Guyana. NCN is the public broadcasting company of Guyana where the three national radio stations and two television channels have been integrated since 2004. Guyana's most populous city is the capital Georgetown, where NCN is headquartered broadcasting in English and 10 other different languages for a total audience of 750,000 people.
NCN has recently developed the complete renovation of the company's main production center, which includes digitization and transformation into a scalable IP production platform for Television.
OM Solutions of Miami, a company led by Juan-Carlos Ortolan, was the company selected as the awardee of the project materialization, mainly for the simplicity in the approach and the guarantee of a homogeneous quality in all phases of the workflow. AEQ's IP-based equipment becomes a fundamental part of this system solution.
NCN needed to modernize and digitize its television production center in Georgetown. Even though it was functional, its old production system required fully entering the digital age to simplify workflows and production, so the concept of modernization was clearly emphasized in the instructions to bidders.
The scope of work consisted of the reconstruction of 2 studios: news and continuous production. It was also required to enable digital links to the Broadcast Center. IP-to-analog conversion was also included in the requirements, as due to the existing national signal distribution system, the transmitter is still analog. The idea is that the transition will be quick and easy, once the transmitter is replaced by a Digital Terrestrial System, and finally dismantled.
To maintain consistency in the production network, it was required to reinstall a mobile unit with IP technology. In addition, it was required to consider the need to connect seamlessly, and share audio with the NCN Radio Network radio station. In addition, this station has a huge collection of recordings and audio files that should be available for use on television.
The last part of the scope of work was to take advantage of and rehabilitate a significant number of fiber connections with government institutions.
The heart of Video production is a Ross NK Series Router and the infrastructure features Ross openGear, AJA and Cobalt solutions.
The Master Control was built around Ross and Hardata and includes Ikegami HDK-73 cameras for the sets. Signals are handled via NewTek TC2 Elite Switcher and use BirdDog's NDI interfaces and graphics are based on NewBlue.
Production and technical coordination are handled with the AEQ Crossnet intercom, based on a 72-port array using Dante AoIP connectivity.
The STATION's TOC and mobile unit are equipped with TP 8116 user panels and for news, production and main control, TP8416 desktop user panels were deployed. A simple BS3004 base station user panel is used for communications with the broadcast tower via Low Bit Rate VoIP communication.
Also, for viewing operators, TP8116 panels for communications and KROMA by AEQ Series LM8018 monitors were installed. These monitors feature SFP modules with fiber link for IP video SMPTE 2022
For the sets / studios, very simple 4W interfaces were implemented, connected to Atterotech's AoIP Dante wall plates, so they are part of the AoIP network and allow, through the Crossnet intercom, both communications and IFBs for plant managers and presenters.
The subtitling through Close Caption is from ENCO, and the system has a recorder or "logger" from 3Way Solutions. The client's technical consultancy was carried out by engineer Devon Roberts and the Technical Management was led by Mr. Bharrat Seokumar.
