:update IBC2008
Olympic Games in China Gold for Riedel: Artist was the most used Intercom System in Beijing The Artist digital matrix intercom system was the most popular intercom at the Beijing Games. Half of the mobile production units providing international coverage of the Olympics were equipped with an intercom system from this German communications specialist. In all, 27 of the 55 official OB trucks covering the Games utilized a Riedel Artist system, making Riedel the most used intercom provider at these Games. In addition, many international broadcasters, including ARD/ZDF (Germany), BBC (UK), CHT (Taiwan), ERR (Estonia), ERT (Greece), KBS (Korea), ORF (Austria) and TVE (Spain) used Riedel Artist systems for their own coverage of the Games. Broadcasting the Games All in all, more than 100 of Riedel s Artist intercom systems were utilised in Beijing, making Riedel by far the largest supplier of intercom systems at the Beijing Games. 49 per cent of the official OB trucks covering the Games were equipped with a Riedel Artist intercom. On top of the broadcast portion of the Games, all venue communications were carried out with Riedel intercoms. More than 50 Riedel Artist systems were installed in all Olympic venues to meet the communication needs for organisational requirements such as time-keeping, presentations and scoring. These installations also included 185 Artist 1000 control panels, 123 C44 system interfaces for the integration of digital partylines, 1,370 Performer C3 digital 2-channel beltpacks, 42 PMX Panel Multiplexers to remote panels via fibre and more than 320 professional mobile radios which were integrated with the wired comms using 30 RiFace radio interfaces. Last but not least the opening and closing ceremonies relied on what was likely the largest and most complex temporary intercom installation ever built. It featured 8 Artist digital matrix intercom systems linked via fibre, 80 control panels, 24 C44 system 18,000 Wireless Receivers interfaces for the integration of digital partylines, 210 Performer C3 digital partyline beltpacks, 44 RiFace radio interfaces, 650 professional mobile radios, 6 FM transmitters and 18,000 (!) Riedel FMR-1000 mass-monitoring radio receivers for the on-field actors. Others 4% Clear-Com 25% Riedel 49% RTS/Telex 22% Overview: Intercom Systems in OB Trucks at the Beijing Games
ACROBAT Digital Wireless Intercom Wireless Unlimited! NEW PRODUCT The new Riedel Acrobat Digital Wireless Intercom system is an easy to use full-duplex communications solution for broadcast, security, industrial and theatre applications as well as sports and cultural events. Acrobat takes a completely new approach to wireless communications, pushing it beyond the limits of existing wireless intercoms and allowing the operation of an unlimited number of Wireless Beltpacks. People basically just want to have a partyline beltpack without cables, allowing the same style and size of conferences that they re used to. That s what they re really looking for, said Thomas Riedel, Managing Director of Riedel Communications. The Acrobat system features both partyline and point-topoint communications, digital audio quality and no interference with radio microphones or IEMs. The license-free, cellular DECT architecture features seamless hand-over between cells and is formed by one or more Acrobat Cell Controllers with up to 80 Acrobat Cell Antennas. The Cell Controller serves as the heart of any Acrobat Digital Wireless Intercom installation and handles the VoIP-over-DECT cell management. The Acrobat Cell Antennas are connected to the Acrobat Cell Controller via Ethernet, allowing the use of existing standard structured cabling and providing a wide area between Cell Controller and Antennas. The Acrobat Wireless Beltpack itself is a light, compact, digital headset station with two individually configurable channels for intercom and IFB use. Operation is intuitive and follows the concept of Riedel s Performer C3 Digital Partyline Beltpack. The beltpack features an OLED display, which by default shows the labels for both the talk-keys and two user-definable function keys. In addition the display gives the user access to the intuitive configuration menu. A question for... Acrobat, Riedel s new digital wireless intercom solution, is based on the DECT standard. Why did Riedel decide on DECT and how does Riedel manage to go beyond the limits of existing products? We asked Dirk Henneke, Riedel s Head of Hardware Development. Q: Why is Acrobat based on DECT, which didn t seem to work out in the past? DH: Former DECT-based intercoms basically worked like DECT telephones. Each beltpack permanently occupied at least two channels, even when several beltpacks were operating in a conference. This poor use of the DECT technology led to very limited solutions. Q: So how did you make it work? DH: We just took the DECT base layer as a starting point. But above this base we developed several new technologies. Q: Can you give us some details? DH: First, I need to mention our ESA technology, which stands for Enhanced Sync Automation. This optimizes the system performance when used in environments with other DECT-based systems. But the big innovation is our Enhanced Channel Agility (ECA) technology, which allows Acrobat to make use of the complete DECT frequency and channel spectrum by dynamically allocating calls to any free RX or TX time-slot. This innovative use of technology removes the previous limit to the number of beltpacks in a DECT-based system.
NEW PRODUCT A lot more than just a system interface The fly-pack installation of Korean national broadcaster KBS at the International Broadcast Center in Beijing. Olympic Broadcasting KBS climbs the podium with Riedel Korean national television broadcaster KBS chose Riedel for its new flypack that was used for the network s coverage of the Olympic Games. The flypack contains all new state-of-theart equipment and was deployed not only for KBS s own programming but also to provide several venue feeds to the Olympic host broadcaster Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB). The intercom consists of an Artist 128 frame, 18x 1000 series LED display control panels and 14x 2000 series LCD display control panels. In addition, the system includes 3x C44 digital partyline interfaces, 12x C3 digital beltpacks being used for IFBs, two CD2 digital partyline speaker stations, and three C31 split boxes for added flexibility. On top of this KBS is also using a RiFace to integrate two-way radio communication into the intercom system, two Connect Solo analog telephone hybrids to interface to telephone lines and two Connect IP to add VoIP functionality. The versatility of the digital beltpacks is key, explained Yeom Jung-Dong, Deputy Director responsible for outside broadcast infrastructure at KBS. Not only do we no longer have to deal with 2/4 wire converters but the audio quality is superb. The digital audio makes an obvious difference. Versatility is key Riedel has been a popular choice at the Games in Beijing. Half of the 55 broadcast trucks used to cover the events were equipped with Riedel intercom systems. In addition to KBS, other national broadcasters that used Riedel include the BBC (UK), ARD/ZDF (Germany), ORF (Austria), TVE (Spain), ERT (Greece), ERR (Estonia) and CHT (Taiwan). The KBS intercom project was handled by Riedel s partner in the South Korean market, Sama Global Video Communications Inc. The new Performer C44plus System Interface seamlessly integrates digital partylines in matrix intercom environments just like its predecessor. But that s not all. It can now also serve as a stand-alone matrix for small applications. The new version features a USB-port on the front to connect a PC to configure the internal 24x24 matrix via the new Performer Audio Assignment Software. The Audio Assignment Software is an intuitive tool for editing the settings of eight pre-programmed configurations which can be activated through DIP switches on the front of the C44plus. This expands the possible applications for the C44 from being a system interface to serving as the heart of a small stand-alone intercom solution. It offers a 24x24 matrix with 4x 2-channel powered digital partyline outputs, 8x AES digital I/Os and 8x analog 4-wire I/Os. In addition, GPIs enable the C44plus to be combined with a RiFace radio interface to integrate wired and wireless communications environments. The C44plus system can be used standalone or in conjunction with matrix systems such as Riedel s Artist platform. The basic system consists of the C44 system interface and several C3 digital beltpacks. In addition, all Performer Digital Partyline items such as split-boxes or rack-mount and desktop master/ speaker stations can also be used with the C44plus. Performer C44 devices that have been delivered before April 2008 can be upgraded so that they can also be used with the new software.
Intercom-over-IP At IBC 2008 Riedel Communications introduced its new, integrated Intercomover-IP solution for the Artist Digital Matrix Intercom platform. It provides seamless intercom interfacing to IP based networks and allows matrix-tomatrix connections, matrix-to-control panel connections as well as the distribution of audio lines over IP. The new VOIP-108 G2 card converts eight Artist matrix ports into a compressed IP-stream and vice versa. In order to always ensure excellent audio quality, a user can choose between a high-quality mode with an audio bandwidth of 6 khz resulting in a data rate of less than 80 kbit/s (incl. panel data), and a low-traffic mode with 4 khz audio bandwidth and a data rate of less than 40 kbit/s per channel (incl. panel NEW The Perfect Team: Connect IPx8 & Artist VoIP Card PRODUCT data). The VOIP-108 G2 client card communicates either with a VOIP-108 G2 client card in another Artist system, e.g. for trunking, or with Riedel s new Connect IPx8 panel interface. The Connect IPx8 is a 19 /1RU unit which converts eight intercom ports into IP data and vice versa. The device is available in three versions offering different interface options on the rear of the unit. The CAT5 and COAX versions are for connecting Artist panels and other AES signals, while the AIO version is perfect for the connection of 4-wires and other analog sources. Both devices can be updated to codecs available in the future. Director goes Windows Vista Riedel s intuitive configuration software Director has always been in the process of constant evolution. In addition to several new features and enhancements, Director version 5.70 is now fully compatible with Windows Vista. Among the set of new functions Director now incorporates a Scheduler which can change aspects of the configuration at pre-defined times. The Director configuration software for Artist intercom systems provides the facilities, look and feel associated with most Windows software products so that operations of standard features are familiar. NEW PRODUCT A real-time application, Director allows an engineer to remotely monitor the livestate of all panels, thus eliminating the need to physically go to a panel where a user has reported a potential problem. Using the Remote-function he or she can even remotely control the panels of a specific user. Stadium Installations Big in US Sports: NFL, NHL, MLB and more Riedel Communications intercom systems are playing a larger role in US sports arenas. Users include Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jobing. com Arena in Phoenix, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, Vancouver Canucks Stadium and HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. Also NHL s top broadcast partner, Versus Network, recently installed Riedel s Artist digital intercom in its new 18,000 square foot HD production studio in Stamford, CT. The Riedel system, unlike others, is modular, commented Paul Koopmann, director of engineering for VERSUS. You can start with whatever size you want and build up. That was critical, because with our growth in sports programming, I can t lock myself into a particular size. It gave me the flexibility and versatility to be able to do what I need today, as well as tomorrow, event with growth.
Riedel Inside Riedel Expands with new US Office Know-how: How to operate Artist 1000 intercom panels? Riedel Communications relocated its US headquarters to a new facility in Glendale, California. Our significant growth in the US over the last two years we almost doubled our revenues each year brought us to a point where we needed to optimize our approach, said Riedel s Business Development Director Paul Rivens. The company, which in the past shared offices both on the East and on the West Coast with other companies, moved to its new 3,200 square foot building in Glendale, CA, close to its former Burbank address. It was obvious that we needed to take a step forward. Having our own building allows us to optimize our business processes, to have a central warehouse with a significantly larger stock and do repairs directly here in the US, said Kelly Fair, Riedel s Sales Manager. In addition, Riedel established East and West Coast service hotlines and a network of Riedel service personnel in key customer locations like New York, Dallas, Montreal and Los Angeles. We re just about to add more people to our US team, said Rivens. Step 1: Read user names clearly on the 8 character LED display. Step 2: To talk just push the display it s so intuitive. Step 3: Adjust the listen volume of each cross-point with individual rotary encoders. Enjoy the clear user interface and the Digital Audio Quality of Riedel s Artist Digital Matrix Intercom. Partyline Intercom Digital Partyline now allows Binaural Operation Riedel s Digital Partyline Beltpack C3 is already its user s best friend because it provides two channels of crystal-clear digital audio and finally frees your ears from the static noise and hum associated with analog partyline equipment. Now the Performer C3 Digital Beltpack reaches out for new applications: In addition to the classic C3 with its 4-pin headset connector Riedel now also ships an SE version of the C3 with a 5-pin headset connector, allowing for stereo and split-ear operation. Need a beltpack for split-ear operation NEW PRODUCT and want to get rid of the analog noise? Now you can upgrade to the Performer C3 SE... Intercom goes MADI? Riedel s MADI-108 G2 matrix client card allows the complete integration of the Artist intercom platform with digital audio router systems. What for? All Artist control panels are connected to the matrix via standard AES3 signals. So instead of laying additional cables, it is now possible to connect intercom panels to the audio router using the router s infrastructure for panel distribution. The MADI card also furnishes a convenient solution for connecting multi-channel audio between the audio router and the intercom system, saving a significant amount of cabling and interfacing costs.
Mobile Production Canada s Global TV installs Riedel in latest HD Truck Did you know...... that 42% of all HD trucks in Europe, Middle East and Africa are equipped with a Riedel Artist Digital Matrix Intercom system? This is the result of the latest study by the German broadcast publication MedienBulletin, which included more than 180 HD trucks. In relation to the previous report Riedel managed to increase its market share by 6%. 2007 Global TV, a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp, installed an Artist digital intercom matrix from Riedel Communications in its new HD mobile production truck. The truck is wired for 10 cameras and is started productions Q2 of this year. Global TV broadcasts via 10 television stations and reaches 96% of English-speaking Canada. The network is the Canadian home to many popular shows such as Survivor, 24 and Entertainment Tonight, as well as to Canada s most-watched news program. Ted Krzywonos, an engineer with Global TV, offered his impression of the Artist intercom system. It s built like I would have built it very intuitively, he stated. You can tell that a lot of thought went into the design. For example, the fact that you don t have to set an address on the panels is excellent in a mobile environment. IMPRINT Published by Riedel Communications GmbH & Co. KG Uellendahler Str. 353 42109 Wuppertal Germany www.riedel.net Editorial Director: Andreas Hilmer, andreas.hilmer@riedel.net (c) 2008 Riedel Communications GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Product specifications are subject to change without notice. This material is provided for information purposes only; Riedel assumes no liability related to its use. September 2008. The new truck s system includes a 96 x 96 matrix in two frames with coax cards for connecting control panels via coax cable and analog cards for interfacing 4-wire audio. In addition, the frames redundant CPUs are equipped with fibre connectors to enable the truck to merge its intercom with that of other Artist systems. This will allow Global TV to easily interface to other Artist-equipped trucks in the field as well as to the multi-node Artist intercom matrix used by Global TV s new studio complex in Toronto. When connected via fibre, the systems will function as one larger system offering virtually limitless communication between them without any bottlenecks. Works right of the box Krzywonos expressed his satisfaction with the ease that Artist was integrated into the truck. Our integrator, who has years of experience installing intercom systems, told us that this is the first system he has encountered that works right out of the box. Other products always have problems to sort out, but Artist works right away, he explained. Besides the matrix and control panels GTV installed two RiFace radio interfaces to incorporate two-way radio communication into the intercom system. Also, 8 Connect Solo telephone hybrids were added to allow up to 16 telephone lines to be connected to the intercom matrix. Clear-Com 23% 2008 Others 3% RTS/Telex 38% Clear-Com 24% Others 3% RTS/Telex 31% Riedel 36% Riedel 42% Overview: Intercom Systems in HD Trucks in Europe, Middle East and Africa (Source: MedienBulletin) The MedienBulletin Special: HD OB Vans provides more than 240 pages of background information about the latest developments of European HD Trucks as well as a technical synopsis of each vehicle (incl. compendium poster). To order your personal copy please visit www.mbdaily.de
Production Facilities China s largest intercom installation goes Riedel Beijing Television (BTV) picked Riedel s Artist intercom system for its new studio complex. The system, which is currently being installed by Beijing based system integrator ATC Technology, will include 6x Artist frames connected over a redundant fibre ring and over 170 panels, making it currently the largest intercom installation in the country. We were very impressed with what Riedel has to offer, said Mr. Zhou Xuhui, Director of Technical Equipment Department of BTV. It was the combination of features and flexibility that lead us to our choice. We were very impressed The new installation will serve 12 studios and 1 master control room using mainframes of various sizes including 5x Artist 64 frames and one Artist 32 frame. All six frames will be linked via fibre to form a single decentralized nonblocking intercom matrix. For the system BTV decided on Riedel s 2000 series LCD display panels. The 2000 series panels provide 8 character, LCD displays, the ability to individually adjust the volume of any source and a digital connection to the matrix via either CAT-5 or coax cabling. For us the panels offered the best balance between functionality and cost, commented Mr. Zhang Jing, Producting Technics Project Manager of BTV. In addition to the matrix frames and control panels, BTV added a number of other components to the system. 12x C44 digital partyline interfaces, 50x C3 two-channel digital beltpacks and 16x CD-2 desktop speaker stations provide broadcast quality digital audio to all partyline locations on industry standard XLR cable. Five Connect Solo analog telephone hybrids integrate telephone lines while four Connect IP interfaces bring VoIP functionality to the system. We re very pleased and look forward to working with Riedel in the future, said Mr. Li Xun, Vice Chief Engineer of BTV. Integrated Approach Following Riedel s strategy to bring a higher level of integration to communications in broadcast studio environments, Director 5.70 now supports programming of intercom panels in Stagetec s Aurus mixing console. Incorporating Artist intercom panels in digital audio mixing consoles and routers is possible because Artist control panels are connected to the intercom matrix via a standard AES3 signal where the user bits of the AES stream are used for the panels data. Integrated intercom panels, like with the Aurus console, make additional cabling for the intercom panel obsolete. Products from LAWO, SSL and Studer also support integration of Artist intercom panels. Using third party digital audio routers to distribute intercom panels can significantly reduce cabling costs and also minimize set-up and installation time.
Mobile Production Hand in hand: Audio/Intercom Integration in Australia s Latest HD truck ZerO1zerO, one of Australia s leading production and post-production companies, installed a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system in its new HD truck. The intercom is fully integrated with the truck s Lawo digital audio console via 6x Riedel MADI client cards. This set-up allows the truck s audio engineer to easily remote both intercom panels and 4-wire ports from the Artist system through the existing audio infrastructure. The choice was simple, said Keith Cooper, head of Audio and Communications at zero1zero. I needed flexibility to fulfill my clients ever increasing needs, seamless digital integration, ease of patching between communications and audio and the best sounding system available. Riedel is the one. I needed flexibility The Artist system consists of an Artist 128 mainframe populated with 6x MADI, 1x CAT-5, 3x COAX and 3x AIO client cards. The MADI cards connect directly to the Lawo Mc66 and provide the console/intercom integration. The CAT-5 card is used for two Connect Solo telephone hybrids, providing access to up to four telephone lines from the intercom system. The COAX cards connect external intercom panels to the truck via coax cabling and the analog cards provide transformer balanced audio directly to the truck s 12 HD cameras. Control panels include both 1000 series LED display panels for the Audio and Communication workstations as well as 2000 series panels with LCD displays for Production and Technical areas. All panels connect digitally to the Artist mainframe using 16 bit 48kHz audio. In addition to just using the panels for comms, six DCP-1016E control panels will also serve as on-air commentary stations for zero1zero s coverage of A-League USL Soccer. These panels are supplemented with 6x Zaehl CSX-11 commentary add-on units, which utilise the intercom panel s second audio channel. The CSX-11 was specially designed to work with Riedel DCP panels and offers expanded features for commentary such as additional XLR connectors, a phones connector, dedicated pushbutton switches for On-Air, Talkback and MicMute, as well as a special fail-safe commentary mode. Curious? Please visit our website www.riedel.net GET YOUR FREE DVD LEARN HOW TO SET-UP YOUR INTERCOM MINUTES5 You don t believe it? So make sure you don t miss the opportunity to get one of our Plug n Play Artist Digital Matrix Intercom Training DVDs. Just send an email to marketing@riedel.net
Recent Broadcast Installations (extract) CANAda, Toronto UK, London GErmany, Magdeburg Sweden, Stockholm Global TV Gearhouse Broadcast MDR HD Resources usa, Hoboken MLB.TV usa, Denver Concast Media Center usa, Los Angeles NFL Network usa, New York Madison Square Garden TV Mexico, Mexico City DGTVE France, Paris M6 Spain, Barcelona SOUTH AFRICA, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA, Johannesburg Italy, Torino TVE CNBC Africa SABC Global Production
Hungary, Budapest Denmark Copenhagen Estland, Tallin Russia, Moscow DUNA TV twentyfour/seven ERR Astana TV Turkey, Istanbul Saran Holding Georgia, Tiflis Rustavi II Japan, Osaka ABC Asahi Hoso South Korea, Seoul KBS CHINA, Beijing BTV Taiwan, Taipeh Chunghwa Telecom Greece, Athens UAE, Abu Dhabi Australia, Sydney India, New Delhi ERT ADMC Abu Dhabi Media Company zero1zero AZAD TV
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