Crystal Vision Provides Foundation For ORF Studio Upgrade

Crystal Vision has won a contract to provide the core technical infrastructure for a major upgrade to studio RP3 at the headquarters of ORF in Vienna, Austria.

The contract calls for close to 200 individual Crystal Vision modules including fibre connectivity, up/down/cross converters, synchronisers and analogue/digital conversion. The project also calls for a large number of distribution amplifiers; this was one of the key requirements in the system design, and the Crystal Vision architecture is particularly well suited to delivering multiple outputs simply and cleanly.

ORF is the national broadcaster in Austria, transmitting five channels and contributing to a joint venture with ZDF and ARD of Germany and SRG of Switzerland. Studio RP3 is usually equipped with eight cameras, along with extensive server recording and playback technology, giving it the capability of supporting a wide range of programming.

The new modules, which are housed in 19 Indigo 2U frames, were supplied and engineered by Gelantec, Crystal Vision’s distributor in Austria. Gelantec is working with the ORF planning department to ensure a seamless project to complete the installation. The new studio will be handed over for acceptance tests at the beginning of 2016.

"A 2010 upgrade used existing components like the router and monitors to get RP3 to HD as quickly as possible," said Ulrich Schoenfisch of ORF. "We are now building an environment for the studio to match the other production studios in our centre. Crystal Vision interface products have proved very successful here, and they are delivering the right functionality for this upgrade, too."

For Crystal Vision, Managing Director Philip Scofield said: "The advantage of working with a systems-led distributor like Gelantec is that they develop a real engineering understanding of our products. That means they identify and make use of some of the advanced features to make better solutions for the customer. This has really proved itself in our relationship with ORF."

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