Psst; inflo transcribes with Whisper

Techtel, the creators of inflo, today announced that a new speech to text transcription engine from openai called Whisper, is available to inflo customers who are looking to unlock more potential from their content library.

Whisper has shown that it excels in accuracy and flexibility with results that are exceptional across multiple dialects.  The Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system has used machine learning to train and refine it's accuracy from a growing sample of over 680,000 hours of web content.  The process of refining the ASR has made the solution more accurate and robust so that it understands accents, background noise and also technical language.

inflo intelligently indexes content that has been transcribed and aligns time code references enabling keyword searching to navigate the user straight to the relevant clip and exact position in the video where their keyword was spoken.  Additionally, inflo empowers users to browse content with muted audio whilst displaying a script of all dialogue allowing the user to silently read along with their video stream.

For inflo customers who require transcription exports, inflo can generate a Web Video Text Tracks (WebVTT) file separately to export to any 3rd party API connected system.  This tool means that inflo is the answer to update other less agile content management platforms with the transcription files their users are crying out for.

"Transcription is a huge step forward on inflo's artifical intelligence journey" said Peter Stevens, Software Product Manager for inflo.  "we have lots of customers expressing interest in a solution that can provide them with unmetered transcription and we think our approach will be very popular".

Technology firsts for Singapore on the Techtel Booth at Broadcast Asia 2023

(Singapore, 9th May 2023) Broadcast Asia, the unmissable event for Media Technology specialists in SE Asia, looms large on the horizon as we approach the doors opening June 7-9.  Techtel is excited to announce that for the first time we will welcome five new vendors to the Techtel booth, and several others returning for what promises to be the No.1 destination booth at the show.

Bridge Technologies have become a vital component of any ST2110 production facility with the evolution of their groundbreaking VB440 tool for monitoring uncompressed video over IP.  This tool and it’s slick Instrument View I-pad UX will be the cornerstone of their demonstrations at Broadcast Asia, now boasting Dolby E together with their unique multi channel ST2110 test signal generator capability.

Haivision have become the undisputed market leaders in contribution video over the internet since the release of their opensource technology for Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) some years ago.  Building on their foundation Makito encoding and decoding platforms will be the latest in their offerings for GSM mobile transmission like the compact Haivision Air, perfect for news gathering in the field but more recently the low latency they offer is opening up new camera angles for live sports.

A first for Singapore and Broadcast Asia, Forecast Consoles, designer and manufacturer of the worlds most stylish and durable technical furniture will be making their debut at Broadcast Asia showing off their remarkable GCX-W.  The GCX-W workstation offers the best possible solution for non-linear editing, graphics and color correction workstations. With everything at your fingertips, these individual consoles are pre-engineered, affordable and ready to ship. 

Mirada empowers and unlocks the value of your content by providing a single consolidated multiplatform solution that takes your online video platform to the next level.  Mirada brings the expertise to provide their customers with the tools and vision necessary to transform and future-proof the content streaming business by offering the ultimate viewing experience across all devices.  Ask them about how you can tailor your content to your viewer; fully segmented, aggregated and with the best UX in the market.

No other broadcast video monitor manufacturer can match Plura when it comes to ST2110 / 2022-7 uncompressed IP support.  With in-built native support for 4K over IP, Plura has native 25Gb Fiber interfaces that enable an additional loop out as SDI, extending the life and TCO of your legacy SDI based monitors.  With full NMOS support, the monitor will connect you to all your available network sources and support for the Ember protocol will allow you to control what you’re seeing with any Ember based control system.

Fresh from winning an NAB2023 Best in Show award for their CueTALK™ Cloud solution, Cuescript will be demonstrating the latest ST2110 capable Teleprompters and their innovative CueiT™ Windows and OSX based prompting software.  Extending on their conventional on-camera platforms, Cuescript will also demonstrate the latest prompters built for PTZ cameras from companies like Birddog, Canon and Panasonic. 

Techtel announces v3.0 of inflo™, our very own software built exclusively by us for our customers.  Inflo™ already provides an economical and flexible way to ingest your high value production content then search and store it wherever you want – in the cloud or on premise.  Inflo™ 3.0 adds multi-user support with granular permissions, web based sub-clip editing, edit during ingest, support for S3 based storage locations like Wasabi hot cloud storage to name a few of the cool new features we are previewing for the first time ever at the show.

More than half the worlds population see Associated Press (AP) journalism every day making them the undisputed market leader in news creation and technology.  The software platform they rely on to make this happen is ENPS, a system that has become ledgendary for it’s stability and scalability.  AP will demonstrate the latest from ENPS and they’ll also be showing off their revolutionary story centric Playbook planning tool that was born cloud native.

Telestream, makers of Vantage, the market leading media processing platform will be showing off their latest new features.  Built to run on the GPU accellerated Lightspeed platform, Vantage is the go-to solution for complex enterprise class content processing with unprecedented support for UHD, HDR and Hollywood Post Alliance award winning 16 bit - 4:4:4 processing.  Vantage automates your content processing through their powerful worflow engine but while we’re at it don’t forget that they can burst your processing resources into the cloud for an unbeatable performance-cost ratio.

Broadcast Asia offers exclusive one on one conversations with manufacturers, but because of it’s compact size you get to meet more quality representitives in less time.  Techtel welcomes all to come and meet with our partners for what is sure to be the biggest media technology event for Asia this year.

Techtel set to make a splash at Broadcast Asia 2023

Techtel will be exhibiting at Broadcast Asia, June 7-9 at Booth 6J2-01. Joining us will be our fabulous partners Bridge Technologies, Haivision, Cuescript, Associated Press, Forecast Consoles, Plura, Telestream, Mirada and more!

Also on show will be inflo, the latest in web based content ingest and management made right here at Techtel. We hope to see you there!

New Government customer takes on inflo™

An Australian mainland State Parliament has initiated a 5-year agreement with Techtel to provide inflo™ software to record all broadcast video and audio of parliamentary proceedings throughout both debating chambers and 6 committee meeting rooms.  Using the browser based inflo™ software, the parliament will be able to provide access to both historical and future content recordings to Parliamentary Staff, Sitting Members and external users such as Journalists who can search, browse and download content as required.

The agreement which sees the platform being launched in mid-2023 integrating features that are highly desirable throughout the Parliamentary Broadcast Community.  Features such as browser-based editing, multi-user credential access and Hansard Metadata integration are but a few of the intuitive features forming part of the delivered solution.

Techtel’s product manager for inflo™, Matthew Hall commented, “Techtel has had a strong focus on Parliamentary production systems so we felt we had an unprecedented level of understanding about their needs which lead to the unique solution we proposed.  As part of this project we are really excited to implement some really innovative new features for inflo™ and the end result is going to be a great system for the Parliament, designed, built and supported in Australia, by and Australian Company.”

The Seven Network sets sail with its Spectra BlackPearl Solution

(Melbourne, Australia, 23rd June 2022) After a rigorous review of object-based storage solutions, Network Seven chose to implement the Spectra BlackPearl® Converged Storage System for their network-wide program, news, sport and historic archive. The solution supplied and integrated by Techtel is the first Australian deployment of BlackPearl integrated with VizRT for news production. BlackPearl is a modern object storage solution that seamlessly moves content into multiple storage targets based on pre-set policies.

Seven turned to Techtel for a solution as it became clear that the sun had set on their legacy storage systems and a change was necessary to protect their data whilst making vast improvements to the availability of their content. The BlackPearl solution from Spectra Logic addressed all of Seven’s requirements so Techtel architected a solution that could deliver seven years’ worth of storage at Seven’s main news production centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Additionally, in Melbourne, further flexibility was required to allow Seven to migrate data out of an old Sony PetaSite library that contained program material.

“Seven had been considering the Spectra BlackPearl as a solution to replace our news archive for a while, and for us the real trigger to move on this was seeing the Spectra-VizOne integration being adopted worldwide,” said Andrew Anderson, Director of Broadcast Operations for Seven West Media. “With BlackPearl we know we have a guaranteed level of performance and unlimited data access for the foreseeable future. Techtel’s proven ability to support Spectra products in Australia is well known so we look forward to working with them.”

The solution will serve content to Seven’s network-wide deployment of VizOne and VizStory, allowing news and production editors to retrieve, edit and publish content at breaking news pace. The RESTful integration between VizOne MAM and BlackPearl has been in deployment now for years, which provided absolute confidence to Seven that the solution would be robust and ready to go off the shelf.

BlackPearl has created an opportunity for broadcasters who currently have a costly and complex stack of aging software to migrate to one simple affordable solution.  The BlackPearl object storage solution also allows multi-tenant architecture so several client platforms like VizOne MAM can access data from a common infrastructure removing the need for each system to have its own silo of storage.

“When Seven approached Techtel for an archive solution, choosing a product that was MAM vendor independent made BlackPearl the logical choice. Spectra Logic’s BlackPearl integrates with any modern media and entertainment MAM provider, and when combined with BlackPearl RioBroker®, a software front-end data mover for BlackPearl, it can also integrate with third-party HSM’s for streamlined migration. We worked closely with Seven to ensure that we could deliver the performance they needed and I’m really pleased with the final result,” added Matt Hall, Business Development Manager for Techtel.

Oranda adds resources to extend even more value to emerging sports in Asia

Singapore based Oranda Private Limited, the most agile and innovative broadcast production services business in Asia has chosen to add to their already extensive pool of Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) services through the addition of Haivision’s Makito X H.264 encoders, supplied and supported by local integrator Techtel Pte Ltd.

Oranda Team in the field during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

As a business with over 20 years of experience in Asia, Oranda have the runs on the board to prove that they know what it takes to get the job done in areas where broadcasting video can be a challenge. Oranda’s coverage include major events such as the Olympics, Wimbledon, FIFA Club World Cup, esport competitions, concerts, news summits to events in high risk territories.

The Makito X encoders fit this strategy like a glove, providing ultra low latency end-to-end transport of secure, high-quality HD video, even over unpredictable networks.  During the recent Olympics coverage in Tokyo, the Oranda team faced restrictions in the number of production staff onsite. This was overcome with the clever use of Haivision Play Pro, a free SRT Mobile player, to monitor live production feeds feeds from the field and using the SRT protocol and public internet to provide a cost-effective, low-latency way of getting feeds to the team members producing the content remotely.

Haivision are the original developer of SRT; a technology designed for connecting video between venues & TV Stations that is fast becoming an industry revolution since Haivision’s decision to open source the technology in 2017.

The Makito X encoders are famous for low latency encoding but to add to this Haivision have continued to develop leading technologies like Network Adaptive Encoding.  Network Adaptive Encoding is so clever that it detects the bandwidth of your internet connection and automatically adjusts the encoder settings to provide the best possible picture quality over the connection that is available.  All this in a small blade style package that can either be installed in a highly redundant dense rack frame (MB-21X) with a flexible configuration of encoder and decoder blades, or individually in field-hardened compact cases that are ready to go to some of the most remote locations on earth. Haivision EMS (Element Management System) goes a long way in providing operational efficiency with the provision of a web based interface to manage Haivison encoders and decoders across multiple sites.

CEO of Oranda, Floris Molijn said ”Our vision is to provide turnkey broadcast solutions to the worlds leading broadcasters from some of the most challenging locations around the world, especially in Asia which we call home.  We will continue to expand our capabilities with solutions like the Haivision Makito X to ensure that we can respond faster than any of our competitors to changing world events”.

Susan Lim, Techtel Territory Manager added, “We are inspired when we work with businesses that are similar to ours; privately founded and built up over time through hard but inspired work.  We will be going the extra mile for Oranda every chance we get to ensure that this partnership can make a real difference to both our businesses”. 

Read more about Makito X Encoder here

Kien Hon Wong finds a new home at Techtel in SE Asia

As part of Techtel’s regional strategy to excel in support throughout SE Asia, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Senior Support Engineer Kien Hon Wong.  Operating closely with our headquarters in Sydney, Kien Hon will be the key focal point for all of our support related business in the region offering our customers unparalleled knowledge of technology coupled with regional market experience.

Great support is the key to the best customer outcomes and Kien Hon has worked throughout the industry for more than 13 years doing just that.  Having worked with both TV stations and technology manufacturers in the past, his experience spans acquisition, media processing, video contribution and distribution.  This breadth of knowledge compliments the array of Techtel’s vendors really well and as the Techtel business looks towards building more of our own customised solutions we know that his contribution will be invaluable towards creating the best possible solutions for our customers.

Kien Hon joins the Techtel team at a time when the local market is opening up more and more following disruptions during the pandemic.  As part of that unshackling we see a strong surge in interest around how to maximise the available resources within a business; to do more with what they have than ever before.

Kien Hon said, “The broadcast industry has always been evolving over the years and I am thrilled to ride along with the technological advancements from SD to HD, UHD and SDI to IP, cloud and many more to come.  With extensive technical support and project implementation experience in ASEAN, I am truly excited to be part of the Techtel team to provide the right solutions to all the potential clients requiring excellent consultation for their media requirement.”

Techtel’s SE Asia Territory Manager Susan Lim added, “We wanted a no compromise approach to the support we offer our market moving forward because we know that this is valued so highly by the customers we serve.  Kien Hon is now right at the centre of how we want to differentiate ourselves and it’s great to have that confidence that when our customers need technical help, we have the team to get the job done”

Network Nine Adds Spectra Logic StorCycle® Software to its BlackPearl® Platform to Streamline Workflows and Enhance Content Preservation

(Sydney, Australia, 26  November 2021) Network Nine have expanded their Spectra Logic storage ecosystem to include the new StorCycle software solution for storage lifecycle management. 

Following Network Nine’s 2018 upgrade from a legacy storage platform that saw them deploy replicating Spectra BlackPearl object storage solutions paired with Spectra T950 Tape Libraries, Nine found that Spectra’s Storcycle® software could potentially replace another legacy storage system during their recent Sydney relocation.

The storage workflow of the legacy system took graphics and compositing files created by Adobe After Effects and Autodesk Flame and moved these into a disparate tape archive and backup location.  StorCycle replaces the need for this isolated equipment architecture through its native connectivity with Nine Network’s centralised Spectra BlackPearl hybrid storage platform.

StorCycle is a storage lifecycle management software solution that ensures data is stored on the right tier throughout its lifecycle for greater IT and budgetary efficiencies. Created for organizations that need lasting protection and access to data which is no longer active, but still critical to retain, StorCycle scans primary storage for inactive files and completed projects and migrates them based on set policies to a lower cost tier of storage, which includes any combination of cloud storage, object storage disk, network-attached storage (NAS) and tape. Interoperable with Linux and Windows, StorCycle migrates data, without changing original formats, and allows users to have easy access to all data, including data migrated to longer latency storage mediums like cloud “cold” tiers and tape.

Dylan Van Dyke, Broadcast Tech Manager for Nine Network, said, “Our relocation gave us a unique opportunity to rethink some of our legacy systems and we were really pleased to see that StorCycle could address some workflows that had not been integrated into our main Spectra Object Storage Platform. StorCycle has been running now for some time and we’re really pleased with the results.”

Matthew Hall, Business Development Manager for Techtel, added “Nine Network’s object storage environment, underpinned by Spectra BlackPearl, is now even more capable with the addition of StorCycle. Pairing StorCycle and BlackPearl ensures Nine’s critical data is safe whilst demonstrating a cost savings over their previous workflow. It made sense to choose StorCycle. Native compatibility with BlackPearl alone places it ahead of the competition. But the cost-based logic behind StorCycle’s file movement really sets it apart and we’re excited about the way broadcasters can save money by implementing it into their storage ecosystems.”

About Network Nine

When it comes to connecting brands with the passions of Australians, there’s no other media company like Nine.

As the home of Australia’s most trusted and loved brands spanning news, business and finance, lifestyle, entertainment and sport, we pride ourselves on creating and curating quality content, accessed by consumers when and how they want.

Nine is Australia’s largest locally owned media company with investments spanning television, video on demand, print, digital, and radio. Nine’s assets include the 9 Television Network, video on demand platform 9Now, talkback radio stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR, 2UE, 4BH, 6GT, Magic1278, major mastheads such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, digital properties such as nine.com.au, 9Honey, Pedestrian.TV and CarAdvice, subscription video platform Stan, and majority investments in Domain and Future Women.

About Techtel

Techtel is a leading independent broadcast technology systems specialist, providing dedicated hardware and software to the Asia Pacific broadcast and telecommunications industries. Techtel’s expertise extends from consulting and systems integration through to the supply, installation and support of solutions from an elite class of worldwide partners. The Techtel Group has regional offices in Sydney and Singapore with branches in Auckland and Melbourne. Visit www.techtel.com.au

About Spectra Logic Corporation

About Spectra Logic
Spectra Logic develops a full range of Attack Hardened™ data management and data storage solutions for a multi-cloud world. Dedicated solely to data storage innovation for more than 40 years, Spectra Logic helps organizations modernize their IT infrastructures and protect and preserve their data with a broad portfolio of solutions that enable them to manage, migrate, store and preserve business data long-term, along with features to make them ransomware resilient, whether on-premises, in a single cloud, across multiple clouds, or in all locations at once. To learn more, visit www.spectralogic.com.

Techtel announces a major new release of inflo®, including support for IP content and Ai.

(Sydney, Australia, 28 September 2021) Techtel are pleased to announce a major new release V2.2 of inflo®, software for digital content capture, storage and processing. The software is 100% Australian-made and developed at Techtel in-house, giving our customers unique access to service, support and the development pipeline.

The latest release of inflo® has more than a few tricks up its sleeve, starting with its compatibility with a host of SDI capture cards from manufacturers such as Bluefish444, Blackmagic and AJA, to name a few, and it can be scaled from just a few inputs to dozens or beyond. Connecting to these cards using a RESTful API interface, inflo® can live anywhere you like, including in the cloud.  NDI, SRT and URL recordings are scheduled for the next release allowing for a hybrid environment where some recordings are stream based and others come from physical cards on premise.

For the operators, there is no client software to install because inflo provides all the tools you need via a simple-to-use web interface, ideal for ease of access and it means multiple people can control the system at once from their web browser of choice.

Also it’s now simple to save your files in multiple resolutions, browse and append various metadata to these files in inflo. The easy-to-use UI has taken content browsing to the next level with the ability to scrub through thumbnails while browsing your library and open a clip of your choice at the precise time-code selected. At the click of a button you can then export your media in either a single format of your choice or complete a batch export containing multiple formats.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are also new to this release of inflo®. Many customers have asked for automatic transcription services and Techtel will soon be releasing a version that has transcription available on tap when you need it. Using the speech-to-text engine of your choice, inflo can already automatically associate the caption and video content, displaying the captions using internally generated WebVTT files with timing intact. This is a game-changer for the navigability of your content, as the entire transcript will be saved as searchable metadata. It’s also simple to jump to a specific point in a video just by choosing a word in the transcript and double-clicking on it. Finally, you can export the asset with captions to downstream VOD systems for a complete end-to-end solution.

“This latest release of inflo® really punches above its weight in the market”, said Mal Chandler, CEO, Techtel. “We think that a lot of customers are going to be excited to see that we can do many of the same kinds of functions that were previously out of reach for content producers in the mid-market space”.

“We are really excited to see the pace of inflo’s growth”, said Matt Hall, Product Manager for inflo. “We have a really strong roadmap and our customers are providing new feature ideas regularly, so watch this space for more announcements in the near future”.

Gravity Media chooses TV Logic for sports editing

(Sydney, Australia, 3rd May 2021) Following an extensive old-fashioned broadcast monitor shoot-out at Gravity Media, Techtel is pleased to announce that the TV Logic LUM-242G was fastest on the draw.  The new monitors were needed as part of an upgrade to Gravity Media’s fast-turnaround sports editing suites that are used both in their trucks and at their post-production HQ in Artarmon.

The LUM-242G is a 24” native Ultra High-Definition Monitor with HDR emulation capable of an impressive wide colour gamut of up to 98% of DCI-P3.  The monitor FPGA also supports a range of features like waveform/vectorscope, audio levels, focus assist, markers, UMD and many more.

TV Logic’s family of UHD monitors that form the LUM series are seeing the implementation of TV Logics new Colour Innovation system that is based on an advanced new engine called Logicolor™ for sophisticated colour processing.  The new engine processes colours using a 24bit linear RGB colour space that allows for correct calculation and flexible support for various colour standards, colour gamuts and Electro-Optical Transfer Functions (EOTF’s).

Initially Gravity Media tested the larger 31” LUM-313G-CI and found that the Color Innovation features like the calibration reports were great features but, with space constraints they looked to a smaller variant that could deliver similar colour accuracy.  The LUM-242G was the obvious candidate and after a quick test to check it could do the job Gravity chose to order seven units.

Adrian Jenner, Director of Technology at Gravity Media said, “We wanted to make sure that the edit suite monitors would be high performing and well supported locally but also offer good value for money.  TV Logic did a great job during the shoot out and the delivery was really impressive too at about two weeks from order to delivery”.

“High quality LCD monitors are receiving loads of attention at the moment as the market looks to upgrade to UHD and HDR with equipment that they know works and will be reliable into the future.  TV Logic have really focused on their premium 24” and 31” offerings and we think they offer more choice than any other manufacturer in the market so we are really pleased to see TV Logic had a model that is the right fit for what Gravity Media were looking for” said Mal Chandler, CEO at Techtel.

About Gravity Media

Gravity Media is a brand-new company with a 30-year pedigree, formed by the coming together of four established broadcast and production houses: Gearhouse Broadcast, HyperActive Broadcast, Input Media and Chief Entertainment.

Our broadcast packages are both modular and integrated, meaning we can flex our offering to match your requirements. Come to us for a single service, or a complete end-to-end solution. www.gravitymedia.com

Techtel helps to spread the word with CueScript in Singapore’s 2020 General Election

Singapore, 17 November 2020 – Techtel, a Singapore-based broadcast systems integrator, was recently thrust into the Singapore General Election limelight as we worked with the local video producer to provide a teleprompting solution for the election candidates. 

Our customer was selected by The Peoples Association (PAP) to produce and stream the candidate’s speeches including the Prime Minister’s to a nationwide audience prior to the election in July 2020.  To aid the candidate’s speeches, prompting was a necessity and the video production company turned to Techtel to provide the high performing and rock-solid reliability from CueScript as the platform for this high-profile event. 

The system chosen consisted of a 19” LED High Brightness Monitor, a large collapsible hood, an integrated camera mounting system and a range of supporting accessories.  The larger monitor provides crisp, easy to read displays even when reading at a distance from the camera; while the combined system itself is engineered to be compact providing more room for operators to move it around to capture the shots they need.  Rounding out the solution CueScript’s easy to use CueiT software was chosen to prepare scripts and control the speed of the read rate.

CueScript’s High Definition 19” CSM prompting monitor is one of the first teleprompting solutions to deliver sharp HD progressive scan text with no motion blur.  Furthermore, it features a silent fanless design which uses elements of the mounting hardware to dissipate heat; and 270 degrees of tally light visibility via the wrap around tally lamps mounted at the front of the prompter, providing talent and other studio operators with easy identification of which camera is on-air.

 “We are excited to be providing a Teleprompting solution instrumental in the Singaporean General Election to one of the most cutting edge production houses in the country”, said Techtel’s Singapore Territory Manager Susan Lim who added “CueScript is a recognised leading developer of professional prompting solutions, whose product engineering makes installation and operation easy for our customers while delivering the best on-air results”.

Highlight Systems Chooses Techtel as their Technology Partner for Virtual Theatre Production

Singapore, 1 September 2020 – Techtel is pleased to announce that Highlight Systems have entrusted Techtel to supply the Newtek Tricaster TC2 Elite System which enables the start of virtual theatre productions in Singapore.  The TC2 Elite will be a first for Singapore, enabling Highlight Systems to take full advantage of the amazing multimedia toolkit that is built into Newtek’s new flexible production turnkey platform.

In collaboration with Gateway Theatre, a creative arts space in Singapore, Highlight Systems are to be the pivotal lighting and video production engine for hybrid virtual events in the last quarter of 2020. Together, they will transform Gateway Theatre’s Black Box to become the first hybrid space in an arts venue that is designed to accommodate a live studio audience and quality live-streaming capabilities.

The Tricaster TC2 Elite ensures that there will be a variety of audiences to view content with a high level of audio and video fidelity to counter the discouraging restrictions of the events industry in Singapore. Highlight Systems will be responsible for those watching from their living rooms so that they will not miss a minute of these amazing events.

The Tricaster TC2 Elite is the 2020 production switcher of choice especially in a world that is now focused on remote production and integration with online video meeting platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.  Where before it was necessary to run lots of video cables to every input that a production needed, now a simple IP network connection unlocks a world of content that can be from local cameras or from cameras anywhere in the world.  Built-in Zoom, Skype and MS Teams integration means that it is simple to connect to people through these platforms.

Newtek, being the pioneers of IP video in production and part of the Vizrt Group, have seen their opensource NDI protocol adoption spread like wildfire as the global production industries seek efficient but reliable means to produce their content remotely.  Today hundreds of companies now support the NDI protocol that has become so popular even the old-world hardware switcher companies have been forced to adopt it.

Patrick Chan, Highlight Systems Project Director said, “The live production business is such an exciting business, but it’s critically important to always make the show a success for Highlight Systems and our amazing creative customers.  We needed a tool that would allow seamless Live Call Connect to platforms like Zoom or Teams, plus we also needed NDI to make connection to our Panasonic PTZ cameras really easy.  Techtel were a great partner in helping us find the best tool for the job and we look forward to a great working relationship with them as we look to add 3D virtual sets and camera tracking in the future”.

Susan Lim, Techtel SE Asia Territory Manager added “When we look at today’s production landscape what the market wants is a single consolidated production tool and remote connectivity as absolute dealbreaker requirements.  There is no doubt that Newtek are the undisputed masters in these disciplines.  Newtek’s work on NDI and their strategy to make it opensource has been wildly successful and I am sure we will see many other live production houses follow the lead from Highlight Systems to embrace IP based production”

About Highlight Systems

Highlight Systems is an independent multi-discipline technical consultant company. They provide corporate lighting, A/V rental, staging solutions, product design and development, and permanent integrative designs that would bring branded environments to life. Now, they have added hybrid events as their new service to counter the hardships that are being faced during the Covid-19.

Their mission and vision are “your vision is our passion”. Whatever your vision is Highlight Systems will provide the solutions for you with the utmost care and dedication. Highlight Systems are made up of different minds and abilities that unite from creativity. Through design or technical means, Highlight Systems wish to fulfil and materialize dreams to reality on your desired stage.

Visit: www.highlight-systems.com

About Vizrt Group

Vizrt Group is the world’s leading provider of visual storytelling tools for media content creators in the broadcast, sports, digital and pro-AV industries, helping them to build a better-informed world.

The Group contains three of the strongest brands in the broadcast technology industry; NewTek, NDI® and Vizrt. All three are united by a passionately held single, simple purpose; more stories, better told.

Vizrt Group is a global and diverse organization with over 700 employees from 52 different nationalities, operating in 30 offices worldwide. It is privately-owned by Nordic Capital Fund VIII. Visit www.vizrtgroup.com

Techtel installs a cutting-edge Planar EPX 100 T touch screen for Wego

One of the world's largest travel booking websites now has a cutting-edge Planar EPX 100 T touch screen installed at their Singapore office for more effective Zoom meetings and presentation delivery; provided and installed with a custom bracket by Techtel.

Malaysian Broadcaster, Astro Signs a 3-year Contract to use the Associated Press' Electronic News Production System (ENPS), Implemented and Supported by Techtel

Malaysia’s leading content and consumer company in the TV, over-the-top (“OTT”), radio, digital and commerce space, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (“Astro”) has recently renewed its contract to use the Associated Press' electronic news production system (ENPS) for another three years to manage its broadcast content with multiplatform Mobile functionality - implemented and supported by a Singapore-based systems integrator, Techtel (S.E.A).

The combined strength of Astro’s Pay-TV and subscription-free TV service, allows the broadcaster to serve over 23 million individuals in 5.7 million households, or 77% of Malaysian households. The award-winning broadcaster has won Gold in the Media Networks category at the Putra Brand Awards for nine consecutive years from 2010 to 2018, the Malaysian Marketer of the Year award in 2016, and accolades at the IDC Digital Transformation Awards for Malaysia in 2017 and 2018.

Their ENPS installation in Malaysia supports more than 40 reporters, writers, editors and producers using 28 workstations. Astro’s local four-in-one Channel, Astro Arena uses ENPS to produce 24/7 sports programs featuring live local sports, a comprehensive 7-day-a-week coverage of local and international sports news, informative magazine and interactive viewer involvement - all in the native Malay language.

The deployed 8.2 version of ENPS also supports Mobile functionality through a web based client to facilitate journalists’ remote and field work. Apart from speed, among the advantages is the ability to send the first photos or video from a breaking story back to the newsroom already integrated into a regular AP ENPS story. Attaching media to the story is as straightforward as uploading media to a phone message, Twitter or Facebook. Once the media in ENPS Mobile story is embedded, it is ready to be integrated to production systems in the newsroom.

 “AP ENPS enables a seamless daily newsroom workflow by bringing together text, video and image elements that can be centrally published and distributed. Furthermore, the ENPS Mobile functionality allows Astro Arena to deliver sports stories instantaneously - directly from field to their newsroom” said Susan Lim, Territory Manager for SEA at Techtel.

Astro has been using AP ENPS for over 12 years and joins a list of Techtel’s ENPS users in Asia-Pacific, including Kompas TV, Fox Sports, SKY News, Channel 9, ABC News and many others.

Malaysia’s Broadcaster adds 4K Processing Capability Following their Major Vantage Media Processing Platform Enhancement

(Singapore, 21 February 2020) Techtel, Singapore’s leading broadcast systems integrator has successfully upgraded Vantage Media Processing Platform – a central content ingest facility consisting of two domain systems for dual production and backup for one of Malaysia’s Pay TV Service Providers. This comes as the broadcaster strengthens their focus on efficiency, agility, growing digital reach, content and revenue diversification.  

Complementing the customer’s established Vantage media processing and workflow orchestration platform, Techtel has added three Lightspeed G6 servers to a new Vantage Transcode Multiscreen and Vantage Post Producer software applications in order to accelerate video processing and enable H.264 transcoding.

Vantage Transcode Multiscreen solution combines the quality of x264, GPU acceleration, and complete workflow automation for multiscreen encoding. With Transcode Multiscreen, the broadcaster can now automate the entire process of content ingest, transcoding, packaging, encryption, delivery, media asset management and storage.

Vantage Post Producer application now provides the broadcaster with 4K processing capability, automated editing and assembly of finished content from multiple input media files. As a result, the broadcaster has kicked off a new season of Premier League with the first live 4K UHD broadcast in Malaysia, offering a premium viewing experience to the country’s football fans.

During the final stage of the project, Techtel upgraded 13 existing Vantage servers from Vantage Array to Vantage Array Pro – a premium optimization and management tool with advanced features, for the entire Vantage domain, controlled by one central server.

This multifaceted, interdisciplinary project involved close collaboration between Techtel and  Telestream to supply professional services including hardware commissioning, installation of Vantage utilities and workflow designer, licensing of Vantage domain, integration with existing Vantage products and network services, migrating workflows between domains and extensive product training.

“Telestream’s Vantage Media Processing Platform empowers efficient, automated processing of video content throughout the entire digital media lifecycle, from capture to viewing. We are pleased it has been instrumental in our customer’s operations and will continue to support and enhance its features for the years to come”, commented Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO.

Techtel Provides an Integrated Teleprompting Solution by CueScript to a Singapore Broadcaster

Sydney, 7 February 2020 – Techtel, a Singapore-based broadcast systems integrator has recently provided a CuesCript Teleprompting platform to one of Singapore’s largest broadcasters. This comes as the broadcaster replaces their legacy teleprompting system with a high-definition, robust design alternative.  

In this project, Techtel has fitted the news production studio with two High Definition 17” CSM prompting monitors, each integrated with a HD talent monitor, remotely driven by heavy-duty hand and foot controllers and integrated to the customer’s news production software by  CueScripts software tools, CueiT and CueB.

CueScript’s High Definition 17” CSM prompting monitor is one of the first teleprompting solutions to deliver sharp text with no motion blur.  Furthermore, it features a silent fanless design which uses elements of the mounting hardware to dissipate heat; and 270 degrees of tally light visibility via the wrap around tally lamps mounted at the front of the prompter, providing talent and other studio operators with 270 degree view of the studio floor.

Techtel also integrated each CSM prompter with a talent monitor in a way that they draw power from one another to reduce the amount of cables running to each camera chain.  The talent monitor mounts to the prompter monitor via a specially designed lightweight bracket that allows for excellent range of movement without any rigidity.

Away from the studio, Techtel deployed advanced prompting software and hardware authoring tools - CueiT software combined with the CueB network attached video breakout box to feed the prompting systems with High Definition video.  Furthermore, Techtel provided a seamless integration of the Windows based CueiT software with the broadcaster’s sophisticated newsroom software platform to enable the prompting system fetch the latest breaking stories in real time.

Tough and heavy duty hand and foot controllers round out the solution built for 24x7 use in some of the most demanding broadcast environments.  CueScript supports multiple simultaneous speed controllers allowing for the maximum flexibility to control prompter scroll speed from the studio floor, gallery or even the talent themselves can drive the system directly from the set.

“We are excited to be providing one of Asia’s largest broadcasters with this bespoke Teleprompting solution which integrates so seamlessly into their news production workflow,” said Techtel’s Singapore Territory Manager Susan Lim who added “CueScript is a recognised leading developer of professional prompting solutions, who we see as a perfect fit to broadcasters of news and current affairs throughout Asia”.

2019 – A Year In Review

Dear Customers, Vendors, Partners and Friends,

Mal Chandler, Techtel, CEO

On behalf of the global Techtel team, thank you for an amazing 2019 and for your continued partnership. As we enter into 2020, Techtel is fortunate enough to be engaged with scores of customers and more than thirty vendors across the globe. We’ve worked with many of you for years, and others are just beginning your relationship with us. Regardless of our time together, we are deeply grateful for all that you have done to push us to build great broadcast facilities and networks.

With that said, I want to take a moment to recap 2019 and share what we plan to accomplish for you in the year ahead.

We began this year by welcoming a new South East Asia Country Manager, Susan Lim in a new office. Susan’s goal remains to continue the businesses transition into a full service systems integration resource for our regional customers, aligning the value offering more closely with the Techtel Australia HQ. Thanks to Susan, along with new projects from our long-standing South East Asia customers like Astro and Discovery Networks, we’ve been awarded major contracts from Mediacorp and SITA, which we are very excited to be sharing with you in the year ahead.

The year also began with the conclusion of a three year “ABC Automation Project” which transformed ABC’s 12 Head Studios into new production and broadcast facilities. We did this by drawing on previous experience in studio automation at SBS where we developed an entirely new system design in line with ABC’s requirements. The solution involved a brand new studio automation control core as well as brand new Broadcast IT equipment.

We have continued our expansion into the South Pacific with Samoa Digital Communications Limited appointing Techtel to build and operate the country’s first Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Infrastructure. As of October this year, 70% of the Samoan population now enjoys a feature-rich and reliable Digital Terrestrial TV network with the remaining 30% to follow in early 2020. What’s most unique about this project is the software integration service that Techtel provided to deploy a custom-built Network Monitoring System. This solution is based on a combination of various hardware and software components forming a versatile telemetry platform which required custom programming to produce a single screen dashboard of the entire network while providing users with an extensive drill down of each transmission site.

In partnership with many of you, we have also launched our own software integration, Inflo, to help organisations who deal with large amounts of video content aggregate their diverse subsystems from disparate platforms into one intelligent multifunctional system.

2019 was a remarkable year by any measure, but we still have a lot of work to do. Our largest priority is continuing to listen to you, our customers and vendors. This means continuing to respond to your rapidly changing needs as you adapt to new industry conditions and technologies. For starters, we are kicking off 2020 with a few more software integration projects, including a bespoke MAM solution for an Australian Government agency.

In 2019 Techtel has shifted from a traditional systems integrator towards being a proven software developer, including the appointment of a permanent software solutions architect. We expect 2020 to be a busy year for our software development team and we look forward to sharing more about our achievements early in the new year.

Lastly, we’re creating more opportunities for our ever-expanding vendor base to engage and learn from our customers while continuing to push our roadmap with events around the globe, including Broadcast Asia 2020.

Please continue to push and motivate us in doing what we are set out to do. We are looking forward to seeing or meeting as many of you as we can next year. On behalf of everyone at Techtel, I would like to wish you and your families a festive holiday season.

Mal Chandler
Techtel
CEO

Techtel demonstrates the latest innovations in studio robotics to multiple broadcasters

Techtel and Telemetrics had the privilege of demonstrating the latest automated camera robotics technology to multiple broadcasters this week. The new Telemetrics OmniGlide™ Roving Platform (RRP-1) leverages advanced software and sensors, similar to those found in the autonomous car industry to maneuver ballistic trajectories and avoid potential collision, all operated remotely from a touch screen control panel. RRP-1 can be easily integrated with a range of other Telemetrics solutions such as televator, head and camera control systems as well as virtual graphics, teleprompting technology, news systems and studio automation. If you are interested to learn more about studio robotics, contact us today!

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Techtel Deploys State-of-the-Art, Fully Automated Television Broadcast System for Tasmanian Government

Singapore, 22 October 2019 - Techtel has commissioned a brand new Television Broadcast System for the Tasmanian Parliament, a true leader of parliamentary broadcasters. This comes as the original HD broadcast platform, also integrated and supported by Techtel for over a decade, has now reached the end of its working life. Equipped with sophisticated software which can control the equipment throughout seven broadcast-capable rooms and deliver the output to six media booths, the new system provides the Parliament with the flexibility to control any broadcast venue from any of four mirrored control rooms.

At the heart of the system are 4 x Telemetrics’ RCCP 1-A control panels coupled with the LGS (Legislative Government System) software application. Each control system integrates with the cameras and equipment in all seven broadcast capable rooms and chambers as well as six media booths; together they enable four concurrent production and/or broadcasting sessions. Each RCCP-1A can control unlimited number of cameras at a time, replacing the need for dedicated camera control units and supporting the Parliament’s future production needs.

Developed specifically for legislative proceedings, Telemetrics LGS software displays a legislative seating chart on the touch screen GUI, thus automating the camera control and triggering graphics. To complement the world’s best legislative software control system Techtel selected the Grass Valley Kula Vision Mixer to become the mission critical focal point for the vision.  The Kula is the most powerful vision mixer in its class offering customers UHD upgrade capability through its FormatFusion3 technology.

For the archive solution, Techtel leverages the GB Labs FastNAS™ High Performance Storage. Recordings are initiated via Bluefish444’s IngeSTore Server complete with an Epoch | 4K Supernova S+ capture card.

With 24/7 support from Techtel’s technical experts and project managers, the project was rolled out in several consecutive phases: foundational design, detailed systems design with documentation including CAD drawings and cable schedules, ongoing project and site management, installation, commissioning and testing. At completion, handover processes involved FST, UAT and Operator/Technical training.

Together with Telemetrics’ LGS Software, Grass Valley Kula Vision Mixer and GBlabs’ high performance storage solution, we provided future-focused workflow configuration based on best-of-breed technology and applications”, said Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO. “This new Television Broadcast System will enable Tasmanian Parliament to maximize the potential of their content immediately but also they now have many options to adapt and add further system enhancements in the future.

Broadcast Asia 2019 Review

Thank you for visiting us at Broadcast Asia last week. We hope you found our time together valuable, and would like to provide a synopsis of our valued partners and their offerings, which we have carefully selected for you:

Bridge Technologies

GB Labs

Telemetrics

Skaarhoj

Ensemble Designs

Net Insight

Telestream

AP ENPS