Industry News

Comcast and Team Gleason have partnered to drive inclusive innovation to improve the independence and quality of life for people with physical and speech disabilities, including those living with ALS.

Together, Comcast and Team Gleason are actively engaging with people with ALS (pALS) and caregivers, as well as preeminent clinicians, technologists and assistive technology partners to define and develop accessible, empowering experiences — from TV control to smart home solutions, among other needs.

Specifically, the companies are working together on the latest evolution of Comcast’s Xfinity Adaptive Remote.

The Adaptive Remote, first launched in 2019, is a web-based remote control for Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex. It works on any computer, smartphone or tablet by connecting with the assistive devices that people with disabilities use, including eye tracking technology, sip and puff technology, switch control technology, and voice control software.

When asked to rank the technologies and experiences that are most important to them, people with ALS and other physical disabilities consistently list controlling their TV and entertainment experience independently.

— Kate Panarese and Suzanne Alford

Video accessibility provider 3Play Media has brought to market Live Professional Captioning, a product release that offers users what it says is the first captioning platform to offer professional captioning by a human with auto captioning failover.

The new platform is the first major technology innovation in the live captioning market in years and revitalizes the industry, which 3Play believes “has historically been reliant on expensive and manual, outdated processes.”

Live video has been increasing in popularity over the last five years, but usage exploded during the pandemic. According to 3Play Media’s most recent State of Captioning survey, 60% of respondents are captioning live video and nearly half are producing up to 1,000 hours of live streaming video annually.

“The need for live captioning has exploded since the Covid-19 pandemic, and we’re not seeing it slow down,” said Josh Miller, co-CEO and co-founder of 3Play Media. “However, companies have had to choose between live automatic captions, which don’t provide the accuracy necessary for accessibility or a quality user experience, and traditional human-produced live captioning, which is historically manual and expensive but provides better accuracy. Our solution is the first to provide the best of both worlds for viewers and publishers – modern, platform-based technology with high accuracy and reliability.”

Chris Antunes, co-CEO and co-founder of 3Play Media, added, “Our new live captioning platform creates captions powered by a trained voice writer and a proprietary web-based tool developed by 3Play Media to accurately recognize a trained voice writer’s speech and produce consistently accurate and reliable captions at scale. When we consider 3Play Media’s proven approach to unsupervised captioner training that requires just a laptop and a microphone, paired with self-service customer event management, we see a solution that redefines live captioning.”

How does the Live Professional Captioning failover functionality work? If a captioner loses connectivity, internet, or power, the 3Play Media auto caption failover will take over within seconds and fail back immediately when the captioner reconnects.

Automation plays a key role in scheduling, too. 3Play Media’s web-based scheduling interface integrates with video and conferencing platforms, including Brightcove, YouTube, and Zoom, and offers RTMP captioning for over 30 different platforms. An overview dashboard helps users manage all live captioning events in one location and see the status of upcoming and in progress events. The scheduler also provides the user with key information pre-event, such as when the event has been matched to a captioner, when the captioner has checked in for an event and, during the event, general transparency around stream and caption status. API event scheduling enables customers to integrate and manage event scheduling in their business systems. Most caption vendors are still scheduling over email and using spreadsheets, which provides little to no visibility into the process or flexibility for content owners.

For more information on Live Professional Captioning, visit https://www.3playmedia.com/services/livecaptioning/

NAB Show will present the fourth annual Product of the Year Awards at the 2022 NAB Show.

The awards, which recognize the most significant and promising new products and technologies exhibited at NAB Show, is scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, April 26 at an awards ceremony and cocktail party held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The nomination window will open on February 1 and remain open through April 1.

“The return to in-person events, including NAB Show, promises to drive innovation in technology that is transforming the media business,” said NAB SVP and Chief Customer Success Officer Eric Trabb. “We are proud to showcase the prominent companies that are advancing technologies and leading our industry’s future.”

The Product of the Year Award recipients are selected by a panel of industry experts in 15 categories and announced during an awards ceremony. Companies scheduled to exhibit at the 2022 NAB Show are eligible to enter. Nominated products and technologies must be available for delivery in calendar year 2022.

Award categories for the 2022 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards are:

• AI/Machine Learning
• Asset Management, Automation, Playout
• Audio Production, Processing and Networking
• Camera Support, Control and Accessories
• Cameras
• Cloud Computing and Storage
• Digital Signage & Display Systems
• Graphics, Editing, VXF, Switchers
• Hardware Infrastructure
• IT Networking/Infrastructure & Security
• Location/Studio Lighting
• Monitoring and Measuring Tools
• Radio
• Remote Production
• Streaming

More information about the Product of the Year Awards is available at nabshow.com.

CP Communications, known for its products and services for live event productions, has brought to market two new products for those focused on live production needs.

Now available are the Virtual Media Center and FastReturn secure video management platform.

Both products are built around WebRTC – the cloud-based technology used by Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other popular videoconferencing platforms – and have been used at such events as the 2021 editions of the TCS New York City Marathon and Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

“People have been struggling with the latency of live video in remote production workflows,” says Kurt Heitmann, CEO of CP Communications. “Announcers can’t be way behind the action with play-by-play or analysis. With FastReturn, we use the power of the cloud to deliver streaming return video with ultra-low latency, so you can view your live production from anywhere on any device in real time.”

FastReturn’s base package includes five streams and supports up to 100 users, but can be scaled to accommodate additional sources and larger crews. Users access FastReturn content via a web browser on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, as well as through Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick digital media players. Content is accessed through a secure client portal (optional custom user pages and templates are also available).

The platform can ingest any H.264 baseline profile RTMP stream, supporting HD resolution and 128kbit stereo audio with bitrates up to 10 MBps with less than 400ms of latency. FastReturn can also spin up edge servers around the world that are geographically closer to the production to provide even lower latency and better reliability.

Available as an ad hoc service, the Virtual Media Center is a browser-based multi-viewer designed for monitoring, not retransmission, of live video signals. Designed for use by remote journalists, it features a variety of multi-viewer templates, from simple 2-box and 4-box displays to more extensive layouts based on the number of signals being shared. Through a browser-based interface, media personnel can select which video feeds to monitor. All templates deliver video feeds with secure, two-step authentication and less than 400ms of latency.

Beyond event coverage, the Virtual Media Center can also help with multi-camera remote production. For example, a two-day commercial shoot was recently produced across three sound stages in Atlanta. The on-site crew used multiple Red House Streaming (RHS) CamSTREAM systems along with the Virtual Media Center to provide the California-based producers and director with real-time, behind-the-scenes views of the production. Developed by CP Communications, RHS CamSTREAM systems are all-in-one, cost-efficient video production and streaming solutions that are quick to configure and deploy for any live production.

“For members of the media who are not able to travel to an event, or for video production crew members who can’t be on site, the Virtual Media Center provides an effective and efficient way to monitor the live action from multiple cameras,” Heitmann explained.

FastReturn is available as a monthly service or can be licensed for specific events. CP can also provide RHS CamSTREAM units and RTMP encoders for rental.

— Brian Galante

The future of a forthcoming FM radio station at 88.1 MHz, serving the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, is now a bit clearer.

A settlement agreement has been signed by one hopeful licensee and the second-largest licensee of radio stations in the U.S. that paves away for the latter organization to build a station at that frequency.

Once complete, Educational Media Foundation will have a Garden Isle outpost.

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Here’s something noteworthy as the push to bring additional financial support to recording artists through new royalty fees for radio continues on Capitol Hill: four co-sponsors of the “American Music Fairness Act” are also co-sponsors of the “Local Radio Freedom Act,” the resolution that as of today has resounding support.

Even so, the musicFIRST Coalition is confident that the “AMFA” will win over Congress.

Or, is that a statement that’s a bit unfair to make as musicFIRST, led by the Congressman who lost his seat in a primary race to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, continues to push “AMFA” — something musicFIRST calls “actual legislation that has a real path to becoming law this year?”

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In the coming year, media and entertainment will continue to evolve quickly, not only reckoning with ongoing trends and disruptions within the industry, but also in its continued response to pandemic-led behavioral changes. That’s according to Deloitte, which has released a 2022 M&E outlook that explores “five attention-grabbing trends.”

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Combining OTT with linear television opportunities is a topic of increased importance for broadcast media companies across North America. That’s why learning how to combine broadcast television with Connected TV for optimal reach, performance and profit is knowledge you’ll certainly use in the coming and years.

The Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to offer insight and intelligence on the power of combining OTT and linear television opportunities on Thursday, February 10 in a webinar presentation in partnership with Compulse.

This live event, scheduled for 2pm Eastern, features a discussion between RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson and Compulse Regional Sales Director Paolo Romanacci.

Romanacci will share the rise of “CTV” — not the Canadian broadcast TV network, but Connected TV. He’ll also provide details on how marketers can use CTV and Over-The-Air TV in combo to reach viewers that “cut the cord” and will never see a spot cable-booked ad. Romanacci will even share a client success story with participants before participant questions will be addressed.

Registration is open now. Save your virtual seat by signing up for this complimentary webinar, presented by Compulse, today!

By law, Dish on January 12 blocked its customers from receiving The CW Network in Louisville, WDRB-41 and WBKI-TV; NBC affiliate WAND-TV in Decatur, Ill.; and all four network affiliates serving tiny Lima, Ohio.

It was the latest retransmission fee impasse to surface in recent years. Now, it has ended. But, there’s chatter that another carriage dispute has just been resolved, hours before a “blackout” by law was to take place.

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Example of an HD Radio visual alert on a Harman receiver.

Xperi believes its HD Radio technology is an efficient methodology for wirelessly broadcasting alert messages in the United States. Now it has submitted a report to the FCC in support of that argument.

The report includes information about the performance of HD Radio digital emergency alerting during the recent nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System.

“Digital emergency alerts delivered through HD Radio broadcasting offer diversity, reliability and resiliency of public safety messages,” the company told the commission.

[Related: National EAS Test Showed Improvement, FCC Says]

Xperi said it evaluated the reception of test alerts via HD Radio broadcast, ATSC broadcast and Wireless Emergency Alerts cellular service.

“The HD Radio alert system performed as well as the other digital alert services and demonstrated significant market coverage and low-latency delivery,” Xperi wrote.

HD Radio coverage area and test site for KOIT(FM) 96.5 MHz, San Francisco.

It points out that broadcast radio is not subject to network congestion delays and outages imposed by natural disasters associated with cellular standards such as LTE and 5G.

“Furthermore, anecdotal observations indicate that wireless alert latencies can vary across cellular carriers. While HD Radio alerts may have latency in different markets, the message notification to devices is generally consistent within a geographic region. Therefore, it is presumed that HD Radio alerts may, in many cases, be detected before wireless alerts are detected.”

Though acknowledging that the test was not “exhaustive or comprehensive,” Xperi wrote: “The tests confirmed that the latency for alerts to reach an HD Radio receiver was comparable to the latency for WEA alerts. There generally was a 10 to 20 second difference between the receipt of the emergency alert on the HD Radio receiver and on a mobile device — with the HD Radio emergency alert arriving first in some instances and the WEA arriving first in others. In some cases, no WEA alert was received at locations where an alert was received on the HD Radio device.”

It concludes that HD Radio emergency alerts “provide needed redundancy and corroborate messages received from other sources.”

It plans more testing to include “a wider distribution of digital radio markets and a deeper evaluation of digital TV (ATSC and ATSC3.0) message delivery.”

Here’s the Xperi presentation as filed with the FCC, including detailed observation data.

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

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