Fourth Annual Excellence Awards
New studio technology - Network nominee

The project consisted of relocating the 24-hour production operation facility to a 54,000sq ft renovated office space. A key feature and design directive was to configure the nonlinear suites for greater creative and scheduling flexibility. The team added support for both NTSC and PAL signals in every suite, along with support for a number of HD equipment and HD signal formats. They used custom auto-sensing reference switching and a dedicated reference router to accommodate the reference needs for these signal rates and formats, allowing every HD resource to select between multiple tri-level reference rates.

Two major concerns drove design structure: providing an immense amount of heat generation and dissipation and maintaining the support equipment for individual suites in as close proximity to the suite as practical. The solution involved creating two medium-sized equipment cores as the heart of the structure. Any signal or equipment can be routed virtually anywhere in the facility. The two cores work together to interconnect all equipment through the facility router and HD transport.

Another goal was to allow for the quick and easy repurposing of any edit suite. To achieve this all rooms terminate to a custom-built break-out panel. The plenum cables connect to jumpers in the rack, which then connect to the equipment I/O. A room makeover simply requires changing jumpers in the core and rewiring in the suite. The structured cabling included running an extensive complement of data cable to all broadcast suites with support and collaboration from the IT department.

Each Avid suite is part of a cluster consisting of its own media storage, computer, audio/video engine and external support VTRs. PAL and NTSC decks are assignable through the router. Each suite is wired for a legalizer for proc amp corrections, ensuring that post-production signals meet Discovery’s technical standards for on-air quality.