Case Study RTL-TVI. November Studio Production & Playout Environment. Digital News and Program Production

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1 November 2007 RTL-TVI Digital News and Program Production The most advanced fully tapeless TV production environment in Europe Customer > "The speed at which breaking news is put to air is very impressive. It's unlimited by any linear devices anywhere in the workflow. With other companies' software, rendering is needed for playout - not so with EVS' CleanEdit[Suite] and XT[2] server platform. One can immediately start editing when the live images come in, even while the ingest is still taking place. Needless to say this gives us great flexibility and makes the whole process of news and programmaking a lot speedier and more efficient!" Technical & IT Manager, RTL-TVI Belgium Based in Brussels, RTL-TVI has been the leading French-speaking broadcaster in Belgium since the late 80's. News is an important part of its programming : RTL-TVi's two daily bulletins both receive the highest volume of viewers in Belgium for a daily French-speaking newscast, with a market share at close to 50%. In addition, up to 20% of RTL-TVi's programming across its three channels is created in-house, the majority being live and near-live programming, such as weather forecasts, talk shows, football, and other sports entertainment programming. The long-term goal of the Belgian broadcaster was to integrate both news and entertainment production and to make all content available to all involved parties at every stage of the programme-making process.

2 RTL-TVI Digital News and Program Production Challenge > EVS' integrated tapeless production system has been at the heart of RTL-TVi news production since July In January 2007, when the broadcaster moved to their brand new studio facilities, they decided to complete their migration to a fully tapeless production environment, from ingest to playout, once again relying on EVS solutions as the foundation for the new system : Integrated tapeless production system for news production "The clear objective was to create a more integrated system. We wanted to make a common provision for the entire RTL House for both access to material and circulation of the information." Stephane Rosenblatt Head of Programmes "The requirement was a clean, efficient, simple system - something direct where you didn't have to render before going on air." For several years, the RTL-TVI management team had noticed the restrictions and the strong limitations of their news production workflow. It was obvious that the existing system in place was unable to meet the broadcaster's strategic objective to offer the most reactive and dynamic news program to Belgian viewers. In 2004, in order to achieve this objective, the technical department of RTL- TVI decided to launch an in-depth modernization program for their news production. The management naturally opted for a fully digital technology solution to answer the following constraints : reduce or eliminate the need for training and technical support; allow instant playout of last-minute changes; work in a fully virtual mode without rendering; natively support the Sony XDCAM format; integrate the archiving system and media asset management; enable multiple users to share content and projects simultaneously; allow full access to all of the above from three news centres; provide full redundancy in a central server : Complete migration to a fully tapeless production environment RTL-TVI wanted to gain on productivity and on quality, not only for news production but for all its programming : sports, entertainment and familyorientated. To have a 100% tapeless workflow, complete digitization of the program production was required; all feeds from cameras and shooting had to be recorded on a digital platform. Furthermore, the system had to be fully integrated with existing post production systems like Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro stations. For the production of live shows, the system also had to be able to produce clips instantly from the recorded feeds and to create simple highlight packages ready to go to air. Therefore RTL-TVI's main requirements for studio production were : gain on productivity and quality; integrate with existing post production systems; produce clips instantly; allow for creation of simple highlights packages for live shows.

3 Solution > RTL-TVI is now using a fully integrated tapeless solution, from ingest to playout, with a suite of applications for news, sports, and programme production, powered completely by EVS instant tapeless technology. Producers, journalists, editors, chief editors, and camera operators all use the system on a daily basis, and tape is no longer used at any stage of the process. The modular design allows the system to be scaled and tailored to any production environment, whether it is the studio or the newsroom. The open approach integrates standard IT-based equipment with high performance multi-format broadcast video servers. RTL-TVI operators, journalists, and editors are capable of getting breaking news and programs to air in a flash. "The requirement was to be able to exchange media without taping between these four worlds." Production Workflow Diagram There are four interconnected 'pods' in the system : - EVS XT[2] production servers with IP Director for streams, clips, and simple edits, handling IMX 30 - EVS CleanEdit news production and Invenio media management (linking to a Dalet OpenMedia newsroom computer system) running MPEG-2 long GOP/DV25 and incorporating XDCAM and feeds import - AVID Unity Post system for complex editing, linking to ProTools audio finishing via Marquis Medway - AVID (formerly Pinnacle) Mediastream programming and commercials playout

4 Integration of the archive All archived historical clips are available online via proxies. RTL-TVI has developed a file processing engine that provides the connection with the MAM system at the output of the servers. A powerful search module based on a custom thesaurus and advanced text indexing enables immediate use of archived content during proxy editing. The restoration of high resolution material is an automatic background process. Media asset management Thanks to the media asset management functions, RTL-TVI operators can assign a descriptor to content and choose a category and sub category for fast indexing on the central database. A thumbnail viewer and a low-res proxy speed up and ease the entire process. Native support of XDCAM format EVS applications also allow the merging of several XDCAM clips and offer the only solution for transparent high quality audio browsing of XDCAM proxy content. The process of exchanging files directly with XDCAM drives is fast and doesn't require extra time for rendering or transcoding. Edits on air in a flash Edits made anywhere on the network are collected in the central redundant database during the evolution of a project. The system in place generates proxy files automatically while the high-res content is still being recorded. This allows the edition team and journalists to start working immediately on their subject with no need to wait for the end of a long recording process. In addition, jobs can be shared easily and instantly between multiple operators and previewed for validation by the editor-in-chief while the work is still ongoing. Fully virtual mode without rendering All the data is available immediately on the broadcast playout server, which is capable of playing the high-res media without losing quality or time in rendering or transfers. The original content is never damaged since all the effects and edits are performed virtually on the server. Therefore, material and EDLs can be restored to allow modifications or last minute changes, even years later. IBC2007 Innovation Award As an acknowledgement of the success of this project, EVS together with RTL-TVI have won the prestigious IBC Innovation Award for Content Management, presented by an international judging panel at the 2007 show in Amsterdam. This award recognises the innovation of the solution put in place to create the most advanced fully tapeless TV production facility in Europe.

5 RTL-TVI Digital News and Program Production Main Benefits > Truly tapeless workflow, offering all media access at any stage of the production. Full integration with existing newsroom and studio infrastructure : MAM, NRCS, archiving, NLE systems, and third party automation. Increased speed of breaking news and production programmes to air. The speed is no longer limited either by any linear devices anywhere in the workflow or by any transcoding needs. The whole archive is available for use in all production areas, and all regional offices are served equally and through a common ATM network. "This time saving has allowed us to improve our productivity and productivity improvement means more and better quality production within the same time." Technical & IT Manager, RTL-TVI Belgium Currently working in SD, the equipment is ready to be upgraded to HD at any time. Additionnal Benefits > The system can be extended easily and cost-effectively. "It allows us to spend more time doing real editing." Donatienne Grabet Editor By using EVS solutions, the customer gained the flexibility to upgrade to more video channels and a larger recording capacity. The reliable EVS Loop Recording technology prevents even a single frame of footage from being missed. Edited output is streamed directly to non-linear editing systems for more complex post production with preservation of native SD & HD quality throughout the whole production process. EVS' user-friendly design means training time is short and simple for all users, both technical and non-technical, including editors, assistant producers, operators, and journalists. Monitoring and approvals of stories happen instantaneously. The system induces a more effective collaboration within the production team.

6 RTL-TVI Digital News and Program Production EVS Equipments > EVS' renowned LSM was already being used in studio as the core of RTL TVi's sports production workflow since In a first stage of the new project, EVS CleanEdit [Suite] is installed in news production as the fully virtual editing, production, and playout platform to enable RTL-TVI operators, journalists, and editors to compose and share stories seamlessly without any rendering required. In a second stage, EVS XT[2] servers and the IP Director software application are installed in the studio to manage the ingest, the transfer to and from the post production station, and the studio playout. This completes the integration of all programming and playout. The sharing of all audio or video material is managed across an XNet[2] media sharing network. Seven EVS 6-Channel XT[2] servers capture all the content from the different production feeds (studio cameras, live feeds, etc.) and the sharing of all audio or video material is managed across an XNet[2] media sharing network. All ingest and playout channels on all servers can be controlled by the IPDirector via the IP network. The different IP Director software modules are then used to produce clips instantly from the recorded feeds or to create simple highlight packages ready to go to air. Thanks to the native support of IMX MXF and Avid DNxHD, a seamless transition to post production allows craft editing to be performed while content is still recording. Transfer rates are extremely fast, the original quality is preserved, and no transcoding is required. Once created, sophisticated edits (such as 'best of' highlights or graphics) created on the Avid or FCP can be transferred back to the XT[2] server. The EVS CleanEdit solution doesn't require rendering at any stage of the newsroom workflow; last minute changes on the low-res edit are available instantly for playout in high-res. The system also allows programmemakers, producers, operators, journalists, editors, and anyone else involved in the process, to have full access to the entire content all the time as digital files. In addition to the integration of the production tools, the content can be easily adapted to several output formats, such as broadcast, IPTV with VOD, New Media Delivery like 3G, and many others. With such a solution in place, RTL-TVI is considered to be the most advanced fully tapeless TV production house in Europe. EVS Broadcast Equipment / Sales & Marketing Phone : sales@evs.tv