German production company PLAZAMEDIA deploys Nevion’s SDN IP solution for remote production

Nevion equipment and management software now used for live production of popular football talk show

Oslo, Norway, 27 October 2016 – Nevion, award-winning provider of virtualized media production solutions, and their German solution partner LOGIC media solutions GmbH, have teamed up with PLAZAMEDIA, a Germany-based content solution provider and one of the leading producers of sports TV in the German-speaking area, to migrate elements of its high profile football coverage to an IP production set-up using Nevion IP Media Core equipment and VideoIPath management system.

PLAZAMEDIA approached LOGIC and Nevion with the challenge to migrate one of its productions, Germany’s famous football talk show “Der Volkswagen Doppelpass”, from traditional OB to remote production. IP technology was chosen as the most suitable solution due to the connectivity available between the production site and the broadcast facility and the significant amount of control requirements.

With Nevion’s IP solution, production sites can be treated as extensions of the main production facility. This enables PLAZAMEDIA to locate the production team in the most suitable location in terms of effectiveness and workflow requirements. For example, the director operates from a compact and lean control environment on location while the sound engineer, EVS operator, graphics and camera shading operators remain at the central broadcast facility.

The system works over standardized WAN (wide area network) connectivity and was designed to operate in mixed mode with uncompressed and J2K encoded signals.

The transport, management and device control of this set-up have built-in redundancy, which makes the solution even more robust and scalable than traditional SDI solutions.

Jürgen Konrad, IP solution designer at PLAZAMEDIA said: “One of the main project drivers was reducing the logistics on location and to streamline the production workflow, but we also wanted to upgrade our facilities as we see a lot of benefits in having an IP-based infrastructure. We went to air with the system for the first time in August and have broadcast the show successfully, without any issues since then.”

Konrad added: “We wanted a totally robust solution, so it was essential to have two redundant wide area connections carrying the redundant stream transport as well as all the control traffic – and the solution does the job safely every Sunday. Nevion and LOGIC were most supportive, in particular in providing their IP network expertise. We can definitely say that we now have a very flexible, scalable, reliable and most efficient setup, that is the way forward for live TV production.”

Thomas Heinzer, Nevion founder and Head of Strategic Projects said: “PLAZAMEDIA is showing how, with the right solution, IP technology can revolutionize both workflow and production. LOGIC and Nevion are very proud to have helped with this transformation”.

PLAZAMEDIA chose a mix of JPEG2000 and uncompressed (SMPTE2022-6) for video and MADI for audio. Nevion eMerge Media Routers and Media Gateways form the backbone for all real-time production, control and management signals. The VideoIPath management and orchestration system provides software defined network (SDN) connection management and service monitoring, ensuring a simplified set-up for the production crew. 

About LOGIC media solutions GmbH

LOGIC is a German-based system architect and distributor of professional broadcast and telecommunication equipment. On the market for almost 20 years and very well connected in the German media companies, LOGIC is one of the leading value-added resellers not only in regards to IP-based productions. Solutions based on traditional SDI technology as well as services within the cloud can be covered with the portfolio and team LOGIC provides to their customers.

For more information please visit www.logicmedia.de.

About PLAZAMEDIA

PLAZAMEDIA GmbH, a subsidiary of Constantin Medien AG, is an established content solution provider for the entire spectrum of media platforms, as well as one of the leading producers of sports TV in the German-speaking area. Together with its subsidiaries, PLAZAMEDIA Austria Ges.m.b.H and PLAZAMEDIA Swiss AG, PLAZAMEDIA produces, among other things, top national and international sports events, both live and non-live. In addition to public and commercial broadcasters, its clients include platform operators, international sports associations and reputable sports rights agencies, as well as numerous national and international enterprises. Operating independently of broadcasters on both a media-neutral and platform-neutral basis, the group offers a diverse service portfolio ranging from the production and presentation of premium live sports events with large-scale, emotional images and scalable solutions in suitably high quality, as well as innovative camera and production technology, to editing, archiving and target-group oriented content distribution across all media platforms.

In addition, its wholly-owned subsidiary LEITMOTIF Creators GmbH, a consulting agency specializing in design and implementation of content marketing strategy solutions in video format, creates and realizes visual experiences for companies and brands in the sports, event and entertainment sectors. Thereby, emphasis is laid on creative storytelling geared to emotional brand communication, which can be realized with all the services provided by PLAZAMEDIA.