Broadcast Video Expo Reviewed

Over 16,000 industry professionals flocked through the doors of Earl’s Court 2 in London to attend BVE2012. Your intrepid editor was one of the thousands geared up and ready to check out what exhibitors had brought to the stand for the three-day event. BVE takes in all aspects of video production: from cameras to lighting, from vision mixers to post production software and everything in between.
No more than a quick glance around this year’s show floor revealed a venue as always packed to the rafters with manufactures, distributors and speakers from around the world and it was quickly clarified--by what they had to show and say-- that the industry is progressing.
Apart from the Sony and JVC 4K cameras, there were a few eye catchers at the show. The Quantel QTube, which delivers frame accurate cloud- based viewing and editing to wherever you choose, and Eyeheight’s multi-rate stereoscopic 3D colour corrector. A tool with applications in production finish and playout, it enables both 3D channels to be graded under common single control.
Meanwhile another stand, which had constant traffic, was root6. Seen publicly for the first time at BVE on the root6 stand, Sienna, introduced a revolutionary new concept in media preparation for Video on Demand to the industry.
The Active Logging workflow delivered a real time mechanism for translating fast turnaround events, such as Live TV, into edited, processed and encoded VOD streams in record time, ready for random access replay through catch-up services as little as 30 seconds after the end of a 2 hour live show including encoding time.
Indeed developments in new technology areas look set to unlock unbelievable possibilities in the next few years.
The Premium Premiered…
Being the first show in the calendar year BVE has proven to be crucial to the UK industry and many companies showed off new equipment and software at the show. To be honest there is far too much to mention so forgive me as I pick out only a few.
Camera Corps chose the show as the UK launch pad for the Q-Ball Pre-Set HD/SD camera. A camera developed with the user in mind – it was created so that clients would be able to store and quickly recall pan, tilt, zoom and focus data.
Meanwhile distributor HHB Communications hosted another microphone premier at the event- they unveiled the RODE stereo VideoMic Pro, which is aimed at providing a higher quality audio signal with DSLR cameras.
Also showcasing new microphones was the impressive Sony Professional stand. They launched two new professional microphones for the live production and the so-called entry-level market. These mics being the ECM-FT5 Lavalier microphone and the ECM-MS2 short stereo microphone.
Elsewhere Autocue, a brand mostly associated with teleprompting, used BVE to show off what it is calling an “affordable, end-to-end live production and newsroom workflow”. Autocue Group Business Development Director Richard Satchell said: "We are the only manufacturer to offer a single solution for newsroom,scripting, automation, media management, video servers, broadcast monitors and teleprompters with complete, scalable solutions ideal for local and regional television operations.”
Meanwhile a range of new monitors for broadcast and production including an impressive new generation of 3D monitoring was the star at Oxygen DCT’s stand. The new products and technologies are set to touch a wide variety of television and digital film from DSLR camera operators to 3D shooting and production galleries for studios and outside broadcast.
And finally even though the industry has already gone Canon crazy, and it wouldn’t matter if I brought it up or not, I couldn’t write this without mentioning the throng of visitors at Canon’s stand as they unveiled the EOS C300. This camera marks the company’s first venture into the world of high-end TV and feature film production. Visitors didn’t have to search too hard to find one of the 8.3 megapixel Super 35mm cameras to play with. Resellers and hire firms including CVP, Promotion and Prokit all featured the camera on their stands, alongside Canon itself.
I won’t let product launches steal the spotlight completely however with companies showing some of the industry favourites- in my opinion as interesting as the first time launches.
Riedel Communications for example presented MediorNet Compact; already seen a several international trade shows. It is a solution that they describe as the cost-effective entry into the Riedel MediorNet World.
Tiffen as well were showcasing some of their major product ranges. Tiffen’s optical filters, software and Lowel Lighting were on three separate stands allowing visitors to grab advice from the industry experts on hand.
Meanwhile Playbox, the international TV channel in a box manufacturer, stationed in an impressive stand front and centre of the show, gave one-to-one demonstrations of their latest products including the QCBox that now incorporates automatic loudness control, and new single-box multichannel systems.
Primera’s disc publisher concept still never fails to fascinate me either and at this year’s show they presented an industry grade publisher that prints full colour discs impressively in just six seconds: this I saw with my own eyes.
Sennheiser UK also took a comprehensive range of equipment to the show. Particular highlights were the award winning Neumann KH120 studio monitors and the new MKH 8060 short gun and MKH 8070 long gun microphones. Meanwhile on the distribution side the company announced that it had secured the exclusive distribution rights for Nagra professional recording products and Reinhardt microphone windshields and mounts.
Elsewhere at the RTS/TELEX stand I was introduced to a number of new, exciting products such as VLink and VLink mobile. The RTS VLink (Virtual Linked Intercom) system offers the chance to open up anytime and anywhere communication with RTS/TELEX matrices using a simple application and standard IP technology.
The Seminars Said….
Along with the most recent cameras, editing, sound and delivery equipment there was a string of seminars and presentations tackling the key issues facing the industry. Everything from workflow to the 3D revolution to brands becoming broadcasters was in discussion.
This year’s seminar line up of more than 250 talks in 11 theatres is claimed to be the largest of its kind in the UK.
One of my personal favourites of the three-day event was the seminar strand focusing on brands becoming broadcasters.
The set of seminars discussed the recent increase of B2B and B2C brands using video to promote their products and to launch new initiatives – and creating it themselves.
Today’s marketing campaigns increasingly involve some element of online activity and video. Over the last few years more and more brands have started to set up their own in-house studios because video plays such an integral part in their marketing campaigns. At the same time, ‘traditional’ marketing agencies are following suit to keep up with client demand.
The End Of An Era…
This year’s BVE Expo marked the end of the road for the exhibition at Earls Court 2 Exhibition Centre. Next year the exhibition is moving east to the Excel Exhibition Centre in the docklands, which although further away for some does promise to be a bigger and better venue for an exhibition that seems to grow larger each year.
(LB)