MORE SUCCESS IN RUSSIA: ZVEZDA CHOOSES CRYSTAL VISION (December 2005)

Zvezda or ‘Star’ is a new Russian State TV broadcaster owned and run by Russia’s Ministry of Defence for the patriotic education of their country’s youth. In connection with their forthcoming expansion, Zvezda has placed a large order for Crystal Vision products through Vidau Systems, a systems integrator company and Crystal Vision’s Russian distributor located in Moscow.

This is the second significant order Vidau Systems has won in a short period of time, following their recent successful installation of Crystal Vision boards at Yugra TV in Siberia.

Zvezda commenced broadcasting in February 2005 whilst located in temporary premises and using rented equipment. They are scheduled to move to a new location within Moscow following installation of the Crystal Vision equipment especially purchased for this site.

In May 2006 following their relocation, Zvezda is due to expand its broadcasting to ten channels - both terrestrial and satellite - with their programmes being transmitted throughout the whole of Russia. The 20 hours of broadcasts per day will include a wide range of programmes – films, music, documentaries and news, which will primarily be designed to appeal to teenagers and young adults.

The order received from Zvezda involves 32 boards including 23 TANDEM-110s to embed, de-embed and process the analogue audio signals involved in the broadcasts. Four DDAA246s, a monitoring encoder with distribution amplifier, will perform the conversion of SDI into composite.

Within the newly built virtual set, five Safire chroma keyers will be used to create the realistic virtual outputs required by Zvezda during their broadcasts. The Crystal Vision boards will be housed in ten Indigo frames and controlled using Statesman control software.