Radio France Integrates Telestream Equipment

Radio France has announced the integration of Telestream monitoring and test & measurement equipment within its core broadcast infrastructure.

A combination of Telestream’s PRISM waveform monitors and Inspect 2110 monitors has enabled Radio France to safeguard hybrid SDI over IP and ST 2110 environments throughout a major technological migration at the radio broadcaster.

2017 saw the starting point of this technical revolution within Radio France where the broadcaster needed to radically change its legacy MADI audio switching technology. Simultaneously, SMPTE released the ST2022-6 and ST 2110 standards, which includes PTP for timing accuracy. This was seen as the key catalyst for change. Throughout Radio France's six decades of operation, it is only the fourth change - each time it has been a major technology change.

In this major technology transition project, Radio France is using Inspect 2110 and PRISM to monitor its entire network. PRISM is positioned at the end device, using ST 2022-7 (connected to both networks) and Inspect 2110 monitors all the broadcast network. Inspect 2110 is employed to monitor the key programs: it provides an overview of all streams, while PRISM can be accessed through the Inspect 2110 user interface (UI) for in-depth analysis when required.

"Our intention is to invest for the future and not use a legacy technology," commented Etienne Roulette, Project manager at Radio France. "This is part of the digital plan for Radio France and the main key driver for this change is Remote Production. 2017 was the starting point, Trials and Proof of Concept (POC) in 2018, Tender in 2019. Ready to be on air later this year.

"It has been a long path with lot of learning," explained Etienne Roulette. "As broadcast engineers, it is not always obvious which is the best way to integrate Audio-Video in an IT environment. That's a new experience in terms of both operations and security."

When any broadcaster makes such a bold leap into future technology it is essential that it maintains a good understanding of how its workflows and networks are functioning. To this extent, system monitoring across the network is essential along with precise timing.

Historically, instruments such as spectrum analyzers and waveform monitors have lived inside media production and distribution facilities while network diagnostics and troubleshooting tools have lived in IT data centers and elsewhere. As broadcasters and content creators move from legacy SDI to hybrid IP, and more recently to SMPTE ST 2110 mezzanine or un-compressed video, audio and data, new and expanded audio-video quality assurance and monitoring tools are required. These guarantee that creatives can take advantage of current and emerging options to enhance live production and make more efficient use of video and audio assets.

This is exactly what Telestream achieved by adding a 40+-year Tektronix Video pedigree in SDI video and waveform analysis with a 20-year IneoQuest track record in video-over-IP quality assurance and distributed monitoring into the Telestream family. Combining both broad and deep analysis and monitoring of live content is achieved by combining Telestream’s PRISM and Inspect 2110 offerings. This combination provides the only integrated solution for monitoring hybrid SDI over IP and ST 2110 environments that require both broad and deep analysis.

www.telestream.net