Danmarks Radio (DR) has deployed the largest Miranda Technologies iControl monitoring and control system in Europe at its new facility at DR-Byen. DR-Byen consolidates DR Radio, DR TV, DR Online, and a concert hall – previously at 12 different addresses – all under one roof, and will be ready to go live in January 2007.
Miranda’s iControl offers advanced, end-to-end facility monitoring and control over IP, and will monitor four channels of television at DR-Byen (three transmission channels and a preview) and 35 services, including four FM radio channels plus eight regional radio contribution sites, as well as multiple DAB and web-based streams. DR-Byen’s iControl system will focus on the processing and supervision of both incoming and outgoing transmission feeds, as well as health monitoring over TCP/IP of the infrastructure, including servers, routers, encoders, and decoders.
“DR’s iControl monitoring system is the result of a huge workflow planning project, undertaken very closely with Miranda and our system integrator Danmon System Group A/S over several months,” said Lars Sorner, senior project manager, DR Tek Technology Project. “The new system will revolutionise the way we work at DR, making it much easier for operators to monitor all stages of the playout process. Our operators will also be much better equipped to respond to any faults in the system.”
The iControl system consolidates monitoring under a single platform, using a highly customised, graphical GUI that offers an easy-to-understand representation of the facility. Using “Monitoring by Exception,” iControl automatically filters out nonessential information from the displayed data, which helps operators see exactly what requires immediate attention. By helping operators identify faults quickly and make effective diagnosis and repairs to the complex facility, iControl can dramatically reduce the Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). Ultimately, iControl creates a more intuitive and productive control environment, which allows operators to control and monitor more activity.
The iControl system at DR-Byen is closely linked to Miranda’s Kaleido-K2 multi-image display system, and it interfaces with a large volume of Miranda signal processing and distribution systems. Miranda’s frame synchronisers and cross converters will also handle signal processing at the new multimedia powerhouse, based in Orestad, located just outside of Copenhagen.
