Caribbean Super Lotto

GTECH, provider of lottery technology, brought in ionoco of Winchester, UK, to deliver a low-cost and fully-automated solution for studio production and multiregional playout of the new pan-Caribbean lottery show, “Super Lotto,” broadcast in conjunction with a consortium of GTECH customers in the Caribbean.

Loto Real operates the Spanish-language lottery draw show, which takes place live in the Dominican Republic. Other Caribbean islands (Antigua, Barbados and St Maarten), partners in the draw, need to rebroadcast the show 30 minutes later with local graphic intro and outro sequences and an English audio track. Due to a limited budget and time, the process to recreate individual draw shows for each island must be as automated as possible, while ensuring it is highly secure and tamperproof.

Ionoco built a custom studio control system in the Dominican Republic, including a switching desk, three cameras (expandable to eight), a mix-wipe unit, touchscreen and ionocore computers. The system is linked to redundant TV2GO Recorder computers housed in the studio. To minimize the file size of the video, TV2GO triggers the recording system to record only the Super Lotto draw element of the program (approximately 45 seconds in length), with a short run-in and over run using both a primary and backup recorder for redundancy.

The encoded Super Lotto Draw clip is sent initially to the central FTP server via a secured VPN network. The TV2GO SetupPlay system receives this file first and sends a message to the TV2GO Play Systems in the islands, which then start their download process.

While the TV2GO Play computers are downloading the draw video, the studio technician at Crucial Productions in Barbados identifies and selects the in and out points on the recorded draw video, records the new draw audio in English and mixes down a new draw audio. Meanwhile, the draw video has already been downloaded in the islands. The SetupPlay application then completes the process by sending, via the FTP server, the new draw audio and a signed EDL configuration file to the islands. All content files, the draw video, intro/jackpot audio and draw audio are uploaded with a signature file. All local intro and outro sequences are held on the islands’ ionoco Play Systems.

The TV2GO Play systems are installed at each of the islands’ broadcast centers. These systems require the minimum of user input and will automatically download the relevant video, audio and configuration files from the FTP server. Once the final EDL Config File is downloaded, the system is ready to play. The Play button plays the draw with a 30in count-in clock.

The resulting broadcast is of the same visual quality as the original transmission, providing Loto Real and its “Super Lotto” partners with a custom, low-cost, resilient system for multichannel broadcast. The system is designed to be expandable to enable other lotteries who join the “Super Lotto” consortium to broadcast the draw.