Technological innovations and demand for quality are driving broadcast visualization.

The broadcast industry has a variety to choose from when it comes to display panels.

LCD monitors, LED monitors, plasma displays, projection displays, multiviewers, videowalls, are some of the popular choices.

Video monitors are generally preferred in mobile units and control rooms in production and post-production companies in the broadcasting environment. The Indian video monitor market is likely to receive a boost with broadcasting in India on an upswing and a plethora of television channels occupying television space. Major brands for monitors include Barco, B&H Photo-Video Professional Audio, Christie Digital, Daktronics, Datavideo, Delta, eCinema Systems, e-Mediavision, Eyevis, Flanders Scientific, Ikegami, Planer, Samsung Professional, Sharp Professional, Tamuz, Transvideo International, TVLogic, and VTP Professional & Broadcast Video Equipment

Professional video broadcast monitors display the current video signal format they might be receiving, have mechanical buttons to toggle common aspect ratios, underscan or overscan a picture to see lines in the vertical blanking interval of video, and check if subtitles in VBI were inserted properly or not. Monitors also aid in positioning of television graphics.

The market has been dominated by CRT monitors; however, LCD screens are fast penetrating the market. Combination of both the technologies is also installed. With digital processing, numerous features can be available in high-performance monitors. Calibration offers a dependable and repeatable performance.

Color, calibration, and stabilization are emerging significant features influencing purchase decisions. Technologies are being introduced to keep the colors lasting for end without frequent need for recalibration. Emerging technologies in calibration and stabilization, integrated into the display's electronics, track color performance in real time and correct for any changes related to temperature and aging. 120 Hz panel and scanning LED backlight technology prevent motion blur and judder. Black line insertion algorithm offers superior motion handling and lifelike motion scenes. The market is also witnessing the introduction of multiviewer monitors, with each input having its own dynamic in monitor display and meters for embedded audio.

Video wwwall consists of a combination of individual video display units, usually standard television monitors, either of the direct-view or projection type, that are placed with their viewing screens adjacent to each other in a two-dimensional array. The screens are usually held in place by integral frame members that support the weight of each screen to prevent warpage of the lower screens.

Barco's video wall displays for backdrop applications support 3200K color temperature to match with studio lighting. They provide excellent on-camera performance with full Gen-Lock capability and offer wide viewing angles for maximum camera flexibility. Barco's unique Sense6 technology measures and adjusts the color and brightness to provide a constant uniformity. Barco's networked broadcast monitoring system is a networked multiviewer enabling operators to monitor their broadcast processes and visualize video content in real-time from anywhere in the facility. For smaller installations Barco also offers a 16-channel multiviewer.

Delta large video walls deliver high resolution and high reliability for the 24x7 demand environment of the broadcasting industry. These seamless, no-hole video walls effectively and accurately enable monitoring multiple programming signals and sources on a single high-resolution display with uninterrupted operation.

The audio monitoring market is witnessing a shift from analog facilities to complex, multichannel digital audio environment that poses several workflow challenges. From remote capture to post production to broadcast control, one of the biggest needs in broadcasting is the ability to monitor audio simply and effectively.

The need for the industry is to have a quick and easy, cost-efficient, size-efficient ways to monitor across all formats. Some of the versions of the audio monitoring systems soon to be seen in the market will have features like 16 and 24 channels of level metering, the digital silence detection system designed for radio station master outputs and transmitter sites with AES/EBU, S/PDIF and TOSLink digital inputs and outputs, reference audio monitors with Dolby decoders, confidence monitors with better LED meters, and digital stereo inputs.

As stations move to surround sound, the requirement has become more pronounced and, at the same time, difficult to realize. Work environments need to be fitted with additional loudspeakers and woofers, and those systems must be capable of monitoring specific inputs in specific ways.

Key challenge in the Indian market is to monitor audio quality simultaneously over a large number of regional channels. The broadcasters, therefore, prefer to install equipment that provides monitoring for any mix of stereo and mono sources. This also requires solutions where broadcasters can isolate each signal chain for monitoring while displaying audio levels for all the various channels.

Thus these audio monitoring solutions are constantly being customized and modified according to the customers' needs for the critical monitoring of the uplink, downlink, master control and transmission areas.

With the Indian entertainment and media industry, and especially the television segment, growing steadily over the past few years, the channels are committed to retaining its market leadership. They constantly need to strive to deliver sustainable value to viewers. They need to get rid of blue screen virtual environment and create a direct, involving viewer experience which will allow "talent" to easily interact with live on-air content.

Cutting edge using high tech video walls gives studio a dynamic backdrop display, featuring excellent high resolution, excellent on-camera performance, superior flexibility, and high interactivity. Rear-projection video walls offer wide viewing angles for maximum flexibility of camera positions. These walls can also be used in normal daylight conditions. The high quality projection modules incorporated with dual lamps and with hot standby capability will make you rely for 100 percent availability of the wall when broadcasting live.

It gives the flexibility to use the same studio for news bulletins, briefs, sports news, political programs, talk shows and debates, current affairs, weather and VIP/guest programs and with a minimum of fuss the sets can be changed.

The high resolution rear projection display walls also support 3200K color temperature which enables to maintain the perfect color balance under studio lighting conditions, provide excellent on-camera performance, and offer wide viewing angles for maximal flexibility of camera positions. As the display walls can also be used in normal daylight conditions, it is possible to switch to 6500K color temperature.

The high quality projection modules incorporate dual lamp with hot stand-by capability and are based on the latest DLP technology. A built-in second lamp will make you rely for 100 percent on the availability of the wall, which is needed when live broadcasting is the essence of the hour.

The high bright rear-projection video wall displays are also featured with a 180 W UHP lamp system to deal with specific lighting conditions to suit the TV studio environments.

Integration of a brightness and color sensor brings wall uniformity to a next level. Not only do the sensors increase color and brightness uniformity in the corners of each projection module, it also keeps all projection modules equal in terms of brightness and color over time and across the entire video wall. The video wall's color and brightness are continuously measured and communicated between projection modules. The sensors automatically matches the brightness of full white, full black, and all gray levels in between, as well as the colors of all display modules. The color sensors operate unnoticed in the background and require no operator intervention whatsoever. The intended video wall content remains unchanged at all times. No special screen calibration patterns are also needed.

It is an actual transition from a conventional television network to a dynamic television network.

Clearly, the demand for television entertainment is huge. The number of television channels in the country could go from 360 to over 500. In the modern broadcast setting, with the increased number of channels and greater number of delivery platforms, the monitoring environment and video walls have had to change to keep pace.

Success of a news channel primarily depends on seamless flow of programming from cable and broadcast television networks. But as aesthetically unpleasing as the occasional lapse may be to the viewer, it is first and foremost a costly event for the broadcaster. Moreover, there are several input data/visual sources dispersed across the national and international territory, which have to be continuously monitored 24x7 to have real time reporting and get an edge in getting viewers' eyeballs for high TRPs to stay ahead in the business.

With the proliferation of video processors came the ability to juxtapose images from data products involving various video and computer sources onto one display as opposed to a bank of CRT monitors. The goal of helping people do their job better where many different pieces of visual information arrive and have to be observed and analyzed presents an oppo rtunity to display that information on a big wall for many people to view simultaneously. The traditional CRT monitor stack is disappearing to be replaced by high resolution DLP technology-based video wall.

Control Room Hub

Today, a comprehensive broadcast video wall solution gives programmers and technicians complete control to produce programming, or to monitor and control television broadcasts, and combine numerous feeds-live real-time collaborative information, file footage, and numerous images and explanatory graphics-in a seamless, high-resolution display with continuous flow.

A video wall is not simply a large screen display; it is a complete integrated solution and visual resource management system. The display's environment is also an important factor. In a broadcast environment, such as a PBS station, video walls are used in a control room to display all the camera inputs, as well as in master control to monitor what goes on air.

Concepts of size, resolution, flexibility, scalability, and reliability need to be assessed in order to find the right system or to determine if a video wall is even necessary. When assessing a facility for its video wall requirements, the features to keep in mind are what visual resources have to be presented, whether or not images and graphics are simple, unchanging, and if they lack a lot of dynamic motion, whether they have one or two cameras. When images are being dragged across and blown up on big displays, scalability is crucial. A video wall controller software and hardware simplify the process of projecting high-resolution panoramic video images from numerous feeds on a single screen, broadcasting them in a seamless sequence, and communicating stories and events to the audience.

Video wall finds application as an over-the-shoulder display in TV shows or news studios, broadcast or distribution monitoring rooms, screening, training or post production environments. At Delta, we provide comprehensive display solutions for the broadcasting environment, providing the complete set of front-end and back-end support for complete projects.