MANAGEMENT
August 2017
23
Mediacorp equips new media centre
As part of its move to the new
Mediacorp Campus, Singapore
terrestrial broadcaster Mediacorp
required a way of connecting and
managing an extensive portfolio of
production equipment to spread
staff widely throughout the facility.
Three separate systems were
required in the news, studio and
media, and radio operations areas
to ensure “instant and flexible” ac-
cess to equipment for operators.
To achieve this, Mediacorp chose a
keyboard, video and mouse (KVM)
switching system by IHSE.
In the news area, a fully redun-
dant KVM system comprising two
Draco tera 160-port enterprise
switches, as well as redundant
variant CPU and CON units, provide
reliable and secure connectiv-
ity to a wide range of broadcast
equipment using a mixture of DVI,
DisplayPort, serial, analogue audio
and USB data transfer.
In the studio area, a similar
albeit smaller set-up, was created
with Draco tera 48-port compact
switches, while in the media ope
rations centre and radio studios,
an eight-port compact switch is
supplemented with several point-
to-point KVM extenders. Connec-
tion to the switchers from points
around the facility is made using
Cat X or fibre cabling, depending
on the distance involved.
IHSE’s KVM system serves as
a core component in Mediacorp
Campus’ daily TV and radio pro-
duction, Wang Yin, project man-
ager at Mediacorp, told APB. He
continued: “The KVM system is
Left: The Lawo team
successfully installed a
number of Lawo solutions
at Mediacorp Campus,
including the VSM control
system, which provides the
overall control layer across
the facility.
Below: A KVM switching
system supplied by IHSE
provides Mediacorp with
the flexibility of assigning
any production studio to
any control room.
used for live productions for both
the studios and radio conties,
where the separation of the work-
station from the working place is
required — with particular atten-
tion paid to the noise level it emits
and the central cooling benefits.”
According to Wang, one of the
key requirements of Mediacorp
Campus’ broadcast infrastructure
design is to allow flexibility of
assigning any production studio
to any control room. “With KVM,
we can achieve this by pooling all
workstations and servers in the
studio equipment room and have
KVM terminals at various locations
connecting to the same matrix.
This allows free assignment of any
workstation or server based on user
profiles,” he concluded.
Also providing support to
Mediacorp Campus is Lawo, who
provided five Lawo mc²56 audio
production consoles and an mc²36
audio console, one Nova73 HD
router, two Nova73 Compact core
routers, a large VSM (Virtual Studio
Manager) control system, as well as
other hardware.
Critically, the VSM (Viable Sys-
tem Model) provides the overall
control layer across the facility, and
when paired with Lawo systems,
provide DSN (Distributed Studio
Networking) and easy handling of
workflows in the studios.
The news editing area in
Mediac orp Campus comprises
four FlashCam positions covering
the four main languages spoken
in Singapore (Tamil, Malay, Chinese
and English), and is equipped with
Lawo A__mic8 audio-to-IP units
that support up to eight micro-
phones and four return lines.
The TV production complex
comprises two studios — one
large and one medium-sized —
equipped with Lawo mc²56 audio
consoles. The large studio houses
an mc²56 with 64 faders, 16 line
I/Os and eight AES I/Os, eight
GPIOs as well as four Compact
I/O units.
The medium-sized studio hous-
es an mc²56 with 48 faders, 16 line
I/Os, eight GPIOs and three Lawo
Compact I/O units. Each Compact
I/O provides 32 Mic/line in, 32 Line
outputs, eight AES I/Os and eight
GPIOs. Both mc²56 consoles are
accompanied by a Compact Core
with 270 DSP channels and three
Ravenna 4 port cards.
The signals from the mc²56
consoles are routed to a central
NOVA73 HD, each with 256-chan-
nel tieline capacity. The Nova73 HD
is located in the studio equipment
room and serves as the central
router for I/Os across all of the
studios while providing control of
signal distribution, and is equipped
with a redundant control system,
128 AES I/Os, and 16