Blackmagic Universal Videohub Networks for London Games Broadcast

Dutch broadcaster NOS will be using a video routing network based on the Blackmagic Design
Universal Videohub to deliver sports footage from the 2012 London Games.

Broadcast Rental in the Netherlands has built the network for NOS, who will use the Universal Videohub to distribute key highlights and games footage from their media headquarters at the game’s International Broadcast Centre to other Dutch Olympic facilities, Holland Heineken House and Medal Plaza. The IBC will be serving as a 24 hour media hub for around 20,000 broadcasters, photographers and journalists.
Controlled via PC touch screen monitors, the Universal Videohub will take in all signals from the Olympic Broadcast Services and will distribute the signals to the Holland Heineken House, Medal Plaza and to storage at the IBC. The signal will be locked and ingested via an EVS XT server and IPDirector workflow. This workflow controls ingest, metadata management and live editing and schedules playout scheduling, to an Avid Unity System before it is packaged up with Avid Media Composer. MD and founder of Broadcast Rental Geert Paul Slee said, “Broadcast Rental will do the edit with two Avid Nitrix DX systems and two voice-over booths. We are taking in eight channels and play out four channels - in this case using DMX 120. We will have 42 inputs from OBS and we are using the videohub to route them to the XT.” The final output is then routed back through the Universal Videohub before being distributed to the Netherlands broadcast network and other Olympic screening facilities.
Geert Paul explained that the Universal Videohub will sit at the centre of their Olympic operations as a routing matrix. Every audio and video signal will go via this router,” said Geert Paul Slee, Managing Director and founder of Broadcast Rental. “We wanted to use the Universal Videohub in particular for this job because it is customizable, can be controlled wirelessly and fits easily into small spaces, which makes it cost effective to use as kit for multiple customers.”   www.blackmagic-design.com