Brussels, Belgium — Proximus Media House (PMH) is a central broadcast center that operates across Belgium and Luxembourg. We host various playout channels and distribute all Belgian Pro League soccer feeds over the Proximus ST2110 ViCoNG network in four studios and four galleries. We use Lawo’s VSM broadcast control system to switch connections.
In 2016, PMH evolved from an MCR and two control rooms on SDI to four control rooms. We were the first to implement remote productions on ST 2022-6 until migrating all remote connectivity to ST 2110 in January 2021. VSM now connects, talks to and monitors a 720x720 matrix with thousands of crosspoints.
It controls our complete video-over-IP network, and the Gadget server seamlessly handles communication with all devices and applications.
Customized VSM Panel
Together with Lawo, we designed a VSM panel that provides live status information about the equipment located all over Belgium so that our live operators can immediately identify issues. They can monitor network, video, temperature data, etc. This makes troubleshooting much more efficient since the MCR operator no longer needs to switch panels to set the workflows and can keep an eye on the connectivity and signals.
VSM also plays an important role in playout. Operators must have a continuous view over our 12 channels to know which signal is going to contribution. They see all crosspoints of the playout and incoming live feeds for safe switching and emergency procedures. A large view shows the signal path; if an emergency switch is required or if a crosspoint is set incorrectly, they receive an alert and can immediately fix it. This ensures that our operators can monitor status and operate the panel without changing views.
Apart from our playout channels with a 24/7 playlist, we also produce up to 12 event channels for live events where multiple events need to go on air simultaneously. VSM plays a crucial role in automating channel switching from the loop video to an EVS playlist, the incoming feed and back. In this automated routine, operators prepare the outgoing programs in various languages, with assorted graphics and audio. These programs can change and can be taken on- and off-air with one click on the VSM panel.
Belgium is a country with different languages; most of our productions are broadcast in Dutch and French. This makes our environment more complex and sometimes doubles our infrastructure requirements. For a live studio feed, like an esports show, we have two studios with different hosts speaking Dutch and French. You might expect that we use two galleries and two production teams, for esports, but we don’t. Instead we use one flexible desk with access to an intercom, multiviewer and VSM panel.
One production team and one director create both shows in Dutch and French simultaneously. The VSM panel for this production connects to the vision mixer and an audio mixer. The director can cut to the cameras, EVS or incoming feed. VSM triggers all relevant microphone or audio lines on the mixer, the playlist, and cuts to them, or cues the overlay graphics.
Heart of Broadcast Ops
VSM is the heart of all broadcast operations at PMH with all of its capabilities being leveraged. There is a tremendous advantage in visualizing data on VSM panels for managing and troubleshooting our ST 2110 environment—we can talk to virtually any broadcast device and work more efficiently via a single control system.
The flexibility of VSM furthermore allows us to hand control panels to other companies connected to our ST 2110 network, allowing them to set their own crosspoints without calling the MCR.
We are about to integrate our audio control rooms based on Lawo mc² consoles, A__UHD Cores, and HOME into VSM for a more user-friendly audio environment where operators can easily route streams to their consoles. l
For more information visit https://lawo.com/.
