Broadcast Production Research Articles

Comparing MODIS daily snow albedo to spectral albedo field measurements in Central Greenland

The albedo of the Greenland ice sheet plays a key role in the energy balance and climate of the arctic. Change in snow albedo values associated with changing climate conditions can be monitored remotely from satellite platforms viewing the entire Greenland ice sheet, yet comparisons to high quality surface measurements are necessary to assess the accuracy of satellite measurements as new snow albedo algorithms are developed with higher spatial and temporal resolution.During May, June, and July 2011, we obtained daily measurements of spectral albedo at Summit, Greenland with an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) spectroradiometer, scanning at 350–2200nm. We compare our spectral albedo field measurements to the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS), using both the Version 005 Direct Broadcast daily albedo product and the recently developed Version 006 MCD43A daily albedo product. The spectral field measurements allow calculation of weighted integrals to compare to seven MODIS narrow bandwidths ranging the UV through Infrared, as well as a broadband integration to compare to the MODIS shortwave albedo. We additionally compare our field measurements to albedo measured at the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) station at Summit.Using the MODIS Version 005 Direct Broadcast product, high-quality retrievals only, comparison to field measurements results in root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.033 for the MODIS shortwave product, and RMSE for the MODIS narrow bandwidths ranging 0.022–0.077. The new MODIS Version 006 product shows considerable improvement, with shortwave RMSE of 0.026, and narrow bandwidths ranging 0.020–0.048. These error values for the Version 006 albedo product show an improvement in reported error values from previous MODIS field validations in Greenland, which have been limited to broadband data from the Greenland Climate Network Automatic Weather Stations.

IP Video Technology Update 2013

In 2013, video transport over Internet Protocol (IP) networks continues to flourish throughout the broadcast industry for all types of live and real-time programming. IP technology for delivering video to viewers has matured, using the public Internet to stream all types of content to devices via both hardwired and mobile connections. The popularity of this medium was demonstrated by the 8 million viewers who watched live video coverage via IP streaming of Felix Baumgartner parachute from an altitude of 127,000 ft, as well as the observation that Netflix and YouTube comprise approximately one-half of the world's Internet traffic. However, IP is also increasingly being used farther up the professional broadcast production chain, even going so far as to extend all the way to the camera and thus eliminate the need for SDI interfaces and cabling.

Tablet/Smart Phone Accelerated File-Based Broadcast Production

While there has been wide acceptance of file-based workflows in the consumer marketplace, professional production practices have been slow to follow. With an inherent distrust of all things computer-based, getting production companies to trust file-based acquisition and fully realize its potential has required a multifaceted solution to persuade people to embrace this new technology. This paper describes a real-world example of how these different facets of file-based acquisition can be brought together in a “perfect storm” with key new technologies to allow the broadcaster to fully embrace the file-based advantages. With metadata being key in realizing the full value of assets, the ability to put the creation of that metadata in the hands of operators who generate the asset is vital in ensuring that metadata is correct and comprehensive. By embracing new smartphone and tablet technology, we show how custom software allows the outside broadcast (OB) operator to quickly tag clips using Wi-Fi-based applications that fully integrate not only the onsite infrastructure, but also the end customers' archive and post-production facilities.

The dialectics of multiculturalism: Constructing ‘new citizens’ in Spanish public broadcasting

This article reflects on the symbolic and material bases of multiculturalist ideology as it manifests itself in particular cultural practices taking place across the European Union (EU). To explore some of these dynamics, I focus my discussion on Babel, a Spanish public broadcasting production partially funded by the EU, which aims to promote intercultural dialogue through exposing viewers to different aspects of immigrants’ lives in Spain. The analysis highlights how, while explicitly endorsing multiculturalism and developing a pro-immigration stance, Babel’s stories also promote a restricted and restricting image of desirable immigrants. Thus, the show’s resignification efforts rely mostly on an implicit but systematic association between cultural similarity and economic productivity in its representations of acceptable immigrants. The article’s conclusion argues for the need to re-theorise the co-constitutive relationship between ‘cultural’ and ‘economic’ aspects of multiculturalist practices at large, as well as the specific shapes that they take in Western European societies.

Daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) products for monitoring vegetation phenology dynamics

Land surface vegetation phenology is an efficient bio-indicator for monitoring ecosystem variation in response to changes in climatic factors. The primary objective of the current article is to examine the utility of the daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) product for monitoring the evolution of vegetation phenological trends over selected crop, orchard, and forest regions. Although numerous model-fitted satellite data have been widely used to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of land surface phenological patterns to understand phenological process and phenomena, current efforts to investigate the details of phenological trends, especially for natural phenological variations that occur on short time scales, are less well served by remote sensing challenges and lack of anisotropy correction in satellite data sources. The daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy product is employed to retrieve daily vegetation indices (VI) of a 1 year period for an almond orchard in California and for a winter wheat field in northeast China, as well as a 2 year period for a deciduous forest region in New Hampshire, USA. Compared with the ground records from these regions, the VI trajectories derived from the cloud-free and atmospherically corrected MODIS Nadir BRDF (bidirectional reflectance distribution function) adjusted reflectance (NBAR) capture not only the detailed footprint and principal attributes of the phenological events (such as flowering and blooming) but also the substantial inter-annual variability. This study demonstrates the utility of the daily 500 m MODIS reflectance anisotropy DB product to provide daily VI for monitoring and detecting changes of the natural vegetation phenology as exemplified by study regions comprising winter wheat, almond trees, and deciduous forest.

GPS Near-Real-Time Coseismic Displacements for the Great Tohoku-oki Earthquake

Here, we present the application to the great Tohoku-oki (Japan) earthquake (United States Geological Survey M = 9.0, March 11, 2011, 05:46:24 Coordinated Universal Time) of a novel approach, named Variometric Approach for Displacements Analysis Stand-Alone Engine, able to estimate accurate coseismic displacements and waveforms in real time, in the global reference frame, just using the standard broadcast products (orbits and clocks) and the high-rate (1 Hz or more) carrier phase observations continuously collected by a stand-alone global-positioning-system receiver. We processed separately the data collected at MIZU (Mizusawa, 140 km from the epicenter) and USUD (Usuda, 430 km from the epicenter) International Global Navigation Satellite System Service sites. A total horizontal displacement of about 2.4 m east-southeast was estimated for the MIZU, with a maximum horizontal oscillation amplitude of about 3.4 m along the same direction. Generally, an overall accuracy better than 10 cm for all the components (east, north, and up) and an average accuracy around 5 cm were assessed over an interval shorter than 5 min, with respect to independent solutions obtained with two different scientific software. The threshold of 5-cm accuracy has been recently indicated as sufficient for real-time fault determination for near-field tsunami forecasting for a major earthquake, like the 2011 Tohoku-oki one.

Outdoor Dynamic 3-D Scene Reconstruction

Existing systems for 3-D reconstruction from multiple view video use controlled indoor environments with uniform illumination and backgrounds to allow accurate segmentation of dynamic foreground objects. In this paper, we present a portable system for 3-D reconstruction of dynamic outdoor scenes that require relatively large capture volumes with complex backgrounds and nonuniform illumination. This is motivated by the demand for 3-D reconstruction of natural outdoor scenes to support film and broadcast production. Limitations of existing multiple view 3-D reconstruction techniques for use in outdoor scenes are identified. Outdoor 3-D scene reconstruction is performed in three stages: 1) 3-D background scene modeling using spherical stereo image capture; 2) multiple view segmentation of dynamic foreground objects by simultaneous video matting across multiple views; and 3) robust 3-D foreground reconstruction and multiple view segmentation refinement in the presence of segmentation and calibration errors. Evaluation is performed on several outdoor productions with complex dynamic scenes including people and animals. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach overcomes limitations of previous indoor multiple view reconstruction approaches enabling high-quality free-viewpoint rendering and 3-D reference models for production.

Teaching Multimedia Commercial Production for Advertising and Publication Relations

With the growth of online advertising and social media, it is increasingly necessary that advertising and public relations integrate video messages into campaign efforts. Offering video production classes that focus on multimedia broadcast strategy and production unique to advertising and public relations is one way that universities can address this development. This article provides a description of an experimental course, “Multimedia Commercial Production for Advertising and Public Relations,” co-taught at a private Midwestern university by an advertising professor with significant agency experience and an active award-winning filmmaker. Experiential learning and hands-on instruction of television production education provide the framework for the course design. Instructional goals, lecture topics and assignment ideas congruent with experiential methods of education are presented. A 16-week course outline, based on student feedback and evaluations gained from surveys as well as instructors’ assessment, is offered.

Book Review: The New Broadcasting Realities: Real-life Strategies, Insights, and Issues for Broadcast Journalists, Aspiring Journalists, Production Executives, and Broadcasters in The New Age of Broadcasting, Cable, and the Internet.LindnerKenThe New Broadcasting Realities: Real-life Strategies, Insights, and Issues for Broadcast Journalists, Aspiring Journalists, Production Executives, and Broadcasters in The New Age of Broadcasting, Cable, and the Internet. Austin, TX: Live

Book Review: The New Broadcasting Realities: Real-life Strategies, Insights, and Issues for Broadcast Journalists, Aspiring Journalists, Production Executives, and Broadcasters in The New Age of Broadcasting, Cable, and the Internet.LindnerKenThe New Broadcasting Realities: Real-life Strategies, Insights, and Issues for Broadcast Journalists, Aspiring Journalists, Production Executives, and Broadcasters in The New Age of Broadcasting, Cable, and the Internet. Austin, TX: Live

The Universe will be televised: space, science, satellites and British television production, 1946–1969

This essay uses material from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) archives to show how space-related technoscientific activities played a key role in the development of BBC television. The essay focuses on a crucial period when this influential cultural institution transitioned away from radio as their primary broadcast medium in the 1930s and 1940s to reluctantly embrace television in the 1950s and 1960s. Space-related activities, including astronomy, cosmology, rocketry, aerospace engineering, astrophysics and interplanetary research, played a key role in the modernization of BBC television broadcasting in two intersecting ways. Space-related material provided informative, yet popular, programmatic material that helped BBC television compete in an increasingly commercialized media market, and, later, space projects supplied technologies that impacted on the mechanics of broadcast production and transmission. The profile and prestige of space as a topic, in particular, its visuality, the drama of exploration it presented, and its association with celebrity scientists like Bernard Lovell and Fred Hoyle, meant that such programming became a crucial business asset for the BBC and a professional asset for ambitious producers who saw its commercial potential. Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, space technology became further intertwined with the development of British broadcasting as the fields of satellite communications and broadcasting transmissions infrastructure converged. In particular, BBC producers promoted the potential development of communication satellites within their television programming by portraying such satellites as plausible and necessary for the advancement of civilization, and most crucially, as a prospective British Space Race achievement.

Real-time GPS seismology with a stand-alone receiver: A preliminary feasibility demonstration

[1] We show the feasibility of a real-time estimation of waveforms and coseismic displacements, within a few centimeters in accuracy, with a stand-alone dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver using a so-called “variometric” approach. The approach is based on time single-differences of carrier phase observations collected at a high-rate (1 Hz or more) using a stand-alone receiver, and on standard GPS broadcast products (orbits and clocks), which are ancillary information routinely available in real time. In the approach, first, the time series of epoch-by-epoch displacements are estimated. Then, provided that the collected observations are continuous, they can be summed over the interval (limited to a few minutes) over which an earthquake occurs. Since epoch-by-epoch displacements divided by the interval between consecutive epochs are essentially equal to the epoch-by-epoch velocities, this is equivalent to saying that we are using the GPS receiver as a velocimeter. Estimation biases, due to the possible mismodeling of various intervening effects (such as multipath, residual clock errors, orbit errors, and atmospheric errors), accumulate over time and display their signature as a trend in coseismic displacements. The trend can be considered linear and easily removed, at least for short intervals. Since the proposed approach (named VADASE (Variometric Approach for Displacements Analysis Stand-alone Engine)) does not require either additional technological complexity or a centralized data analysis, in principle it can be embedded into GPS receiver firmware, thereby providing a significant contribution to tsunami warning and other hazard assessment systems. After a preliminary test using a simulated example, the effectiveness of this approach was proven using real data. We analyzed the 1 Hz GPS data recorded by the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Service station BREW during the Denali Fault, Alaska, earthquake (Mw 7.9, 3 November, 2002, 22:12:41 UTC), as well as the 5 Hz data collected by some of the stations of the University NAVSTAR Consortium-Plate Boundary Observatory network and the California Real Time Network during the Baja California, Mexico, earthquake (Mw 7.2, 4 April, 2010, 22:40:42 UTC). Comparisons of the results obtained using VADASE, as well as other already well-established approaches, displayed agreement to within a few centimeters.

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The Silver Lining—Utilizing Cloud Computing in Broadcast Applications

In recent years, there have been significant changes to the way audiences store and consume video content and how broadcasters successfully monetize that content. There have been successes and failures, but ultimately with each new advance in technology there has been a struggle between the content providers and the content consumers. Content providers, desperate to retain their ability to monetize expensive rights-based assets, are suspicious of new open platform technologies. Consumers are wary of closed technologies, having been hurt in the past by countless format wars and technology races. Looking to the music industry, we can see just how badly things can go wrong when the business model does not keep pace with advances in technology. This paper examines recent developments in disruptive cloud computing platform, including the foundation technologies that have made this possible, such as hypervisors, virtualization, hardware abstraction, and data center automation. From these foundation technologies, platforms such as Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2), and Microsoft Azure have evolved; current status and likely future developments are examined. Building from this analysis, how current broadcast products that are already utilizing these cloud platforms in isolation is discussed. The way in which next-generation system integration, at the software level, can bring these products together into a coherent solution for broadcasters with the capability to reduce costs and improve time-to-market for new channels and services is also examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of the market opportunity for this new technology and an identification of current gap technologies and services in this new sector.

방송조명에서 색온도가 영상에 미치는 영향분석

2000년대 들어 본격적인 디지털 HDTV는 영상에 있어 색온도와 조도에 민감하여 조명기법에 많은 변화를 주었으며, 차세대 UHDTV는 기존의 고화질 TV보다 최고 16배까지 해상도가 향상되어 조명에 의한 시각적 효과는 시청자에게 더 크게 작용 할 것으로 예상된다. 따라서 기존 방송제작에서 조명의 색온도 변환 필터를 사용 시, 조도가 떨어지고 휘도신호가 낮게 표현되는 현상이 발생하여 인물의 얼굴색에 왜곡을 줄 수 있으므로 색온도에 따른 조도, 휘도신호를 분석함으로서 고품질의 영상을 구현하고자 한다. In the 2000s, digital HDTV which is sensitive for color temperature and illumination in videos has witnessed many changes to lighting techniques and the next-generation UHDTV will see its resolution being improved up to as 16 times as that of existing high-definition TV. As a result, visible effects by lighting is expected to work more importantly for viewers. When color temperature conversion filters are used for current broadcasting production, the intensity of illumination and luminance can be lowered as well as people's skin tone can be distorted. For this reason, high-quality images are materialized by analyzing the correlation between color temperature, illumination and luminance.

Is Citizen Berlusconi good for democracy? A ‘global documentary’ about Italy's anomalies

ABSTRACTThe recent proliferation of television documentary films on the global market has solicited new critical assessments and approaches to televisual documentary texts and their multi-platform features. In my article, I analyse Citizen Berlusconi. The Prime Minister and the Press (Cairola and Gray 2003), a documentary film produced for the American Public Broadcasting System (PBS), whose characteristics, production and distribution reveal the impact of global television on the structure and content of the documentary form. This investigation will consider the ability of television documentary films to accurately represent global public issues by shedding light on local stories or, in the specific case of Citizen Berlusconi, local, and yet potentially exportable, ‘anomalies’, such as the dangerous combination of economic, media and political power currently concentrated in the person of the Italian Prime Minister.

A Case-Study Analysis of NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament Broadcasts: Educational or Commercial Activity?

Over the past few years the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s basketball tournament has drawn larger crowds, generated increased television ratings, and attracted higher levels of advertising spending. Division I women’s basketball is now viewed as the women’s “revenue” sport. In light of the limited analysis of the organizational conditions that frame college-sport broadcast production, this case study examines the impact of influential actors on the representation process of big-time college-basketball telecasts. Using a mixed-method approach, this article investigates production conditions and processes involved in producing women’s basketball tournament broadcasts, examines the extent to which these broadcasts are consistent with the NCAA’s educational mission, and considers the dominant institutional logic that underpins their reproduction. In so doing, this case study provides a critical examination of women’s basketball tournament broadcasts and how such broadcasts constitute, and are constituted by, choices in television production structures and practices.

Absolute target range and target range profile in separate computational compartments: Synthetic aperture echolocation

Echolocating big brown bats emit wideband (20-100 kHz) FM sounds and perceive target range from echo delay with an accuracy determined by echo relative bandwidth (Q). They distinguish among target shapes by echo spectra, but they perceive shape in terms of distances to different parts (glints), or the target's range profile. Shape resolution based on glint delay differences extracted from target interference spectra is in fractions of millimeters. The bat's flight velocity is about 5 m/s, so that echo delay changes continuously during production of broadcasts and then again during reception of echoes, smearing and displacing delay estimates for target ranging by several hundred microseconds. Previous workers have identified a particular distance at which smearing is minimal, but it is not known whether this "distance of focus" has significance for the bat. However, perception of target shape is based on a spectral representation that is only slightly distorted by the bat's motion, and it is kept in separate computational path from absolute delay until after absolute delay is determined, whereupon it is attached to absolute delay to place the target's image in an approximate spatial position. The bat's system achieves synthetic aperture imaging of shape while avoiding motion-related blurring.

A High-Accuracy Image Composition System Using a Mobile Robotic Camera

The use of robotic cameras in program production was originally limited to applications in which it was too difficult or time-consuming for humans to do the job, such as filming from high places outdoors, or for long continuous periods from a fixed location. Developments in the field of robotic technology, as well as the improved availability of high-speed camera platforms and precise sensors have resulted in advanced robotic cameras. Even today, cameras for visual effects <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1,2</sup> and robotic cameras capable of imaging fast-moving subjects <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> are used in broadcast productions. Meanwhile, television program producers continue to look for efficient ways of making their programs more appealing, with limited time, human resources, and budgets. The production of programs using robotic technology allows for the creation of appealing content, however, with the use special camera equipment, an engineer with expert knowledge of such a system and a camera operator experienced in its operation are needed when creating new video effects. — To address these problems and to implement a system capable of efficiently capturing a more diverse range of pictures, a mobile robotic camera with a motorized pedestal as well as a motorized camera platform has been developed. All of the motor axes (pan, tilt, zoom, focus, and movement) can be driven simultaneously and accurately; thus it is capable of moving in a similar manner to a real camera operator. <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4–6</sup>

Essay: If You Build It, They Will Come: Developing a Sports Media Major

Consumer demand for sports media has never been stronger, yet sports media studies have long been a low priority in traditional journalism programs. For some reason professional sports writing and sports broadcast production has long been looked upon as the strange cousin of journalism: not really news, not really promotion, and not really considered “real media” except through some bizarre DNA configuration. After several years of success with a strong sports broadcasting club, Oklahoma State University recently established a B.A. and B.S. in Sports Media through the School of Journalism and Broadcasting to train undergraduates to work in this growing field.

JPEG-2000—Not Only for Digital Cinema?

This paper explores how JPEG-2000 will perform in an HDTV workflow environment based on standard computer storage. It shows that there is a sweet spot in terms of bit rate that is low enough for recording with standard hardware and high enough to get pictures of sufficient quality. The paper addresses the workflow, recording, and compression schemes, with an emphasis on JPEG-2000. The conclusions are based on literature and tests performed to verify the feasibility of JPEG-2000 in a broadcast production workflow.