Fox Sports Australia embraces Evertz multiviewers

Part of Premier Media Group’s ongoing channel expansion was a station-wide LCD display upgrade centred on two Evertz MVP-3000 Multi-View Processors working in active tandem with 12 Evertz VIP modular euro-card processors.

The installation was performed concurrent with the installation and relocation of 14 editing suites, the construction of a new studio (studio 3), relocation of the news department to a separate floor, the installation of new intercom and Ethernet infrastructure, and the establishment of two temporary Presentation suites to operate the ‘orphaned’ channels during construction and commissioning of four new presentation suites.

In total, 13 NEC LCD-4610 46” LCD flat panel displays now handle all visual monitoring and audio metering in four Presentation Suites, as well as FOX SPORTS’ News Live Production studio and FOX SPORTS News Exchange area.

The LCD’s typically display 16 x video signals (plus de-embedded audio metering) from the MVP-3000’s and VIP’s. Tally, UMD and ‘loss-of-signal’ alarms are also displayed. The DVI-D output signals from the MVP’s and VIP’s are carried by Gefen over-fiber extenders to the LCD displays.

The complete system, including NEC displays, was supplied by Quinto Communications, with design and logistics by PMG’s engineering team of David Blackett, Gerry Dalton and Chief Engineer Michael Day.

According to Michael Day, the original plan was for a distributed VIP-based system. “By having individual VIP8 processors per presentation suite or studio, we could isolate any failure.

“David (Blackett) convinced me that the power, feature set and inherent redundancy of the MVP-3000’s would give us much more operational flexibility without compromising reliability especially when integrate with a lesser number of VIP processors in an active display and redundancy role.”

For PMG’s six channels – FOX SPORTS News, Fox Sports 1, 2 and 3, plus How To Channel and Fuel TV – there are 192 SDI (and some composite) video sources which can appear, with metered audio, on any of the 13 x LCD displays. Input and display flexibility was a ‘must have’ for the Presentation Manager.

According to Quinto’s Mike Ellis, “The customising of displays is an Evertz MVP-3000 signature, with any signal from the ‘source pool’ able to be uniquely displayed with its audio on up to 64 high resolution displays. So, PMG’s requirement for 12 x unique displays was well within its scope.

“The MVP-3000’s internal de-embedders and auto-sensing SDI/composite inputs also appealed to PMG, as they eliminated the complexity and additional cost of external card frame processing.”

PMG’s three presentation suites on Level 2 each boast two 46” LCD displays. One display in each Presentation suite runs off the MVP-3000, with full choice of the 56 available inputs displayed as 16 signals on-screen. The second LCD panel is driven by paired VIP8’s, offering flash memory preset output options. In the event of failure, a PMG-designed GPI push-button array lets the Pres. Operator select preset ‘emergency’ configurations to both displays.

A second Evertz MVP-3000 feeds 16 video signals (plus de-embedded audio) from a choice of 32 sources to four 46″ LCD panels in the Fox Sports Production Studio 3 and adjacent audio booth on Level 1. FOX SPORTS News Exchange uses two VIP12 multiview modules to display up to 24 incoming sources on a single LCD, while News Pres runs paired VIP8’s.

VIP’s are lower cost, smaller multiview display processors that fit into a standard Evertz 7700 series 3RU module frame and are suitable for putting dedicated sources onto a single display. Modules can be cascaded to increase inputs, so that two VIP8 modules can display a custom layout of 16 sources onto one display.

Active system components of the MVP-3000 and the Euro-card based VIP multiviewers are hot swappable from the front of their frames, without the need to disconnect video cabling.

The system also provides powerful signal monitoring capabilities. For example operators can be alerted to video or audio errors with on-screen warning messages or audible alarms. In addition, it is also possible to stream thumbnails of all of the video sources to a remote workstation for monitoring and generate time stamped error logs reporting errors or status changes for all video and audio signals.