Discussing the latest news for broadcast professionals with Mark Sindyukov and commenting on the latest technological news with our respected expert, Philip Grossman.
360 Seconds. Broadcast News & Commentary is a weekly program on Youtube about the latest equipment for broadcasting and film. Explained by experts – practitioners directly working in the field of cinema and television.
Hosts: Philip Grossman, host and co-producer at Visionaries, and Mark Sindyukov. Production – TFT1957 LLC. Air date: October 9, 2024.
Mark: Welcome to another episode of 360 Seconds. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special feature where Mr. Grossman and I will be discussing the most recent event in the industry, one that has the whole sector buzzing for months afterward—the IBC show in Europe.
Phil, you recently flew out to Europe and got the opportunity to attend one of our favorite conventions, IBC, and today is all about that. We wanted to hear your thoughts, your experience, and what were some of your highlights from this year’s event.
Philip: Certainly. I love going to the IBC show. The running joke in our industry is, “Whatever is announced at IBC ships at NAB, and whatever is announced at NAB ships at IBC.” I think this is my 10th or 14th IBC, so I’ve been going for quite some time. One thing I did notice is the crowds are back. The number of people attending the show has returned to normal, to some extent. Some of the booths are a little smaller, although some have grown larger over the years, showing industry changes.
But, to my surprise, in the past two to three years, we’ve seen AI dominate both NAB and IBC, and cloud computing was everywhere. This year, it was more subdued. The hype may have settled down, and now we’re seeing how to actually use AI in products. We’re seeing AI features, particularly in PTZ cameras, where tracking has become a major feature. It has improved with newer AI algorithms. This is great for smaller organizations or sporting events with lots of action. I saw several solutions from manufacturers adopting AI from that standpoint.
What I didn’t see was a lot of standalone AI products, although companies like 12 Labs and 11 Labs were still present.
Another area I was looking into was 8K. A client came to me recently needing 8K distribution, and I found that the adoption of 8K reminds me of the early days of UHD. Everything is still using Square Division Quad (SQD), which splits the image into four quadrants. Unfortunately, it requires good timing because if any of those quadrants are out of sync, it shows on the screen immediately.
We don’t yet have 48 gigabit SDI, meaning there’s no single SDI cable that can handle it. If you want single-stream, it requires IP. Some manufacturers offer 2SI, but it’s rare. There are also very few companies providing 8K encoding solutions. I did come across Synergy, a company with a software-centric solution that’s been around for a while. They had a sign saying “SDI must die” at IBC for years, and they’ve moved towards software-centric solutions, moving from CPU to GPU. This shift is driven in part by AI, which requires more GPU power, and the fact that you can now get GPU-enabled virtualized machines in the cloud.
One of the more interesting trends is hybrid solutions. I’m not a fan of the term, as I prefer fully integrated solutions, but we’re seeing a mix of cloud and on-premise solutions. Instead of pushing everything to the cloud, it’s becoming more common to have a combination of both. This enables flexibility and bursting—scaling up for short periods without needing a large capital investment.
I also came across a product called Torque, which was fascinating. In the past, many solutions were built around CPUs designed for cell phones, but these guys built a specific ASIC chip that can handle 192 transcodes in a single 1RU rack server. This was probably the most interesting thing I saw, as it shows we’re getting closer to the densities we need. However, the last mile remains a problem in the industry. Overall, it was a great show, and I can’t wait for NAB to see what actually gets released.
Mark: Awesome. With that said, Phil, thank you for being our special guest and head innovator to share with the industry, as always. We’ll look forward to seeing you at the next show as well.
Philip: Thank you. Perfect!
360 Seconds. Broadcast News & Commentary
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