Magnus Danielson (left), Nigel Jopson (centre), Lars-Olof Janflod (right) Swedish Section, 15th September 2016
Magnus Danielson opened proceedings with an overview of the operations of the broadcast delivery enablers Net Insight. The company was born out of PHD research at Stockholm's KTH (Royal Technical Institute) into digital transport which was concluded around 1996.
The basic premise of the service is reservation of bandwidth and creation of wide area networks to enable the transport of digital media. Of course, the implementation is very complex, it's not just about securing time on dark fibre.
Net Insight help broadcasters with everything from creation of wide area networks for specific events, such as sports, as well as enabling digital content distribution using software platforms and hardware interfaces for linking up end points between studio hubs and remote locations.
The Next speaker, Nigel Jopson, explained his role as editor of the well-established audio magazine Resolution. Nigel explained the benefits of his unique access to a broad cross section of disciplines across the audio industry. This allows him to have a greater understanding of trends in the market.
A discussion started around workflow trends in the music business. It is currently common practice to work in the digital domain which allows the storage of many versions of the same performance. For example, multiple guitar riffs can easily be stored, each one being uniquely processed with various effects, both hardware and software. The result is a multi-track, multi-take base of 'stems' which allows the music producer to create several versions of the same musical piece for review and release.
Whilst this plethora of information can cause creative decision making conundrums, there simply being too much to choose from, it also allows different producers to create something that is unique to their style. A good example was Nigel's recent visit to Goldcrest studios in London where the engineers were actively mixing audio for an Asian release of the latest Bourne movie. A huge Pro Tools session with stems for everything from Foley effects to music was available which enabled a unique mix tailored to the tastes of a culturally different market.
The evening closed after a discussion around the problems associated with delivering time critical audio over normal IP channels. Swedish Radio are currently working on implementations of the AES67 standard to allow remote contribution and remote control over standard internet channels. The problems associated with ensuring clock data is accurate at both end points were discussed.
