On Sunday 22 November, Carlo’s TV Café became the first live multi-camera television broadcast aired using cloud-based technology.
Broadcast on leading Dutch commercial TV channel RTL4, the broadcast used DutchView Infostrada’s new Cloud Production system and was quickly followed by Voetbal Inside broadcast on RTL7, the second live broadcast to use the new technology. Now the platform is in regular operation.
With outsourced production solutions among its services, DutchView Infostrada is part of the NEP worldwide network. The company commissioned German audio and video equipment manufacturer Lawo to help with its concept of a revolutionary level of IP broadcast production. The result, Cloud Production, provides a comprehensive IP-based video and audio production platform for flexible and efficient workflows.
Integrating Grass Valley’s LDX 86 WorldCam camera and XCU HD/4K XF IP base station with Lawo’s IP-based video, audio and routing equipment, the Cloud Production infrastructure is centrally controlled via VSM, Virtual Studio Manager. The set-up comprises numerous V__remote4 IP video production units as well as Lawo mc²56 audio mixing consoles, Nova compact routers, Dallis I/O systems and A__mic8 analogue-to-IP audio interfaces.
Cloud Production centralises resources such that they can be shared more efficiently and sustainably utilised across productions. Structured in this way, both technology and personnel can be applied across multiple productions each day, working more efficiently and allowing production teams to focus on the quality of their work.
‘While many media companies and broadcasters are working on remote production and video over IP, we have made the leap to a cloud platform on which resources are available on demand’, says DutchView Infostrada CEO, Peter Bruggink comments: ‘Our technical infrastructure and LiveCenter are the foundations of Cloud Production. We operate our own data centres and a 100 per cent uptime dark fibre network. The entire infrastructure is monitored by our in-house developed monitoring tool GrandCentral and supported by a 24/7 expert service desk. This results in a very stable base for our new Cloud Production technology. I am extremely proud of this world first.’
With the new set-up, it is no longer necessary for DutchView Infostrada to dispatch a large OB truck to a location. Instead, Lawo stageboxes handle video/audio I/O and processing using an IP network – the same network that connects the studio and the location.
All connections use DutchView Infostrada’s proprietary fibre-optic network to connect to its data centre, where the technology is housed. The Cloud Production suites (directing, audio and shading) then provide complete control over the production process, as with traditional productions. Depending on the type of production, the director can work either from a location near the studio or from central directing, audio and shading suites.
Engineering teams from DutchView Infostrada and Lawo worked closely on the installation prior to the broadcast, including on-site at the Media Park in Hilversum: ‘We all learned a lot while working on this project. DutchView Infostrada and Lawo teamed up as partners to turn a convincing concept into reality with Lawo IP-based equipment and VSM control – but equally important was the trust, communication and absolute dedication required to make it work,’ Bruggink says.
RTL Netherlands Productions’ Business Manager, Mark de Vink adds: ‘It was exciting to be the first shows ever to be aired live in the cloud, and it was a huge success. Cloud Production is more efficient than any other solution, as we only use the resources that are strictly necessary for the duration of the recording. Using centralized resources, we need significantly fewer crew members on location, which also greatly reduces travel and accommodation costs.’
More: www.lawo.com
