RTBF trusts EVS to develop the control room of the future

EVS will be the company in charge of working jointly with the Belgian broadcaster RTBF in the development of a new generation control room.

Based on the capabilities of the emissions control and monitoring system Cerebrum of EVS, the solution aims to introduce a common production environment that users can access through a dynamic and flexible interface, whether they produce content for the station's television, radio or digital platforms. He front end resulting will show the necessary functionalities and propose various widgets that adapt to multiple production requirements as well as the operator skills.

The solution, which is being developed with a view to the transfer of the RTBF to your future production plant Media Square in 2024, is an evolution of the Control Room 42 (or CR42), a prototype born from the station's ambition to reinvent its working methods using cutting-edge technology. The proof of concept built by RTBF users and engineers gained great visibility in the sector for its innovation potential and was even awarded a technology and innovation award from the RTBF. UER in 2020.

Thierry Piette, director of this RTBF renovation project, welcomes the fact that EVS was the winner of the tender: "EVS's reliable solutions and future technology roadmap are providing us with the right foundations to realize our ambitious vision, outlined in the CR42, of the RTBF. As a result of this partnership, our teams can expect to work in a highly flexible, software-defined environment that eliminates the limitations of physical, dedicated workspaces, and that can easily adapt to all our future production needs."

Creativity and technology

In addition to expanding the scope of operational control, the flexible control room solution will allow supporting new creative formats y optimize infrastructure back-end without the quality of the result being affected. Furthermore, an open architecture will allow control any EVS or third-party products needed in live production through modular interfaces that abstract the complexities of the underlying infrastructure from the user. The solution will also be scalable on demand, to accommodate additional operators if a live production suddenly grows in complexity or to allow RTBF to quickly adapt its control room functions for back-to-back productions.

Serge Van Herck, general director of EVS, is very happy to work with RTBF “on an innovative solution that fosters the deployment of EVS's visionary project in many aspects: transforming the user experience of live production, relying on flexible infrastructures, optimizing resources and accelerating the client's capabilities in terms of live storytelling.”

On the other hand, Cécile Gonfroid, RTBF CTO, considers EVS to be the ideal partner to undertake this innovation project: "As a long-time customer, we have witnessed first-hand EVS' deep understanding of live environments, and we are confident that their teams will continue to work closely with our staff to ensure that the solution perfectly meets our needs in terms of usability. This project forms an integral part of our 2027 strategic roadmap, in which we aim to modernize our live production infrastructure across all of our facilities in the French-speaking community of Belgium. and, most importantly, where we position RTBF as a driver of technological innovation in a rapidly changing media landscape.”