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Flexible remote access features enable operational continuity for educational access channel, while seamless integration of web conferencing feeds lets students broadcast live from home

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, November 13, 2020 – As the educational access channel for the North Penn School District, North Penn Television (NPTV) brings timely information to residents in the Montgomery County suburbs of Philadelphia via its cable channel, website, and social media. When schools across Pennsylvania closed earlier this year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff and students leveraged Tightrope Media Systems’ Cablecast Community Media platform and new Screenweave LIVE cloud-based service to continue broadcasting to their community.

North Penn School District comprises 13 elementary schools, three middle schools, and one high school. Operated by high school students under the guidance of the district’s Coordinator of Communications Media, Bob Gillmer, NPTV covers everything from Board of School Directors’ meetings to high school sports and concerts. In addition to its weekly “Mornings” news program, NPTV also broadcasts the monthly “North Penn Right Now” live to the community and to all of the district’s 13,000 students and staff in their classrooms or offices.

NPTV had already been using the Cablecast platform as its playout and automation system prior to the pandemic, with Gillmer praising its ease of use and rich feature set as ideal for the educational channel. “It has all the tools that you really need, particularly for a PEG channel, college or school at our level,” he said. “It even has tools you may not realize you need yet, and then when you think ‘I wish I could do this,’ you find that it’s already there.”

Tightrope’s introduction of Screenweave LIVE in April proved timely and valuable for NPTV, enabling student broadcasters to continue reporting the news from their homes by bringing live Zoom web conferencing feeds into the Cablecast system. “Screenweave LIVE came along just at the right time for us,” explained Gillmer. “When we closed our schools, we took the next week to plan and sort of reset, and the next Friday we had a live broadcast out to our community via our cable channel using Screenweave LIVE. We continued doing a full live television show each Friday with our high school students in their homes, me managing it from my living room, and pushing it out on YouTube, Facebook, and our Comcast and Verizon channels. It also lets us bring our virtual school board meetings into our channel live, across all of our platforms.”

Gillmer also highlighted Cablecast’s existing remote access functionality as critical to NPTV’s continuity. “Being able to operate Cablecast remotely through a browser-based interface was already advantageous, as instead of needing to be in the TV studio, I could manage it even while sitting in a meeting across town,” he explained. “It was even more crucial during COVID, as I’m able to run everything from home. The Remote Upload feature similarly became more important, as I could easily add content to my playout server without needing to be on the same network.”

While the operational benefits of Cablecast and Screenweave LIVE have been compelling for the NPTV team, even more important is the positive impact they enabled NPTV to have on students during an emotionally challenging time. “One of the things we heard as feedback is that while students couldn’t be in the schools, the ‘normalcy’ of having a live morning show is something they really looked forward to,” said Gillmer. “The show still connected us, and we were still together in a way, sort of like we were still in school.”

NPTV has long trusted Cablecast to keep its channel running 24/7/365, and with the addition of Screenweave LIVE, the platform is helpingthem do so even under this year’s extreme circumstances. “Without them, our cable channel would have been dead on the vine,” Gillmer summarized. “Students are working collaboratively from home, and we’re pulling that all together to broadcast live to our community. Even as students start returning to the classroom, we’ll continue using Cablecast and Screenweave LIVE to broadcast across cable and online.”

About Cablecast

For over 20 years, the Cablecast Community Media platform from Tightrope Media Systems has enabled community media organizations and content producers to easily and efficiently engage viewers across expanding consumer platforms including cable channels, websites, mobile devices and OTT delivery. The comprehensive Cablecast product line provides flexible, tightly-integrated solutions ranging from broadcast automation, playout servers, bulletin boards and on-air graphics to Internet VOD, live streaming and OTT distribution. For more information, visit www.cablecast.tv or call (866) 866-4118.

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 12, 2020 – Atlona, a Panduit company, has designated Seattle-based Brownestone, LLC as its manufacturer’s representative for the Pacific Northwest region, effective immediately. Brownestone will bring its sales-focused operation closer to commercial AV customers in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.

As an A/V manufacturer’s representative in business since 1999, Brownestone considers Atlona’s product line a perfect complement to its specialized line card. Atlona’s AV over IP based video distribution and networked control solutions especially strengthen Brownestone’s message as a complete AV solutions provider, alongside its range of videoconferencing, audio production, and projection solutions.

“Representing the Atlona product line immediately strengthens and enhances our company’s value proposition,” said Mike Charles, Principal, Integration Channel Sales for Brownestone. “Atlona helps us offer comprehensive and high-performance packages tailored to the needs of our commercial A/V customers, especially in the corporate, education and houses of worship verticals. They dovetail perfectly with the rest of our line card, and fills in gaps that previously prevented us from offering a complete package or solution.”

Charles sees strong opportunity for Atlona in the videoconferencing market as more companies seek to connect workers, customers, and partners remotely, and keep gatherings to a minimum for health safety. “When it comes to AV over IP networking and control solutions, Atlona really shines,” he said. “Atlona is a real asset when it comes to proposingcomplete, best-in-class video conferencing packages for these types of projects.”

Brownstone, LLC has equipped its own conference room with products from its line card, including those from Atlona, so that customers visiting its offices or joining their videoconference calls can see firsthand how it can benefit them. He envisions regional training and education initiatives with Altona partners in 2021, which he emphasizes will “help us build strong customer relationships.”

“Brownestone has a reputation for being very selective about the brands they represent, and their relationships with vendorstend to be long-term,” said Jamey Swigert, Director of AV Sales and Business Development, Atlona. “They are a sales-based organization that works very closely with their customers, and an ideal partner for Atlona in a quickly growing region for commercial AV business.”

About Brownestone, LLC

Brownestone, LLC is a small but mighty Pro A/V manufacturer’s rep firm in the Sea-Tac (Seattle-Tacoma) metro town of Kent, Washington. The team—which includes Principals Mike Charles and Van Browne in Integration Channel Sales, and Gilbert Perales, Production Channel Sales—offers specialized technical products, certified expertise, and service to their commercial A/V customers. They rep diverse yet complementary product line cards, including Atlona, Shure, Allen & Heath, Digital Projection, Lea, and Primacoustics. The company’s market reach spans the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and Northern Nevada.

About Atlona

Atlona, a Panduit company, is a leading global manufacturer of AV over IP distribution, connectivity, and control solutions. The company designs and engineers innovative, award-winning products for a diverse range of residential and commercial AV and IT markets. Backed by an award-winning 10-year warranty, Atlona’s products are developed to enable our customers’ ability to connect and collaborate with simplicity. More information about Atlona is available at atlona.com.

About Panduit

Global connectivity leader Panduit Corp. creates innovative electrical and network infrastructure solutions for applications across the enterprise. Headquartered in Tinley Park, Ill. and operating in 112 worldwide locations, Panduit’s technology leadership and robust ecosystem help support, sustain, and empower business growth in a connected world. panduit.com

StreamS and StreamGuys announce an alliance for providing next-generation, high-performance live audio streaming using fully compliant standards-based CMAF HLS for low-latency, adaptive-bitrate HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). Together, both provide a complete end-to-end streaming solution that is reliable, scales to rapidly growing large audiences, and reaches more modern devices with stunning audio quality.

CMAF HLS is the same successful technology that is fueling the “cord-cutting” that video content providers currently enjoy for OTT and other Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) services. By leveraging the standardized container of the Common Media Application Format (CMAF), content providers can reach a broader diversity of devices with a single file set, which results in more efficient content delivery, reduced streaming costs, and increased audience.

StreamS and StreamGuys will partner to bring these same benefits to audio content providers, including DTC services and radio broadcasters looking to expand their streaming presence. Using CMAF HLS, these customers can scale with greater strength and cost-efficiency than with older-generation streaming protocols, and leverage the latest high-efficiency codecs, such as xHE-AAC and the broader AAC family, to cover everything from high-quality voice to high-quality 7.1 surround. The ability to stream real-time extensible metadata alongside pristine audio adds greater value for content providers and audiences.

“HLS is getting a whole lot better with CMAF. We are excited to support ultra-low latency and simplify deploying HLS,” said Kiriki Delany, President, StreamGuys. “HLS provided efficient ways to switch networks while maintaining a stream, as well assavings on power consumption for mobile devices. It also introduced much higher latency than traditional true-streaming systems. CMAF changes that by allowing encoding to happen much faster, which greatly reduces file-based buffers. Meanwhile, xHE-AAC, once adopted by all major browsers and mobile platforms, will simplify what codecs are needed on the decoder side. It will supportvery low bitrates, like 12kbps for speech, to very high bitrates, such as lossless ALAC/FLAC formats. This simplification will mean larger reach, and lower barriers to cross platform compatibility.”

StreamS provides encoder software, systems, and professional audio processing, while StreamGuys provides the robust server infrastructure for reliable content delivery. StreamGuys will additionally provide detailed business analytics and reporting software for logging, compliance and audience measurement among other tasks, along with future ad insertion options to support revenue generation.

“Today’s audience is investing in expensive media devices and automotive digital dashboards with lots of advanced features, which they expect to work. New streaming infrastructures are now necessary,” said Greg Ogonowski, President, StreamS-Modulation Index. “Live audio streaming has become a big part of today’s revenue picture. Revenue demands reliability, and the competitive nature of the live streaming and IP audio market demands the best possible audio. We provide both.”

About StreamS-Modulation Index, LLC

Based in the Los Angeles area, Modulation Index, LLC is headed by a 45 year broadcast technology veteran, Greg Ogonowski, founder of Gregg Laboratories, and former VP Product Development at Orban. He was responsible for the creation of the Orban PC Products division and first in the world to license the HE-AAC (formerly aacPlus) and now the new xHE-AAC audio codecs for streaming.

StreamS is the Modulation Index line of streaming encoders and Internet audio related products that were created after Orban was sold and spun off their PC products along with their sales and development resources. Modulation Index is committed to improving performance and quality of the Internet streaming experience using modern technologies. Modulation Index is also the sole source and support for Orban Optimod-PCn audio processing for digital broadcast and netcast from RORB, Inc., co-developed by Bob Orban and Greg Ogonowski.

Contact Information:    www.streamindex.com    info@streamindex.com    John Schaab  +1 940 206-7702

About StreamGuys

In business since 2000, StreamGuys is an industry-leading service provider of live and on-demand streaming, podcasting delivery, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) toolsets for enterprise-level broadcast media organizations. The company brings together the industry’s best price-to-performance ratio, a robust and reliable network, and an infinitely scalable cloud-based platform for clients of any size to process, deliver, monetize and playout professional streaming content. StreamGuys supports many of the world’s largest Podcasts, global TV and radio broadcasters, video and audio production companies, houses of worship, retail and hospitality businesses, government organizations, medical and healthcare services, and live venues for sports and entertainment. The company excels in developing and deploying technologies for business growth and revenue generation, including dynamic ad insertion, Alexa skills, mobile streaming and detailed business and data analytics.

Image fidelity, low-light handling and volunteer-friendly ease of use deliver powerful benefits as SK-HD1800 cameras help church navigate pandemic-driven shifts

Woodbury, NY, November 11, 2020 — When Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas designed its new on-campus City Center for hosting community and local corporate activities, it purchased three SK-HD1800 cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to enable premium-caliber, in-house video production capabilities. The visual quality of the Hitachi cameras has shone even brighter during the COVID-19 pandemic, elevating the church’s live streaming and IMAG as it moved its services from its primary church building to the new City Center auditorium.

Founded in 1892, Immanuel Baptist’s vision is to be a gospel advancing church, for the gospel, for the city and for the world. Developed in a massively renovated former grocery supermarket on the same campus as Immanuel Baptist’s main church building, the City Center was created for use by community organizations and companies for conferences, training seminars, and special events.

The church has placed a high priority on video ever since it became one of the first to broadcast its worship services live on television in the mid-1970’s, and considered it similarly important for the new venue. “We wanted to have a high-quality production entity in the City Center so that anyone using the facility would feel comfortable that they’re getting top-notch IMAG and live streaming capabilities,” said Phillip Ashworth, the church’s director of communications. “The cameras play a key role in making sure we achieve the level of quality we want, so even though we had a different vendor’s cameras already in our main worship center, we wanted to see if we could do even better here.”

Church staff evaluated cameras from multiple manufacturers at the NAB Show and decided the SK-HD1800 was their best option. “It had better overall image quality, and I was pleasantly surprised by its affordability,” said Ashworth. “I have always loved Hitachi cameras, but when we did our main worship center years ago, our tight budget didn’t allow that class of camera. I was thrilled to find out the SK-HD1800 fit our budget.”

The SK-HD1800’s advanced global shutter technology was also a key factor in the church’s selection. “We were evaluating various LED video walls and looking at different vendors’ cameras shooting with them in the frame, and saw artifact issues such as flickering,” explained Ashworth. “We put the Hitachi camera on the video walls, and it eliminated that problem for us.”

Supplied by systems integrator Edgemont AVL, the SK-HD1800s are deployed in fixed positions and on a recently-added track dolly in the City Center’s 850-seat (pre-COVID) auditorium. In addition to driving IMAG on the room’s 32-foot by 10-foot Primeview video wall and live streaming through a Teradek Trax encoder, the camera  feeds can be called up in multiple rooms in the City Center and main building through a fiber network.

Ashworth lauds the image fidelity produced by the SK-HD1800s as noticeably better than the camera systems used in the church’s main sanctuary. “The thing that jumped out to me right off the bat was the clarity of the image,” he said. “It was a sharper, better-looking picture overall. The colors are also truer, and flesh tones look a lot more realistic to me.”

The SK-HD1800’s handling of low-light conditions also earned Ashworth’s admiration, as did its volunteer-friendly ease of use. “Being able to run the cameras in low light without having to bump the gain, yet the noise being basically non-existent, is a big difference from what we were used to,” he said. “Our volunteers also love the SK-HD1800s, as they find them smoother to operate and like the viewfinders better than our other cameras.”

The City Center opened in February 2020, but the quality improvement enabled by the SK-HD1800s came even further to the forefront when the pandemic led Immanuel Baptist to relocate its worship services from its main sanctuary to the City Center for easier social distancing. “Now that we were using the Hitachi cameras for our worship services, we had immediate feedback from people watching our screens and streams that they noticed the quality gain,” Ashworth explained. “That was a particularly huge deal when we needed to jump to 100% online for several weeks. People were always thankful for our online stream, but we never had comments about the quality before. Now, people were commenting that ‘I don’t know what you did, but it sure looks better.’”

That improvement has led the church to discuss raising the quality of video productions in its main worship center once it reopens, and when budget permits, Ashworth would like to replace its cameras with SK-HD1800s. In the meantime, the new Hitachi cameras continue to help the church better engage its followers through challenging times.

“I feel like having a strong video production element says a lot about the fact that we care about what we’re doing, and that we want it to be well-received,” concluded Ashworth. “The new Hitachi cameras have shown our membership and community that we are being good stewards of the money that we spend on production, and that we want to do it with excellence. They enabled us to up our game, and people noticed.”

About Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a company that manufactures broadcasting systems, security and surveillance systems, wireless communications and information systems. For more information on Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc., please visit the company’s website at https://www.hitachi-kokusai.co.jp/global/en/index.html.

Company appoints new in-country distributor and manufacturer’s representative to grow Atlona’s  business with AV and IT customers throughout Brazil

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 10, 2020 – Atlona, a Panduit company, continues to strengthen its overall presence in the CALA region through the transformation of its channel partner network. Atlona’s latest initiative focuses on the unique Brazilian market, where the company has appointed WDC Networks as its master distributor, and Groz Global Brands as its exclusive manufacturer’s representative, effective immediately.

WDC Networks has been a successful distributor in Brazil for 17 years and more recently the broader CALA region. The company services the Telecom, IT, Security, Solar and Audio Visual markets. Atlona strengthens WDC Networks’ value proposition as a supplier of complete AV solutions, expanding its range of collaboration, distribution and control products for commercial and residential projects.

“As one of the largest technology distributors serving the AV industry, WDC Networks represents many of the largest brands across LED panels, displays, projectors and audio systems,” said Fernando Guerra, Director, AV and Automation, WDC Networks. “Atlona adds the important missing pieces we have in our AV and Automation ecosystem so that we can better serve our customers, as well as the quickly emerging AV industry taking shape throughout Brazil. We also see opportunities to bring Atlona into our growing ‘as-a-service’ portfolio as we help our customers transition from CAPEX to OPEX models.”

Guerra emphasizes that AV is a “maturing market” in Brazil, and business trends such as AV over IP that have developed in other regions in are just beginning to surface. These are new business opportunities that Groz Global Brands looks forward to exploring in direct communication with customers. The fact that both companies are longtime Panduit representatives creates an abundance of natural opportunities to introduce Atlona into broader IT-related projects.

“Our experience with Panduit and knowledge of the IT network infrastructure makes Atlona the natural next step for both Groz Global Brands and our broader customer base,” said Douglas Ozanan, Sales and Marketing Director, Groz Global Brands. “Our structure will ensure local representation across the large and unique Brazilian market, with dedicated resources to focus on sales, marketing, and technical support and engineering services.”

WDC Networks and Groz Global Brands’ in-country presence will also simplify how Atlona operates inside Brazil, which has a business culture that requires local inventory, a strong dealer network, and Portuguese-fluent resources to ensure success.

“These new partnerships with two of the most recognized AV companies in Brazil will strengthen our position as a complete AV and IT solutions provider throughout the country,” said Esteban Perez, Director of Business Development, Latin America. “Both companies represent a broad and diverse franchise of suppliers and professional services, and have strong expertise serving systems integrators, resellers and end users all commercial and residential AV verticals.”

About Atlona

Atlona, a Panduit company, is a leading global manufacturer of AV over IP distribution, connectivity, and control solutions. The company designs and engineers innovative, award-winning products for a diverse range of residential and commercial AV and IT markets. Backed by an award-winning 10-year warranty, Atlona’s products are developed to enable our customers’ ability to connect and collaborate with simplicity. More information about Atlona is available at atlona.com.

About Panduit

Global connectivity leader Panduit Corp. creates innovative electrical and network infrastructure solutions for applications across the enterprise. Headquartered in Tinley Park, Ill. and operating in 112 worldwide locations, Panduit’s technology leadership and robust ecosystem help support, sustain, and empower business growth in a connected world. panduit.com