Christmas Message from the CEO

Dear Customers, Vendors, Partners and Friends

I trust like Techtel, you have all enjoyed a successful 2018 and are looking forward to creating more impact in 2019 and beyond.

2018 saw Techtel achieve some meaningful milestones. This included the establishment of a new division of valuable sales and support team members in our Singapore branch, helping the company serve the South East Asian market on a local level.

Although our core business has been systems integration, this year we have launched our own IPTV offering – a professional grade IPTV solution, designed to serve the specific streaming needs of enterprises, sport, live events and remote workers’ industries.

This year also saw the delivery of some exciting global projects including the first operational remote broadcast centre in Australia for the Australian Open, where together with Gearhouse Broadcast we created the infrastructure that would enable the domestic broadcaster to match what they traditionally did on-site, at a much lower cost. This work was recognised by a Content & Technology Award at the ABE Show, awarded to Gearhouse Broadcast for their excellent work at Australian Open 2018.

We were also proud to expand our expertise into the South Pacific by commissioning a transmitter system for Digital Terrestrial TV in Papua New Guinea for the country’s largest ICT provider Digicel, enabling the delivery of more than 30 additional services for its subscribers in Port Moresby, over two newly added transport streams.

We are pleased to conclude the year with the launch of seven studios at the ABC throughout Australia with Techtel’s comprehensive broadcast automation solution, including their first HD news studio. Today, Australia’s flagship news programs such as the 7.30 Report, News 24 Channel, Behind the News, local 7PM bulletins and many others are now being broadcast from brand new studio and control rooms, featuring fully automated broadcast technology, widespread use of robotic camera systems, integrated with the latest software solutions.

Right now, we’re preparing towards the completion of ABC’s national rollout of the AP ENPS newsroom system, a key component of their new Integrated Media System (IMS) which will be fully commissioned and live once Darwin cut over in early 2019.  This was a multi-year project which involved Techtel connecting approximately 70 TV and Radio sites in capital and regional cities to one central ENPS server. As a result, ABC News production teams throughout the country can easily collaborate on and share content produced for their TV, Radio and Digital News platforms.

In 2019, our continued focus will remain on consultancy, project engineering and support excellence, helping our customers grow their customer base and continuing to strengthen our strategic partnerships with technology vendors.

On behalf of the Techtel team worldwide, I wish you all safe and happy holidays!

Mal Chandler

Techtel CEO

Techtel helps Brightside Live cut the cord for delivery of West Coast’s largest Sports and Corporate Events

(Sydney, Australia, 27 November 2018) Techtel, Australia’s leading broadcast systems integrator has deployed an industry-leading, robust wireless broadcast system from AbonAir for Brightside Live, the live production company of choice for a number of Australia’s West Coast flagship sporting and corporate events. This comes as Brightside Live continues to expand into larger arenas and more complex projects requiring longer wireless range and uncompromised stability and robustness of a wireless system in a live environment.

With Brightside’s over 200 live production projects per year and almost 30 years’ experience, organisations with broadcasting needs such as Perth Wildcats, Western Force, West Coast Fever, Chevron, BHP and Bankwest are relying on them to deliver their critical events - be it production for a nightly live stadium sporting event or regular real-time streaming services for corporate stakeholders. As their projects expanded into more complex events and larger arenas, Brightside Live required a new robust wireless broadcast camera system with a larger area coverage, more reliable transmission and minimal latency.

In response to Brightside’s distinctive specifications, Techtel supplied, and tested ABonAir’s Wireless Broadcast system, consisting of a transmitter, receiver and an antenna system based on Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) design to enhance performance and ensure coverage even in extreme radio signal environments. The ABonAir AB507 enables video transmission of up to 1,000 meters, making it suitable for use at any stadium in Australia, and has an unprecedented delay of 7 milliseconds between shooting the content from Brightside’s roving camera and having it available at their control room ready for broadcasting.

Today, Brightside Live is actively using the AbonAir system for both corporate and sporting events including the Western Force, Perth Wildcats and Westcoast Fever games, BHP, CBH and Chevron Town Hall Meetings, various high profile gala dinners and many others, often multiple events at a time. David Salt, Managing Director at Brightside Live said: “Our customers want a high-quality, broadcast-like experience for their streaming & live viewers. Second to human expertise is the technology that drives this experience, and it is the wireless broadcast camera system provided to us by Techtel that enables us to deliver a robust and reliable service for an event of any scale, shape or size”.

“After the rigorous selection process conducted by Brightside Live we were thrilled to be selected to provide them with the ABonAir wireless camera system. The reliability and coverage range of the AbonAir AB507 wireless camera system is exceptional, which I am sure will translate into more brilliant productions and projects for Brightside live in the future”, commented Mal Chandler, CEO at Techtel.

About Brightside Live

The team at Brightside Live boasts nearly 30 years’ experience in live technical production of corporate and sporting events. Combining wide ranging technical knowledge, eye-catching show creativity, venue acquaintance, industry expertise and precise execution the company benchmarks events to unrivalled standards. Brightside Live is based in Perth, Western Australia with customer base in both corporate & sporting industries. Some of their customers include Tennis Australia, Perth Wildcats, Western Force, West Coast Fever BHP, Chevron, CBH & Bankwest. For more information, visit www.brightsidelive.net.au  

Techtel and Thoroughbred Racing Productions Enhance the Broadcasting of South Australia’s racing with a leading wireless camera system

(Sydney, Australia, 9 October 2018) Techtel, Australia’s leading broadcast systems integrator has supplied an industry-leading, robust wireless broadcast system from AbonAir for Thoroughbred Racing Productions (“TRP”), the live production company of choice for Thoroughbred Racing South Australia (“TRSA”).

Producing over 3500 hours of High Definition live thoroughbred racing outside broadcasts each year, and covering 535 meetings per year with up to 7 meetings in one day, TRP is Australia’s largest live production company in Thoroughbred broadcasting. Earlier this year, TRP won a tender to become TRSA’s live production partner of choice for all of their outdoor racing events. This comes as the South Australian state is gaining more attention and coverage from Racing.com. As a part of this multi-year contract, TRP will be supplying two of their Outside Broadcasting (OB) trucks equipped with the latest innovations to make the viewing of South Australia’s thoroughbred racing compelling and comprehensive for all audiences.

As a part of this complex solution, Techtel supplied, and tested ABonAir’s Wireless Broadcast system, consisting of a transmitter, receiver and a fibre coverage extender, which enables the system to connect multiple receive sites via fiber cables exponentially increasing wireless coverage. The ABonAir AB512 has an unprecedented delay of 7 milliseconds between shooting the content from TRP’s roving camera and having it available at the OB Truck ready for broadcast.

Charles Cole, Engineering & Technical Operations Manager at TRP said “We were very honoured when TRSA chose us for this project, given the nature and scale of their events. We immediately turned to Techtel as our long-term partner in broadcast systems, knowing their expertise with major live events and their ability to provide end-to-end integration of any technology. We needed to deliver a reliable, predictable high end service, which could be rapidly integrated at the race tracks with the camera for full control, and were delighted to have exceeded these expectations”.

 “We are very happy to have been offered the chance to partner with TRP to provide a wireless camera link without compromise. As an exclusive provider of ABonAir’s technology in Australia, we are very pleased with the results it was able to achieve for TRP and we look forward to seeing TRP continue to win more business as a result of their excellence in OB production”, commented Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO.

The 7.30 Report goes on air at ABC's first live HD studio

The 7:30 report, ABC’s flagship news and current affairs program, has gone live to air in what is the ABC’s first Live HD Studio, featuring brand new studio and control rooms with widespread use of automation and robotic systems, integrated with the latest software solutions. This transformation comes as the next step of a multi-year project - integrated, managed and supported by Techtel, covering ABC news studios nationwide and involving a global range of strategically chosen software and hardware technology partners, including Telemetrics, Cuescript, Apantac, Vizrt, TV Logic, Yamaha, Panasonic and others.

Techtel enables delivery of Digital TV channels in PNG via a new DVB-T2 Transmitter

Techtel, Australia’s leading broadcast systems integrator has commissioned a transmitter system for Digital Terrestrial TV in Papua New Guinea for a local service provider, enabling the delivery of more than 30 additional services for its subscribers in Port Moresby, over two newly added transport streams.

The DVB-T2 system itself incorporates power amplifiers based on LDMOS transistors technology characterized by high power density, allowing very high efficiency. Furthermore, it integrates a modulator that covers the main TV and Radio spectrums, equipped with the latest technology in signal processing allowing Digital TV signal broadcasting with the highest quality and reliability. The integrated transmitter is compatible with both single frequency (SFN) and multiple frequency (MFN) networks, a result of Egatel’s system’s configuration flexibility. In addition, the new DVB-T2 system features integrated digital adaptive pre-correction for easy commissioning and testing requirements; and flexible configurations accommodating various redundancy scenarios.

As a part of its integrated offering, Techtel supplied, installed, commissioned and tested a new 600Wrms (2+1) DVB-T2 transmitter system by Egatel, as well as seamlessly integrating the platform into Port Moresby’s existing transmission facilities by adding a new RF combiner with two narrow-band and one wide-band inputs. The combiner and its internal filters have been custom designed and fine-tuned to accommodate for four adjacent RF channels compliant with PNG RF spectrum allocations for broadcasting of DTV services. After comprehensive testing, Techtel’s integration team were able to achieve exceptional RF signal performance with shoulder value measured over 49dB, and MER value of higher than 35dB. 

Mal Chandler, CEO of Techtel says: “We are proud to enable PNG’s largest service provider deliver a state of the art DVB-T2 Digital Terrestrial Television System resulting in the expansion of broadcast network coverage citywide.  Egatel is continuing to demonstrate to the market that they are a reliable and trustworthy partner who together with Techtel will offer the region a better value option for many years to come.”

Techtel is an established provider of digital TV broadcasting transmitters with many other channels powered by Egatel in service in the Australian market.

Techtel kicks off Integrate 2018 with a demonstration of the latest Stadia LED board show control from Click Effects over Retop’s high performance LED screen

ChyronHego’s latest version of Click Effects, PRIME is a highly integrated, turnkey graphics authoring solution for live arena and stadium-based A/V presentations to maximize fan engagement and drive commercial opportunities.  With Click Effects, fans can experience many of the same visual elements, such as enhanced graphics & play-by-play analysis that they’re used to seeing on live TV. Come and see this for yourself at Techtel’s Stand L52, Integrate Show, ICC 22-24 August.  The Click Effects platform is complimented with the image processing from 7thSense Design’s award winning Delta Media Server.

In addition, Techtel will be showing a range of Retop's high performance indoor and outdoor LED screens. These have a wide foot print in Asia, Europe and USA, and are now building on their years of global success in Australia. Don't miss this first-time ever showcase of Retop's high performance indoor screens at Integrate, and come and talk to us about our various buying options and flexible contract terms.

Both ChyronHego and Retop representatives, as well as Techtel’s system integrators will be available to answer any of your questions at the Integrate Show.

NEP Selects Techtel to Provide Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Solution for Fox Sports in its Premier Remote Production Facility

(Sydney, Australia, 31 July 2018) NEP Group (“NEP”), the outsourced production partner supporting world’s most-watched events chooses Techtel to provide an end-to-end disaster recovery solution for Fox Sports to protect their content and preserve business continuity of the leading sports broadcaster, as the production industry moves towards remote production.

Throughout the course of the partnership Techtel is providing terminal equipment consisting of Net Insight VA 225 encoders and decoders at two newly established remote production centers, connecting to 11 OB Trucks via a secured private IP network.  The solution also includes a comprehensive Network Management System (NMS) and a set of professional services consisting of commissioning, testing and training. The robustness of this design allows for efficient backup of up to 3 concurrent events across 29 sporting venues throughout Australia.

“Techtel is excited to contribute to NEP’s HUB remote production facility with the leading contribution over the internet platform from Net Insight.  This novel combination of coding, decoding and transmission processes are powering the creation of a highly robust network the entire production can depend on”, said Mal Chandler, CEO of Techtel.  

“In a remote production environment for sports broadcasting, where tolerance for content and data loss is zero, it is imperative that a robust, reliable and efficient disaster recovery plan is in place. We are confident that Techtel is the ideal broadcast systems specialist to provide a comprehensive back-up service to protect vital content and enable reliable remote production for our customer”, said Marc Segar, Director of Technology at NEP.

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About Techtel

Techtel is a leading independent broadcast technology systems specialist, providing dedicated hardware and software to the Asia Pacific broadcast and telecommunications industries. Techtel’s expertise extends from consulting and systems integration through to the supply, installation and support of solutions from an elite class of worldwide partners. The Techtel Group has regional offices in Sydney and Singapore with branches in Auckland and Melbourne. Visit www.techtel.com.au

Contact:
Katia Gryadunova
0414422371
kgryadunova@techtel.com.au

About NEP Group

For over 30 years, NEP has been a worldwide outsourced technical production partner supporting premier content producers of live sports, entertainment, music and corporate events. Our services include remote production, studio production, audio visual solutions, host broadcast support, premium playout, post production and innovative software-based media management solutions. NEP’s 3,000+ employees are driven by a passion for superior service and a focus on technical innovation. Together, we have supported productions in over 85 countries on all seven continents. NEP is headquartered in the United States and has offices in 24 countries.

Channel 9 Chooses Techtel to Transform their Digital Preservation Practices and Leverage Genetic Diversity in Storage

(Sydney, Australia, 18 June 2018) Nine Network (“Channel 9”), Australia’s largest commercial free-to-air television network selected Techtel as the systems integrator of choice to develop a seamless interface between their Media Asset Management (MAM) platforms and deep storage across their news and production studios and playout centre at two different locations.  This transition will make Channel 9 the first Australian broadcaster to switch from a traditional HSM (Hierarchical Storage Manager) architecture to an on-premise Spectra Logic object storage solution, enabling the company to significantly reduce asset restoration times, utilise genetically diverse media and separate their storage geographically – all via one purpose-built and highly flexible solution.

Developed by Spectra Logic, the BlackPearl® Converged Storage System allows for data storage on multiple targets, including Spectra LTO tape libraries and disk, and multi-site replication for data protection and MAM redundancy. Coupled with a new and seamless integration with Imagine Communications’ Nexio® Motion™ workflow and media management system, as well as combining with Avid Interplay’s existing BlackPearl client, the Spectra Logic system provides a new, long-term storage solution to preserve Channel 9’s persistent data, which is growing from 5PB.

In addition, the newly integrated content management system is expected to lower storage costs by reducing the overhead of multiple software and hardware systems running independently, as well as cutting out the need for multiple vendors and middleware.

“Living in the age of highly sophisticated cyber threats and where digital content outlasts its storage technology, it is critical to have a failsafe storage solution in place, which is also scalable across its capacities, technologies and interfaces. We are confident that Techtel is the ideal broadcast technology systems specialist to provide the optimal mix of hardware, software and integration expertise to serve this purpose,” said David Bowers, CTO Channel 9.

Mal Chandler, CEO of Techtel says: “By entrusting Techtel, Channel 9 can store their data with a greater sense of confidence knowing that their solution is growth-enabling, redundant and genetically diverse.  This project illustrates our unique position to independently choose strategic partners and their technology, and deliver the critical project management, commissioning and support that our customers expect.”

Media Contact:
Katia Gryadunova
0414422371
kgryadunova@techtel.com.au

Techtel Announces ABC Melbourne and Perth News Studios On-Air

(Sydney, Australia, 10 May 2018) Australian broadcast systems integrator, Techtel, is pleased to announce that one of ABC News busiest studios (Studio 38) went live this week in Melbourne with Techtel’s comprehensive broadcast automation solution. This comes as the next step of a multi-year project - integrated, managed and supported by Techtel, covering ABC news studios nationwide and involving a global range of strategically chosen software and hardware technology partners.

The Melbourne studio features Telemetrics cameras with both a manual and automatic capability, which can be quickly switched between manual and automatic modes by the same operator, making Studio 38 the first Australian newsroom to employ this cutting-edge technology. ABC News is also the first ever news broadcaster to benefit from CueScript’s on screen timer within the prompter monitor, which enables operators to add in messages, clocks and timers without disrupting the prompting script.

Studio 38 is one of ABC’s largest and busiest, news studios producing local and national programs including News Breakfast, Melbourne 7PM News and The World and News Tonight. Therefore, it was imperative for Techtel to implement a fast and seamless transition.

“33 years of experience in a fast-paced news environment have allowed us to complete the entire transition with zero impact to on-air broadcasting. We’ve accomplished the changeover on Sunday night, and the 6am News Breakfast Show on Monday morning aired from the brand new, enhanced system”, said Matt Feeney, Director of Projects at Techtel.

 “We continue to invest in our vendor partnerships to ensure that we can support the technological growth for our customers, such as ABC News, who are now at the forefront of automation in news broadcasting”, added Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO.

Studio 38 is ABC’s 5th studio to go live using the latest, fully automated broadcast technology commissioned, integrated and supported by Techtel.   Techtel also commissioned the Perth news studio (Studio 62) in the same week as Melbourne making it a big week for the ABC and Techtel! Other sites already using the new systems include studios in Canberra, Brisbane and Hobart that are already on air from 2017.

For More Information Contact:
Katia Gryadunova
0414422371
kgryadunova@techtel.com.au

Techtel Facilitates Remote Production for Seven Network During Australian Open

Techtel partners up with Gearhouse Broadcast and Net Insight to create the first operational remote broadcast centre in Australia for the Australian Open.

Read the full coverage by BroadcastPRO Middle East

Techtel pioneers Australian legislative VOD market

The Telemetrics Clerk control panel is designed for non-technical users and provides the necessary tools to enable or disable the various output signals when necessary.

Sydney, Australia – Techtel was recently selected by an Australian state government (end user details withheld) to build the country’s first digital, file-based video-on-demand service for parliamentary proceedings. Techtel’s solution was based on the pioneering design from consultancy firm Australian Systems Integration and installed midway through 2017, giving rise to a new front runner in legislative broadcasting in Australia.

Parliament members, broadcasters and journalists from around the globe are now able to remotely log in to a secure online portal from Actus Digital, where they can view the live feed of proceedings or search for past material, then transcode and download the footage from either house of parliament in both high and low resolution. Prior to the installation of the new system, the state parliament had no in-house video recording capability so it represents a vast improvement for those requiring access to content.

Adding to the system’s ease-of-access, journalists can search for material based on a range of metadata fields such as the speaker’s name, date range, bill subject matter, party and electorate. By comparison, journalists interstate are either required to record the parliamentary material themselves or request specific content if they know exactly what time the material they require was recorded.

“They have managed to do what no other Australian parliamentary facility has done, in their deployment of a video-on-demand system that is truly customer driven", commented Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO. “We are excited at the potential this system has for other parliaments across Asia and Oceania and we look forward to seeing more and more similar facilities embrace the same system”.

Techtel’s parliamentary broadcast solution is based largely around the Telemetrics suite of camera control solutions, including custom development by the US-manufacturer that gives the in-chamber clerk unprecedented control over the live-to-air output. The purpose-built Telemetrics Clerk control panel is designed for non-technical users and provides the clerk with the necessary tools to enable or disable the various output signals when necessary, as well as providing them with visual monitoring of the final live program output on the panel. In the control room, the Telemetrics RCCP-1 panel gives the director the ability to control a number of Panasonic AWHE130 HD PTZ cameras which were painted custom colours to match the building interior, ensuring compliance with building regulations in the 134-year-old heritage-listed building. The Telemetrics system is also responsible for triggering graphics that it automatically generates and updates on-the-fly as a result of full integration with the parliamentary Hansard reporting system. The project also represents the first time that Telemetrics has controlled audio levels as they are received over IP into the BSS virtual audio mixer.

The cameras, vision mixer, and lower-third graphics can operate in three different modes; fully automatic, semi-automatic or manual, which can be adjusted based on operator availability and house mode, whether it be question time, estimates, and so on.
The parliament’s production systems have been designed and deployed in a fully redundant configuration so that either house can be controlled from any of the control rooms, while the controls themselves can be seamlessly swapped between rooms in case of failure in either signal path. All failover processes are actioned automatically via the central automation system.

The new broadcast facility also features TVLogic monitors, LYNX Technik’s yellobrik DAs and converters, Spectra Logic Verde NAS storage, Apantac signal processing equipment, Panasonic’s AVHS450E vision switcher and highly-customised desks from TBC Consoles.

The install is now complete following technical handover of the system and training of staff. Techtel will provide ongoing support for the parliament’s production systems.