The Parliament of Catalonia enhances its live HD broadcasts with AJA solutions

AJA equipment allows the recording, conversion and synchronization of frames in the institutional signals of the Catalan parliament.

Since 2002, the Parliament of Catalonia produce at institutional sign of the Catalan chamber as a free public service and an educational resource for its citizens and media organizations.

Under the supervision of a close-knit team of broadcasting and engineering specialists, Barcelona-based Parlament manages all aspects of production and delivery about 150 hours of live video content monthly.

Located in the historic Parc de la Ciutadella, Parliament's production facilities include eight session rooms, seven television control rooms, two dedicated audio studios, a main control room and an editing room, housing all the video equipment necessary to distribute up to six programs to broadcasters, closed circuit television and Internet streaming channels.

The Parliament has trusted in the solutions of AJA for the recording, synchronization and frame conversion, including file capture and playback device Ki Pro Rack, the frame converter/converter FS2 dual channel and the versatile range of AJA mini converters.

Daniel Rodríguez Carvajal, broadcast engineer at the Parliament, comments that "to align ourselves with the broadcast industry and keep our facilities up to date, we have recently reviewed all operations and updated our workflow from SD to HD. AJA equipment was essential in helping us meet our main objective of achieving a more efficient operation and avoiding increased production costs."

Parliament's main recording system is shared with the public broadcaster TV3, which provides its ingestion and archiving systems and maintains all hardware and software necessary for the process through mutual agreement. This agreement saves the Parliament money, although the complex system requires software development, hardware integration and IT communication from both parties.

During the upgrade to HD, the Parliament chose to review its internal backup recording and replace your old tape recording devices. To replace outdated redundant recorders, Parliament required a flexible and reliable solution for seamless integration into its complex system.

The engineering team selected 14 AJA Key Pro Racks, versatile file-based recorders and players that feature industry-leading conversion technology for broadcast-quality up-conversion, down-conversion and cross-conversion with flexible connectivity in a compact 1RU rack-mount design.

"Our new line of Ki Pro Racks allows us to effortlessly record up to an entire week of production. They are reliable, easy to operate remotely and easily adapt to the limited amount of space available in our rack room," emphasizes Rodríguez Carvajal.

Deploying the new HD workflow required a couple of external frame synchronizers for use on mobile racks during live productions, especially critical for outdoor live broadcasts and the numerous events that the Parlament hosts… all with no margin for error.

Synchronization and conversion

To increase frame synchronization and conversion capabilities, Parliament selected a pair of AJA FS2 for high-density processing within a compact, rack-mountable 1RU form factor. This solution offers dual-channel conversion and frame synchronization, with flexible I/O support and power to meet the needs of the most demanding production environments. Each video processing channel can be used separately, effectively benefiting users with the ability to work with two different devices, or combined for maximum flexibility.

Additionally, the upgrade required a range of conversion solutions high quality independents to maintain video signal fidelity and enhance HD conversions between 3G-SDI and HDMI signals and 3G-SDI to HDMI 2.0 transformations up to 4K/UltraHD. The project required flexible, compact and easy to integrate converters, as many devices had to be installed in tight spaces (such as behind video screens) or connected for temporary conversion needs. AJA's reputation and portfolio of high-quality stand-alone conversion devices meant that Parliament was stocked with numerous AJA mini-converters, including Hi5-Plus y HA5-Plus for 3G-SDI to HDMI and HDMI to 3G-SDI conversions respectively, plus Hi5-4K-Plus para la conversión prístina de 3G-SDI a HDMI 2.0 con soporte para hasta 4K/UltraHD.

La nueva instalación, con sistemas AJA, lleva la firma del integrador Crosspoint, y permite la distribución final de seis canales de televisión institucional incluyendo señales HD-SDI y SD-SDI con audio embebido, además de CVBS con audio analógico balanceado. El Parlament entrega seis canales adicionales de transmisión para consumo en la web y ocho canales de CCTV para uso interno. Para la incorporación de futuros equipos nuevos, el Parlament instaló 18 nodos de comunicación adicionales a lo largo del edificio para permitir al equipo conectar los nuevos equipos a través de la fibra a cualquiera de las pantallas de la instalación.