Dutch digital media provider ParkPost has integrated two Venice Media Production Hubs from Rohde & Schwarz DVS into the OB vans of its sister company DutchView. DutchView vans saw action at the 2012 UEFA Euros, Tour de France and the Olympic Games for German broadcaster RTL’s De Zomer Van 4 daily sports live show. Venice expands on video server features such as HD-SDI ingest and studio playout to include functions such as file ingest, metadata editing, transforming, media transfer and distribution. In doing so, the technology can serve as the central media production hub in the narrow and hectic environment of an OB environment making it easier for users to handle the ever-increasing number of media clips and jobs. In DutchView’s OB vans, Venice captures then stores incoming live signals via HD-SDI. Since the technology offers direct collaboration with Avid Media Composer, ParkPost’s editors can immediately access material at all connected workstations. Video can also be viewed and edited even while it is being recorded. Venice does not just offer live video ingest over HD-SDI; it also allows files to be ingested from P2 or XDCAM storage media. Edited sequences can be directly transferred to Venice and then be placed in the production chain. The subsequent playout of the edited material requires no additional equipment. A combination of the DVS Media Production Hub with the Spycer content control software is especially helpful in fast media turnaround scenarios. It supports such codecs as Avid DNxHD, Apple ProRes 422 and Panasonic AVC-Ultra to provide users with maximum workflow flexibility. Gerbrand De Ridder, R&D manager and manager of the projects department at ParkPost said: “For fast-paced news production every second counts and there is just no room for errors. Venice not only brings considerable time savings, it also offers stability and efficiency. The compact chassis takes up only little space which is essential in an OB van environment.” ParkPost is part of Consolidated Media Industries (CMI) also comprising DutchView, Infostrada Sports Group and NLBuzz. CMI assists with the making of around a quarter of all Dutch television productions daily. – Adrian Pennington www.cmi-holding.comwww.dvs.dewww.parkpost.tv
