Télé-Québec gains flexibility in studio production with an EVS workflow

The new workflow has been launched in three studios that Télé-Québec rents to external clients in order to maximize the use of its studios while reducing costs.

Télé-Québec, the Canadian public broadcaster with French-speaking programming, has launched a powerful rapid response workflow for studio production based on technology from EVS.

The new workflow has been launched in three studios that Télé-Québec rents to external clients in order to maximize the use of its studios while reducing costs. These new facilities are used for a wide variety of productions such as the weekly current affairs Bazzo.tv, the daily space for preschoolers 1, 2, 3… Giant, and other children's spaces such as The Argonauts y Tell me everything, as well as the contest La Une Qui Tue and Brilliant!

Télé-Québec has equipped each studio with an identical EVS workflow based on the XT series server. The three studios are interconnected through the centralized EVS network that allows sharing media resources between different studios. The work scheme is based entirely on files, eliminating the cost of tapes and reducing personnel and maintenance costs.

Michel Séguin, technical director of Télé-Québec, highlighted that "when renting our studios, we needed a highly reliable and flexible solution that would allow us to host many different productions each day without having to change the entire set-up. With the XT server's support for multiple native codecs and the possibility of easily configuring the ingest and output channels, the EVS solution gives us the flexibility that allows us to maximize the use of our facilities."

Each studio features a six-channel XT server for ingest from studio cameras, with native support for multiple codecs. The IPDirector production management suite provides flexibility and powerful asset management capabilities. Its editing module in the IPEdit timeline itself allows Télé-Québec to edit material as it is being ingested, thereby saving time.

The XStore nearline storage system eliminates the need in Télé-Québec to catalog, store and manage numerous external drives. Additionally, XStore's transcoding capabilities also allow for faster than real-time transcoding without the need to create low-resolution proxies.

All studios have xsquare and XTAccess software for transfer management. Additionally, EVS XFReader is used for viewing MXF or GXF files while the LSM remote controller is used for instant playback.