BDL Autoscript in Australia/NZ

BDL Autoscript recently announced several significant orders from major Broadcasters in New Zealand and Australia worth in excess of £150,000.00.
In New Zealand, TV3 has ordered four systems split between studio and location operations interfaced to ENPS. Additionally, Maori TV, a new specialist station, has committed to a base station and five TFT on-camera prompters and systems have also been installed in NZoom an internet company. These installations add to an extensive BDL presence throughout TV New Zealand and Prime TV.
In Australia, Channel 7 who already use BDL prompters interfaced to iNews in Melbourne, has rolled out BDL base stations and on-camera prompters to production centres in Adelaide, Perth and Sydney. BDL equipment has also been selected for the new Prime TV installation interfaced to Dalet/Open Media and a further iNews Installation at SBS.

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Williams Replaces Alston as Minister

A cabinet reshuffle by Australian Prime Minister John Howard has seen Attorney-General Daryl Williams replace Senator Richard Alston as Minister for Communications, Information Technology & the Arts.
Announced by Howard as part of a wider restructuring of the Government front bench, the decision followed indications by Senator Alston that he intended to retire from the Senate before the next election.
Howard commended Alston on his many years of service. He was Australia's longest-serving Federal Minister for Communications.
"He has done a wonderful amount of work for the Government and the Party," said Howard. "He willl be missed."
Daryl Williams AM, QC, is Member for Tangney ijn Western Australia. He was elected to the House of Representatives for Tangney in 1993, 1996, 1998 and 2001. Ministerial Appointments include Attorney-General from 11.3.96. Minister for Justice from 11.3.96 to 9.10.97.
Born in 1942, Williams is married and holds LLB (Hons) (WAust), BCL (Hons) (Oxon), AMusA. He was a Rhodes Scholar in 1965 and served as a Barrister and solicitor from 1968-71. Non-Government positions held include Counsel, Asian Development Bank 1971-75, and Barrister 1975-93. He was appointed Queen's Counsel 1982 and awarded Member of the Order of Australia in 1989.

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No Takers for Singapore Pay TV Licence

No bids were received for a licence to operate a second pay TV service in Singapore at the close of the tender on September 24.
The invitation to run Singapore's second subscription TV service was issued on 25 Jun 2003, in response to industry interest in providing a competing service upon the expiry of the then-Singapore Cablevision's seven-year monopoly.
According to a statement issued by the Singapore Media Development Authority (MDA),"Potential bidders would have taken in account various factors in determining their business cases, including the ability of the market to sustain a second pay TV operator.
"The prevailing economic situation could also have a significant impact on the viability of a second pay TV operator. The agency understands the reluctance of the industry to enter the market at this point in time, and will therefore remain open to expressions of interest from potential players at a later date when market conditions have improved."

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Radioworks NZ Chooses Omnia

Radioworks NZ has upgraded to Omnia-6 audio processing for three of its nationally-heard FM rock radio networks. Radioworks is part of Canwest Global Communications.
The new Omnia-6fm processors will be used for Radioworks "Rock FM", "The Edge" and "Solid Gold FM" networks. Many Radioworks stations have already upgraded to Omnia processing; the newly purchased units join those in service at the "More FM" network, and at Radioworks' owned-and-operated local radio outlets throughout New Zealand.
The purchases were made through Auckland-based Omnia distributor Broadtech Services.
"Influential broadcasters are turning to Omnia," observed Broadtech general manager, Graham Brown. "They tell us the sound is superior, and the ability to fine-tune the units and 'get under the hood' is first rate."
Other New Zealand radio stations that rely on Omnia processing include Auckland's Radio Waatea, "Te Reo Irrirangi O TeArawa" in Rotorua, and Radio Nuku'alofa Tonga.

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Ten Trials OmniBus News Systems

IBC Amsterdam - Network Ten has agreed to the installation of a proof-of-concept digital news automation system from UK-based OmniBus Systems. A deal signed between the Network and the automation software provider in the week prior to IBC will see Ten trial the system at its central Sydney headquarters.
In addition to proxy editing and integrated systems control, the news automation system provides both a fully automated and a manual-assist function for playout. This test system forms part of Network Ten's plans to migrate its existing operations from tape-based, legacy equipment to meet the demands of evolving digital business models.
According to Network Ten General Manager of TV Operations, Neil McCarthy, "To stay in the league as a top quality station and maintain maximum productivity, we have taken the strategic decision to to build a robust technical and operational foundation with the scalability and reliability for the future. By partnering with OmniBus as our digital automation expert and integrator, I am confident of our continued success as we move forward into the next generation of broadcasting."

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Prime Takes Dalet for News, Mediaproxy for Logging

IBC Amsterdam - Prime Television has selected the DaletPlus News Suite solution for its newsroom production and broadcast for 19 locations throughout Australia and New Zealand. With round-the-clock programming, as well as several daily news bulletins, the installation will allow Prime's regional locations to produce and broadcast news at the local level.
The DaletPlus gives broadcasters a complete environment for news production from ingest to editing, scheduling to archiving from one scalable application.
According to Gerry Smith, Prime's General Manager of Operations and Engineering, Dalet was the only player offering a truly integrated and scalable newsroom solution for rundowns, story editing, video editing and multi-site management."
The implementation, scheduled for fourth quater 2003, will provide Prime with a fully integrated, all digital newsroom environment. From a single user interface, newsroom personnel will be able to access tools for writing scripts, media ingest, editing, closed captioning, scheduling and planning, playout and archiving.
The DaletPlus News Suite will enable more Prime personnel to participate in the news production process. Journalists in all areas will be able to browse wires, write scripts, clip and edit video, insert synchronised close captions and record voiceovers - all from their desktops. Media is stored for shared access by all locations. News directors can easily review and approve stories in progress. Business rules automatically transfer approved stories and associated media in the correct format to the server for playout.
To monitor transmissions in its 17 commercial markets, Prime has selected the Enigma logging solution from Melbourne-based developer Mediaproxy.
According to Gerry Smith, "There was no single product that met Prime's requirements. Mediaproxy's Enigma logging solution with its associated client software was developed and tailored to meet our specific requirements of transmission logging and confidence monitoring. Mediaproxy also included a range of in-built alarms which alerts and emails select Prime TV staff to any audio and visual faults in real time.
"When necessary, we can easily and efficiently revisit a media stream by a specific date and time. This means we can access the actual 'off-air' content of any market within the last 45 days to review and/or transfer to CD-ROM or videotape any material that may be questioned by regulatory authorities or advertisers. What was previously a time consuming task now takes seconds to complete."

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Southern Cross Picks Encoda, Quartz for Centralcasting

IBC Amsterdam - Southern Cross Broadcasting has employed Encoda Systems Asia Pacific to centralise and automate one of the most complex transmission operations in Australian broadcast history.
Beginning with ananlogue studios in Canberra, Bendigo, Coffs Harbour and Townsville, SCB had the enormous tasks of either upgrading each to digital where the costs would have been in excess of AUD$50 million or centralising to one site which had never been done before on such a scale.
With local distributors AmTech, Encoda began discussions with Southern Cross Director of Engineering and Technology, Raoul Prideaux, and Engineering Manager, Rod Giddy, as to the feasibility of the automation task. These discussions resulted in the decision to centralise all five sites and 24 channels out of Canberra.
The process required Southern Cross to completely gut and rebuild a digital island in Canberra while keeping existing analogue services on air.
According to Rod Giddy, "It was capacity for work flow and ease of use of the Encoda system which sold us the deal. The Encoda system was more suited to the increased multi-market operation than our previous automation system and our presentation operators adapted well."
"The cost of the new centralised Encoda system was much less than the cost of upgrading the system we currently used so the decision was easy," says Raoul Prideaux.
The Encoda automation system allows for common regional programming and local commercials for markets covering most of eastern Australia and all the transmission services to be sent to all Southern Cross sites.
SCB uses four presentation pods as each state often wants to broadcast different live sporting events. A key requirement produced by the Encoda Automation is the ability to produce different feeds at different times in a semi-automatic fashion using a flexible alternate log allowing flexible live to air, a key component for unplanned ad breaks.
The Encoda automation is integrated with mirrored Pinnacle SAN Server architecture and Masstech's Digital Asset Management system bringing the whole system under one roof , but maintaining the 'individual' look and feel of independent regions.
Underpinning the amount of material in its many forms so that it can be identified is the Encoda clip metadata format that 'wraps' all broadcast clips extendingout through DAM and traffic. Tape playout of commercials to air is nil and all regions still create their own commercials which can be passed down the chain and repurposed with the metadata for air.
Also part of the centralcasting project is the installation of the QMC Master Control switcher from UK company Quartz. Installed through local distributor Gencom Technology, the Quartz switching equipment allows channels to be grouped in different ways to suit transmission needs at different times, either manually or with the Encoda automation system. Five presentation control stations use Quartz's new QMC-FS panel. Every QMC channel has its own Quartz CP-1000 intelligent panel, allowing immediate status monitoring or emergency use.
The core routing infrastructure for the playout centre is a multilevel Quartz router with a Q256 256x256 main SDI level, plus ancillary levels handlingSDI, AES and data. The router provides all crosspoint switching for the QMCs, allowing all channels to select any available source.
System management is via the Quartz SC-1000 System Controller. The unit provides control of all of the routers, has full redundancy, and offers hot-swap capability on both power supplies and controller modules.

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Nine Brisbane Links with Telecast

IBC Amsterdam - QTQ-9 Brisbane has employed Telecast Fiber Systems' Viper II 5122 video/audio multiplexer and Viper II 5292 HD/SDI module sets to carry analogue and digital transmitter feeds, as well as return monitoring signals, between its Brisbane studio and the network's microwave link facilities. The equipment was provided by local Telecast distributor N-COM.
"We selected Telecast systems for our digital transmission network because they offered a cost-effective solution with high reliability and seamless integration with our other broadcast systems," said John Gilpin, QTQ-9 Brisbane's Broadcast and Communications Engineer. "The Telecast gear is an essential part of our digital terrestrial network."
Telecast's Viper II 5122 fibre optic video/audio/data module transmits analogue video and dual audio signals on one fibre. It supports both PAL and NTSC video formats and provides up to 10MHz of video bandwidth. Dual-line-level audio inputs from QTQ-9's broadcasts are digitised using 24-bit sampling, multiplexed with the video signal and transmitted via Telecast's laser technology.
The Viper II 5292 serial digital video module allows users to implement 19.4Mbps ATSC , 143Mbps NTSC composite, 177Mbps PAL composite, 270Mbps serial component, 360Mbps serial component video and compressed HDTV, 540Mbps proprietary, 1.2 and 1.5Gbps HDTV and DVB/ASI.
QTQ-9 are using the equipment to carry digital DVB-T signals to microwave links behind the station's studios.
"The ability to mix and match modules without disturbing the modules we had already installed was a key factor in our decision as was the availability of additional features such as redundant PSUs," added John Gilpin. "Telecast's Viper module have become a fundamental part of our digital broadcasts."

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New Zealand to Form DTV Planning Group

The New Zealand Government is to invite broadcasters to establish a group to plan for the roll-out of digital television throughout the country.
According to Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey and Associate Minister of Communications, David Cunliffe, it is inevitable that New Zealand broadcasters will migrate from the current analogue television to digital television. However, the two stressed the need for a viable business plan to enable the rollout of free-to-air digital television.
"Without a broad industry consensus, digital terrestrial television is unlikely to go anywhere very quickly," said Maharey. "The government is enlisting the industry to work together to develop such a business case. A viable business model is an essential part of any investment in a platform to roll-out digital television.
"Planning for digital television was put on hold at the end of the 1990s, a decision now widely acknowledged within the industry to have been the right one. It's now a good time to be working on this issue because we are able to take account of overseas experience, such as the development of the United Kingdom's free-to-air digital terrestrial platform."
According to David Cunliffe, "To help industry plan for digital terrestrial television, we have agreed in principle to an allocation plan for the necessary broadcasting spectrum.
"We will also make some changes to management of the spectrum used for satellite television to increase the available capacity. We will continue to make spectrum available for testing of digital terrestrial services, and we will also allow holders of existing licences the ability to swap those licences for digital ones at no extra cost. This puts conversion to digital within reach of some existing broadcasters."
The New Zealand Television Broadcasters' Council, representing the four national television broadcasters, welcomed the Government's move to make spectrum available to existing broadcasters for digital terrestrial television at no extra cost.
According to NZTBC Chair, Ian Fraser, "it is critical that any move to digital television should be commercially viable for broadcasters and provide added and significant benefits to the viewer.
"We believe that New Zealand is best served by a combination of terrestrial and satellite delivery and the final ratio between these two delivery technologies has yet to be established."
"We now need to work out in detail what actual spectrum will be required for both testing for digital terrestrial television and its implementation once we know much more about its costs and benefits."

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ABA Releases Variation to Gold Coast Digital Plans

The Australian Broadcasting Authority has released a variation to the digital channel plans for Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast to incorporate changes to the technical specifications of the commercial digital television services to operate from Mt Tamborine.
The variation to the digital channel plan reflects an increase in the antenna height for the transmitters for the commercial digital television services at Mt Tamborine, together with a change of radiation pattern. The changes will accommodate a major infrastructure upgrade for the commercial digital television services at Mt Tamborine.
The ABA consulted on proposed changes to the Gold Coast national services in the May 2003 draft variation to the digital channel plans. The ABA is awaiting advice from the national broadcasters on their requirements at Mt Tamborine before considering finalisation of the variation to the digital channel plan for the national services. The decisions in this variation only affect the digital television services; analog television reception on the Gold Coast will not improve as a result of this variation.
To access the improved reception, viewers will require a digital set-top box or digital television. The national television services, ABC and SBS, commenced digital transmissions from Mt Tamborine in August 2002. The commercial broadcasters are expected to commence digital transmissions from Mt Tamborine in February 2004, however this timing is dependent on the new infrastructure being in place on time.

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Consolidation for Digital Pictures Melbourne Iloura VFX

Digital Pictures Melbourne and Iloura have consolidated their visual effects groups creating a new advertising and longform-based design, visual effects and animation resource under the Iloura banner.
Since its establishment in 1997, Phenomena at Digital Pictures has established a reputation for its longform visual effects service with several feature film projects to its credit including Columbia Tri-Star Asia's Double Vision, The Inside Story and Subterano. The team has also delivered visual effects for many television series projects, including Jonathan M Shiff Productions' Ocean Girl, Cybergirl, Pirate Islands and Wicked Science.
Iloura's visual effects and animation group is known throughout the Australasian region with recent high-end television commercial campaigns including Holden Monaro 'Game Over', Tourism Victoria 'You'll Love Every Piece of Victoria', Kraft 'Ants' as well as a Mazda campaign for Euro RSCG Beijing.
According to Digital Pictures, the consolidation of these significant visual effects and animation resources under the Iloura banner will deliver world-class expertise for advertising and feature film projects and reinforce Melbourne's reputation as a strong craft base for local and international production.
The Phenomena visual effects and animation team, which includes Peter Webb, Mark Dickson and Paul Buckley, will relocate to Iloura's premises at 18 Kavanagh Street, Southbank from September. VFX Producer Ineke Majoor will continue to oversee longform vfx projects and provide advice to clients from Iloura's and Digital Pictures' South Melbourne facilities. Digital Pictures Melbourne will continue to package design visual effects with post production, and to operate the Discreet Flint system along with relevant design services to complement their post production services.

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Atlab and Omnilab Finish Gettin' Square

Atlab has finished the postproduction of the upcoming Australian feature film and trailer, Gettin' Square, a comedy drama revolving around the Gold Coast underworld. After completing the rushes on location in Queensland, Atlab was also responsible for the digital opticals, compositing, and grading of the movie.
Meanwhile, Omnilab division, mesh22 has completed the opening title sequence for the soon-to-be-released Australian movie, creating a slick but subtle treatment for application over the first five minutes of the film's narrative.

For more, click here

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Digital Pictures Strikes a Chord with Delta

Digital Pictures Sydney recently completed work on Delta Goodrem's latest music video, Not me, Not I. Based on a director's treatment by Director, Michael Spiccia, the new music video visually evokes the emotion of lost love.
A combination of sets, locations and visual effects were used to create the fairytale world in which the video is set. Whilst the various elements of the scenery were designed so as not to detract from Delta Goodrem's performance, elements such as the old crumbling house, the overgrown garden and the surreal pond create a strong backdrop.
Digital Pictures assembled a world class team to bring this make-believe location to life including VFX Supervisor, David Booth, Lustre Colourist, Warren Lynch and Lead Compositor, Tim Davies.

For more, click here

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Upgrade for Digital Media at AFTRS

The Australian Film Television and Radio School has revamped the facilities of its Digital Media Department. Launched at a recent Discreet-sponsored function by AFTRS Director Malcolm Long and Head of Digital Media, Peter Giles, the Department now features an SGI Room, PC Lab, Mac Lab and Project Room.
Facilities of the SGI Room, used for Flame and Effect Compositing as well as industry short courses and student production, include:

• 1 x HD Flame System
• SGI Octane 2 V12 Dual R12K, 2.5 GB RAM
• Storage - 2 x Stone R36 Arrays
• 1TB Storage - up to 120 mins of HD res footage
• 3 x SGI O2's running Discreet Effect (for training purposes)

The PC Lab, a production space for 1st year MA students specialising in Visual Effects/Titles Design and Computer Animation, includes:

• 6 x 1GHz Dual Proc Xenon PC's, FireGL2 Graphics, 512/36
• Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator
• Discreet Combustion
• Alias Wavefront Maya
• RenderMan

The Mac Lab, used for industry short courses in Broadcast Design, 3D Animation, Compositing, Editing, and Matte Painting features:

• 8 x 1 GHz Dual Proc Mac G4's, 512/40
• Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator
• Discreet Combustion
• Alias Wavefront Maya
• Apple Shake and Final Cut Pro

FInally, the Project Room, a production space for 2nd year MA students specialising in Visual Effects/Titles Design and Computer Animation, includes:

• 2 x 1 GHz Dual Proc Mac G4's, 2GB/40
• 3 x 1 GHz Dual Proc Xenon PC's, 1GB/36
• Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator
• Discreet Combustion
• Alias Wavefront Maya
• Apple Shake and Final Cut Pro

All rooms are on a Gigabit Ethernet network and connect to an SGI Origin File Server with 900 GB storage and data backup facilities.

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New Magazine from Broadcastpapers.com

Broadcastpapers Pty Ltd, managers of the SMPTE Australia web site, is to launch a new publication for media professionals in the Asia-Pacific region.
Content + Technology will interpret in depth the management and technology issues confronting today's media companies for managers, operators and engineers - from Software to Hardware, Regulation to Practice, Established and Emerging Standards.
Editor for the new magazine is Broadcastpapers founder Phil Sandberg, who has spent over 14 years reporting on technology and policy issues affecting the film, TV, radio and recording industries throughout Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
"Recent years have seen the media and entertainment industries undergo significant structural change," says Sandberg. "That change has not only included technological capability and affordability, but also organisational structures within and across media companies. Content + Technology will reflect this change."

For free subscription information, click here

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Quantel Scores with Fox Sports

Australia's Fox Sports pay TV channel has purchased the QPaintbox Pro system, the newest addition to Quantel's generationQ range of products for graphics. Fox Sports offers comprehensive, live and exclusive coverage of sports news.
According to Michael Day, Chief Engineer at Fox Sports, “Sports news is a very time-sensitive business; we chose the Quantel QPaintbox Pro for its unique ability to turn around high-quality news and sports graphics really quickly.”
QPaintbox Pro is an all new, fully-featured desktop Paintbox, with a host of tools specifically designed to put the world of SD graphics creation at the fingertips of a whole new range of users. Other features include a dynamic vector-based graphics application, de-facto free-hand painting system, and time-line compositor in a single box.
According to Julien James, Managing Director, Quantel Australia, “Quantel continues to expand in the Asia–Pacific region. We have received huge interest this year in generationQ from both the Broadcast and Postproduction industries. There seems to be a new enthusiasm in the post-production and broadcast markets and we have also noticed strong interest in the direction server-based sports, news and production technologies are going. It will be an exciting time ahead for our industry.”

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Analog Plans for Southern NSW and Regional Victoria

The Australian Broadcasting Authority has released its draft licence area plans for analog television services in Southern New South Wales and Regional Victoria. The draft plans set out the ABA's preliminary views on the number and characteristics of television services proposed to be made available in these areas.
"The ABA is seeking people's views on the draft plans, but submitters should be aware that the process is generally about retaining the status quo and is being completed within the confines of current policy and legislation," said Professor Flint, ABA Chairman.
Specifically the licence area plans will:

• determine the licence areas for each of the markets,
• affirm a Ministerial notification for a community television service, and
• confirm the technical parameters of each of the existing analog television services.

The draft plans for Southern New South Wales and Regional Victoria include alternative channels in a number of locations for services that may need to change channels to accommodate digital television services. More information is available on the ABA website or by calling Freecall 1800 226 667. The closing date for submissions is 5.00pm, 30 September 2003.

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TV3 Takes on Calrec

TV3 in New Zealand has purchased a 32 channel Calrec Sigma 100 digital console as part of a refurbishment to their PCR1 live studio. Based in TV3's studios in Auckland, PCR1 is the broadcaster's main production suite. The studio has a large news commitment, including unattended hourly newsbreaks, an hour- long evening news, and a late-night half hour show.
"TV3 has always had a commitment to utilising state-of-the-art technology, and finding the most efficient way to use its resources," says TV3 Sound Supervisor Tim Pattinson. "Once we had committed to digital we know we needed a dedicated broadcast console that would cover our needs now and for the future.
"Although it may look different to an analogue desk, the Sigma is utterly conventional in its operating method. We could get a signal from input to output within a minute of seeing the desk for the first time! There are no catches, anyone can make the desk work very quickly and it is powerful enough to do complex programmes without having to do a lot of head scratching.
"We were also able to tightly configure the i/o on the desk for our particular production suite. I think a big problem for many people upgrading or refurbishing is making a cost effective decision on i/o. With a sensible level of i/o on the Sigma boards, we were able to fine tune what was needed to complete the installation, and to future proof our studios.
"The Sigma allows us to quickly reconfigure, essential when one person may have back-to-back sports, news and entertainment shows in a single shift! It also allows us a much smaller work surface than an equivalent sized analogue desk, which is critical for extended operational periods."

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Community Trial to Resume in Adelaide

The Australian Broadcasting Authority has invited C31 Adelaide Limited (C31) to operate the community television broadcasting trial service in Adelaide.
The ABA will make available UHF channel 31 for a period of 12 months for the trial. The service will operate under the open narrowcasting television 'class licence' for community and educational non-profit purposes.
The ABA received five expressions of interest for the community television trial: C31, Adelaide Community & Educational Television Inc., Australian College of Entertainment Ltd, Adelaide One Television Inc. (Adelaide One) and The Adelaide CTV Consortium.
"C31 is proposing a general service to meet a variety of local community needs. It has been able to demonstrate broad community support and has established relationships with content providers representing different interests," said Professor David Flint, ABA Chairman.
It is the intention of the ABA to seek applications for a permanent community television licence to serve the Adelaide licence area during the 12-month trial period.

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Coemar De Sisti Sheds Light on Reality TV

In August 2002, UK-based Granada plc chose an Australian rainforest at Tully in northern Queensland, as the setting for its reality TV production I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!
When it came to producing a series of I'm a Celebrity… for America's ABC network, followed closely by a second series for the UK, Granada set up a rainforest production facility to service both productions.
Granada has taken a one-plus year license over a privately-owned area of rainforest near Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales. In late November 2002, work began on what would temporarily be one of the largest TV production facilities in Australia wiith 42 cameras, 13 Avid edit suites, and a staff of around 390.
According to Coemar De Sisti Managing Director, Peter Kemp, the US and UK productions were illuminated by Schusters Lighting and Fleet Lighting using a variety of Coemar De Sisti rigs.
"In particular," he says, "we made up a lot of specially adapted products for Schusters."

For more details and pictures, click here.

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mesh22 Supplies Building Blocks For China VW TVC

mesh22, the specialist design division of the Omnilab Group, recently completed a 30 second TVC advertising VW Polo for Shanghai production company, Simple Film Productions.
Simple Film Productions sought to bring the post to Australia where mesh22's strong design reel, resources, and ability to deliver against a tight schedule won the job over stiff competition. Entitled "DNA" the TVC is set to air across China in July.
Known for his dramatic imagery and dynamic editing style, Taiwanese director, Mong Hong Chung's brief was to create a strong design piece that appeared to use in-camera effects rather than digital manipulation while simultaneously appearing hi-tech to mirror the superior technology that goes into a VW Polo.
As the first post-intensive TVC he had worked on, Mong Hong Chung was relying on the mesh22 team to make the most of his in-camera visuals. Though the previous Polo TVC aired in China was very dynamic with high production values, it appealed more to women than to men. This TVC was specifically designed to sell the VW Polo to men.

For more details and pictures, click here.

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Spirits in the Pacific

Brisbane post house Beeps and New Zealand's Film Unit in Wellington have both placed orders for the Spirit Datacine from Thomson.
Beeps will use its Spirit for feature films and commercials, while the Film Unit will employ the Spirit for the post-production of feature films and digital intermediate materials with the Spirit DataCine and Phantom Transfer Engine.
With more than 260 units in stalled worldwide, the Spirit DataCine system features 2K data scanning functionality and addresses the growing demand for digital intermediate feature productions-supporting SDTV, HDTV, or 2K data from 35 mm, 16 mm or Super 8 mm film.

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Sugababes Spiced Up in Australian Suite

The UK-based pop trio The Sugababes has caused a stir with their latest promo for the single 'Shape', which features the three girl group clad in dresses created by swarms of moving white butterflies. Already a hit single in their home country, Shape's promo was shot and posted entirely in Australia, with Babyfoot Productions' up-and-coming directorial team Michael Gracey and Peter Commins at the helm.
It brought together the work of several Discreet flame and inferno artists who were able to collaborate on the project at number of facilities across both Sydney and Melbourne.
Gracey and Commins have become the latest hot property on the promo market since they made their directorial debuts on the 1200 Techniques track Karma. It picked up an ARIA award, and Gracey says they have had many offers to choose from since. Both the Sugababes and the 1200 Techniques promos featured heavy VFX work, and Gracey cites his background as a Discreet flame operator as the reason for his abilities in this area. In total, Shape featured 75 effects shots in a little over three minutes.

For more, click here.

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LaB sydney and mesh22 Power Panasonic 'Trailer'

When CIF Productions needed a post house to finish its new Panasonic TVC for George Patterson Bates, the company turned to the LaB Sydney and mesh22.
The Panasonic Film Trailer TVC emulates the fast-paced action and emotive nature of a blockbuster movie trailer. From the opening green rating board to the sliding metal inter-titles, the TVC was constructed to mimic the newest, hip action movie being advertised on TV.
It was to be big, high-tech, slick, and full of adrenaline. The concept for the TVC was to create a Film Trailer for an action movie that showcased Panasonic's latest products, with many shots being used on a Feature Film scale.
The mesh22 design and animation team began by researching movie teasers and trailers that matched the action genre, to discover the most effective techniques to maintain interest and suspense. The Director of Photography on the final shoot was Deon Bebe who was also DOP on Hollywood films, Chicago and Jane Campion's new feature, In the Cut.
The technical post-production team at the LaB sydney was involved from pre-production right through the shoot to Final Post, planning potential crossovers between live action, models, design and 3D. Post-production also helped with shots that were too difficult, too dangerous, or too expensive to achieve via camera.

For more details and pics, click here.

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Sky Channel Networks with Newton

Australian racing broadcaster Sky Channel, has ordered the Newton Ethernet-based modular control system from Thomson.
The Newton system enables fast, easy access to all Grass Valley Gecko and Kameleon modules in a signal-processing path. Newton is able to separate system-level configuration tasks from operational ones, thus minimising the potential for on-air mistakes. In addition, it can group modular products-regardless of their physical locations-into a logical signal path that users can easily access and manipulate.
Using the Newton system, an engineer can assign IP addresses to Gecko and Kameleon frames for easy network identification and set initial operational parameters. Instead of attaching a serial cable to the back of every modular product that needs to be initialised, they can set baseline functional operational parameters over a network.

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Cinevex Completes Cracker of a Job

Cinevex, part of the Atlab Group, supplied the Digital Intermediate transfer for "Cracker Bag," which recently won the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Palm D'Or for Best Short Film.
Melbourne-based filmmaker, Glendyn Ivin's 15-minute movie, "Cracker Bag," is set in 1970s Australia and details the story of a young girl who buys an impressive assortment of fireworks to let off on Cracker Night. The experience changes her life.

For details and pics, click here.

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Flying Start Goes Up with Flame

Auckland's Flying Start Pictures has added a Discreet flame visual effects and compositing system to its raft of services.
The company is running version 8 of the flame software, on an SGI Octane 2 featuring dual 600mhz processors.
"The company already has a large number of other tools, but it was lacking a compositing tool suitable for client interaction," said Michael Bach, Technical Manager, Flying Start Pictures. "We took the decision to look at Discreet a year ago when we identified that need, and we also hired Jason Judd who had worked previously as a flame operator. Then, given the favourable exchange rates, we decided the timing was right to buy a flame."
Flying Start Pictures is now 14 years old. It features both post facilities and a production arm, including an in-house studio. Its work encompasses a range of TVCs and TV programmes, including clients such as McDonalds and the New Zealand Navy.
"We decided to buy an HD capable flame because HD is a business we want to develop in the future," continued Bach. "Even though we don't have any other HD equipment at the moment, the infrastructure is now there, and we are getting enquiries about HD. The flame is also running on the fastest Octane in New Zealand, with 10 hours of SD storage, or two hours at HD - we had to go in at a good level - there was no point in mucking around."
"The flame decision was as much a commercial decision as a technical one. flame is considered the tool of choice, and in order for Flying Start to grow its business further, it needed to have the flame toolset. Marketing is one of flame's biggest strengths," he said.
The flame will act as a central hub of Flying Start's post production services. It will receive material from a range of other applications, including 3ds max and combustion.
"In our case anything that goes into the flame will have been through other applications first," explained Bach. "We're using it to finish projects, including a lot of colour grading. Rather than spending lots of time using a telecine, we'll do a reasonably flat pass and then do the final grades in flame. The interconnectivity is also really important to us - the flame is able to take input from many different places."

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Sony in the Field, on the Set, in the Spa

Sony has announced Melbourne's AFL Films, the provider of original programming for use on the afl.com.au website, is using two Sony DSR-PDX10P cameras for the web site's video. The company produces a wide range of content for the website, including two 15 minute programmes a week, one of which features expert summary, and the other previews to the next round of matches.
The company has also announced that Combridge International's veteran Producer/DOP and HD specialist Geoffrey Brown recently put the newly released Sony HDVF-C30W colour viewfinder through its paces at a behind-the-scenes shoot for a major movie in production at Sydney's Fox Studios.
Meanwhile in New Zealand, the IMAX production of 'Knights of the Sea', chronicling the 2003 Americas Cup, was shot from both the air and the sea on HDCAM, utilising two Sony CineAlta cameras.
Finally, ResortTV, based in Queensland's luxurious Sanctuary Cove, has developed a unique two channel TV system based around three Sony NSP-100 Network Storage Players.

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CASBAA announces Satellite Forum

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has announced that the third annual CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum has been rescheduled to take place in Hong Kong on October 28, 2003.
The Forum will now be a curtain-raiser to the CASBAA 2003 Convention which runs from October 29-31.
The conference is themed "Why Satellite: Customers, Services, Profits". Sessions will cover issues for telecom customers, special needs of regional & domestic broadcasters, new applications and ideas, and how to finance new projects. The day will wrap up with a high-powered CEO Forum on "Keeping the Customer Satisfied".
Confirmed speakers include CEO's and senior representatives from companies in Asia, North America and Europe including Asiasat, ASTRO, Sony India, ESPN STAR sports, Shin Satellite and Boeing Capital.
For more information on the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum 2003 visit www.casbaa.com.

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Flames Fire Up Emerald City

Emerald City Design, a new Sydney-based digital production facility, has opened its doors with a purpose built High Definition studio based around two Discreet flame systems.
Founded by Geoff Clow, former executive producer of Digital Pictures, and Wayne Haag, senior matte painter for both Lord of the Rings films and The Fifth Element, Emerald City Design specialises in motion design, concept art, matte paintings, digital environments, visual effects and animation for the feature film, television and advertising industries. The new facility is based in the suburb of Darlinghurst and currently employs 16 staff.
"Discreet flame is simply the best box around for both advertising and production," said Geoff Clow, Executive Producer/Founder, Emerald City Design. "It fits into our workflow beautifully and it provides the front end workhorse."
Both flames are running on SGI Octane 2 platforms, enabling HD production. They are each equipped with five and a half hours of SD storage and two hours of HD storage.
"HD was our number one consideration when designing the facility," continued Clow. "We felt it was a great time to set-up and we're already doing HD work, including one huge HD project."
The installation also included a range of other software products, including Discreet combustion software, and sparks plug-ins for the flames.

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Australian Wins Quantel Artist of the Year

The International Quantel Artist of the Year for 2003 is Neil Goodridge, of animation and design production company Boing of Melbourne, Australia.
The winning piece is already an award winner, taking the title 'Best Short Film' at the Italian Cartoons on the Bay festival and 'Best Debut Film' at Animafest in Sagreb.
The piece, entitled 'Pa' was created on a Quantel Paintbox and Editbox and was produced originally for The Home Movie Series, an SBS and Australian Film Commission initiative, which set the subject as 'personal stories which would ordinarily be lost though the cracks of everyday life'.
"Timing is the critical element in animation and at the commencement of my career my timing was impeccable," Neil reflected on hearing of his win. "Quantel had just delivered Australia's first Paintbox to the very establishment that gave me my first job and since then the two of us have been inseparable. Any success that I have had has been facilitated by the efficiency, reliability, flexibility and creativeness of a Quantel system. Needless to say, I am extremely proud to be awarded Quantel Artist of the Year."
The awards were presented at the Promax awards show at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The winning entry can be seen as a Quicktime on the Quantel website at www.quantel.com, linking directly from the front page.

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Another Lion for Prodigy Director

Prodigy Films Director, Nick Reynolds, has won at Cannes for the second consecutive year. Reynolds was awarded a Bronze Lion at the 50th Cannes International Advertising Festival in the Cosmetics and Deodorant Category for " Hunchback", a TVC he completed for BBH Singapore and Play Films. Reynolds was also a finalist in the Beverage category for his Tiger Beer commercial.
The prize winning TVC introduces a new Axe Deodorant fragrance by demonstrating its effectiveness in attracting the opposite sex. A young man visits the doctor to discuss his embarrassing hunchback. While in the surgery he removes his trench coat to reveal a girl resolutely attached to his back as a result of using Axe's new fragrance - Dimension. The doctor wisely names his problem "The Axe Effect".
Reynolds success at Cannes follows his Golden Lion win last year for 30 second TVC entitled "Dog" for Lowe & Partners and Ikea. Currently occupied with a number of TVC projects. Reynolds hasn't had a lot of time to celebrate, but sees his win as recognition for hard work completed: "It's fantastic to win awards, but I'm always looking ahead to the next project for inspiration."

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Sony 'Heart' for Cutting Edge OB Upgrade

Cutting Edge Outside Broadcast, part of the Cutting Edge Group, has invested in a Sony DVS-9250SF digital production switcher as the heart of a wide-ranging upgrade to its Outside Broadcast (OB) truck. The move follows the company securing a four year deal in 2003 with Fox Sports, to televise NRL games in North Queensland.
The deal enabled Cutting Edge Outside Broadcast to upgrade the entire truck to component digital video, from acquisition to playout. The total for all upgraded equipment is valued in excess of AUD$700,000 and the fit out will be completed during September 2003.
"The DVS-9250SF's digital effects outperform anything else on the market," said Rob Burton, Senior OB Technician, Cutting Edge Outside Broadcast. "The playback of animations and the quality and range of keyer options are impressive, and the overall functionally of the switcher is excellent. In addition, the ability to switch modules within the switcher tub makes it very easy to configure the desk to suit clients needs."
"The switcher has a very logical layout that we believe will enhance the production quality of the programming produced in the truck, and will be comfortable for any operator to use," added Mark Bonnici, Outside Broadcast Manager, Cutting Edge Outside Broadcast. "We believe once the upgrade is complete, having 34 primary inputs, 4 channels of DME and clip animation play functionality will give us the most powerful digital truck of its size available in the country."
Operating since early 2000, the OB truck has seen action across Australia, and enabled the coverage of a range of events including the Sydney Olympics, the Goodwill Games, National Rugby League, National Basketball League, Bathurst 24 Hour Enduro, Konica V8s and many more.
"Cutting Edge has enjoyed a long working relationship with Sony, and it was a key factor that Sony is locally represented in Queensland, because it ensures a high level of technical support," said Bonnici.
"To maximise rack space, Cutting Edge Outside Broadcast chose the DVS-9250SF," said David Powell, Product Manager for Digital Production Switchers, Sony. "The 2.5ME processor frame is only 4RU, but offers the best effects power including four channels of full function DME."
Although the truck does not currently offer High Definition (HD), Bonnici confirmed that the DVS- 9250SF was bought with the option to upgrade it to HD, should it be required at a later date.

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Seven Network Orders More Q

The Seven Network, the Australian commercial Broadcaster, has confirmed orders for Quantel's generationQ integrated news/sport production technology for its Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth stations. The generationQ systems are replacing existing tape-based linear technology at each of the state capital television stations.
In addition, generationQ orders have also been placed for the Seven Network's broadcast Centre in Melbourne, providing additional news and production services. Officially announced at SMPTE 2003 (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) Conference and Exhibition in Darling Harbour, Sydney, the generationQ orders follow the success of the Seven Network's broadcast Centre in Melbourne which utilised Quantel server technology to re-equip and centralise its entire broadcast operation.

For details and pics, click here.

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ABC Selects S&T for MHP Carousel Building

The Australian public broadcaster ABC has selected Strategy & Technology's TSDeveloper system for use in the development of its MHP applications for interactive television.
The system, which has been on trial at ABC for some time, has now been fully delivered and is in operational use. This represents the first real commitment by an Australian broadcaster towards the implementation and delivery of MHP applications.
S&T, represented in Australia by AMtech, supplies specialised equipment for the design and deployment of digital TV streams containing the data for interactive television. Its TSDeveloper product is used by interactive application developers to build pilot versions of the transmission that will go to consumer receivers. This lets the developer develop in a system that behaves in as near to 'real world' ways as possible.

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Holotype Shoots Hoops with Philippines Interactive TV

Australian company Holotype New Media and Hong Kong-based M@gicbox have provided the platform for the launch of an iTV basketball service in the Philippines.
The M@gicBox iTV service, M@gic, is now offering viewers the ability to check out all the latest information on the Philippines Basketball Association (PBA) competition via their TV. M@gic is available on Philippine Multi-Media System Inc., Dream Satellite Pay TV service.
The launch of M@gic's new "eTV Hoops" service has been scheduled to coincide with the final competition of the PBA and has been developed by Australian iTV development agency Holotype New Media. In the coming months it will expand to support other prominent basketball leagues.

For details and pics, click here.

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Ten Extends with Omneon

Media server company, Omneon Video Networks, in conjunction with Australian distributor, Quinto Communications, is expanding its system installations at Network Ten.
Announced at SMPTE 2003, the network has signed a major contract with Quinto Communciations for the supply of a further two Omneon Media Server systems for use at Ten's broadcast facilities in Sydney. This additional order follows on the success of the Omneon Media Server systems already purchased and installed by the network for transmitting AFL football each week.
The first system will have three ingest channels together with ten playout channels split across two Omneon MediaServers and interconnected to share 300 hours of storage. The system is designed to provide additional redundancy such that in the unlikely event of a failure of any one MediaServer, the remaining server can continue to access all of the storage media.
The system will be controlled by Ten's existing Encoda automation system via VDCP control, while ingest and confidence replay channels will be controlled via Encoda's ingest automation software. The second system will function as a time delay server and will be configured with one ingest channel and four playout channels with 27 hours of storage.
According to Ten's Network Manager Engineering, Jeff Yeates, "We were extremely pleased with the performance and reliability of our first Omneon system. The commissioning was extremely simple and we like the ease of operation and technical support capabilities of both Omneon and Quinto."

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Digital Pictures Sydney First for Discreet Lustre

Digital Pictures Sydney, part of the AAV Digital Pictures Network, has become the first company in Australia to secure a Discreet lustre digital colour grading system.
The Discreet lustre system offers colourists and colour timers an intuitive environment for highly interactive colour correction sessions, enabling them to collaborate directly with directors of photography, cinematographers and filmmakers to adjust the colours and look of a film from the most subtle of adjustments to extravagant colour and lighting effects. lustre requires no proprietary hardware and represents the state of the art in high-performance software design, capable of delivering realtime 2K RGB playback with 16-bit /component colour correction, and providing a powerful flexible framework for future expandability.
"Quite simply, the lustre system will irrevocably change post production," said David Edgar, Regional Manager Australia, Discreet. "A decade ago Discreet revolutionised the industry by introducing the flame toolset running on open hardware. Now, by utilising the same principles, Discreet lustre is set to have just as big an effect as flame, and the industry buzz tells us people are hugely excited by it."
"We are thrilled to include lustre as part of our production pipeline and we are already using it on several projects," said Jeff Oliver General Manger, Digital Pictures Sydney "The lustre system has incredible potential and we look forward to its continued development."
"For post production work, lustre can be as significant as when we changed from black and white to colour," said Warren Lynch, Digital Cinema Colourist/Telecine Director, Digital Pictures Sydney. "It's the first solid approach to digital colour grading for film and it will change cinema work for good." The lustre system will offer far more to Digital Pictures Sydney on top of its powerful colour grading capabilities. It will also provide a crucial role in the entire post-production process at the company.
"It will act as both the front end and the tail end of a project," explained Lynch. "When material has been scanned in through a telecine scanner lustre will ingest it and organise its placement on the server. It can then be used as a project management tool to share footage out to the workstations. Once all the editing and effects work is complete the lustre operator can then do a final pass while the whole project has remained organised and well managed." Digital Pictures Sydney is now offering a complete digital cinema workflow, featuring the Lustre system and its other digital cinema technologies, including a Sony Vialta Telecine and a 5m x 5m cinema screen.

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Sony and Seven Finalise Optical Acquisition

Sony Australia and the Seven Network used SMPTE 2003 to announce the final acquisition details for the provision of cutting edge optical camera and editing equipment across the network's entire operation.
The national implementation and rollout will commence later this year in Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane, followed closely by Melbourne and Sydney. The Seven Network has committed to purchase a large number of Sony's professional optical camcorders and decks delivering a dynamic method of field acquisition and editing across the network's entire operation.
"Sony Australia is delighted to announce the completion of final negotiations with the Seven Network and look forward to the rollout and implementation," stated Ward Hansford, General Manager of Business Solutions Division, Sony Australia.
The Seven Network was impressed with Sony's optical technology believing such innovations will set new standards in broadcast acquisition.
"The breakthrough technology will enable the Seven Network to improve news delivery and enhance workflow while maintaining the high-quality news services the network is renowned for" stated David Aspinall, Chief Operating Officer, Seven Network Australia. "Continual development and enhancement of our news services and operational offerings is of paramount importance to the Seven Network. Broadcast quality, non-linear acquisition is now a reality and we are committed to the implementation and look forward to improved efficiencies."

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Gyrovision Announces Deal With Heletranz At SMPTE

A Cineflex V12 Camera will now be available from Gyrovision, Sydney, on hourly rates for film, TV drama, TVC's, sport and network TV news following a deal announced at SMPTE 2003.
"No more hiring and freighting from New Zealand or Melbourne. Gyrovision will have a Cineflex V12, with turret and trained operator ready at the end of a phone line. A one-stop end-to-end solution for producers and news organisations," said Gyrovision's Will Stein at the company's Rosehill headquarters. "We signed an agreement with Helitranz yesterday (Thursday) at SMPTE 2003."
The Cineflex V12 which is a full broadcast quality turret with a Sony BVP 570 camera is used in the film and television industry. The agreement also means an HD camera will also be available at Rosehill. The Sydney presence of the complete system at Gyrovision, sister company to Sydney Helicopters, will mean significant savings in time and money for producers and news directors. The agreement with Heletranz, to place this world class gyro-stabilised camera with Gyrovision at its Rosehill headquarters, fills a major gap in the Sydney film, television and TV production industries.
"It means a very quick service, no extra hidden costs for shipping or transport and fully professional aerial film and ENG service for major films, television series, television commercials, major sporting and news events," Will Stein added.
The technology was originally developed for army tank gun turret targeting
"The gun aiming technology then was applied to camera pointing technology mounted on helicopters for scouting and reconnoiter work where the camera was mounted above rotor blades," Mr. Stein added.
www.gyrovision.com.au

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