IBC 2014: Attendees of this year’s show reveal their must-see exhibitors and equipment

New cameras from Sony and the recently announced resolution upgrades for Arri’s cameras look set to draw a crowd at IBC this week, while kit to support file-based delivery and moves from SDI to IP-based workflows also look likely to be at the top of delegates’ priorities lists.

We asked a handful of attendees off to this year’s show what to expect in Amsterdam.

Adam Knowles Project engineer, Wire Broadcast

The end of the post-production workflow is the bit everyone is trialling and getting to grips with at the moment.

We will be looking at automated file QC systems, such as Vidcheck’s Vidchecker and Tektronix Cerify, and transcoding systems including Telestream Vantage and Root6’s Content Agent.

Another area is KVM switching systems. Having a fixed seat with one machine per edit suite isn’t really an option any more, so we will look at products from Adder, such as its Adderlink range, and make a trip to the Thinklogical stand, among others.

Barnfind Technologies’ system that ties traditional signals such as SDI and AES with IP signals looks interesting if your business is transitioning between the two.

Darren Woolfson Group director of technology, Pinewood Shepperton

One of the areas I’m focusing on is solutions that will allow us to physically locate equipment at any of our international studios locations while allowing us to operate them at any of our other locations.

As well as looking at the technology that will facilitate this, we are meeting with a number of providers of networks over which these services could operate.

Danny Dawson General manager, Alias Hire

A visit to the Sony stand will be of interest for two reasons: the confirmed PXW-X500 and a rumoured 4K camera with a large sensor.

The PXW-X500 has some great features, including DNX and ProRes recording plus an impressive 120fps.

Sony’s rumoured 4K camera could be an evolution of the FS-700 or a junior cousin of the F5.

Sony hasn’t really dented the Canon C300 market and this could be its attempt. An XAVC codec, 10-bit and 4K might be enough to steal a few bases, but I’m not sure if it will be a home run.

The visual demos from Arri for the upscale recording of the Alexa and Amira will also be worth a look.

Speaking of Canon, I expect nothing new in terms of a C300-esque camera but this year it’s all about their truly outstanding professional lenses including of course the CN7, which in my opinion was the best thing at NAB.

NAB saw a launch of a ton of new cameras so it’s no surprise that there may not be a launch-after-launch of new cameras and image-making products, but it’s not all just about cameras and lenses. Accessories are becoming every bit as vital as the cameras themselves.

Gimbals, dollies, sliders and large grips are so accessible now that every hire company must make sure they have the right product.

From that diverse range, I intend to spend some time at the DJI stand. Its Ronin gimbal looks great and aerial imagery is something of great interest to us at Alias.

Alan Henry Sales director, Fineline Media Finance

Panasonic, Sony and Grass Valley’s stands are at the top of my must see list, as I’m really interested in finding out what development has been made in UHD cameras since NAB.

In particular, I’m looking forward to seeing the Panasonic 4K Varicam. If this delivers what Panasonic says it can, it could be a market-changing product.

I expect the delivery of products covering live capture in 4K and cloud-based solutions for playout to be key trends. Hopefully, there will have been a significant advance over the past five months.

Neil Anderson Managing director, NMR

A technology problem that I’m getting more requests to solve is a consequence of the slow death of SDI video and the increased adoption of IP-based streaming technology.

One of the live event and broadcast market’s biggest challenges is the lack of proper IP broadcast standards.

There are still too many competing proprietary technologies. Standardisation is taking time, so any exhibitor that can demonstrate the professional handling of IP stream recording, vision mixing, switching, real-time graphics and low-latency IP playout will get my attention.

I’m keen to check out the new GB Labs HyperSpace shared storage appliance. It’s the media industry’s first video optimised, shared storage solution which offers the performance of SSD, with the scalability and capacity of spinning disk.

I also want to have a look at Elemental Technologies and its new Delta product.

Delta is a new, integrated live-to-VoD platform offering live streaming, catch-up, pause, rewind services and more and was used by the BBC during the Brazil World Cup.

Delta should be of major interest to broadcasters and cable TV operators for enhancing their live/catch up services.

To my mind, what is holding up mainstream adoption of 4K and UHD post-production is the lack of good quality - ideally OLED - affordable reference monitors.  I’m looking at you Sony, JVC and Panasonic!

Last week’s IFA electronics consumer show saw a flood of new consumer UHD TVs and projectors, so I’m hoping that at IBC we’ll see a good selection of shipping, professional grade solutions - not just more prototypes.

I’m expecting to see more affordable UHD technology everywhere, with warm, sunny periods and cloud services throughout.

Alain Lolliot Technical director, Promotion

There is great interest in Sony’s PXW range, including the recently announced PXW-X500 camera. I will also be keeping an eye out for any additions to the Fujinon Cabrio and Canon CN-7 class of lightweight PL zoom lenses and visiting the Angenieux stand to look at anamorphic zooms.

Also on our mind are fixed rig set-ups and installation work. I expect the Arri Amira to be of most interest to IBC visitors, even though there are plenty of them about.

Peter Savage Managing director, Azule Finance

Rumours about Samsung launching a 4K camera are interesting. Even though it is expected to be a prosumer device, it could result in a new player in the market.

It’s worth remembering that 10 years ago, people might have laughed at the thought of Canon being such a presence in the broadcast camera market.

Many of the people we speak with are concerned about file delivery, storage and archiving and metadata, so that is a strong area of the market.

John Brennan Chief executive, Procam

Everybody’s watching fixed-rig camera shows at the moment: never has there been more interest in covert, unobtrusive filming techniques.

Robotic cameras are at the forefront of several of our ob-doc productions, so we’ll be looking at new developments from Camera Corps, Sony and Panasonic.

We’ll also be looking out for anything new from the lens manufacturers. We have our annual visits booked with Angenieux, Cooke, Zeiss, Fujinon and Canon.

To ensure we’re always able to offer our clients the very latest in lens technology, we’ve already got an order in progress for some Canon CN7 x17 4K 17-120mm Cine Servo Zoom lenses.

We will be visiting all the usual suspects: Sony, Panasonic, Arri, Blackmagic, Canon, Fujinon, Red, Angenieux and Cooke. We will also be launching our new webcasting division, so for the first time we plan on looking closely at the world of IPTV. 

The combination of an increase in multi-screen television consumption and the vast improvement in internet connectivity in recent years means that IPTV is very much heading into the mainstream.

At Procam we’ve already seen an increasing demand for live web casting, especially from big corporate brands who broadcast it over their internal communication channels. We’re excited to see if something new comes out of IBC that meets this demand.

Kevin Shaw Lead technologist, BBC Studios and Post Production Digital Media Services

We made a considerable investment in Front Porch archive earlier this year, so our purchases are currently project related. Our focus at IBC is mainly on developments from existing suppliers and technologies that improve efficiency.

In alphabetical order, we will be visiting Adobe, Avid, Digital Vision, DFT,  Dolby, DVS,  Front Porch, Interra, Telestream. These are our key technologies, we will also look at competitors of these companies for due diligence.

Anything to do with 4K delivery and monitoring is likely to dominate the show, but my main area of interest will be high dynamic range (HDR) monitoring, and I will be looking closely at Dolby Vision and similar technologies.

We are interested to know if there will be a market to remaster assets for HDR consumers.

With the file delivery date just around the corner, there will continue to be an interest in support for Digital Production Partnership file delivery products and AVCIntra.