Cloudbass Creates End-To-End, Multivendor UHD IP HDR OB Vehicle

Cloudbass has become the first company in the world to create a truly end-to-end, multivendor UHD IP HDR Outside Broadcast vehicle based on the ST2110 standard and with Axon’s Neuron signal processing technology at its core.

OB9, a 20 camera truck built from the ground up with help from systems integrator ES Broadcast, brings together best of breed products from many different manufacturers including Arista, Evertz, GVG, Ross, Calrec, Reidel and Sony. It uses Axon technology to seamlessly integrate them into a fast and highly flexible workflow that is perfectly suited to live sports coverage that forms the bulk of Cloudbass’ business. The sophistication of Axon’s technology also allows Cloudbass to future-proof its facilities and stay at the top of its game.

In total, OB9 features 21 Neuron units, each packed with a plethora of processing features such as edge synchronizers and converters. Every unit offers an impressive 200 Gb/s and 64 1080p signals or 16 UHD channels with up to 80 SDI connectors, all in a single 1RU.

"Neuron's processing power means that it can do a lot more in just one box," said Cloudbass Technical Director Michael Beaumont. "As a result, we need less hardware and external glue, which reduces the weight of the truck and makes is cheaper and easier to move, without impacting on workflow."

One of the main technical challenges of this project was integrating the ST2110 standard because different manufacturers use different block packing methods to transmit and receive data. Michael says Axon’s onsite support team helped identify these challenges during the build phase and worked hard to overcome them.

"Axon Neuron accepts streams from any of the kit in the truck no matter what packing method or standard the manufacturer is using, making it by far the most flexible piece on equipment we have," he said. "By removing the need for lots of external processing, Neuron gives the truck enormous flexibility, which proved particularly invaluable during our first UHD job for Sky Sports Boxing. Having up/down/cross conversion available to every path allowed me to run the truck internally UHD/3G and down-convert all of the feeds required for the other broadcasters onsite. Without Neuron, the amount of extra external glue required to provide frame-sync, colour correction and Up/Down/Cross conversion on every router input/output would be unimaginable."

Michael added that combining Neuron with Axon’s Cerebrum Control and Monitoring software was key to best of breed integration and guarantees an unprecedented level of control, all in one GUI.

"In our unique IP environment, interoperability of signals works well but controlling all the endpoint devices is still more complex than in traditional systems," Michael explained. "Cerebrum helps hide some of the complexities to the operators, and in some cases gives us critical work arounds to issues that are still to be resolved in hardware. A great feature of using Cerebrum with the Neuron platform is having the ability to create visual pages that can control and monitor many different signal statuses usually read from multiple devices. This helps our engineers diagnose issues and faults."

OB9 was officially unveiled this Autumn and has already been deployed on major projects for Sky Sports, including the UEFA Football Euro 2020 Qualifiers, and for the RugbyX Tournament on ITV.

"We covered eight major OBs in the truck’s first 40 days, which is a very tall order for a truck build that only commenced in August," Michael said. "Without Axon technology this would have been a very different truck. My hope is that, once even more new features for the Neuron are released and IP connectivity becomes standardised on other items of equipment, OB9 will continue to evolve to keep up with new requirements not even dreamt of yet."

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