EVS-centric workflow for BBC daily magazine programme

Flagship BBC daily television programme The One Show, broadcast live on BBC One and BBC One HD, is using EVS’ live video production solutions to drive its live entertainment production workflow. The EVS kit sits at the heart of BBC’s purpose-built studio at BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters in London. Dega Broadcast Systems was the systems integrator for the studio and technology build.

“The EVS workflow is particularly well suited to quick turnaround live entertainment productions such as ours,” said Dave Rutter, engineering manager at The One Show. “We need to be able to trust that our systems won’t let us down. Having a tried and tested solution from EVS driving our workflow gives us confidence as it’s something that our production operators are extremely comfortable with.”

The integrated EVS live entertainment solution – with a XT3 live production server at its core, three LSM remote control panels, and an IPDirector live production asset management suite – delivers ultra-reliable recording, file transfer, playout facilities and fast turnaround of live content. Importantly, it also integrates seamlessly with the BBC’s existing digital archive system Jupiter and Isilon storage solutions.

Pierre Mestrez, market solution manager entertainment at EVS, added: “The proven workflow gives The One Show’s production teams the peace of mind that is so vital for the demands of a live daily entertainment production. It also frees them up to work on more creative tasks so they can focus on enriching the quality of the programme content.”

The end-to-end solution includes an eight-channel XT3 live production server configured to record up to four feeds simultaneously and output to four channels. Three LSM remote control panels, which sit alongside the XT3, are used to produce on-the-fly edits, including live slow motion effects, and playout content stored on the XT3. The IPDirector live production asset management suite controls ingest, manages content stored on the XT3 and plays out video from background screens on stage.

In addition, the open architecture of IPDirector enables the rapid exchange of media files between the XT3 and the BBC’s digital archive system Jupiter and Isilon nearline storage solutions, which are connected to its Avid and Apple Final Cut Pro craft editing stations. As a result, archive content can be sent directly in the right format from the XT3 to Jupiter and back for playout if necessary. If content needs advanced editing it is sent to the Isilon storage, and then once the edits are complete, pushed back to the XT3 for playout.