The remote implementation of CyLTV: immediate connection Madrid – Valladolid

For several months now, Castilla y León Television (CyLTV) produces a weekly episode of the daily news program 'Question of priorities on a set located in the heart of Madrid. It does so under a remote production model managed from its studios in Valladolid. Antonio Rodríguez, technical director of programs, and Mario López, technical director of news, explain the genesis and analyze the performance of this interesting production model.

Year 2021. In the midst of a pandemic, CyLTV makes the decision to undertake the transfer of its delegation in Madrid. It is not done with the aim of reducing costs or moving to a different area of ​​the city, always punished by its rents. On the contrary, the regional television of Castilla y León runs a ambition exercise. And this move not only includes more facilities for the human and technical resources of its Madrid delegation, but also space for the construction of a multipurpose set of 70 square meters.

This study is designed with a dual purpose: to be able to offer it to the industry for its recruitment, so that any interested party can have facilities in the heart of the Salamanca neighborhood with all the necessary technology to hold their event or broadcast, and produce weekly an episode of the informative magazine par excellence of Castilian-Leonese television: Question of priorities. The objective of this Madrid edition of the program is to be able to count on more frequently guests and panelists close to current national political and social events.

That a television with regional and local reach creates a studio in a delegation is nothing exceptional. However, it is the decision that Antonio Rodriguez y Mario Lopez took when shaping the technical skeleton of this space.

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Remote realization: an opportunity

Resource management is a maximum to continue in the always constant world of technological evolution in the broadcast industry. The obsolescence of equipment, accelerated by a technological evolution With no signs of taking their foot off the accelerator, it forces television and radio stations to study investments, amortizations or opportunities that involve a more intelligent use of resources.

“We have made a model of remote realization tailored to our needs with some very tight costs”.

In this regard, CyLTV made the decision to create a set that did without equipment mixing venues or graphics, so that these were managed externally from its central studios in Valladolid. Rodríguez provides more details: "We have made a remote performance model tailored to our needs with very tight costs. Even so, the engineering design was very versatile, so this space can be scalable in the future, including local mixing systems or more camera and microphone systems."

This approach, according to López, includes operational and budgetary benefits, since it has allowed television not to have to resort to a staff expansion or having to acquire additional hardware that, inevitably, would require updates in the medium term: "What we have built is a complete television studio, but not a production. For that, we take advantage of the production equipment in our central studios."

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The technology of the CyLTV study

The Madrid set of CyLTV is based on a design by Rodriguez and Lopez in which the needs and objectives were noted, although Telefónica Broadcast Services was the company in charge of carrying out the planimetry and executing the work.

The stage space is committed to a “versatile” scenery” supported by different methacrylate panels with LED strips and different monitors Samsung 75-inch QLED 75Q60T, elements that help provide a sense of depth despite the small dimensions of the set. Everything is captured through four cameras: two PTZ Sony BRC-H900, controlled from the control room with the RM-IP500 panel, as well as two Sony PXW-Z280, one of them on a hydraulic pedestal equipped with a 17” prompter. TVPrompt and another on a 2.35 meter light manual crane. Both models have the same type of sensor, which, after adjusting the blacks and colorimetry, has made it possible to ensure visual continuity without the need to make major adjustments in production. Audio, on the other hand, is handled around a wireless microphone system Sony MB-X6 with microphones Sony UTZ-M03.

The control room lacks key equipment for production, given the decision to opt for remote production from Valladolid, although it has all the technical equipment necessary to produce independently after adaptation. Until that time comes, the CyLTV team has a 24-channel audio desk. Behringer, of self-amplified monitors JBL 85W, a multi-panel of Blackmagic, a 24-channel DMX lighting control table, the recorder HyperDeck Studio from Blackmagic, distribution electronics and audio processing Albalah and a decoder SRT for video return. This equipment is completed with a central solution for Castilla y León Televisión's remote production model: the encoder Aviwest AW-HE4000 H.265 of four entries.

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How does remote realization work?

Every Monday, Question of priorities goes live relying on remote production systems CyLTV. The private television technology team uses the encoder Aviwest AW-HE4000 to send the four encoded signals in a single UHD signal which is subsequently divided again into four HD channels upon arrival at the central studio of the television Information Services in Valladolid. In parallel, the use of embedding cards Albalah allows transporting audio packets.

“We have reached a synchronization level with the equipment that results in a tremendously agile realization”.

In the Valladolid studios, the signal reaches the decoders directly Aviwest which, in fact, are deployed in each and every one of the territorial centers of the chain. This would allow, if strictly necessary, this remote implementation model could be replicated in another different center. To return the video and audio, the SRT technology, always with the objective, says Rodríguez, of reducing the return as much as possible. To do this, the CyLTV engineering team relies on equipment encoders and decoders of Kiloview.

This remote implementation model only requires three technicians from the Madrid set: of the camera operators (for the master plan and for the crane) and a third control technician handling the robotic cameras. The rest of the production is carried out with technical personnel located in Valladolid; the same one, by the way, that is in charge of carrying out the usual daily format. In this way, continuity is guaranteed in time and form of the format: double or triple windows, images to contextualize the themes, instructions from the production to the camera operators, inclusion of graphics and even augmented reality elements.

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The challenges: latency, synchronization…

Currently, CyLTV has been able to build a workflow reliable that allows each program to be carried out in real time, an achievement that has required a period of adaptation to processes previously unprecedented for the television technical team.

López considers that the greatest challenge when establishing these remote implementation processes corresponds to the audio transport. In his own words: "Contrary to what it may seem, the synchronization of the video did not pose major problems. If there is a frame We will not notice the gap in the video, but the audio does not support that margin. It took some time to adjust, but we finally solved the problem by packaging all the audio into a single video signal. (…) However, the sound technicians located in Valladolid have a series of tools for delay at your disposal in case we see any greater gap in some of the initial tests.”

Other issues that worried the Castilla y León Television team were the delay of the orders, added to the 0.8 second delay it takes for the camera signal in VBR mode to reach Valladolid. This time, López points out, is the “minimum” that Aviwest allows to have a “small buffer” that will ensure that the camera signal “does not drop.” The adaptation of technicians and operators to this circumstance has required a adaptation period; Today, López considers that all the problems have been solved: “We have reached a level of synchronization with the team that results in tremendously agile execution.”

For now, it has been decided that the control of the PTZ cameras will continue to be carried out from Madrid for operability and to save a few seconds of delay in transporting the orders. However, CyLTV's remote production proposal continues to advance and both López and Rodríguez do not rule out that, in the future, these robotic cameras can be managed from their studios, since all the elements of the television's Madrid headquarters are included in its MacroLAN.

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Remote production and system virtualization: new ways

Remote production has changed the paradigm of a large part of Spanish television. In fact, it was the flexibility in external coverage with security solutions. Aviwest one of the main reasons that led the CyLTV technical team to test the possibility of establishing the remote realization model applied to its delegation in Madrid.

The Castilian-Leonese television technology team closely follows trends such as IP technology In the broadcast world, the 5G, he cloud use o to technology virtualization, symptoms of an industry in transformation towards the scalability and flexibility of its solutions. “For now, having real-time communication in the studios gives us operational advantages, but, without a doubt, the industry is aiming towards reducing resources maintaining or even increasing the possibilities"says Rodríguez when asked if the remote control model of study from central production studios could be extended to other production spaces of the regional television of Castilla y León.

"The IP burst with quite reasonable results he has done rethink paper of the television systems”.

The decision to skip or adopt any of the previously mentioned workflows or technologies must be accompanied by guarantees regarding reliability or stability. However, López also emphasizes that the decision will not only have to come from the engineering, but the management teams will also have an important voice in the decisions. administration and management of each television: "I understand that investing in production equipment, especially at the speed at which broadcast equipment is renewed, requires careful thought. What is happening? That the emergence of IP with quite reasonable results has made us rethink the role of systems in television."

"In the future, new projects will emerge, and in all of them we will think about what is the best and most profitable form of production. Of course, we are clear that we have found the most appropriate solution for our Madrid set," says the technology team of CyLTV.

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez