So that was another IBC show for another year.
Did you go? What did you think?
Some of the Trickbox team were there keeping an eye on new equipment and technologies. Here’s our two pence worth…
Sony PXW-FS7
I think the biggest trend this year was the rapidly increasing emergence of 4K / UltraHD kit. Sony made it clear that they want to be the industry leaders and had their usually obscenely large stand – I say ‘stand’, it was more of a whole separate area in between separate halls – where they were demonstrating full end-to-end 4K production workflows. Sony’s new PXW-FS7 4K camera drew in some crowds. Featuring a 4K Super 35mm Exmor CMOS sensor, super slow mo recording in HD and a comparatively low cost (of under £6K), it’s an attractive little camera.
Hitachi SK-UHD4000
Hitachi were showing their SK-UHD4000 broadcast camera, featuring a B4 2/3″ lens mount. For the studio and OB world, this is fairly big news as, to date, if you want 4K you have to use cine style cameras, which don’t always work in a true multi-camera environment.
Blackmagic Design SmartView 4K
The Blackmagic stand was typically large and sprawling, with a sea of people milling around trying to get up close and feel the smooth lines of all their products. Blackmagic launch several new 4K products, including a SmartView 4K monitor, a 16 way Multi-viewer and some 4K mini converters to add to their popular range. The monitor launch is an important one as 4K monitors have been one of the missing links in – how do I put this – affordable 4K broadcast production.
Blackmagic Design 4K Mini Converters
Blackmagic have also been quick to be the first to provide low cost 4K audio embedding and de-embedding with their 4K Audio to SDI and SDI to Audio mini converters.
Blackmagic Design URSA camera
It was also nice to see the new Blackmagic URSA camera in the flesh. We’re looking forward to when they start to ship as we have one on order!
AJA CION
AJA’s equivalent 4K cine-style camera, the CION drew some crowds at the AJA stand – interestingly, everyone seemed to forget about all their other products on their stand. The poor little Ki Pro’s didn’t get a look in! The CION’s a nice looking piece of hardware – something almost regal about it. It’s definitely a grown up camera, for grown ups.
Sony IP Production
In other areas of the show, there was lots of attention to cloud based and IP broadcasting. Sony were demonstrating full end-to-end IP production workflows.
LiveU were showcasing their new Community offering – a community of LiveU users – both broadcasters and service providers. It’s a clever platform, which has the potential to change the way broadcast news is delivered.
Over in the Future Zone hall, NHK were showing off again with their 8K demo. It’s impressive stuff and is scarily not that far away from being a reality. We haven’t even got on top of 4K yet!
Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw at IBC this year, or rather didn’t see – was any 3D. We only saw one stand with 3D monitors on. Guess that’s 3D over then?
