gestmusic endemol moving smoothly into hd with grass valley...• multiple kaleido multiviewers...

Gestmusic Endemol Moving smoothly into HD with Grass Valley

CUSTOMERGestmusic Endemol, Spain

www.gestmusic.es

CHALLENGETo upgrade a single studio used simultaneously for

three productions to HD during the production season.

SOLUTIONSProduction solutions including:• 8x LDX 80 Première 1080i/720p Switchable System Cameras• Karrera 3 M/E Video Production Center Switcher• NVISION 8144 144x144 Router• Multiple Kaleido Multiviewers

BENEFITS Ability to move content easily and quickly between

production and post, electronic delivery for airing with

the functionality to make last minute changes.

2www.grassvalley.com

CASE STUDY GESTMUSIC ENDEMOL

BACKGROUND

Gestmusic Endemol is a company that needs little introduction in Spain. They are responsible for celebrity programs and game shows that have changed the television paradigm: Operación Triunfo (mu-sic celebrity show), Crónicas Marcianas (late night show), Tu Cara Me Suena (music celebrity show) and ¡Boom! (a game show which, inci-dentally, offered the largest prize in the history of Spanish television: a breathtaking 2,300,000 Euros).

These formats have not only been a success in Spain, but have also been exported to countries all over the world. In fact, Gestmusic is currently shooting programs for Italy in their studios. Their facility at Sant Just Desvern regularly has up to three sets in daily use and the sets for ¡Boom! and ¡Ahora Caigo! are currently housed there.

Gestmusic is also committed to training and creating new profession-als in the audio-visual sector, offering training and internships in very demanding real-world environments. This year, Gestmusic has taken another step forward by installing HD live production equipment, sup-plied and commissioned by Crosspoint, their local authorized partner of Grass Valley, a Belden Brand.

CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

Gestmusic operates with multiple sets in the same studio simultane-ously to optimize resources.

“Today, productions have tight budgets and having multiple sets in the same studio is surprisingly practical at all levels, especially logisti-cally,” said Pere Prat, Technical Director for Gestmusic. “Everything is centralized, both in terms of internal and external resources that may be needed — like the audience, for instance. Having one single space to manage makes everything so much simpler.”

With Gestmusics strength in the musical genre, they have built a spe-cialty designed mobile unit as a studio-on-wheels, specifically to meet the operational and production needs of the programs they produce. With a spacious work area and, not surprisingly, special attention to audio, the studio-on-wheels combines the advantages of a studio with the versatility and mobility of a mobile unit.

“It is the ideal solution for us,” said Prat. “Our unit is equipped with eight Grass Valley LDX 80 Première 1080i/720p switchable cameras but can handle up to ten. We have a Grass Valley 3 M/E Karrera Video Production Center switcher and two EVS XS3 servers with eight chan-nels each, for recording and playback. It is a solution that enables us to shoot on more channels if necessary, but it also provides a more secure configuration because we have backup. If we lose a server, it is not a big deal, our production will not stop.”

“First, we addressed the implementation of the new HD production system, with the new NVISION router. In this phase, we verified that all the ingest, as well as the flow of files from the studio to post-production, worked as expected. In the second phase, we changed the camera systems, switcher, multiviewers, etc. The result has been outstand-ing thanks to the good planning and involvement of the team.”

Jordi Puigcorbé, Technical Chief of Television Sets, Gestmusic Endemol

Photos courtesy TM Broadcast magazine.



Jordi Puigcorbé, Technical Chief of Television Sets for Gestmusic adds that “while one piece of equipment would fulfil our production needs, albeit with limitations, but it could be done. We are practically a content factory, so we can simply not stop. We must also take into account that a program brings together a lot of people. For ¡Ahora Caigo!, for instance, there are 10 participants, plus the audience, plus the production team. This is why we have given our facilities so much thought, with the objective of being able to continue forward no matter what, even if we have unforeseen problems.”

Getsmusic’s upgrade to HD didn’t occur between seasons, but its production department did invest significant effort to speed up pro-duction and thus find the best moment to make the change.

“We did it in two phases because implementing everything at the same time would have involved bringing production to a standstill for too long, not to mention the risk involved,” said Puigcorbé. “First, we addressed the implementation of the new HD production system, with the new NVISION router. In this phase, we verified that all the ingest, as well as the flow of files from the studio to post-production, worked as expected. In the second phase, we changed the camera systems, switcher, multiviewers, etc. The result has been outstanding thanks to the good planning and involvement of the team.”

BENEFITS

Gestmusic combines shooting with post-production. “Keeping the studio and post-production separate has always been a handicap, because, the bandwidth required was expensive,” says Puigcorbé. “We can now move media around in both directions very quickly and have all the content generated from the studio in post-production by the next day at the very latest.”

Gestmusic has improved how their production process works and reduced the delivery times for the productions considerably. “In the past, when a program finished, it took some time to deliver to the tele-vision broadcaster, because the program had to be delivered phys-ically, either on a hard disk or tape,” explained Pere. “This time has massively reduced because it is all done electronically now.”

When changes to a particular part of a program are required — for in-stance, to include advertising or modify the duration to adjust it to the schedule — working in a digital format provides the flexibility neces-sary to perform whatever modifications are needed after the program has been posted.

“Nowadays, we need to be able to make changes to a program very close to airing,” said Pere. “To achieve this, our server system can accommodate between 30 and 40 programs, including raw footage, which are replicated both in the studio and in post-production. These servers are synchronized automatically through fiber optic connec-tions. This gives us speed, but also data redundancy, or, in other words, security. Thanks to this workflow, we have been able to reduce costs at all levels without sacrificing reliability or flexibility.”

“Another key element was the remote panel for the CCU. Working with it was so easy and it performed to perfection in programs that demand very fast and radical changes. You can move from a scene where you are emulating the 40s with sepia tones to another completely different one, with big changes in color temperature, filters and the like, very swiftly.”

Pere Prat, Technical Director, Gestmusic Endemol




Going to HD has meant any significant operational changes for Gest-music, but there are exceptions.

“I would say that we have had to pay more attention to certain things like the Moiré effect. It has disappeared from some screens and ap-peared on others with more resolution,” said Puigcorbé. “In the side screens of ¡Ahora Caigo! there was a Moiré that has virtually ceased to exist now, but has appeared on the central 6 mm screen, an ele-ment that the production team has overcome by changing some of the shots to achieve a higher soft focus of the background. Other than that, we have not encountered any major difficulty with our technolog-ical leap to HD.”

For audio, the mixing console delivers MADI and its distributed to the servers and the multiviewers. “This was something we loved because it allows you to monitor up to 64 audio tracks easily,” said Puigcorbé. “Now that we have implemented everything, we have realized that perhaps we should have integrated a hybrid router. In other words, take the MADI directly to the router, instead of taking it to the record-er to then embed, de-embed and route with the video signal. Grass Valley’s NVISION router also offered us that possibility, but we hesi-tated because everything would have had to depend on one piece of equipment, even though it did entail more versatility. I’m sure we will address this in future.”

When it came to choosing an equipment supplier, several vendors were considered, but Grass Valley was chosen primarily for its cam-eras and their ability to make use of the triax infrastructure already in place at Gestmusic.

“We had worked with Grass Valley cameras before, in programs like Tu Cara Me Suena, and were very satisfied with the results,” said Prat. “Another key element was the remote panel for the CCU. It is a very ergonomic panel that is very efficient and versatile for the image con-trol technician. Working with it was so easy and it performed to per-fection in programs that demand very fast and radical changes. You can move from a scene where you are emulating the 40s with sepia tones to another completely different one, with big changes in color temperature, filters and the like, very swiftly.”

One other point in Grass Valley’s favor was the flexibility of its camera system. “One of the things we liked a lot about Grass Valley was the flexibility you get with their licensing system,” said Prat. “For example, if for one program you need to produce using 24p or 3G, you can do so without having to change the camera, just by purchasing a tem-porary e-license. This is a great advantage. I think this was one of the strongest points when taking a decision on cameras. On the other hand, one of the reasons behind choosing the Première series was the second filter wheel it incorporates, because we needed a minimum level of effects on the camera due to the types of production we do.”

“One of the things we liked a lot about Grass Valley was the flexibility you get with their licensing system. For example, if for one program you need to produce using 24p or 3G, you can do so without having to change the camera, just by purchasing a temporary e-license. This is a great advantage. I think this was one of the strongest points when taking a decision on cameras.”

Pere Prat, Technical Director, Gestmusic Endemol


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“Another important consideration for us was the integration of all the different pieces of equipment,” explained Puigcorbé. “This was some-thing Grass Valley’s product breadth gave us, because what is import-ant at the end of the day is that all the devices talk to each other. If you have a facility composed of devices made by 20 different manufac-turers, you will almost certainly encounter problems integrating them. Grass Valley covered all our key equipment requirements — most of the equipment is theirs, so integration is assured.”

Prat was very impressed with Crosspoint, the local authorized Grass Valley partner in Spain (based out of Madrid), which supplied and commissioned all of the Grass Valley live production equipment.

“Even if we had to perform the project now with all we have learnt, we would choose Crosspoint again, without a doubt,” said Prat. “Their service and availability, with the little time we had available for instal-

lation and the time-critical nature of the facility have been essential for everything to come to fruition. It is paramount to know who is support-ing you and how fast they can respond. Different needs or problems can arise at any time at Gestmusic, even during weekends, and we need to have the reassurance that there is support when we need it. Crosspoint’s work has been simply impeccable.”

“We are a small team and we have had to balance shooting with this upgrade,” added Puigcorbé. “Having a flawless customer care team that solved any problem immediately has been very helpful during our training process. We are speaking of teams with whom we had not worked before, even within the same brand, because Grass Valley’s old products have nothing to do with the current ones. In other words, it was all about working with an integrator from whom you ask a solu-tion, he designs it, integrates it, implements it and you have it all up and running.”

“Another important consideration for us was the integration of all the different pieces of equipment. This was something Grass Valley’s product breadth gave us, because what is important at the end of the day is that all the devices talk to each other. If you have a facility composed of devices made by 20 different manufacturers, you will almost certainly encounter problems integrating them. Grass Valley covered all our key equipment require-ments — most of the equipment is theirs, so integration is assured.”

Jordi Puigcorbé, Technical Chief of Television Sets, Gestmusic Endemol


gestmusic endemol moving smoothly into hd with grass valley...• multiple kaleido multiviewers...

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