ETB installs an advanced communications infrastructure from Riedel

Supplied and integrated by Crosspoint, the Artist solution allows ETB to now have flexible intercom communications throughout the Miramón facility according to the needs of each production.

The Basque public broadcaster Euskal Irrati Telebista (ETB) has deployed an intercom system based on the digital matrix Riedel Artist within its main production center in Miramón (Donosti-San Sebastián). Supplied and integrated by Crosspoint, the Artist solution allows ETB to now have flexible intercom communications throughout the Miramón facility according to the needs of each production, in addition to voice over IP communications with the regional headquarters in Bilbao.

Juan Carlos Loroño, head of ETB's production centers, admits that "we evaluated a wide variety of solutions and integrators, and finally we opted for the Riedel and Crosspoint Artist system for offering us the greatest benefit and highest quality. Since we put the Artist system into operation, we are very satisfied with its capabilities and its impact on the day-to-day work in Miramón."

The Artist solution at ETB's Miramón production center offers a distributed and decentralized architecture, scalable for all communications. The 160x160 port Riedel intercom system is comprised of the Artist 128 and Artist 32 mainframes with 56 ports configured for different control panels, 80 ports for four-wire analog audio, eight ports for VoIP use, and eight ports for a partyline system. The entire system is configured under the AES3/EBU standard, with level controls at each crossover point individually, non-blocking connections and redundant power supplies and controls.

Artist units are complemented by 46 2000 Series LCD control panels, a PCC-1116 commentator control panel, 10 wired belt packs, and several VoIP multiplexers. For sporting events produced from Miramón, the commentator panel supports two positions working in the same language or other multi-language configurations.

System configuration

Riedel's Director software makes system configuration, monitoring and control easier, with an intuitive interface that simplifies the entire configuration, no matter how complex the settings may be.

While the remote configuration functions allow control from Bilbao on weekends when there are no technical personnel in Miramón, ETB also has the option of having a partial system configuration allowing users to upload and save configuration files in only part of the system without affecting communications carried out in other areas of the production center.

Juan Olalde, technical coordinator of the ETB production center in Miramón, highlighted that "the ability to change the configuration of a production studio without affecting the configuration of another production is very important. This flexibility allows multiple simultaneous changes necessary in the daily preparation of a program to be carried out and saved in partial files that are organized by the type of production, available personnel or operating model."