The Moscow television production facility is designed to prepare and conduct live television broadcasts and TV bridges, record TV news and journalism programs, and produce materials ordered by agencies and broadcasting companies. For the purposes of the transition to HD broadcasting, Avilex upgraded the system by installing modern shooting and processing equipment.
The Moscow television production facility has the following rooms: a studio of 100 м2, a production control room, a server room and a group of rooms intended for the preparation and editing of programs. Avilex audited the available equipment and rooms and completed design, supply, installation and set-up work for all the systems of the facility. Most of the equipment and systems were upgraded, including the following:
- Video and audio paths of the television production facility, including studio production cameras with lenses, an internal switching matrix, video and audio mixing consoles, a video server, etc.;
- The system of engineering and production monitoring of video paths;
- The workstations of the engineering and production teams, including process furniture;
- The linear and non-linear editing equipment;
- The system of external and internal connections;
- The special lighting system of the studio;
- The power supply system.
The basis of the upgraded production facility was comprised of equipment from world’s leading manufacturers, such as Sony HDC-2550 multi-format HD system cameras with Canon lenses; a Vinten Radamec robotic camera support; an Autoscript teleprompter kit; a Sony MVS-7000X 3 M/E video mixer with an MKS-8010B control unit; a BramTech Azimuth video server with a 4.7 ТВ disk array; a LAWO mc2 56 HD audio mixing console; ARRI and KINOFLO lighting fixtures with control via an MA onPC Command Wing, and many other things.
The core of the studio is a LED screen. In addition to the display of background image for decorative purposes which is common for studios, the panoramic image is displayed on the video screen from outdoor weatherproof controllable video cameras to create the feeling of a large window behind the hosts, as well as from video cameras installed in the representative rooms.
The selection of a video screen was given a special attention. In fact, not every display technology produces an image that is perceived by video cameras correctly and without distortions. In order to find the optimal solution, Avilex, in collaboration with employees of the TV Center TV channel, conducted a number of test shots with various types of screens based on LCD displays, rear-projection video cubes and LED screens with a pixel size from 1.6 to 4 mm. Based on the testing results, a Leyard modular LED display with a pixel pitch of 1.6 mm was chosen. The screen measuring 4.8 х 2.4 meters with a resolution of 2,880 х 1,440 pixels was built of 96 modules. The brightness of the screen can be changed from 3 to 10 % of the maximum value so that screen glow in the frame is equivalent to the illumination of the host without the need to change its color temperature.
The Simplays Wall software is used to control the display of content on the video screen. It allows for preparing and using different backgrounds for the studio design and for changing images quickly according to a given scenario.
The reliability of the facility is ensured not only by high-quality modern equipment, but also by emergency backup of the main components (the video mixer, synchronization system, power supply units, and devices for forming and displaying images on the screen).
Interview of the Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin to TV channels “Russia-24”, “Russia-1” (Vesti-Moscow program) and “Moscow 24”. Photo by the Press Service of the Mayor and the Government of Moscow (D. Grishkin)