DirectOut equips RTBF/NEP twin OBs
- Details
The two trucks were built at the German headquarters of system integrator Broadcast Solutions. The OBs are a joint development by the customer, Broadcast Solutions and NEP Belgium, who will lease the vehicles to RTBF. Both units make extensive use of DirectOut equipment for audio signal conversion, transmission and signal monitoring.
The two identical RTBF trucks come as full sized trailers and can work with up to 12 cameras (HD, but UHD-ready). They are designed as full-IP OBs, based on SMPTE ST 2110 but are capable of interfacing with baseband infrastructures. Therefore it was important that the audio infrastructure offers all common IP-based, digital and analogue formats in one vehicle.
To be as flexible as possible and to have all necessary tools at hand, each OB is equipped with a hand-picked DirectOut toolset.
Both OB trucks have to support all audio formats (analogue, AES3, MADI with SRC and Ravenna/AES67/ST2110) and this is where DirectOut comes into play. PRODIGY.MC takes care of all the intercom signals and interfaces to Riedel’s Artist 1024 Intercom Matrix. Using the RAV.IO module PRODIGY.MC converts analogue 4-wire audio to AES67 and vice versa.
Geert Thoelen, technical director at NEP Belgium, comments, “DirectOut equipment fits perfectly for the day to day use in broadcast environments. With the deployment of DirectOut equipment, RTBF get all the flexibility in there OB van they need. The tools are rock solid, work very stable plus with the modular approach of PRODIGY.MC they are ready for future changes, just by adding new interface modules.”
(Jim Evans)
