European broadcasters, facilities going Platinum for multi-purpose trucks
Imagine Communications has supplied more than 50 Platinum IP3 multi-path routing switchers to European broadcasters and facilities in recent months — and the company believes the router is becoming a de facto standard in many new and upgraded outside broadcast trucks throughout Europe.
Recent users include Dutch systems engineer Infostrada which has built the technical infrastructure for a major German reality show. Broadcasters SWR and Hessischer Rundfunk in Germany, Master Films in France and UK-based outside broadcast specialist CTV have also updated their facilities with the Platinum IP3. According to Fabio Bertini, owner and CTO of broadcast production company Telerecord, virtually every new outside broadcast truck built in Italy in the last year has featured a Platinum IP3.
“Designing and building an outside broadcast truck is a careful balance of practicalities, operational resilience and future proofing,” said Bertini. “Multi-purpose trucks need completely different set-ups for each job, so the flexibility and ease of configuration of the router is vital. With the Platinum IP3 we can simply store configurations, and then recall them instantly, saving time and operator resources when we get on site.
“The real benefit of the Platinum IP3, though, is its ability to support a path to an all-IP future. Like all broadcast providers, we have to plan how we are going to make a smooth transition from baseband audio and video to IP. With the new Platinum control system, we can take it a step at a time, knowing the system will switch the signals whether they are on co-ax or Ethernet, and operationally nothing will change so we have no risks on location.”
Platinum IP3 is the latest evolution in Imagine Communications’ Platinum router technology. Like the rest of the Platinum line, the enterprise-scale IP3 router integrates mixed-format video and audio routing, copper and fiber inputs and encoded signals such as AES and MADI audio, as well as multiviewers, frame synchronisation and quality control. The Platinum IP3 control system helps enable hybrid SDN-IP infrastructures, offering a path to an all-IP future alongside traditional broadcast audio and video, making it an ideal platform for the transition to software-defined broadcast networks and workflows.
“The Platinum IP3 router is designed to grow as the user’s requirements grow,” said Mathias Eckert, vice president, EMEA, Imagine Communications. “The router can expand to sizes of 2048 x 2048 and beyond, with signals of up to 3Gb/s video or 10 gigabit Ethernet. Most importantly, it can be reconfigured or expanded without even taking the router off air. That is a remarkable benefit for a broadcaster or transmission facility.”