May 2015 Case Study: BBC North Digital Space and Blue Room at Quay House, MediaCity UK Background CTMS Group became involved in the Blue Room project after the closure of AVC Electronics in December 2014, following the death of AVC s owner. Two of the Principal Engineers/Project Managers employed by AVC were employed by CTMS Group to continue the work of AVC Electronics and provide continuity. The project was to design and construct a future technology demonstration area known as the Blue Room and re-design a large Presentation area. The purpose of the Blue Room being to demonstrate new consumer technologies that would affect the way viewers consumed television productions in the future. The work was completed by AVC towards the end of 2014. CTMS were then employed to enhance the operation of the area as their engineers had a detailed knowledge of the Blue Room technical systems. Consequently, this case study refers to work designed and implemented by the current CTMS Project Managers (Martin Oldfield and Andrew Longbottom). The Project The contract was awarded following a competitive tendering exercise and detailed planning work commenced in March 2014. The project consisted of three elements: 1. Re-design of the technical facilities for the BBC North Digital Space on 5 th floor Quay House 2. Design and construct a future technology demonstration area. 3. Install the technical system for the future technology demonstration area. 1. BBC North Digital Space The space is used for large and small scale presentations by BBC staff and third party users and so needs to be very flexible. When the building was constructed the original AV supplier had installed a mixture of VGA and HDMI signal routing reflecting the interfaces current at that time. The system included a small vision mixer to allow live video material to be mixed with Powerpoint presentations. The space is situated in an open plan area on the top floor of a modern building with a large atrium with working television and radio studios on the ground floor. It was an important requirement that the work did not interfere with day to day TV and Radio operations, due to noise either during construction or during operation.
There were two basic modes of operation: a) Self-operated Mode A presenter could connect a laptop computer at a lectern to a VGA or HDMI port and display the presentation on a range of monitors with a small amount of audio reenforcement from ceiling loudspeakers. Control was from an Extron Touch screen suitably programmed. b) Technician Mode In this mode the whole area was manually controlled by a technician, allowing the mixing of video and audio sources, the use of radio microphones and play-in of video clips. Due to changes in technology, HD presentation was required more often and a more sophisticated sound re-enforcement system was required. After carefully listening to the technicians and other users of the space we came up with a number of proposals to enhance the operation. These included: 1. An additional screen for the Presenter to see the presentation without needing to turn around to see what was on the screen when this was not generated from their PC. 2. Replacing a video projector and screen with two 80 inch NEC monitors on motorised stands. It was found that controlling the external daylight was too difficult for effective use of a projector. 3. Re-engineering the vision routing system to remove VGA video routing but still allow use of legacy VGA items, if required, using a dedicated VGA to HDMI converter. 4. Installing a new sound re-enforcement system using Bose Panaray column loudspeakers to improve the audio quality for large audiences. 5. Installing a new audio system allowing the use of additional audio sources and improve the quality of the sound to the audience. 6. Adding new technologies such as Apple TV, fibre interfaces for broadcast material and Apple Mac Mini for video playouts. It took several meetings and drawing iterations to arrive at an agreed solution with all the interested parties; but it was agreed that the current Technicians work space was inadequate for the amount of equipment being installed. We therefore designed and arranged the construction of a new Technicians cabinet which could be secured at night and matched existing furniture in the area (shown in the picture later). We re-used existing Extron equipment where possible and purchased some additional Extron units to ensure that all the displays were capable of displaying 1920x1080@60Hz pictures. We installed a new Roland audio mixer and Analog Way vision mixer. We also installed a Cloud six channel audio amplifier with Bose Panaray loudspeakers. The loudspeakers were chosen because of their directional properties thereby minimising sound spill into the Atrium affecting office space and studios below.
All the work was carried out at weekends and Bank Holidays to minimise disruption as the area was still in use during the week. The work was carefully planned to ensure the system was in a workable condition for the following Monday morning. {Quotation from Ian Wagdin?} BBC North Digital Space new Technicians Control Console
BBC North Digital Space rigged for a Presentation 2. Design and Construct a future Technology Demonstration area (Blue Room) This part of the project was essentially a project to build the structure of the Blue Room to accept the technology. I do not propose to cover this part of the project as it is not directly relevant to the AV installation other than to ensure that suitable cable ways were available for the technical services. 3. Design and Installation of the Blue Room Technical Infrastructure Because the area is designed to display future consumer technology, inevitably there is a certain amount of crystal ball gazing required, as todays video formats will be replaced very quickly by something we haven t thought of. The key requirements were: All displays were to be capable of displaying full HD video and audio. A number of devices (Games Consoles, Set Top boxes, video players) needed to be connected to these displays in as flexible a way as possible. The devices may require off air RF signals from Freesat, Freeview or Sky. There may be a requirement to connect broadcast type signals to devices. At first sight the list of requirements seemed daunting, however we quickly realised that a video router (matrix) was key to making the solution work. Initially we looked at an HDMI routing system, but these were limited by the maximum cable length allowed for a point to point HDMI cable and adding HDMI extenders made the system very expensive. There is also an issue with sending High Definition Copyright Protected (HDCP) signals to multiple display devices. To prevent illegal copying of HD content, HDCP equipped devices (set top boxes and Blu Ray players) blank the picture if sent to multiple displays. We realised that a traditional broadcast router (HD SDI) would allow us to achieve the cable lengths required but would require the use of external converters to convert from HDMI to HD SDI and the reverse. It also had the advantage of fulfilling the broadcast connection requirement at no
additional cost. Another advantage is that the video signal allows up to 16 channels of analogue audio to be embedded within the video signal. We also found a converter manufactured by Lynx Technik that would allow the HDCP protection to be disabled (this required the BBC to sign a legal agreement regarding the use of the converters). If a new consumer technology emerges, we are confident that there will be an upgrade path for converters without needing to replace the core routing, for at least five years and possibly much longer. In the event a 40 x 40 HD SDI video router was installed with inputs and outputs spread around internal and external areas of the Blue Room. Control of the router was either from a single dedicated control panel or a configuration PC. The video router uses low cost co-axial cabling with industry standard BNC connectors. The Lynx Technik converters converted the video signal from HD SDI to HDMI including de-embedding the audio for the displays. A large RF distribution system (64 outlet) was designed and installed with outlets at every distribution point internally and externally. A cat6 IT infrastructure and wi-fi infrastructure were also installed. Blue Room Entrance
Blue Room External Wall CTMS completed enhancements to the Blue Room earlier this year, including remedial work on some of the joinery aspects using a former AVC joiner. We also improved the electrical switching of the twelve hour power supply, as it was found that due to the large amount of equipment connected, switching all the equipment on simultaneously in the morning caused nuisance tripping of electrical circuit breakers. To overcome this problem we installed electronic relays that limit the surge current and provide a sequenced switch on, eliminating current surges. Conclusion The Blue Room is in daily use by the BBC demonstrating new consumer technologies to staff and visitors needing to keep up to date with current entertainment technology trends. The BBC is happy to demonstrate the area at a mutually agreeable time. Please contact Martin Oldfield initially, to arrange a visit. Martin Oldfield martin.oldfield@ctmsgroup.co.uk 0773 898 5352 May 2015