Arqiva Entrusts Axon With Monitoring And Control

For UK-based communications infrastructure and media services company Arqiva, operating at the highest level of efficiency and quality is a must – both for the operations of their international broadcast, satellite and mobile communications customers, and for their own ongoing success. Knowing that end-to-end guaranteed quality wrapped in a cost-effective solution was critical, they turned to Axon to meet their monitoring and control needs.

Integrating with complex workflow infrastructures
Arqiva's London-based facility in Feltham spans multiple HD and SD facilities, as well as studios, transmission, voice-over booths and satellite downlinks. With varied services and a mix of equipment – from Avid edit suites, Miranda automation and playout systems to Grass Valley shared storage and replay systems and 30,000 hour LTO archive – Arqiva needed easily integrated and comprehensive monitoring and control that would guarantee quality, while offering flexibility and the ability to scale as required. All without breaking the budget. In short, they needed an end-to-end solution to deliver a lot of bang for the buck.
Arqiva's Feltham facilities use Axon's Cerebrum broadcast monitoring and control platform to monitor the health of 200 SNMP devices, including network equipment, servers, monitoring probes and video routers. Additionally, the status of more than 600 Axon Synapse processing cards, which support the overall installation ranging from graphical monitoring of signal paths and device status on Cerebrum displays in MCR, transmission suites and the engineering office, are all monitored and controlled by Cerebrum. And that's just for internal operations. For two of its major customers, Arqiva selected Cerebrum to create customised implementations based on very specific client parameters.

Controlling 22 voice-over booths from one interface
Imagine 22 multi-language voice-over booths and 22 different commentators all in one location. Combining router control and Axon's Synapse control with a labelling system that ensures the ability to track all audio throughout the system, the design allows a single operator to manage and monitor signals of all booths from an easy and intuitive graphical interface. Operations can be controlled from the dedicated control booth, or from two other Cerebrum clients in their main MCR when the booths are less busy. Best of all, the entire project – from concept to installation – was completed within a week. Not only did close collaboration and a good understanding of the project speed the process, the result was a good example of controlling complex systems in a very simple way.

In the studio – a clear picture of system health
Monitoring the playout system of a major European sports broadcaster required an entirely different and complex solution. The customised Cerebrum display clearly shows all ingests and signal paths, and visually identifies any problems in the signal chain whilst monitoring sound, space available and overall system health. Any failings are quickly and clearly displayed.
In one studio, a combination of Cerebrum hard panels and Synapse cards provide a cost-effective and flexible mixing facility for adding commentary to 5.1 feeds. This creates a 5.1 capable studio without the need to replace the existing stereo sound mixer. Cerebrum's built-in broadcast-specific protocols - including tallies and router control – also make it easy to integrate with legacy systems and hardware. SNMP support allows Arqiva to build custom templates to monitor all IT infrastructure.

Pricing per protocol not per device
Quality, reliability and flexibility undoubtedly rank top for control and monitoring. But market forces often make price considerations an important factor. Customers like Cerebrum's pricing model, which charges for the protocol, not per device, which can quickly make for very costly deployments. Explains Arqiva principal engineer Barnaby Kirk: "With a relatively small initial outlay, we can expand the system cost-effectively as we build new facilities. Other manufacturers pricing systems are based on the types and quantity of devices being monitored proved cost-prohibitive for us."

Local development and support
Arqiva also points to the ability to work directly with Axon's local development team and their quick and often creative responses to feature requests as key to success. "Axon's reputation for support and responsiveness to our requests is absolutely core to our business and they've been key to helping us provide a unique offering for our customers."
Customers like Arqiva know they can trust Axon to deliver – for projects large or small, anywhere in the world. It's a simple equation: a commitment to customer service and smart solutions lie at the heart of broadcast.

The article is also available to read in BFV online.

(IT/JP)