Telegenic Goes Decentralized With Riedel To Deliver U.S. Golf Action

With its main office in the U.K. and a new U.S. office in Atlanta, outside broadcast (OB) company Telegenic has three decades of experience in providing high-quality service for productions of all sizes and complexities.

To bring live coverage of American golf to European viewers, Telegenic needed a world-class infrastructure for redundant and decentralized signal routing and transport. And to meet that challenge, Telegenic equipped its T-Wiz OB van with a comprehensive MediorNet-based signal transport, processing, and routing solution from Riedel Communications.

Telegenic's choice of MediorNet for its golf coverage is further validation of Riedel's concept of decentralized routing. At each golf tour venue, Telegenic deploys the MediorNet real-time signal transport, processing, and routing network to facilitate transport of HD video and a variety of audio signals. The network includes a MediorNet MetroN core router, 10 MicroN high-density media distribution network devices, and four MediorNet Compact Pro mainframes. All of the MediorNet components are connected over a 10 Gbps optical fiber network to form a decentralized routing matrix. WDM multiplexing is used to reduce the required number of single-mode fiber cores from six down to just two. Then, with MediorNet's automatic signal rerouting capabilities, Telegenic engineers can create a fully redundant optical backbone over just four cores. When covering the physical distances required on golf courses, this level of redundancy is absolutely mandatory.

Various MediorNet nodes handle signal transport to an on-site studio and to share feeds with the host OB truck. A MediorNet Compact Pro provides signals for a large, mobile, high-brightness touch-screen system that facilitates interactive player interviews and analysis from locations around the course.

The integrated solution also includes Riedel's RockNet 300 real-time audio distribution network that rides atop the MediorNet backbone. "Multiple formats, low-latency SRC, and plenty of MADI provide a fully interoperable audio domain. Integrating the MediorNet and RockNet systems into the Telegenic project has been a simple and effective process," said Simon 'Foz' Foster, deputy head of sound at Telegenic U.K.

The Telegenic setup is also the first North American deployment of Riedel's new MediorNet MultiViewer software App, running on two of the MicroNs. The MediorNet MultiViewer engine can take in any 18 signals from the network and output up to four unique multiviewer screens. These screens can be then used locally or be distributed back out onto the network for use at any other node. In creating up to four output screens, the MultiViewer features numerous configuration options including four screens of 4 x 4 splits, two screens of 2 x 9 splits, or a 1 x 9 plus two 4 x 4 splits, amongst others.

The MediorNet MultiViewer also includes a toolbox of powerful processing features including scaling, positioning, and the ability to incorporate graphics (like logos) and special widgets. Among these widgets are TSL 5.0- or Ember+-compatible tallies, Under-Monitor-Displays (UMD), audio-level meters, and several clocks. Clocks can be analog or digital and can be placed anywhere in a screen. These clocks can reference system time or timecode, and timecode can be derived manually or from LTC or NTP. Finally, up to 20 system counters can be established within a single network, and any counter widget can reference one of the system counters. All are controllable via Ember+.

"MediorNet, controlled by VSM hardware and virtual panels, provides our technical and production crew with unprecedented flexibility," said Andrew Wisniewski, U.S. operations supervisor, Telegenic. "The all-in-one approach drastically simplifies setup because we don't need to route signals in and out of various bits of equipment. Plus, Riedel's network-based design makes connecting the trucks and sharing resources much easier and more straightforward."

www.riedel.net

(JP/LM)