THE EVOLUTION OF THE TV PRODUCTION Screens reduce distance, they get close to the event and connect us to the world. Television has been the best example of this for more than 50 years. Now, new media, such as digital television, mobile TV, and mostly the internet are following closely on its tail. The digitization of the image, and primarily its compression, has made it possible to multiply the number of events available for everyone, while reducing the production and broadcasting costs. There has never been so much content available at each moment, and the trend is simply getting stronger.
The EVS product portfolio
Digital technology is revolutionizing video
A video signal is defined by an image resolution (a number of pixels) and also by a number of images per second. The most widespread current format, standard definition, has between 350,000 (NTSC - USA, Japan) and 400,000 (PAL - Europe, Australia) pixels per image. The number of images varies from 25 images per second in Europe to 30 in the USA. Digitizing an image means coding each pixel according to its color and its luminous intensity, which generates phenomenal amounts of information, all the more so since they are repeated many times per second. Powerful redundancy search algorithms in the juxtaposed pixels make it possible to reduce the quantity of information: this is digital compression. This increasingly efficient compression makes it possible to send increasing quantities of information (such as high definition images) with the same bandwidth. This technology forms the basis of the EVS products.
Tapeless television production
The programming of the television networks consists primarily of broadcasting pre-recorded images which, until very recently, were stored on tapes. But linear editing (or editing on tape) is far from perfect. Today, digital technology on hard disk (non-linear, by definition) offers an attractive alternative. There has been clear confirmation of a migration towards this technology for some years, even though it will still take another 5 to 6 years or so for the hard disk penetration rate to increase from 30% to 70%. The television stations understand the absolute importance of migrating to tapeless interoperable computer platforms. The use of video recorders is therefore proving to be increasingly unsuitable for live productions. This replacement represents an opportunity and a growth driver for EVS.
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Live sporting events and multimedia services
Sport broadcasts are today the content most prized by television viewers and, hence, by the television networks. Games coverage has moved from 4 cameras to configurations of more than 20 cameras in order to enhance the spectacle. The rights are increasing and new forms of broadcasting the same content to other media are appearing, such as mobile TV, interactive television or the internet. The director captures the action and the emotion continuously, chooses the right viewing angle at the right time, and invites the spectator to experience the event through slow motion, replays of sequences, or highlights. The event is transformed through hundreds of video clips that are indexed on keywords so as to enable multimedia operators to select the required clips within seconds. Live sport, which is also described as outside broadcast production, requires reliable equipment enabling centralized production for distribution across different media. EVS is the leader in this niche market.
Studio production
Within the television stations, the tape is also tending to be replaced by technologies and applications that fulfill the new production, post-production and broadcasting functions. Studio production with multiple cameras has certain similarities with outside broadcast sport production, particularly under near-live conditions, in other words minimal time between production and broadcast, optimizing post-production for obvious economic reasons. EVS is positioning itself as a challenger onto the studio production market.
High definition
With increasingly affordable prices, the LCD and plasma screen technologies are winning ever greater market share over tube television: these flat-screen televisions are moving towards the resolution of a computer screen, namely 6 times more pixels than a standard definition image. “HD Ready”, for example, counts 1.3 million pixels, while “Full HD” (1,920 x 1,080) counts 2 million pixels. The inevitable switch to HD requires a gradual replacement of the current SD (standard definition) production equipment. This transition, over a decade or so, will accelerate the replacement of tapes through integrated broadband production processes. EVS is the leader in this new production format and is developing transparent migration solutions for users. The penetration of flat screens able to receive HD content in American households is already 40%, but it is only 20% in the most advanced European countries. EVS is also a pioneer in the 3D production.
Explosion of the broadcasting offer
As new technologies emerge, each person consumes images in different ways through different channels meeting different needs (television, computer, mobile phone). This creates numerous initiatives, such as television through telephone network (IPTV), terrestrial digital television or even web television or image-sharing. This naturally leads more content production in various formats and faster availability.