Category
New studio technology
— HD
Submitted by
TV GLOBO Design Team
Carlos César Abrahao, tech. supervisor; Luiz Carlos Abrahao, tech. mgr.; Fernando Araújo, oper. mgr.; Marco Cheriff, oper. supervisor; Marcelo Guerra, lead proj. eng.; Nelson Nicolini, proj. eng.; Mauricio Felix Vasconcellos, proj. mgr.; Flavio Vilarinho, int. supervisor; Technology at work
ADC audio patches
Belden audio cables
Canare cables/ patches
Canon XJ/HJ-22x lenses
Clear-Com intercoms
Evertz
MVP display
7700 Series routers
Harris
6800+ monitoring
NEO multiviewer
Platinum router
Ikegami HDK-79EXII
Image Video tally
Sennheiser microphones
Sony
HD camera Switcher
BVM monitors
Luma monitors
Tektronix
TG700 video generator
WFM7100 waveform monitor
Vinten Quattro pedestal
Yamaha DM 2000
GLOBO upgrades production studios to support HD telenovela transmissions
The Brazilian network GLOBO TV is known for its production of telenovelas, which dominate primetime viewing. Telenovela is a form of melodramatic serialized fiction produced and broadcast six days a week (a yearly average of 200 episodes each) that attract a broad audience and command the highest advertising rates. GLOBO does not only produce for the local market but also exports its telenovelas worldwide.
With a huge production complex in Rio de Janeiro (CGP), GLOBO has heavily invested in quality and technology, the most important pillars to support its success.
In January 2007, GLOBO upgraded its old SDI studios using a brand new technology based on SMPTE-424/425M, a standard which expands upon SMPTE 259M (143/270/360Mb/s) and SMPTE 292M (1.485Gb/s) providing bit rates of 2.970Gb/s (3G). These bit rates allow the broadcast of 1080/60p 4:2:2 and 1080/60i 4:4:4 formats.
The project’s main purpose was to prepare the infrastructure for 3G technology, so the network invested in cables, patches, routing switchers and modules that were already compliant with SMPTE-424M. In the coming years, the network will continue to upgrade equipment including cameras, production switchers and some monitoring systems. In the meantime, GLOBO produces both in SDI (SMPTE 259M) and HD-SDI (SMPTE 292M).
Each studio is comprised of four control rooms (technical, video and lighting, production and audio) with five new cameras; four fiber-optic external lines; tape and tapeless recording for postproduction; a multiviewer system, providing operational flexibility to the monitor walls; UMD and tally system; new microphones; and a new wireless communication system that offers mobility and additional network managing (SNMP), which supports the whole system. Many design changes were also introduced in the four technical areas, which were fully dismantled and rebuilt.
The telenovela production could not stop, however, and the integration time window had to be minimized. To achieve this goal, a mobile unit was used while the studio was being refurbished, and a war room was mounted for pre-integration, systems testing and configuration.
In August 2007, GLOBO TV started producing the first HDTV telenovela in the new studio. At the official beginning of DTV transmissions in Brazil, in December 2007, the telenovela will be the first HD program transmitted by GLOBO.
