Forum
46 TVBEurope Comms
Christian Diehl, Riedel
throughout the industry. IP networks are helping customers to adapt to different production requirements faster than ever before and using smaller inventories more efficiently.
When it comes to
functionality, what do your customers specifically demand?
Browne: Customers are looking for ease in monitoring the system status and for making changes, like key labels or IFB sources across multiple frames. This has to be done by a single central user even though changes are made at remote sites. Also, whereas before we would see production personnel using fixed stations, there is a demand to have less personnel doing more by being mobile — yet still connected. Wireless intercom is now an expectation and most systems are including more of it. The wireless user is still expected to initiate point to point, conference and group calls and operate GPO controls. Collings: Due to the scope and scale of a modern comms system, stability and reliability comes ahead of almost all other factors in customer’s demands. That means redundant backups for vulnerable or critical components and the minimum of consequences for a failed component. For example, Delec adopts a truly distributed design with every card completely
Nico Lewis, RTS
independent of all other cards. This means a simple card swap in the event of a fault – remove faulty card, slot in a replacement; job done. Davis: Our dedicated comms equipment is all small, entry level. At this end our customers are looking for something simple and cost effective. Customers are very different and always look for customisation, even on the simple systems. Our commentary and comms systems are the most modified of any of our products, so I guess the summary of the specific functionality would be the ability to modify the units to meet changing, unique requirements. de Bruyn: More and more customers ask for greater flexibility in the wiring topologies. Also, the ease of use of an intercom system is getting more and more important as one wants to be able to change configurations quickly or connect easily to other audio systems or intercoms. Diehl: Easy integration, along with flexibility to adapt to workflows, reliability, and remote connectivity. Lewis: Digital technology, fibre to all locations, multi- colour displays, multi-functional keys — all controllable through studio management systems. Integrated wireless technology. Reed: Flexibility is the key driver in all of our markets. Customers want to be able to stretch a product’s functionality to suit a specific application and for us, that sometimes means tailored engineering, both in software and hardware design. In short, ensure your product is flexible enough to provide functionality that does what your customer wants it to do, not just what you, the manufacturer, want it to do.
Are integrated digital media networks accepted today — or is there some scepticism?
Browne: The integration of IP network audio within intercom is interesting to those wishing to provide combined audio distribution with intercom over the same IT infrastructure. However, the separate and distinct demands for high quality very low-latency audio between local pro-audio devices and intercom’s demand for much wider reach are somewhat incompatible with today’s IT network support. We see very low latency multi-media audio distribution over a fibre- based network that may include connections for local intercom transport and HD video as being more
Collings: It varies. Some see these as the Holy Grail and they can do and carry anything. Others are still deeply sceptical, unhappy that they can’t easily pick a cable and identify what that cable is carrying. The solution, as always, is somewhere in the middle. Where appropriate integrated networks can provide a common interface between disparate equipment and signal formats, they are a stable transport mechanism between remote sites that would otherwise be a challenge to connect. And, as such, can be an extremely useful tool in system design. However, delivering to and collecting from the network carries an overhead – especially where codecs are employed or required to make more efficient use of the available bandwidth. This must be carefully balanced with the benefit of using the network compared to using dedicated interconnects. Davis: Working solely at the core entry level, high quality audio systems, we have not experienced any demand from our worldwide customer base for mixed media systems. de Bruyn: We at ASL still view it with some skepticism. If the network fails, one also loses communications. In a life situation, how would you then instruct your crew what to do? Diehl: Depending on the application area, they are very much accepted, especially in mobile and outside broadcast applications. More and more customers are also seeing benefits in fixed install.
“Bringing
in the last few years. Now, with RTS OMNEO, which was introduced to the market at the last IBC, RTS provides rock- solid solutions with better audio quality, shorter latency and better overall performance. Reed: Some customers are happy to risk putting all their eggs in one basket, using a single network for audio, video, talkback and control. What we see is reluctance in some quarters to adopt this approach — and a preference to keep talkback on a separate IP network. We can of course work with either strategy.
Are there still some differences of opinion about the best method of comms between
studio and OBs — VoIP, ISDN and others?
interesting when mixed with IP intercom system capabilities for remote working. This integrated system approach offers a distributed audio, intercom and video system without protocol interoperability as it passes embedded control transparently. This was seen at NAB with Clear-Com’s ProGrid fibre distribution utilising Optocore technology.
the requirements from customers of different parts of the production process to one table helps to shape comprehensive solutions” Christian Diehl, Riedel
Lewis: IP technology is getting more important, and we all know IP is the future. But because of possible delay and no 100% guarantee, classic technology like AES or MADI has been winning on popularity
Browne: Yes, I don’t think there is a universal solution, and ISDN is still used, as is POTS. The ease and lower costs of using IP Intercom will come to dominate this operation in the near future. Collings: Opinions will always differ when it comes to comms – it’s the nature of the beast. The choice depends on many factors including expertise and experience of the providers, latency, where on-air conversations are likely to occur or the production involves fast-changing events. The avoidance of unnecessary delays is an obvious bonus, the resilience, redundancy and availability of the offered transport paths, and the availability of resilient and redundant backups. Davis: Having avoided producing a hardware VoIP solution due to the transmission’s inherent lack of quality of service, we regularly have conversations with our ISDN customers about this issue. Virtually all our customers tell us
www.tvbeurope.com June 2014
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