LOGIC media solutions supports German private broadcaster with workflows for media production in the cloud

With Grass Valley AMPP, cloud media production workflows can be easily planned and realized. As part of a proof of concept, LOGIC media solutions supported a German private broadcaster to realize different use cases for live production in the cloud and to make the workflows more efficient. During the last use case, the state election in the state of Bremen in May this year, the solution went live on air for the first time with Grass Valley AMPP on the broadcaster’s news program. As a result, the broadcaster had a workflow that, using cloud infrastructures with “traditional” broadcast technology, offered many advantages in reducing on-premises resources and enabling remote production and scaling.

In this specific case, the production team used GV AMPP to initially manage the signals of their reporters (equipped with LiveU) from the election studios and the parties’ election parties, plus up to 10 pool signals from other broadcasters in the cloud, before transferring them to the on-premises control room in Cologne. Only four SRT decoders were needed for signal conversion, each recording the currently relevant pool signals using GV AMPP via an AWS Direct Connect connection. To monitor incoming and outgoing signals, the broadcaster operated a multiviewer in the cloud and monitored it via an HTML-based web browser with low latency.

In addition to managing the video signals in the cloud, the audio tracks were adapted to the station’s requirements in GV AMPP (e.g., remapping from mono to stereo or double mono). Furthermore, the installation included the operation of a LiveTouch X replay instance in the cloud, with which several of the pool signals were permanently recorded and could be played out to the control room with a time delay if necessary. A bidirectional file transfer directly from the cloud replay system connected to the broadcaster’s MAM was also implemented (file format: XDCAM HD422 as MXF OP 1a). This allowed the editors to promptly process the recordings from the cloud at their usual editing workstations in the broadcast building.

All installation workloads used a high-performance Amazon EC2 instance on Amazon Web Services, centrally located in a Frankfurt data centre. The private AWS Direct Connect connection allowed the broadcaster to achieve low latency and high signal transmission security. Operators could conveniently control the system remotely via the Grass Valley LiveTouch X hardware panel and Elgato Stream Deck units.

The LOGIC Media Solutions team is both GV AMPP and AWS certified. In addition to the experts’ know-how of complex systems such as cloud and SDN infrastructures, the LOGIC team also has extensive experience in live production. This combination enables LOGIC to plan and implement cloud and SDN infrastructures for live production in a targeted manner. The teams know and understand the specific workflows and requirements of the customers for these novel systems and their combination. BCS Bureau