In early May, BBC News and Current Affairs productions from London studios N6 and TC7 received a makeover.
Using Geevs MR+ servers from Gee Broadcast Systems to provide HD playout for the studio background, the BBC re-equipped the studios with multiple large screen HD-capable projectors fed with clips from a bank of synchronized Geevs servers to provide the background.
BBC News needed HD channels playing out frame-accurately locked clips under control from a simple user interface. After some initial trials to prove the technology and refine the concept, Gee Broadcast created a new user interface to allow simple playout control of multiple Geevs MR+ servers in the studios.
Playout control relies on a touch-screen PC that is connected to the Geevs servers via Ethernet. Although keeping the user interface easy to understand was important, it was equally necessary to ensure frame locked playback across all screens. The interface also had to allow easy selection of the set of clips to be used depending on the program being produced.
For more information, visit: www.geebroadcast.co.uk.
