RTVE equips regional centres with the Laguna media processors from SAPEC

Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) has appointed SAPEC to refurbish the contribution and distribution systems for its Territorial Centres and News Units throughout Spain. Some 35 Laguna media processors have been installed to help power the broadcaster’s sports coverage, along with other programming.

RTVE has an extensive network of Territorial Centres, facilities distributed throughout Spain that have all the technical infrastructure and human resources necessary to transmit all the news of each region. These centres are complemented by the News Units, smaller premises that are responsible for providing first-hand information from the most relevant provinces or news hubs in the country.

An increase in the volume of information, as well as new requirements in terms of high definition, encouraged RTVE’s technological management to adopt the new generation of Laguna media processor systems.

Thirty-five Laguna units have been distributed to the Territorial Centres and News Units. Laguna is a multichannel HD/SD platform compatible with HEVC, H.264 and MPEG-2 standards. Depending on each facility’s needs, different versions have been chosen: Dual (two channels), Quad (four channels) and Octal (eight channels). This high integration of channels makes it possible to reduce both the space occupied by the equipment and its energy consumption. In this way, RTVE opts for a model that prioritises both efficiency and the reduction of opex and capex costs.

Each of these channels can be independently configured as an encoder or decoder depending on the project requirements. SAPEC also offers the possibility of acquiring different encoder or decoder licences for each of the devices, so that these options can be combined through different operating architectures easily selectable via a web interface.

The equipment installed in the Territorial Centres and News Units will work directly with the existing Laguna equipment in the Prado del Rey (Madrid), Torrespaña (Madrid) and Sant Cugat (Barcelona) facilities, thus creating a complete ecosystem that meets all RTVE’s current and future needs in terms of contribution and distribution.