April 2017 DISTRIBUTION 35
CTV goes on a date with Axon , again
When outside broadcast ( OB ) company CTV was given the job to deliver the reality TV show First Dates Hotel for UK broadcaster Channel 4 , it turned to Axon ’ s Cerebrum control and monitoring platform .
Having previously worked with Axon for a number of OB sports production , CTV was confident that Cerebrum will once again deliver , even with the complex set-up required for First Dates Hotel ; an IP infrastructure was used to capture and manage action remotely .
A fully resilient Cerebrum system was deployed to manage IP camera control units , tally , UMD ( under monitor display ) contribution , and to link together the main broadcast equipment , which included the video router and two Lawo V-pro8 video processors .
Twenty Axon CCP-4200 42-button coloured LCD 1RU panels were also used to control 80 Panasonic fixed-rigged IP cameras throughout the shot location .
These panels , a bespoke Axon design , simplified CTV ’ s workflow and enabled all devices to be controlled from a user-friendly interface with flexible colour-coding to easily navigate between the five main camera zones .
Richard Morton , base technical supervisor at CTV OB , said : “ Cere brum ’ s speed and feature set offered great creative opportunities for the dir ectors on this production . They didn ’ t have the time or the inclination to take on the technicalities of the set-up but with Cerebrum , the director could talk through ideas with the operator beside him , who then recorded , configured and executed his directions in front of his eyes .”
For CTV ’ s engineering team , working in an environment powered over the Ethernet also turned out to be a “ positive experience ”. In a traditional set-up , having to use rigs as a distributed system was a lengthy and costly exercise with miles of cable runs to manage .
In an IP environment , the CTV team reduced cabling on-site and eliminated “ cumbersome kit ” in the rig , thus reducing a whole bay into a single server .
Cerebrum provided “ complete control ” and backend IP integration with camera switching into the server itself , in the process simplifying the workflow with control of local network camera switches .
Morton concluded : “ In reality TV , directors face different creative challenges and need greater flexibility . Our close collaboration with Axon lets us proactively address those needs and gives us real competitive advantage .”
Axon ’ s Cerebrum control and monitoring platform sat at the heart of the operational set-up for the production of reality TV series First Dates Hotel .