Court TV's master control room. Used with permission of Court TV. Photography by Andy Washnik.
Court TV’s new server-based digital master control facility in New York City is now on-the-air, featuring a fully redundant Sundance Digital FastBreak Automation system.
Working with systems integrator A. F Associates, Sundance designed a system that achieved Court TV’s requirements of boosting consistency and reliability through increased technology and decreased human participation. The new facility relies on a redundant two-channel FastBreak system that drives three Thomson Grass Valley Profile XP video servers, two PVS 1026s for play-to-air and one PVS 1044 for ingesting the content. The automation system is also integrated with a digital asset management and Avalon Archive system linked to an ADIC Scaler 10K robotic archive.
The system includes a main Air Station and Sundance’s ListSync backup air station to play out the network’s East and West Coast feeds. ListSync adds an additional level of real-time redundancy that automatically and instantaneously updates the back-up playlist for a seamless transfer of control. Playlist changes are reflected on both stations without manual intervention on the backup.
In addition, the fully-redundant system controls two Grass Valley Group 2100 master control switchers, two Chyron Duet LEXs, and two Leitch Logomotions for on-air graphics, EEG encoders for V-Chip, and two Evertz back-up switchers. The automation system interfaces with Court TV’s existing VCI traffic software.
Court TV’s system incorporates several Sundance Digital modules, including MediaCacher to automatically cache content from tape to the video server, and Archive Manager to control the movement of media from server to near-line archive and back. Mirrored SIDON, a TCP/IP-based machine control architecture, are included for both coasts.
For more information, visit: www.SundanceDigital.com.
