COSMOTE, New TV Studios, Kifisia, Greece
Who is COSMOTE
COSMOTE is the unified commercial brand for all OTE Group fixed, mobile, Internet & pay TV products and services.
OTE Group is the leading telecommunications provider in Greece and along with its subsidiaries constitutes one of the top telecom Groups in Southeast Europe. Since July 2009 Deutsche Telekom is the largest shareholder of the company.
The Group is also the largest investor in Greece in new technologies and infrastructure, with investments exceeding €2 bn. over the past six years and €1.5 bn. in the current four-year period. OTE Group’s size, expertise and experience guarantee the quality of services offered under the unified COSMOTE commercial brand.
Project Description 2017-2018
During 2017, COSMOTE TV, the leading Pay TV platform in Greece, has launched several international tenders regarding their plan to build its own modern Broadcasting Center facilities accompanied by three TV Studios. The requirement for the new Broadcasting Centre is to be able to provide in-house production, post-production and channel transmission facilities and services for the creation, packaging and promotion of COSMOTE TV and other COSMOTE TV platform channels.
The whole complex includes 3 studios for program productions, 2 respective control rooms, Master Control Room, Playout facility and proper number of Editing & Graphic Suites supported by a PAM (Production Asset Management) system.
Telmaco was awarded the following turn-key parts of the project:
- Complete HD TV Studios infrastructure with 2 Control Rooms and Master Control Area
- A complete tapeless Sports Production, Ingest, Playout and Digital Archive System
- A complete Graphics System for Channel Branding, Studio Graphics, and Video Wall Playback
- A large Video Wall System to be integrated into the Set designed.
HD TV Studio infrastructure
The core part of the installation included the following parts
- 12 x Broadcast HD Cameras
- Tripods, Pedestals and Cranes
- Master Control Area with Large Router and Intercom System
- 2 x Studio Control Rooms
- Audio Mixing Areas
12 x Broadcast HD Cameras
Cosmote TV has selected Grass Valley LDX-82 HD TV cameras, for their proven quality, breaking images, and flexibility to add HDR and 1080P functionality via license upgrade.
The cameras come together with Fujinon HA series 18x7.6, 14x4.5 and 27x6.5 lenses.
Tripods, Cameras and Cranes
A mixture of Vision 250 Tripods and Quattro SE Pedestals from Vinten have been selected.
In addition 2 x Cranes from Egripment have been installed and have been upgraded to be ready for Augmented Reality applications.
Master Control
A fully redundant Tektronix Master Sync SPG makes sure that the entire system is synchronized.
A large 288x576 Fully Redundant Grass Valley NVision Router is the heart of the SDI signal distribution across the broadcast facility.
Grass Valley DENSITE Glue equipment provide all the necessary signal processing and everything is managed and controlled by GV iControl server together with RCP-200 panel.
Grass Valley Kaleido MX 64x6 Multiviewers have been selected for Monitoring all sources.
A Clearcom Eclipse HX Omega Intercom System is managing the communication of all technical areas.
14 x Audio Booths for the Live Voice Over of the Sports Program have been installed.
Studio Control Rooms
Grass Valley Karrera Vision Mixers are the heart of the Production of each Control Room.
Avid Maestro Engines provides the Live Studio Graphics prepared to present the sports results and other information on - screen.
4 channels of Avid Airspeed 5500 server are available in both studios for the playout of all clips produced for the show.
The playout servers are controlled by iNews Command playout automation system. It is fully integrated with the iNews NRCS system and can automatically read the rundown created in iNews.
In additional there is a classic Camera Operator Position that controls the quality of the images.
Audio Control Rooms
LAWO mc256 Audio Mixers are the heart of the Audio Production.
Production, Ingest, Playout and Archive System
The system installed was based on Avid Media Central Platform technology including:
- Shared Storage with Production Asset Management
- 24-channel Ingest with Scheduling
- File-Based Ingest and Transcode System
- Web-Based Clients for Browsing and NRCS Preparation
- Video Editing Suites for News, Trailers and Documentaries
- 8-channel Studio Playout with Studio Automation
- Digital Archive Tape Library controlled by HSM system
SharedStorage with Production Asset Management
The core of the system was Avid NEXIS central shared storage with 4 x 120ΤΒ chassis. The networking of the system is based on Cisco Ethernet switches with copper and optical connectivity. Material is managed by the Avid Interplay Production Asset Management System in clustered architecture.
Ingest Automation
The SDI ingest of all materials is managed centrally from the Avid Interplay Capture system. It controls 24 SD/HD channels from 6 x Glookast Gloobox 4CH ingest servers. The Interplay Capture operators can schedule all recordings either from Live Satellite and MW Links, or from VTR’s using RS-422 control.
In addition, file ingest is achieved from a Telestream Vantage System. Vantage can also transcode and re-wrap files that come from different file formats to ensure compatibility.
All ingest materials are automatically transferred to NEXIS and update the Interplay PAM database. In addition they can be transferred to the Continuity Playout Automation System. While ingesting, the Interplay PAM allows the journalists and the editors to have access on the literally a few seconds after ingest has started and even if the ingest continues.
Newsroom and Journalist Browsing
he Newsroom was designed using iNews newsroom automation. iNews manages the planning of the Sports Production shows of the complete day and can communicate the rundown to the rest of the system. Journalists use the Avid Interplay Central web based software to view, log and edit all of the materials prior to editing. Journalist can start viewing or editing their stories only a few seconds after the start of the ingest.
Editing
The finishing of all items is carried out by Avid Media Composer Editing with NewsCutter Option. The editor can open the iNews NRCS tool and link the video story to be created with the news rundown. He can also view the material prepared by the journalist in Interplay Assist which is instantly available. When finished, the editor can use the “Send to Playout” menu command to send it to the news studio for playout.
Studio Playout
COSMOTE has 2 Studios in their building and 4 channels of Airspeed 5500 server are available for playout in both studios.
The playout servers are controlled by iNews Command playout automation system. It is fully integrated with the iNews NRCS system and can automatically read the rundown created in iNews. Using Avid’s integrated solution it can automatically detect the story from the Video ID and can color-indicate the user when a story is ready for playout.
DigitalArchive
All material can be archived to a Spectra Logic T380 Digital Robotic Tape Library with 4 x LTO drives, controlled by SGL Flashnet Archive Management System.
SGL Flashnet integrates with both Avid Interplay Production System and Continuity Automation Systems. So both editors (or journalists) from the Avid Media Composer UI and Master Control operators can send material to archive or can request material to be restored.
SGL Flashnet has its own WEB GUI that allows users to search for material and admin tools.
VideoWall System
VideoWall
The VideoWall is compiled from 120 x Barco 55” UNISEE No Gap LCD Screens.
The screens are arranged in many different combinations and placed in various position inside the well designed set.
The Screens are managed by Avid Graphics PowerWall Solutions, who can orchestrate the playout of all videowalls synchronized with the TV production directly from the Control Room.
