MUNICH—NEP Belgium has taken delivery of core technology from Imagine Communications, including the company’s Platinum IP3 router, for a major refresh of its Unit 14 outside broadcast truck.

“Our Unit 14 still had many kilometers in it, but with a technology platform that was life-expired,” said Geert Thoelen, transitions manager at NEP Belgium.

“We wanted a solution that would fit into the existing space, would give us all the functionality we need today and be ready for the future, including increasing use of IP connectivity. And we could really only take the truck off the road for little more than a month earlier this year, so our partner had to be capable of moving swiftly to install and commission.”

Imagine and VP Media Solutions, its Belgian dealer and partner, were able to meet the tight deadline for the refurbishment, said Imagine.

The new Platinum IP3 router, which was delivered with a single 15RU chassis, offers high-density switching of HD-SDI signals and the capability to seamlessly integrate uncompressed video over IP, making it ready for a migration to IP connectivity, such as a move to Ultra HD signals, the company said.

The router installed in Unit 14 is also fitted with Platinum SX Pro multiviewer cards, which reduces the amount of rack space needed as well as power consumption. Overall system control is provided by Imagine’s Magellan SDN Orchestrator. It delivers unified operational interfaces in a hybrid environment, making the transition between SDI and software defined IP infrastructures easier.

“The small frame size fitted well into the truck, but what really made it the right choice for us was the integrated multiviewer,” Thoelen said. “The multiviewer is also much more flexible than our old monitoring setup. Unit 14 might do football Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then entertainment and concerts during the week, so we constantly need to change the configuration. We can set up as many PiPs as we need for whatever the director wants.”

The refresh of Unit 14 took five weeks. It returned in time to cover a Ladies of Soul concert in Amsterdam.

More information is available via Imagine Communications.

LONDON—As part of the newly redeveloped BBC Studioworks’ Television Center, Imagine has announced its Platinum IP3 routing technology is now part of the facility. The IP3 system will serve as a hug for managing SDI video and AES audio signals for the whole facility.

IP3 28RU

Core signal distribution is the IP3’s main functionality, but the platform also supports audio multiplexing and de-multiplexing , flexible and integrated multiviewer, and discrete AES or MADI signals. The IP3 works in a hybrid SDI-IP environment with transparent operations across the two signal formats, as well as synchronous switching between SDI and IP domains. An additional feature of the system is the Magellan SDN Orchestrator, which is a software control system for hybrid SDI-IP facilities that allows IP3 to be integrated into a service-oriented architecture.

The new BBC Studioworks facility will employ two IP3 28RU router frames. One will be dedicated to Studio TC1, while the other handles signaling for Studio TC2 and TC3. Both units support a mixture of copper and fiber connectivity and have interface modules to link to the facility-wide MADI audio infrastructure. Platinum SX Pro multiviewer modules are included in each frame to support multiple displays.

BBC Studioworks is currently implementing the Platinum IP3 systems at Television Centre in West London. The studio and post production facilities are expected to open as of Sept. 1.