M6 takes advantage of the benefits of Evertz IP technology for its new playout center

The French broadcaster uses state-of-the-art Evertz equipment to transform its master control room, gaining more space for future channel expansion and facilitating the adoption of new formats.

Metropole Television (M6 Group) has future-proofed its new main playout room near Paris by deploying IP technology Evertz latest generation at the center of your operation. The step de SDI a IP (ST 2110) will allow M6 to easily incorporate new HD services, new delivery platforms and new video formats such as Ultra HD 4K y 8K.

Based in Neuilly sur Seine, M6's new master control room now hosts the broadcast of 11 channels, including the M6 ​​premium channel and other popular channels such as W9, Série Club, 6TER, TEVA, Paris Premiere, M6 Music and M6 International.

Franck Martin, technical director of M6, says that “investment in IP technology has made it much faster and easier for us to add more channels and offer UHD channels in the future.” “We have also improved the monitoring and ergonomics of our broadcast center by installing Evertz VUE software, which allows us to manage our video wall to turn on the screens when alarms are activated.”

"The black screen is less tiring for our technicians and turning on in alarm attracts more attention, compared to a permanently illuminated wall. In addition, the VUE shows the video sources and allows turning on directly on a touch screen for easier operation," he adds.

The new MCR of M6 has IP switching EXE-VSR from Evertz, which provides 46Tb/s switching capacity and offers exceptional flexibility and scalability for video over IP transport. Using SMPTE ST-2110, EXE supports up to 13,800 uncompressed HD-SDI signals, and many more when using compression technology such as JPEG-2000, H.264, or MPEG-2.

One section per channel

The installed system comprises 11 sections, one for each canal route and all with similar equipment sets. Common to each section is an advanced multi-image display processor with customizable next-generation Evertz image processing technology; a evBLADE Evertz offering high-density FPGA processing nodes for audio, video and ancillary data processing; a half ip gateway High-density Evertz offering conversion between SDI and all common IP formats; a Evertz advanced switch to protect the integrity of the output video, even when faced with a catastrophic error and a ST 2110 to HDMI converter. Each section also includes third-party equipment (controlled by NMOS IS-04/05) such as Harmonic media servers, Ross Video graphics engines, an Aeromax audio processor system, and a SCTE104 inserter.

Each section is built around a central Evertz system that includes the primary and redundant IP arrays EXE-VSR, until cEvertz Magnum controllers, of the VistaLink Pro servers for end-to-end network management and the Grand Master Clock of the Evertz network 5700MSC-IP and the Video Master Clock. The entire system is connected to eight VUE software-defined interfaces.

Fabrice Tauzies, chief engineer of the playout center, highlights that "we built the new MCR in the same place as the old one, so we faced some practical problems related to space. Obviously, we couldn't turn off and remove the old MCR because it was still handling the playout of all our channels, so we had to work around it. It was a challenge, but we took our time because we wanted to do it right and we weren't in a rush."

M6 migrated to the new system channel by channel, freeing up rack space for the next channel as it went.

“With our old system, each channel required two racks, but the new equipment is much more compact, and now we only need one rack per channel,” says Tauzies. “This means we have plenty of room to expand when M6 decides to add more channels in the future.”

Robert Peter, vice president of international operations at Evertz, highlights that "as this was one of the largest IP/ST 2110 installations in Europe, we were able to work closely with M6 in all stages of the project, from solution and design to deployment and training. We are very excited to continue providing local support for the deployment of the remaining channels and participation in any future M6 projects."

Having a solution that can be used for future projects was always M6's plan, and there is now talk of building a second backup IP playout facility, although this is still some way off in the future.