NABShow Daily News 2008 - (Page 17) April 2008 PREVIEW Edition | NAB Show Daily News 17 EXHIBITOR VIEWPOINT: DIGIGRAM S.A. Q. It seems the world of networked audio has been almost revolutionized in recent years. How has that affected Digigram, and what kind of products or services does your company now offer for radio broadcasters? A. Digigram was a pioneer in networked digital audio starting with our NCX, HitPlayer, and EtherSound products. However, these were largely adopted by the installed and live sound markets. Today we are convinced that radio broadcasters are ready to deploy network audio on a large scale. This is due in part to the EBU’s finalizing of the N/ACIP IP audio interoperability recommendation, and the fact that the cost benefits of IP-based infrastructure are now so superior compared to traditional audio transports. Our product and technology portfolio reflects this fundamental change, notably with Visiblu, our network audio operating system, which includes our “FluidIP” audio-over-IP transport technology. In the past, our offer to radio broadcasters was focused on radio automation audio interfaces — PC soundcards — and the expert technical support required for our software development partners. Today Digigram is even more IT-centric and our offer encompasses the entire audio distribution infrastructure and management system. In that respect, I think the market will be astonished by what we will show at the NAB Show. Q: You have a recently announced relationship with ENCO Systems; tell us about that. studios to four transmitter sites. Using Visiblu, this was done without adding a single additional hardware codec, saving the broadcaster significant cost. Knowing ENCO, we think this is just the first example of how they will employ their Visiblu-enabled software to their advantage. have a similar profound effect. Visiblu, in a nutshell, turns any Windows or Linux PC with a soundcard into a broadcast reliable audio router, mixer, and real-time audio stream transport, connecting to any compliant RTP/UDP IP audio codec. But to say that it just provides IP audio streams in software would miss the bigger picture of its integrated system level management and distributed audio processing. In one software development kit (SDK), a Visiblu development partner can also take advantage of our 20-year experience converging broadcast audio with IT expertise. Q. What’s new that you will exhibit at the 2008 NAB Show and that radio broadcasters should look for there? Q. What is Visiblu? A. Actually ENCO Systems is one of our oldest development partners, going way back to the days of MPEG audio and our first PC soundcards. We have always admired their initiative to innovate and to provide their customers with unique solutions. This past fall, we helped them identify a way to turn a data link used for FTP program transfer into a live audioover-IP based “STL-on-demand” from 20 geographically dispersed production A. When we look at the history of digital audio in broadcast, we note several disruptive innovations that changed everything. For example, audio data compression and Digigram PC soundcards enabled the economic storage and distribution of radio content on hard disks and standard IT networks. The trend we’re speaking of now towards IP infrastructure will A. Without giving it away, we will show our commitment to IP audio systems and interoperability with a completely line of new products. These products are designed to work within an existing broadcast infrastructure, while providing a gateway to fully network-based systems. With the unifying theme of Visiblu, these products will also complement our existing soundcard and EtherSound range. Eric L. Richardson, Director of Strategic Marketing for Digigram S.A., discusses the Visiblu operating system. Best-of-Class video quality in contribution encoders. Introducing the Fujitsu IP-9500. Advanced technology for the broadcast industry. With Fujitsu’s advanced H.264 compression technology, the IP-9500 produces amazing HD video quality at bit rates from 4Mbps to 27Mbps; less than half those of comparable MPEG-2 technology. That conserves satellite and network bandwidth – which cuts costs and allows high-quality HD feeds to use existing satellite channels. H.264 High Profile @ Level 4 Coding 300ms Low Latency Mode for E/SNG DVB-ASI or IP Transports for Network Flexibility Compatibility with Industry Standard Decoders © 2008 Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. All rights reserved. Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are registered trademarks of Fujitsu Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. http://us.fujitsu.com/broadcastvideo http://us.fujitsu.com/broadcastvideo
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