The latest Atomos Sumo 19 combined monitor and recorder got its first trial in a broadcast environment at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Hungary last month. Young athletes from 50 countries competed in 130 events, which were broadcast live across Europe both on TV and online. A televised highlight show also ran every day – and Atomos ensured that the production team could quickly and easily edit all the material.

The challenge was to record in a common codec from a range of different cameras with different native formats. There were regular ENG and EFP cameras, drones, cable cams and smaller cameras all shooting HD. Production head Alexander Bognar explains, “We were really looking for technology which fits our needs: many locations, different cameras, different production equipment. Everyone who works in the media knows that if you come with different material you have to convert [with] a really big process in post-production.”

With such tight deadlines, reliability was key too: “Atomos – you just plug it in and it works,” enthused Bognar.

The solution was to record the feeds from all the events and interview locations onto Atomos recorders in Apple ProRes. A combination of the Sumo 19, Shogun Studio dual recorders and Samurai Blade SDI recorders were utilised. There were Shogun Studios in larger OB vans, Samurai Blades in smaller facilities, and several Sumos in the main interview and editing areas.

Bognar explained: “Atomos products were really the only solution for us to choose to ensure a workflow that granted us the fast post production and ability to really get the [recording] equipment on set and have it mobile…with usability and flexibility with all kinds of broadcast equipment.

“Every OB van was equipped with the Shogun [studios] and did a really, really perfect job and we were happy that the post production editing suites got the material right on time…this was only possible with Atomos products.”

Another feature of the new Sumo 19 also proved invaluable – the high brightness screen allowed the

production to monitor their DJI Inspire 2 drone footage outside in the summer sun. This allowed the drone operator and the second operator to see a big picture from the Inspire 2 at the same time as keeping eyes on the live event from ground level.

After the successful deployment of the Atomos solution, Bognar was enthusiastic: “The philosophy behind Atomos products is absolutely great, and I believe that the broadcast industry is in need of such innovative and creative equipment.”

The Sumo 19 is now shipping in large quantities. It features a 1200 NIT display for daylight viewable monitoring. It can also process Log signals from all the major camera manufacturers for monitoring in HDR and SDR. Log video signals can be sent downstream for HDR display, with conversions to both HDR10/PQ and HLG standards.  With Quad link SDI (including dual 12G SDI) and HDMI 2.0 inputs it offers a huge breadth of connectivity. It can take inputs of up to 60FPS video in both HD/2K and UHD/4K, covering the full gamut of production equipment.

The Shogun Studio is also available through authorised resellers. It provides two separate channels of video recording, or one continuously recording channel for long form recording, yet fits in just 3RU of space. The Shogun Studio has 3G and 6G SDI inputs and offers the ability to monitor and record HD at up to 60p and UHD up to 30p.

Recent firmware upgrades have expanded the AMP connectivity of the recorder. There has been refinement of embedded audio for support of up to 12 channels on SDI and adding the ability to embed analogue audio for loop out. The feature set also includes waveform monitoring and scopes for input analysis; bi-directional SDI and HDMI conversion; 4K-to-HD down conversion on the fly; and the ability to transform Log inputs for HDR10/PQ and HLG* output for HDR displays. Signals can even be looped to the second channel for real time LOG to HLG conversion.

Both the Sumo and Shogun lines will be available to see at IBC 2017 at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam from 15-19th September.  Please visit Atomos in Hall 11 Stand D25 to see them in action and get a hands-on demo.

Watch the behind the scenes video here: https://vimeo.com/229230083