This is how the largest renovation of the AV equipment of the Parliament of Catalonia was carried out

Josep Escudé i Pont, head of the Communication Department, and Daniel Rodríguez, Image and Sound technician of the Parliament of Catalonia, In this video interview, they analyze how the renewal of the production infrastructure has been carried out., transport and distribution of signals in the Catalan Chamber.

He Parliament of Catalonia has carried out the comprehensive renovation of the production and realization infrastructure. Most of the equipment used to date dated from 2002, whose obsolescence was beginning to have an impact on parliamentary activity with more projection such as the production of plenary sessions and parliamentary commissions.

At the beginning of 2019, Parliament awarded a public tender to update the audiovisual equipment in the Session Hall and the rest of the building's rooms. The objective was, on the one hand, be able to see, listen, record and disseminate the interventions of deputies, y, for another, generate the single audio and television signal of the sessions and events that take place in the Chamber.

Thanks to this new production infrastructure, transportation and distribution it is possible to follow in HD all the sessions and public events that take place at the Catalan parliamentary headquarters, remaining available to all media and, in general, of the citizens, through the Chamber's online media.

The Parliament of Catalonia awarded the project to Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA) who, by the hand of Crosspoint, integrated teams of Riedel Communications (transport, processed, routing, monitoring and communications), Grass Valley (cameras, mixers and modular), BFE (comprehensive control system) y AJA (storage and converters).

Additionally, Crosspoint has included custom developments in the project, start-up services, training and support.

The facilities have been equipped with a complete system of remote-controlled robotic HD cameras for the plenary hall.. This infrastructure is equipped with 8 Grass Valley LDX C82 Systems. These compact cameras feature three 2/3″ Xensium-FT CMOS sensors and include a wide color gamut (WCG) y, optionally, 1080p capture or HDR operation.

Besides, The audiovisual equipment for the production controls of each of the rooms has been installed, compound, mainly, for audio and video mixers, technical audio and video monitoring, multi-screen solution and intercom system, that allows communication between all the technical rooms of Parliament.

In the case of routing and processing, The option chosen by Parliament was Mediornet systems, Riedel's Micron and Metron. Also from the German manufacturer are the Artist digital intercom and the new Bolero wireless intercom system., integrated into this project.

In 2008, Parliament began a partial renewal process, since then having HD cameras although production was not carried out in high definition since the crisis paralyzed the renewal of networks and production controls.. We would have to wait until 2017 so that the Catalan Chamber could once again resume a comprehensive migration to HD.

Parliament has carried out a complete migration from SD to HD in terms of performance controls, signal transport and distribution infrastructure.

It is noteworthy that, as Parliament has provided its rooms with the technical equipment necessary for television production, The media no longer have direct access to these rooms, except to record the typical “silent” moments just a few minutes before the start of the session.

It is Parliament that is responsible for producing the institutional signal, record it, distribute it to all media and archive it. At a time when the vast majority of channels had already migrated to HD, could not continue offering an image with SD quality.

The project had contemplated two differentiated transport networks that are integrated with each other, one audio, that allows the integration of the video system with the audio system, and another for transporting video signals through a proprietary system, that offers a decentralized solution to transport and distribute the generated signals via fiber.

The set is complemented by a management layer and an orchestration system that allows monitoring, control and switching of devices, as well as the integrated audio and video network. This is where KSC Core comes in, de BFE.

Located in a historic building from the mid-18th century in the heart of the Ciudadela Park, in Barcelona, The Parliament specified a series of requirements when it comes to cabling that fiber solves to a large extent..

Although, inside Riedel, in 2012 some steps were taken with the release of Compact Pro transport solutions, The costs for an application as large as the Parlameot infrastructure skyrocketed.

For this reason, the German company developed Micron, responding to this type of projects with this amount of signals, with distributed matrices capable of responding to a high signal density.
This solution allowed us to gain efficiency and regroup all the controls with the space saved..

The main project aimed to transport all these signals without the budget skyrocketing. It was even thought of using large mixers to route signals at the same time as they were used for mixing.. Nevertheless, “we preferred smaller mixers than a big mixer with a lot of cards. This scheme gave us greater security in case of error, than endless plates and components in one big mixer. In this case, Kula has fit like a glove”.

Finally, an independent network was chosen and seven Grass Valley Kula mixers installed in the different production controls.. This all-in-one mixer offers digital video and audio mixing and includes clipstore integration for graphics creation and multi-screen output. With a mainframe of just 2RU, Kula has 40 video inputs/outputs and 80 audio which provides great configuration flexibility.

Additionally, Crosspoint has supplied several AJA solutions such as Ki Pro recorders/players, frame synchronizers and FS2 format converters and various mini converters.

The project, although it cannot be qualified as a native installation in IP SMPTE 2110, has Micron systems, that accept IP signals, being able to manage up to 80 Gigs of bandwidth.

Besides, as Parliament's engineers recognize, in 2110, when the drafting phase of the project began, was not yet as standardized or competitive from a cost point of view.

Scalability

One of the requirements of Parliament's technological renewal was punctual scalability in situations of high information demand.. Although the day-to-day life of the Chamber is barely covered by a hundred journalists, In specific cases, more than 1.500 journalists from all over the world.

In cases like these, Parliament had been resorting to the occasional rental of systems. Now, The new infrastructure allows you to connect Riedel plug chests&play to fiber and start working in minutes, providing the images for parliamentarians and media instantly.

One of the most striking aspects is that it is a very versatile facility., That is why a decentralized matrix was chosen with all signals accessible from anywhere.. This allows the installation configuration to be adapted to both ordinary and extraordinary needs..

The new infrastructure was carried out in five weeks just in time for the Diada celebration at the beginning of September..

He 11 September marked the premiere of the new Bolero wireless intercom. At the moment, Parliament has mobile antennas that offer coverage in the areas where it is required depending on the needs of the activity. And beyond a simple intercom, The Bolero matrix is ​​used on a daily basis to coordinate teams or, even, to monitor audio from different points.

Finally, It should be noted that the Parliament installation is totally transparent for the operator, with a top layer of control system (orchestrator) KSC Core of BFE, also deployed by Crosspoint. So it is possible to switch, diagnose and monitor the entire infrastructure, in which various Grass Valley IQ modular materials have also been used for distribution and processing, preventing errors before they occur. This simplifies operation at the operator level., reserving the applications specific to each system, MediorWorks, RollCall, Director… for use at the engineering and facility management level.