As part of its transition to high definition television, Swiss broadcaster TSI has installed a new production platform from Thomson at its Lugano facility in south Switzerland. The system includes Grass Valley Aurora news production suite clients for ingest and playout, as well as a 16-channel high definition K2 Media Server, writes Fergal Ringrose.
“We needed to develop an HD studio production capability for entertainment programming,” said Marco Derighetti, engineering manager of TSI. “We considered a number of suppliers, but Thomson was able to deliver a complete, integrated solution that is scalable for the future – eg connecting other studios together while sharing resources – flexible in operation and sits comfortably in a file-based environment.”
“Broadcasters are moving towards HD capability because their audiences demand the crystal clear quality it offers,” said Jeff Rosica, senior vice president of Thomson’s Broadcast & Professional Solutions business unit. “What we are able to do with systems such as the one we have implemented at TSI in Lugano, is to help broadcasters through the transition to HD with solutions that meet their real workflow needs and are highly functional, yet fit into an existing broadcast installation because they are based on open standards.”
Aurora is a suite of software modules which enable production facilities to build a complete workflow around a central, networked server. The software runs on standard PCs so the physical workstations can take on whichever role a project needs at any time. For TSI, Thomson has supplied the Aurora ingest and playout.
The Grass Valley K2 Media Server combines Thomson’s unrivalled expertise in broadcast video server technology with the latest in standard IT technologies. The result is a client/server architecture that delivers file-based production and playout workflows which are simple to implement and operate, highly adaptable in terms of control and scalability, and very cost-effective.
The HD production system has been live since August 2007 in Lugano.
