Station to Station
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Abit-Quantel
interface developed to WDR requirements A Phoenix is rising Since Autumn 2000,
Phoenix, the information, event and documentary broadcaster for ARD and ZDF,
has been transmitting from the ex-ZDF Bonn Capital City studios, with
Quantel's Clipbox Power forming the centrepiece for editing and playout. Phoenix
first went on air in 1997 via Astra 1 C. Every household with a satellite
system can receive Phoenix, and Deutsche The Phoenix
production and transmission infrastructure was first put in place in 1997 at
WDR in Cologne. The difficulty and challenge of the original operational
concept was the integration of a central server for the recording, editing
and transmission into a broadcast chain. Once the decision had been made to
use a Quantel Clipbox with Newsbox editing systems, the next difficulty arose
-- how to integrate the digital equipment into the existing analogue
environment via D/A- and A/D converters and MUX/DeMUX. As Phoenix broadcast from
the 'old' WDR-transmission control SK11, all the equipment was exclusively
operated by WDR employees until the move to Bonn. However, ARD and ZDF
employees were already involved jointly in the editorial programming. Viewers embraced Phoenix
quickly, and before it went on air the decision was made to move the channel
to the ZDF studios in Bonn because of the government's decision to resite the
capital of Germany in Berlin. Before the move from SK11 in Cologne to the
modified studio in Bonn, Quantel supplied a new Clipbox with Editbox Seats
for WDR to test in operation for the first time. In the meantime, WDR
purchased a 50% share in the ZDF Bonn studio. The plan was to move to
Bonn during the Parliamentary summer break, as Phoenix mostly broadcast
documentaries and did not generally put out live reports during that
four-week period, thus putting less demand on transmission. For a short
period, the complete Phoenix broadcast transmission had to be moved into
another WDR studio while the equipment from SK11 was transferred to the Bonn
studios. For those four weeks Phoenix was transmitted from WDR Studio B. A
large number of personnel were required, as it was operating without its
server, NLE and transmission automation. WDR's production, video engineering
and technical planning departments worked together to complete the move ready
for transmission from its new home on 7 August 2000. CONCEPT REALISED All the experience gained
during the early years of transmission from Cologne was intregrated into the
new transmission operations of Phoenix in Bonn. While the move was being
carried out, 13 ZDF employees were also integrated into the production
operation. The two shifts required during transmission are covered by 26 ZDF
and WDR employees. The third shift, 00.00 to 08.00, is covered by automatic
transmission. The ZDF and WDR engineers were trained on the new equipment --
Clipbox, Editbox Seats, Philips DD35 vision mixer, Lawo mc2 audio
mixer, etc -- during the last phase of the changeover in parallel with the
transmission from Cologne. Once the installation of
the central equipment had taken place (i.e. routers from Metawave and Sandar,
video distribution amplifiers from Ross and GVG, Tektronix sync generators
and switcher units, time code generators, etc) and the commissioning of the
Lawo mc2 audio mixer and Philips DD35 video mixer was complete,
Clipbox Power and the three Editbox Seats came into operation in August 2000.
THE POWER TO SERVE Clipbox Power was
installed with a view to extending production requirements while
simultaneously guaranteeing the transmission operation. These requirements
included the ability to edit four live events in parallel, allowing
time-shifted replay of one event and simultaneous editing work. Further
requirements from the journalists, such as more storage, a third edit suite
and improvements to the audio processing, could also be met with the new
generation of Quantel equipment in place. Another saving was made
by combining Clipbox Power with the Abit automation system. The Abit-Quantel
interface was developed to specifications supplied by WDR. The Abit run-list
is able to record live events or copy them across directly to the Clipbox or
onto one of the Cart machines. Crash recording is also possible either on the
Clipbox or a Cart machine at any time. Clipbox Power is sometimes used as a
cache for trailers - trailers are copied across from the Cart machines via
Abit onto the Clipbox from where they will be transmitted. A Sandar SDI router is
also controlled directly by Abit, switching the individual VTR machines and
server channels according to the transmission sequence and allowing bypassing
of the vision mixer during fully automated nighttime broadcasts. In addition,
because of the increased editing requirements at Phoenix, both existing
Newsboxes were upgraded to Editbox Seats, with a third Editbox Seat added on. Phoenix opted for the
DVCPRO50 format because the Bonn studios operate in a Digibeta environment. This
was for two reasons: quality and storage capacity (it gives journalists up to
50 hours storage). Quantel also offers additional storage units, so storage
capacity can be taken up to 200 hours with Clipbox Power. OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY The advantages when
processing audio with the Editbox/Clipbox are that no mixdown has to take
place when an edit is made (hard cut, wipe or dissolve) -- it can be played
out directly. Audio mixdown via the Editbox internal mixing desk is also
possible. A separate sound-mixing desk was installed for playout to tape or
recording in from external signal sources. Lawo mc2 is available
for extensive audio processing and sound mixing during studio productions:
this could be replaced by a Yamaha 02R as a backup. Although these devices
are not compatible, the backup solution is a cheap one, thus eliminating Quantel's Dylan disk
arrays also cut down on maintenance costs as defragmentation is unnecessary. Only
newly rendered frames are saved to disk when processing clips. And again,
once the raw material is deleted, only the original frames required by the
edited 'daughter' clips will be retained in the server. All these measures
guarantee the most efficient use of the available storage capacity. When
clips are no longer needed they are deleted, after consultation with the
journalists. Events coverage and
studio productions are covered by two editorial teams from ARD (Alfred
Schier) and ZDF (Alexander Kahler) in weekly rotation. "Because of the
concept of the extensive events coverage, our channel is unique, not only in
Germany, but also in Europe," explains Alfred Schier (ARD), editorial
manager events, Phoenix. "The time-shifted
transmission, in conjunction with the capability to quickly process pictures
and original sound during the parallel recording, necessitated a special
processing and playout system," Schier says. "The technical concept
of the system was developed as a result of cooperation between the editorial
and technical teams. However, we as members of the editorial team did not
have any influence on the choice of systems manufacturer. The fact that
nonlinear editing on a central server represents the right way into the
furture was, and will continue to be, seen by us as positive." |
The
new studio layout, the choice of equipment and the staff training were
designed for maximum performance with minimum effort. The three cameras in
the Phoenix studio can all be operated remotely via Radamec camera control
from the production gallery. Every employee has been trained to take on
several functions-for example, the systems administrator should also be able
to take over the switching room duties. Control of the Clipbox and Cart
devices have been integrated with a General User Interface for the four areas
of the Phoenix engineering set-up. (It is also planned that another control
unit will be installed in the journalist area to monitor the Transmission
Plan sequence.) All the new technical equipment was installed in the studio's
set storage area and customised for the Phoenix transmission plan. The open
plan architecture of the area -- with the vision/sound gallery, transmission
control, system administration and online areas all within sight of each
other -- means decisions can be made quickly and easily. 