The Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF) is the Austrian public broadcaster headquartered in Vienna. ORF operates a provincial studio in each of the nine provinces and, since 1975, a further studio in Bolzano. As the largest media provider in the country, it produces four television programmes as well as three nationwide and nine regional radio programmes. With this offer, ORF reaches 8 million viewers.
Task:
ORF ordered with BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH a new IP based OB truck as replacement for its existing FÜ22. The new FÜ01 is a semi-trailer with 3 expandable units / drawers. It consists of two video and audio control areas and can be equipped with up to 18 wired and 8 wireless cameras. For slowmotion recording and playback up to 30 channels are available. The order also included a semi-trailer support truck.
The OB Van is mainly used for winter sport, classical music and entertainment productions.
Main technical feature is the use of modern IP technology based on SMPTE 2110. BFE Studio und Medien Systeme GmbH developed the concept for this new technical solution and was responsible for the planning and realization.
Solution:
The entire video und audio signal distribution in the ORF FÜ01 is using IP technology based on SMPTE 2110 (video and audio streaming), SMPTE 2022-7 (redundancy) as well as AES 67 (Audio over IP and Audio over Ethernet interoperability). Synchronization and time reference are achieved with PTP according to SMPTE 2110-10. The video production standards are 1080i50 and 1080p50. Audio productions in Dolby 5.1 are possible. The audio production standard is AES/EBU with 48kHz.
Core element of the system architecture are two Arista routers 7504 that offer 110 40G/100G ports and 48 1G ports. The routers combine for a 1:1 redundancy as described in SMPTE 2022-7. Devices that already provide IP interfaces are connected directly to the routers and transport their video and audio content via IP only:
Video mixer Sony XVS 7000
Slomoserver EVS XT-VIA
Monitors sonoVTS Media - QDP Series
Audio mixer/router Lawo MC with Nova 73
Testsignal- and reference generator Evertz 5700 MSC
Measurement device Tektronix Prism
Measurement device TSL PAM2-IP-3G
IP/HDMI Konverter AJA IPR-10G2-HDMI
Multiviewer Lawo DMV
Some additional devices do not yet provide IP interfaces. Their video and audio signals need to be transferred into the IP system via IP to SDI Embedded converters (and vice versa). In the FÜ01 converters C-100 from Lawo are used for this task. These converters are connected to the Arista routers via their redundant IP interfaces:
Monitors Ikegami HEM-2570W
Cameras Ikegami CCU-890
Slomo cameras Sony HDCU-3100/BPU-450
Transmission path processors Lawo V-PRO8
Graphic system Vizrt VIZ TRIO
Slomo system components EVS IP-Director, Epsio Paint, etc.
VTRs Sony HDCAM und XDCAM
TC-Inserter Plura Rubidium
Measurement devices Tektronix WFM 5200
Glue Equipment Lynx Series 5000
Miscellaneous devices (Scan converters etc.)
The control and monitoring system KSC CORE, developed by BFE, guarantees the usability of control functions needed to operate broadcast systems, independent from the devices and the IP signal transport mechanism. It also provides tally signalisation and signal label display. The IP layer is orchestrated by the SDN layer KSC SILKNET by BFE.
The management tasks are covered by a large-scale Cisco Management Router network. The KSC SinAlarm monitoring system by BFE supports the operators with system and device monitoring functionalities that are extremely important in the daily operation of IP based broadcast systems.
Additional solution components are a Riedel MediorNet for signal exchange with external areas, a Riedel Artist Intercom system and the KVM matrix ControlCenter-Digital-160 from Guntermann & Drunck. In the audio section there are further players and recorders and audio processing devices connected to the Lawo audio mixer/router.
The truck layout consists of two video control sections (BR-A, BR-B), a technical control area (BT), a large audio control section (TR-A) and a smaller one (TR-B) adjacent to the second video control room. The large audio control room also hosts the producer workplace, the communication engineer´s workplace and an audio cutter section. Up to six slomo operators can be staffed in video control rooms A and B. In the technical control area, the IP-Directorworkplace is located next to the workplace of the OB Van head of operation. Beside the camera control section all workplaces are multifunctional.
The support truck offers a multifunctional technical area, a service and maintenance section and storage facilities to enable an easy loading and unloading and thus contributes to fast set-up and dismantling times.
FKT, a trade journal for television, film and electronic media, has taken a close look on our OB van and has published an interesting article.