Case Study NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

CONTINENT-WIDE IP REMOTE PRODUCTION Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

“We were looking for a fl exible and virtualized environment based on IP that would be agile IP Remote Productions Across enough for all our sporting codes, scalable for any size Australia and Beyond In early 2018, NEP Australia ushered in a project, and integrate well with new era for live sports broadcasting when its all-new IP-based remote production audio and communications.” setup came online. NEP’s new Andrews Hubs in Sydney and Melbourne—the —Marc Segar, NEP Australia’s Director of Technology fi rst of their kind in Australia and the most technically advanced facilities on this scale in the world—enable multiple concurrent outside broadcasts via IP. NEP is Australia’s largest and most experienced outside broadcast and studio Driving Forces facilities company. It provides broadcast The consumption model of broadcast infrastructure for major sport and studio is changing. People want everything productions both across the country and anywhere, all the time. To keep pace with internationally. NEP facilitates more this trend and allow Fox Sports Australia than 2,000 hours of Australian broadcast and other stations to produce ever more Lawo Material involved in this Project: television each year, including live sport high-quality content with their most IP Core Infrastructure (NRL, AFL, Cricket, MotoGP, Australian talented people, NEP Australia suggested • 44x V__matrix systems for CI, streaming and MVs Formula 1 Grand Prix), popular series breaking away from the limitations of • Over 180x C100 processing blades and drama (My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, siloed operations. “Take Perth: you fl y Family Feud, The Chase, Australian Ninja there one day, you work one day, you • “UEFA AV Stagebox concept”: A__mic 8/A__digital 8 Warrior) as well as live entertainment and catch the red-eye home—you’re out for (12 units in all) event programs (Dancing with the Stars, three days,” explains Todd Procter, Head • 12x V__remote 4 for AV sync measurement The Footy Show and the annual Logie of Innovations and OB Special Events, Control awards). Fox Sports Australia. • 6x new VSM systems • 7x upgrades The company is also internationally Australia has a mass the size of America, recognized for its technical expertise with most people living on the East and Audio in host broadcasting and major events, West Coasts. After analyzing how and • 6x mc296 consoles managing complex projects like the 2018 • 4x mc256 consoles Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit, and 2014 Glasgow • 7x mc256 console upgrades 40 signals take a mere 27ms to travel from Commonwealth Games. an iOB in Perth to NEP Australia’s Sydney • 4x crystal broadcast consoles (backup mixers) Hub (the two locations are more than 4000km apart).

2 3 Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

where NEP Australia used its freelancers, the company proposed in the field still takes place on location, the production team a novel approach. The “Anyone, Anywhere” philosophy of the works out of a facility several hundred or even several thousand new Andrews Hub facilities in Sydney and Melbourne means kilometers away from the venue. that while the traditional outside broadcast workflow involving commentators, camera operators and everything viewers see out

Two Hubs, One Giant System

From the onset, it was clear that NEP needed two broadcast facilities, which they called “hubs”—one in Sydney, the other in Melbourne. Despite their geographic separation (some 880km), these hubs effectively form a single unit, because all resources are shared. This shared approach extends to all venues and locations connected to NEP’s network.

In addition to a Network Operation Center (NOC), “This is the future of TV Thanks to the distributed IP production flow, production teams four control and audio rooms, the Andrews Hub in (like the EVS team) can now consist of operators scattered over Building At the Speed of Light Sydney features a number of multi-function rooms, production. There is absolutely several cities and work together like they were in the same room. In a mere 14 months, NEP Australia built and equipped including two small studio spaces for commentary no reason why any broadcast two hubs, in Sydney and Melbourne, four “iOB” trucks applications in the future (at the moment, Philipp Lawo, CEO of Lawo in Germany, commented: “IP is and seven hybrid setups. Telstra Broadcast Services commentary is still contributed on-site). There are cannot be covered like this from capable of delivering this distributed workflow. Bringing the rolled out fiber-optic network connections to the 29 plans to use augmented reality to turn some spaces Andrews Hub project to life was a groundbreaking change for all venues selected by NEP Australia. Some of these into a virtual arena for in-house commentary. To this now on. It’s easy for everyone, the parties involved and the industry at large.” venues are connected at 50Gbps (gigabit per second) effect, two 30m2 rooms are equipped with a lighting and operate without compression, while others rely on grid, DMX, etc. broadcast is not compromised and Marc Segar of NEP Australia concurs: “When we started this 10Gbps and VC-2 compression. The other four multi-function rooms(two each for it is a lot more efficient.” project, the IP technology we decided to use was not ratified, was Telstra’s Distributed Production Network (DPN) enters seven or four persons) can be allocated to CCU, not real and was not available on the market. This project has the Andrews Hub CAR via a 320Gbps connection. There overflow EVS, graphics, or other functions as needed. —Aaron Brownlow, OB Director, Fox Sports Australia encouraged the broadcast industry to try and beat the status quo are also connections to NEP’s dark fibre network and and move forward.” Optus, allowing access to other venues outside the DPN.

4 5 Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

VSM Studio and vsmSOUL — Unifi ed orchestration, control and monitoring system

Production Galleries 1~3

Audio Mixer

FOP

Audio Stageboxes

Lawo mc296

A__mic 8 A__digital 8

Network Red Network Red TELCO WAN

Network Blue Network Blue Redundant

AV Delay Measurement

De-/Encapsulation 30x 1080i (SMPTE 2110) V__remote 4 WAN Gateway Compression Audio Processing Audio Mixer De-/Encapsulation ID + SDI multiviewer WAN Gateway Routing 16x 1080i (SMPTE 2110) Compression Audio shuffl ing ID + SDI multiviewer Network analytics Bandwidth: mc256 MkII Routing

Metro venues @ 50Gbps (uncompressed) Audio shuffl ing Nova 73 Regional venues @ 10Gbps (VC-2) Backup Audio Mixer Network analytics Hub interlink @ 10GBps permanent, scalable up to 300Gbps when needed A/V delay management V__matrix

crystalCLEAR V__remote 4 iOB Total: 29 venues V__matrix nationwide

CAR Resource Pool

PRODUCTION HUBS VENUE SYDNEY + MELBOURNE

6 7 Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

User Experience OB Trucks Special attention was devoted to providing a uniform, familiar The first trial event at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on October While broadcasters and OB facilities in other parts of the world user experience for all operators involved. With uncompressed 21st, 2017, managed to conjure up that familiar live feel: are switching to compact IP-equipped vans where possible, NEP SMPTE ST 2110 data, some operators reckon, the HD picture “Commentary, talkback, EVS—all worked as if we were at the Australia decided to use slightly downsized OB trucks. Sprinter quality is even better than before the switch to IP. In addition, OB,” commented Angus Millar, Head of Production at NEP vans were deemed too compact for the “Anyone, Anywhere” the network is fully redundant, fully resilient and fully monitored Australia even though the production team was at the Sydney approach, which dictates a maximum amount of flexibility. for guaranteed uptime. Andrews hub… The new “iOB” trucks (intelligent and IP) are 13m long and no longer expand like the previous generation, because there is no need for that. They are equipped with totally different gear than previous OB trucks. Optical cables are used to send video around the venue, and the six main optical lines coming in from Telstra deliver all of the video, audio and control data between a venue and the hubs. Plus, the hubs basically have complete remote control of the trucks no matter where they are stationed.

Conferencing in Perfect Harmony To ensure that all crew members are on the same page, NEP The Road Ahead Australia has developed a proprietary video-conferencing system What will be NEP Australia’s and installed video cameras all around the hubs and in all next move? In early March 2018, trucks. The camera operators at the venues stay in the loop as following the successful launch of well and can follow video conferences on their return screens. A the Andrews Hub project, Marc Segar “Meeting” key has been configured to “put the director’s camera already had an idea: “We would like on basically every screen”, ensuring that all hands in every to run trials from Los Angeles and location can be part of the meeting. Tokyo, and Asia Pacific as a general region makes sense. If we can start sharing our resources and people Audio Control and Monitoring internationally… Wow, think of what While all audio streams are transported from the venue back could be achieved!” to a hub for mixing and processing, the signals that the commentators hear are generated directly at the venue to avoid In late April 2018, NEP Australia even the slightest time lag. and Telstra Broadcast Services On March 10th, 2018, the Andrews Hub in Sydney produced announced that they had delivered its first live broadcast for Fox Sports Australia, a Football The Lawo mc2 56 console in the OB truck can be remotely the world’s first remote production Federation Australia A-League match in Perth. “Perth controlled from the location that acts as audio MCR, even if it across the Pacific. It involved 30 HD and Sydney are 4,000 kilometers apart, so it’s a pretty is several thousand kilometers away. A screen next to the audio camera feeds in Los Angeles that were significant milestone, especially as we are using SMPTE MCR console furthermore shows the positions of the faders in linked via diverse and hitless 10Gbps ST-2110 for the IP transport of video, audio and control the OB truck on location. circuits on the Telstra Distributed signals,” explains Marc Segar. “It’s funny: tonight we’re live Conversely, when the audio engineer at the hub moves a fader Production Network (DPN), with the but from 4,000km away. The only thing that is in Perth are on his mc2 96 console in Sydney, the faders on the console in production taking place in Sydney. An Award of Excellence that was much appreciated by the entire Lawo team. the cameras.” the OB truck also move.

8 9 Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

“We now have a consistent Let’s Talk Features NEP furthermore decided to keep using its existing primary production devices, so appropriate conversion units were needed. Lawo suggested a mix of appropriately configured C100 crew, because we don’t travel Given the project’s scope, the Lawo team designed a system Other devices used in this setup are Sony XVS8000 production processing blades inside V__matrix frames (SDI to IP, plus audio people as much. Sure, it’s great around its V__matrix software-defined IP-routing & processing switchers, EVS replay systems and an Arista leaf-spine switching de-embedding) and A__mic 8 as well as A__digital 8 stageboxes platform. V__matrix frames are rack units that can be loaded infrastructure. (both audio) at the venues, and V__matrix frames plus C100 to have the cost savings and the with C100 FPGA-based processing blades, which are then blades at the hubs in Melbourne and Sydney. populated with the required virtual modules (software). All Lawo’s VSM broadcast control and monitoring system serves benefits that come with that, blades were fitted with the requested inputs and outputs, plus as over-arching orchestration and control solution providing NEP uses Lawo mc² 96 audio consoles in six control rooms, and options for embedding/de-embedding. a common, streamlined user interface for all operators. The mc² 56 audio consoles in the IP-based OB trucks. but it’s even better to have a multiviewer configuration is supplied by theWALL“ ” multi-viewer Thanks to Lawo’s innovative licensing model, virtual modules control systems for easy drag & drop mosaic configuration using more efficient environment.” • Connected, centralized production centers in Sydney and can be either assigned to a fixed core processing blade or stored tablet computers. Melbourne —Marc Segar, NEP Australia’s Director of in an on-site license server on a repurpose-as-you-go basis for • 29 connected venues Technology unprecedented flexibility. The stagebox approach used at the 29 venues in Australia was • 7 centralized production control rooms • 4 new connected IP OB (intelligent production outside inspired by Lawo’s successful deployment at the European broadcast) vehicles MADI to Ravenna/AES67 conversion is handled by 8x A__madi4 Soccer Championship in France (UEFA 2016) where the • 4 new fully-equipped grip trucks stageboxes for up to 32 MADI streams. international broadcast center (IBC) in Paris was able to monitor • 7 upgraded trucks with hybrid IP layer and receive the signals from all stadiums via IP, and to control • 50 gigabit-per-second fully redundant network • 100% IP every detail of the production remotely.

10 11 Lawo Case Study: Continent-Wide IP Remote Production NEP Australia’s Andrews Hubs

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