162 BOARDS FOR PROSIEBENSAT.1 MEDIA AG'S HD PRODUCTION UPGRADE (December 2010)

German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG has selected 162 Crystal Vision interface boards for a new MCR for the production studios and to distribute signals all over its facility.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is a European media conglomerate which has operations in 13 European countries and broadcasts eleven television channels in Germany: SAT.1, ProSieben, kabel eins, SAT.1 HD, ProSieben HD, kabel eins HD, sixx, sixx HD, Sat.1 Comedy, kabel eins classics and 9Live.

With the need to upgrade its infrastructure in Munich to HD production capability, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG evaluated three interface suppliers and selected Crystal Vision for both technological and financial reasons.

79 of the boards are being used in the production studios’ new MCR.

Six Q-Down-A 3G are down converting the signals into the studio while an Up-and-down-AAFD up/down/cross converter with AFD insertion is in use as a multi-functional ‘tool’ for the MCR.

40 3GDA digital video distribution amplifiers are being placed before and after the router for the signal distribution in the production facility, while four VDA110M HD analogue video DAs are being used to distribute Black and Burst reference signals.

14 ViViD HD variable video delays are matching the delay of the multiviewer displays to the regular displays within the monitor wall. Three CoCo HD colour correctors are providing colour correction for the screen within the studio set to match the colours on air, while an SW221 3G is in use as a 2 x 2 disaster switch between the mixer output and matrix.

For embedding and de-embedding up to two groups of analogue and digital audio signals, ten TANDEM HD-21 embedders/de-embedders have been placed before and after the audio mixer.

The other 83 boards are being used to distribute signals all over the facility. 25 FTX 3G fibre optic transmitters and 31 FRX 3G fibre optic receivers are being used to transport the signals between the different buildings, with 27 SYNNER-E HD multi-functional synchronisers used for synchronising the lines.

The 162 boards are housed in 15 Indigo 2SE 2U frames which are located within the production facility. ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is using a centralised monitoring system for its full broadcast environment, and therefore monitoring and control of the Crystal Vision boards is being done through SNMP.

Frank Stephan, Deputy Head of Media Base Systems, commented: “The equipment fits our solution and the support and communication are excellent – and we are happy with how Crystal Vision is dealing with our ‘on the fly’ feature requests”.

The order was co-ordinated by Crystal Vision’s German distributor, SHM Broadcast GmbH, with the installation done by systems integrators BFE and Elvia-Pro.