Genesis needed to transmit 10 broadcast quality duplex audio channels between South Africa and France, and similarly, six duplex channels between Wimbledon and France. Digigram was able to provide a simple and cost-effective solution based on the IQOYA*SERV/LINK multiple stereo / multichannel IP audio distribution codec.
In this instance, Digigram provided six IQOYA*SERV/LINK devices for a fully redundant contribution system; one 'main' unit and a second unit for redundancy purposes for each site (Wimbledon, Paris, South Africa). The flexibility and scalability of the IQOYA*SERV/LINK system meant that a single Paris-based unit was able to simultaneously communicate with both London and Johannesburg, thereby handling all 16 duplex channels at once.
Another feature of interest was the opportunity to independently select an encoding format for each channel.
According to Abel Leite from Genesis Networks, the advantages of the Digigram IQOYA*SERV/LINK solution are clear. Once the channel requirement had been met, the most important criterion for us was reliability. Our World Cup and Wimbledon broadcasts are watched by literally millions of people, so failure is not an option.
Clearly we had redundant solutions in place just in case, but the reliability of the Digigram platform combined with the multiple built-in fail-over options was very attractive. Set-up and implementation of the system was straightforward, and the system has proved both flexible and cost-effective. We'd certainly use it again.
(Jim Evans)
