E! Entertainment Outfits Studio With EVS

E! Entertainment selected EVS, a leader designer of hardware and software for production and playout, to go tapeless in their studio and for file-based transfer to their Avid non-linear editor.
The project was originally designed for content transfer from the E! Entertainment studio to Avid for post-production editing within a tapeless workflow and to provide a path to HD for the studios. The project grew to include the ability to share footage between multiple divisions, including two other studios and a web-based division.
Eric Salsman, Engineer of Broadcast Technology Advancement for E!, said: "The EVS solution was the only one we found that had both the production toolset and the networking capabilities we needed. As the project grows to include additional facilities, EVS has shown their ability to match our needs with flexibility, upgradeability and reliability unmatched by any other product we tested. Their solution's interoperability with Avid has also proven invaluable to our production process."
All EVS equipment, including the XT(2) production server, natively supports various popular broadcast codecs, including Avid's DNx codec. This native support means that E! never has to render content for transfer to post production, and editors can start to work on the content the instant it is ingested in the XT(2), even while recording is still in process.
The current set-up is composed of four 6CH SD XT(2) Spotboxes, two IPDirectors, two XFiles and XTAccess for transfer to and from Avid. The set-up will eventually be split between two studios - Studio A and Studio B - each with two XT(2)s, one XF(2) and one IPDirector each.
All the XT(2)s and associated tools are HD-ready for an upgrade scheduled in 2009. Additionally, the network is fully expandable, so that when C.E.G. brings in an off-site studio next year, all studio locations will be able to share media easily and instantly.
Fred Garroy, General Manager of EVS Americas, said: "EVS is consistently proving its compatibility with the studio environment. This is the first time the EVS-Avid transfer set up has been implemented in a studio setting and, as expected, it has proved to be very successful.
Further information is available at: www.evs.tv.
(KMcA)