RTVE in Sant Cugat moves towards a fully IP infrastructure

Migration to HD completes at RTVE facilities in the Canary Islands. In addition, the first stone has been laid in the migration to HD and IP in Sant Cugat and integration of the Roc Boronac studio with remote production capacity.

The Operations Directorate of Spanish Radio Television (RTVE) is advancing at a good pace, despite the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has on the transition from an SDI digital environment to audiovisual infrastructure operated entirely under IP technology at its production center in San Cugat (Barcelona).

This December the project has passed the interoperability tests of the pilot study. In them, the RTVE engineering teams and the integrators awarded the file have verified that the IP interconnection and the PTP sync among the main electronic devices in the chain work precisely.

In addition, it has been demonstrated that all equipment correctly transmits and receives video, audio and data in the ST2110 IP standard format while all can be adequately governed by a control system through NMOS/Ember+ protocols.

The managers and technicians of the Sant Cugat center have collaborated in the detailed configuration tasks of the systems so that the design adjusts to the needs and peculiarities of their studies.

After the acceptance of the tests carried out, the green light has been given to continue the project which will culminate, if the pandemic does not prevent it, with the start-up of studies 3 and 4 during the month of March and that of studies 1 and 2 in June. They will be the first completely IP studios to operate in Spain and one of the first in Europe.

The project was awarded to Telefónica, being Crosspoint the person in charge of the batch of IP cameras Grass Valley that will be used in the Sant Cugat studies. For the IP network infrastructure, the Corporation has relied on Fabric technology from Cisco, while the IP audio will be managed from a Lawo system. As for the gateways and multiviewers, they have been manufactured by Theirs y Embrionix (Riedel). Lawo también ha aportado su sistema de control para entornos broadcast VSM.

Para la monitorización, un elemento clave en una red IP, la opción elegida viene de la mano de Smart y Scope (Lawo), mientras que los sincronismos se generarán desde equipamiento de Tektronix, al igual que los sistemas de test y medida.

Por otro lado, en esta nueva infraestructura se integrará el estudio de la calle Roc Boronac (Barcelona) que ahora contará con capacidad para remote production.

HD en RTVE Canarias

Este mes de diciembre ha culminado la migration to HD in the facilities of RTVE in the Canary Islands. Sus instalaciones se han renovado completamente con tecnología de alta definición HD. En marzo, la Dirección de Operaciones emprendió la actualización tecnológica del centro de producción de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, pero la pandemia obligó a detener la instalación de los nuevos sistemas.

En junio se pudieron retomar los trabajos, que concluyeron a finales de julio. De septiembre a noviembre se ha renovado y equipado completamente el centro de Tenerife. Y finalmente, con la llegada a las islas de la nueva unidad móvil HD en los primeros días de diciembre, ha culminado la migración a HD.

The work of the RTVE engineering area, with the invaluable collaboration of the technical manager of the Canary Islands and colleagues from the Las Palmas and Tenerife, together with the staff of the installation company, have allowed us to successfully face a complex project developed in the difficult situation created by the pandemic.

In the two Canarian centers, all the generation and distribution of synchronisms, as well as all the modular electronics, have been renewed. A new has been implemented IP technical network that interconnects all subsystems that make up its equipment and allows access and control of all of them from a central location, and facilitates connectivity with the outside for remote access to manufacturers' technical services.