A major winter sports event held earlier in the year in Vancouver used RTS digital matrix intercom systems and ADAM (Advanced Digital Audio Matrix) matrices. Large systems were based around tri-bus, multi-frame ADAM matrices and used by broadcasters including CTV and NBC.
“We are very proud to have contributed to the success of another of major winter sports competition,” said Scott Gilman of RTS. “RTS systems of all varieties and sizes [were] deployed at every level at every site, from the smallest venues all the way up to the main broadcast centre. Our proven IP trunking platform proved itself invaluable once again, considering venues like Whistler are about a two-hour drive from the main CTV studios, for example, and with many more venues scattered around Vancouver. Some of the adjacent towns like Richmond even set up their own Cronus (DSP matrix intercom) strings to co-ordinate the large amount of broadcast activity in that locality, all tied together with trunking, with all the cameras, intercom, audio and video centrally controlled back in Vancouver.”
A combination of fibre and IP technologies ensures seamless operations between these sites, all centrally controlled via the large RTS matrices installed at the main studio locations. “Fibre and IP technologies are becoming more and more prevalent for transferring video, audio and intercom signals,” Gilman says, “and the large RTS frames served in Vancouver as a common switch point. A broadcaster doesn’t necessarily have to have trucks at every single location, which can save a lot of time and money. They deploy their cameras to the location and connect them to fibre, which comes back to the main centre where it’s all switched live. The same thing goes for audio; there may be a large amount of audio circuits in use at the venue, but they’re actually mixed here on site.”
RTS products offer backwards-compatible operability with scalable flexibility, so central location users may interface with a remote key panel completely via IP or via an RVON-IO, which converts eight channels of IP to analogue audio.
“What’s different about RTS in this regard is the unique way in which we deal with IP,” continued Gilman. “Our IP devices have GPI ins and outs for contact closures, and the hardware is put together to make trunking easier, with a built-in serial port. Our system is also extremely scalable, from one key panel and a single RVON (VOIP interface) card to hundreds. We work closely with our broadcast customers and develop new products that provide them with the features that address new challenges, while always maximising their investment in their current equipment.”