Guangxi TV’s Correspondent Office upgrades with Blackmagic Design
Published: ASIA
CHINA: Guangxi TV’s Correspondent Office at the Health Department of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has recently built its optical fibre and SDI-based 16-channel broadcast-grade digital HD/SD live production system using a range of products from Blackmagic Design. These include an Atem 2 M/E production switcher, an Atem 2 M/E broadcast panel, an Atem camera and studio converter and a HyperDeck Studio SSD recorder.
The Correspondent Office is responsible for covering health-specific news and events in Guangxi and producing audiovisual programmes on health education. Guo Qian, head of the correspondent office, explained that live production previously relied on a FireWire based switcher and various analogue devices: ‘FireWire has limited cable length and the cable is easy to disconnect by accident.
‘More importantly, with more and more broadcasters starting HD broadcasting, FireWire doesn’t have enough bandwidth for full HD transfer, while analogue devices always come with multi generation loss, which means we needed to replace the existing live production system with a real broadcast grade digital HD solution,’ he explained.
The system was recently tested for the first time when it was used for a multi cam live production of a dental care programme. In total, three fixed cameras were used to capture the panorama, host and guests, and a moving camera was set up for the live production. Every camera was connected to the Atem 2 M/E production switcher via an Atem camera converter mounted on the camera and the Atem studio converter installed next to the switcher.
‘Blackmagic Design provided every solution we needed for live production, allowing us to build a complete digital HD live production system,’ added Mr Qian. ‘The Atem 2 M/E production switcher has powerful creative features including rich transitions and its 10 bit 4:2:2 design ensures broadcast grade live production.
‘The combination of the Atem camera and studio converters allows us to transfer all the video, audio, talkback and tally between the camera and the switcher with a single optical fibre connection, greatly simplifying the on set cabling work,’ he added. ‘SDI and optical fibre technologies also guarantee the reliability and long distance connection required by mission critical broadcast grade live production.’
A HyperDeck Studio SSD recorder was also used to record the PGM from the Atem 2 M/E production switcher during mixing. A live recorded version was ready once the production was completed. ‘Live production has already increased our efficiency a lot and HyperDeck Studio has further pushed it to a new height, because it records to digital files, eliminating the capture process, and the SSD is so fast that we can directly edit from the disk without the need to spend time moving files to high speed disk arrays,’ enthused Mr Qian.