WTVision evolves live production offering with AJA gear 

Live production and broadcast pipelines are rapidly evolving, spurred on by increasing virtual set and IP workflow adoption and advancements in cloud, virtualisation, and IP technologies. To help professionals keep pace with these shifts, wTVision, a global broadcast services provider, continues to build and enhance its technology offerings, with AJA gear a critical component of its solutions as well as its services.

Founded in 2001, wTVision is part of Grup Mediapro. Headquartered in Lisbon, the company employs more than 350 people worldwide across global offices in Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and Asia. It develops cutting-edge broadcast graphics, automation and playout, data and sports, augmented reality, virtual studio and media asset management (MAM) solutions that are deployed by broadcasters, sports networks, entertainment channels and production houses in over 120 countries. The company’s technology and team run more than 15,000 broadcasting operations each year, bolstering sports productions, election coverage, production control room (PCR) and master control room (MCR) operations, playout automation, broadcast design and post-production.

Many of wTVision’s turnkey systems include a combination of AJA Corvid 88, Corvid 44 12G, and/or Kona I/O cards to ensure reliable, high-quality live video capture and playout, with the AJA Developer SDK (software development kit) making it easy for wTVision to build the technologies into bespoke solutions.

Its graphics servers, for instance, include AJA I/O cards to enable the output of synchronised key and fill signals up to UltraHD (2SI or SQD). According to wTVision innovation and pre-sales director Daniel Gonçalves, each card’s stability ensures that wTVision and its clients can deliver consistent, high-quality video at an affordable price. Tons of AJA Mini-Converters are also integrated into wTVision’s live production kits to support a broad range of conversion, sync generation and distribution amplification needs. “Our AJA Mini-Converters are a go-to because of their reliability, even in the most adverse production scenarios,” explained Gonçalves.

When wTVision is out in the field, AJA mobile Io solutions support its operators as they output video and graphics over key and fill signals. “The rugged design, reliable performance and portability of AJA’s Io tools make them a natural choice for on-the-go production, and they top the list of recommended hardware we share with clients,” Gonçalves noted.

AJA gear is also widely integrated into wTVision’s headquarters, home to a data centre that hosts multiple client TV channels, an MCR operations centre, and a studio with a chroma key set for clients to produce and record live shows. The infrastructure behind it includes several AJA products, including openGear solutions and Ki Pro recorders. Here, they also run an R&D Lab, which houses an AJA HDR Image Analyzer 12G HDR waveform, histogram and vectorscope monitoring solution for HDR-related developments and certifications. Its broad feature set allows wTVision’s R&D team to analyse and monitor HDR content precisely, ensuring compliance with industry standards.

More recently, wTVision’s team has started using Bridge NDI 3G for HD and UltraHD remote productions. “Bridge NDI 3G is revolutionising our operational efficiency while also allowing us to advance our sustainability efforts,” Gonçalves said. “It allows our 3D graphics engine (R3 Space Engine) to output NDI or NDI HX from cloud environments and deliver synchronised key and fill feeds directly from a venue. With it, we can minimise the volume of equipment and personnel traveling between venues to achieve more operational efficiency and flexibility while also reducing our carbon footprint and logistical costs.”

Whether implementing virtualisation for large production environments to simplify infrastructure, offer more efficient resource allocation and reduce operational costs, or utilising the cloud to reduce on-site equipment, personnel travel and environmental strain while providing more flexibility, wTVision is continually exploring new remote workflow methodologies, technologies and architectures with an eye towards the future. Its goal is to continue delivering innovative and sustainable solutions that help automate tedious processes, and Gonçalves sees AJA technology playing a crucial part in serving that mission.

He concluded: “Across the board, AJA’s exceptional engineering quality ensures that our solutions and production kits remain durable and reliable, even in the most demanding environments, which is critical for maintaining consistent performance and minimising downtime.

“Its gear can withstand the physical stresses of frequent setup, teardown and transit, whether we’re working in the scorching heat or the freezing cold. Not only does the gear perform seamlessly, but it’s also highly compliant with industry standards for intuitive integration with other equipment in our systems and workflow. With AJA in our back pocket, we’re able to maintain a high level of quality and consistency and reduce technical issues, which means we get to focus more on developing standout systems and top-notch content for our clients.”

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