IPE To Upgrade Radio 5 Live With IDS

IPE have announced that it has successfully delivered a contract for a site-wide upgrade of IPE's Intelligent Display System (IDS) at BBC Radio 5 Live, the BBC's radio flagship for rolling news and live sport commentary, at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester.

IPE had been commissioned to design and install two new resilient IDS Cores to provide a centralised platform for comprehensive IDS system configuration and control designed to tightly integrate IDS Touchscreen user interfaces with the latest BBC workflow practices to ensure consistency and seamless usability.

The original IDS SQ2 GPIO interfaces have been replaced with the latest version, IDS SQ3, a versatile GPIO expansion unit that includes 32 opto-isolated inputs and 32 isolated relay outputs that can be configured individually via IDS Core to provide highly resilient links between IDS and external locations.

IPE Head of Sales and Support Reuben Such said: "We built the original 5 Live studios in Salford in 2011 and deployed IDS to mimic the functionality of BBC workflows in London at the time. Since then, the redevelopment of Broadcasting House in London has ushered in exciting new workflows and practices, so it was time to bring 5 Live's display and control capabilities level up to that of their London counterparts."

All existing IDS devices at 5 Live were upgraded to the latest firmware. Additionally, development and integration of DMX lighting control units were added to upgrade existing IDS Touchscreen device controls and provide additional options in four areas. The IDS Touchscreen is a handy and ergonomic user interface for controlling remote equipment, and distributing media content, and sharing critical operational information over an IDS network.

IDS has provided each area with 27 pre-set values for 44 channels of DMX. The IDS Touchscreen upgrade has enabled pre-sets to be edited in protected mode if required.

ipe-technologies.com