A Practical Case Study of UHD Production Over IP Dafydd Rees Deputy Director of Operations Arena Television
The Arena Group comprises Arena Avia-on which owns and operates a fleet of 9 helicopters and 3 execu8ve jets. Arena Television is one of the biggest OB operators in the UK with a fleet of 12 produc8on trucks, holding contracts to cover the UK and Europe’s biggest sports and entertainment events for the con8nent’s foremost broadcasters. Dafydd Rees has more than 20 years’ experience working in the OB industry, many at engineering leadership and directorship roles.
The World’s First Glass-to-Glass IP Trucks: OB X and OB Y
• 32 cameras • Simultaneous UHD/HD production • Operational since September, 2016
The Challenge • Build a truck that can…
• scale to a large event (32 cameras+) even in UHD • enable simultaneous UHD/HD production from one truck • be HDR ready • present a familiar user interface
Why IP? • Clear advantage in scalability • 32 UHD cameras, 12 6-channel UHD replay servers, multi-viewing for 478 unique sources simply not possible with quad SDI routing
• Clear advantage in flexibility • Simultaneous UHD/HD • HDR • Signal format flexibility
The Specs – OB X, OB Y and OB Z Video
Production
Sound
• Grass Valley 4ME K-Frame Kayenne vision mixer
• Spacious 240sq ft production gallery
• Calrec Apollo 64 motorised fader audio mixing desk
• GV Kaleido KMX multiviewers
• Multiviewer driven monitoring
• GV Densité infrastructure • GV Node IP Processing
• UHD PV & TX • Touch pad system to allow self-programming of monitor wall.
• EVS and Sony Servers
• 3 Tiers of production desks
• 32 on-board camera channels
• Seating for up to 16 people
• Cisco 40GbE IP switch • TICO 10GbE and UHD 2Si
• • • •
Hyrda-2 Bluefin-2 TR03/04 Auxes & 8 groups
• Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Atmos • IP dataflow • Extensive digital talkback
Results • Both OB X and OB Y trucks have been an operational success • OB X has been employed in BT Sport’s coverage of Premier League soccer. • OB Y has been employed in Sky Sports’ coverage of rugby union.
• IP Technology has performed well. • Expanding fleet to include a new truck, OB Z and by refurbishing an existing truck, OB 12 – replacing baseband with IP.
Human Impact of IP: Operators • To operators (TD, replay operators, audio etc), IP is “business as usual” • System responsiveness, latency and quality same as with SDI
Human Impact of IP: EIC • To the EIC, IP is a big change
2.88 Tbps
Cisco N9272Q “SPINE” Network Switch
• Training is required…
FP+ E QS 40Gb 18 x
18 x 40Gb E QS FP+
Cisco N9272Q “LEAF” Network Switches 12 x 40GbE QSFP+
12 x 40GbE QSFP+
GV Node
12 x 40GbE QSFP+
GV Node 58 x 10GbE SFP +
IPG-‐3901 IP/SDI Gateway Cards
12 x 40GbE SFP+
GV Node 57 x 10GbE SFP +
Kayenne Switcher
GV Node 58 x 10GbE SFP +
LDX 86N Cameras
57 x 10GbE SFP +
10G/40G IP Networks and UHD • 10G/40G networks provide excellent signal density and
aggregation
• With light 4:1 compression (TICO), three 12G UHD signals fit on one 10G cable
• TICO compression is visually lossless, with imperceptible system latency • Zero pushback from our clients
Conclusion: IP Works • It enables UHD production at scale and complexity required for major events
• No impact to operational staff • Learning curve for EIC – training is required • 10G/40G Networks with TICO excellent for UHD – proven with clients
Thank you to our key technology partners • ASGB (coachwork) • Videlio (integration) • Grass Valley (IP nodes, vision mixer, cameras, multi-viewers) • Cisco (data switching) • Calrec (audio mixer) • Riedel (comms) • Lawo,VSM (control interface)