2023 with its new Atmos Renderer application, which integrates the Dolby Atmos Production Suite and the Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite into an all-in-one solution for Dolby Atmos creators. The new application brings together existing functionality, including tools available to Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite custom
