Taking on the Indian Broadcast Market

Indian broadcasters and other media enterprises face hurdles that are universal to companies everywhere – the need to generate more revenues in an increasingly competitive environment, to offer new and modern services, and to do it all with less equipment and ever-shrinking production budgets. In particular, our customers in India are grappling not only with the rapid proliferation of OTT but also the requirement to migrate to rapidly evolving technologies that can be disconnected from legacy workflows. And also, because India is such a vast country geographically, there is the additional challenge of deploying, operating, and maintaining kit in far-flung locations that might lack an adequate supporting infrastructure.

On key message to the Indian market
The marketplace knows Riedel only as an intercom company. Our efforts in India are all about educating customers that we can offer a complete, fiber-based signal transport/communications infrastructure based on our MediorNet solution.

On offering a complete solution
As a real-time media network, MediorNet is able to offer fully redundant and decentralized routing of all video and audio signals. With MediorNet as the signal transport backbone, our Artist digital matrix intercom system and Bolero wireless intercom can provide comprehensive and reliable communications for crew, performers, and other personnel.

This configuration is especially valuable in an integrated, multi-camera production, for example, a sports broadcast with 36 cameras and spidercams, CCU, EVS devices, audio mixers and switchers, and comms. MediorNet can facilitate rapid setup and tear-down – a critical requirement for mobile productions – by integrating the inputs from all of these sources using a single dark fiber. This reduces or even removes the need for multiple glue devices such as embedders, converters, frame sync, etc.

A recent, real-world example is a high-profile live event that was televised to viewers in 27 countries. Here, MediorNet was deployed in a decentralized configuration to distribute the main broadcast feed as well as all video and audio signals for commentary, intercom, signal distribution, and radio communications, including the feeds for monitors in commentary booths and for displays and projectors in the arena. Tightly integrated with MediorNet, Artist managed the distribution of all signals from 32 Bolero beltpacks deployed to the production team. The Artist infrastructure also supported almost 600 handheld radios.

MediorNet MultiViewer combines a powerful multiviewer software App with the MediorNet MicroN high-density media distribution network device. The MediorNet MultiViewer accepts up to 18 video signals from any source on a MediorNet network, and enables operators to create up to four custom multiviewer layouts for local use or redistribution back onto the network.

MediorNet MultiViewer includes powerful scaling, positioning, and graphics tools including multiple on-screen clock widgets that can be referenced to timecode or system time and up to 20 synchronized and controllable counters. Other widgets include tallies, under-monitor displays, and audio level meters. All of these can be easily configured within a single view using drag-and-drop through Riedel or other third-party software.

On communicating the broader strategy to Indian broadcasters
The past 2 years have allowed us to get a better grasp of the challenges our broadcast customers face. We now have a better understanding of the workflow and technologies used by Indian playout and production facilities. We are now making a concerted effort to engage Indian broadcasters more deeply and take the MediorNet concept forward as a comprehensive solution for cost-effective signal transport with bulletproof reliability.