France Télévisions optimizes its operational efficiency with a Prismon master control from Pixel Power

public television France Televisions has initiated a series of projects focused on gaining operational efficiency. Among them, the adoption of Prismon's multi-screen and monitoring platform stands out. Pixel Power (Rohde & Schwarz).

This solution has helped France Télévisions migrate the broadcast of five premium channels from the same number of dedicated control rooms to a single master room, while still providing the quality control and monitoring that a major television network demands.

France Télévisions contacted its French systems integration partner Euplink with the aim of finding a cost-effective way to optimize the broadcast of its five national networks and 22 unique output streams covering a wide range of content from news, arts, culture, documentaries, entertainment and children's programs. One of the main objectives of the project was the consolidation of the five channels into a single main control room, using the latest technology to ensure rapid response, complete control and monitoring without compromising output integrity. After analyzing these requirements and the additional desire for adopt TSoIP and ST 2110 without giving up SDI workflows, Euplink opted for Prismon.

Prismon's powerful configuration tools have been critical to the success of the implementation, allowing create and reconfigure multiple tiles instantly. This solution also supports audio and auxiliary data, allowing the operator to select the channels they want to listen to, as well as perform tests and measurements on all channels. These tools have allowed France-tv to develop the concept of penalty screen. While the displays and metering of all outputs can be configured to suit the operator, the center display becomes the penalty screen highlighting any issues requiring immediate attention. Relevant test screens also appear on this central display and an audible alert is emitted to alert the operator that intervention is required.

Lou Agache, project director at France Télévisions, says, "The Prismon platform has made a significant difference to our operational efficiency. We have been able to consolidate and simplify our monitoring, and the rapid error detection and intuitive displays help our operators monitor all our outputs with confidence."

Prismon quality tests and alerts are fed into the emissions management system EVS France-tv's Cerebrum for subsequent audit trail. Prismon can be easily integrated with third-party systems through a API RESTful or through a SNMP connection standard.

“Prismon is an incredibly flexible and scalable solution, offering much more than tiles on a screen,” he says. Marcus Ruoff, Product Manager of Pixel Power for Prismon. "It provides a centralized hub for all aspects of quality control. At the same time, the software-defined architecture is extremely processor-efficient: complete monitoring and control of 22 unique streams on France-tv is done with a single server, which makes a real difference when taking into account the carbon footprint of an installation."