Thanks to 16 HD cameras and thousands of HD displays throughout the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, spectators can enjoy a live, up-close look at game-day activities, including tailgating, behind-the-scenes views of players and cheerleaders, and a sense of the overall atmosphere that permeates the largest domed stadium in the world.

Systems integrator Burst provided the detailed design, systems integration and project management of the HD production control rooms and central equipment room that feeds video signals to the massive HD screens, as well as thousands of additional HD displays located throughout the facility.

The stadium supports live broadcasts, production and post production in HDTV, as well as an in-house multichannel HD IPTV cable system for targeted advertising throughout the venue. In addition to the main control room, the facility has two auxiliary control rooms, a rack room with 35 8ft equipment racks and an owner’s perch with eight dedicated replay devices.

The design for the control rooms in the new facility called for 1080i systems capable of delivering high-quality video to showcase the large HD screens while being flexible enough to handle a variety of events ranging from a simple conference in one of the stadium’s meeting rooms to the Super Bowl.

Building a TV production control room and supporting infrastructure in a massive facility that is under construction presents a variety of challenges and requires significant coordination and cooperation between interrelated trades and the general contractor. When multiple subcontractors are sharing a common overhead cable tray, a high level of cooperation and respect for each other’s work is required.

The new control room facility relies on Evertz for the core systems such as sync generation, routing, distribution, conversion and multi-image displays.The routing fabric consists of an EQX 288 x 288 HD-SDI frame populated as 144 x 144, two Xenon frames with a capacity for 256 x 256 populated with 32 x 32 analog audio and 160 x 160 AES audio matrices. These two audio frames are integrated with a MADI/TDM interface that allows seamless A/D and D/A audio conversion within the router. At the heart of the main control room is a Sony MVS-8000G HD switcher. The control panel can directly control 13 router destinations through the use of an Evertz protocol translator.

Recording and playback are via a variety of devices that include a six-channel EVS system, two record/four playback channels of NEXIO server, a two-channel Crossfire, three Chyron HyperX3 CGs, and Sony HDCAM and XDCAM transports.

A Riedel Artist 128 matrix frame ties together all internal Riedel functions and integrates with external devices such as two-way radios, wireless intercoms and wireless IFBs, and it can be linked with other intercom systems.

This state-of-the art facility provides high-quality images to thousands of HD displays, has the flexibility to integrate with network production trucks and other outside systems, and will help set the tone for future stadium control room design.