Case Study

www.evs.tv

October 2006

Big Brother

Studio Production

"Throughout this year's 13 week run

of Big Brother the EVS system was a

valuable tool in our rapid programming

turnaround and became an integral part

of the Big Brother post-production

system".

Paul OsborneJoint Executive Producer, Big Brother

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Endemol UK is one of the largest independent television producers inthe UK. It incorporates a number of production brands includingBrighter Pictures, Zeppotron, Cheetah Television, Initial andShowrunner with each specializing in a broad range of genresincluding factual entertainment, reality series, drama series, liveevents, music entertainment, documentaries, youth shows andcomedy. Credits include "Big Brother", "Restoration", "SpaceCadets", "The Orange British Academy Film Awards" and "Ready,Steady, Cook".

Brighter Pictures has been using EVS XT generation servers for anumber of years as part of the production set up for the Live BigBrother and Celebrity Big Brother productions. For example, the XTproduction and playout servers are used to ingest VT packages froman edit, whilst a different one is on-air, and simultaneously play agraphics loop to a screen behind the presenter.

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Recently, a number of EVS' latest generation XT[2] servers have beendeployed in the post-production environment with the mainobjectives being to improve media access for editors and to improveworkflow efficiency.

Case Study

"... 51 hours of SD storage @ 50 Mb/S"

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Four live streams (Main A, ISO A, Main B & ISO B) are recorded into two 4-Channel

10 x 300GB SpotBox-XT[2]'s set up as 2 In (Rec) + 2 Out (Play). This provides for

51 hours of SD storage @ 50 Mb/S. Each output directly feeds an Avid suite,

where instant access to the 4 live streams is controlled by an IP Director workstation.

The 4 suites fed by these 2 machines all have access to 8 audio tracks per channel.

A third 6-Channel 10 x 300GB SpotBox-XT[2] set up as 2 In (Rec) + 4 Out (Play) is

used to provide both a back up for the 2 Main streams, A & B, but also to feed a

further 4 Avid suites, again each using an IP Director workstation to control instant

access to the 4 live streams.

Each machine is allocated an XFile[2] digital archive server to back up all four streams

and the 2 back up streams in 4-hour chunks in sync. The archived media can then be

published/restored later to one of the XT[2]s if required. (see Fig.1).

"We needed a digital system with a simple

set up and easy to operate to replace the

existing tape based production system".

Tony Gregory

Director

Big Brother

Based on the loop recording process, editorsare able to browse and retrieve media while theserver is still recording them, a real productivityimprovement compared to the previousVTR workflow.

The IP Director application is operated by the editors to search the a/v contentonto the server and transfer them to their Avid station.

XNet

1.5 Gbps

CleanEdit NLE

XStore

CleanEdit NLE

XStore

OPTIONAL

SD SpotBoxXT[2] Server 4ch

XFile

IP DirectorBrowsers

AVID 1AVID 2A MAIN

ISO

XFile

IP DirectorBrowsers

AVID 3AVID 4B MAIN

ISO

XFile

AVID 5AVID 6AVID 7AVID 8

MAIN A Backup

MAIN B BackupIP DirectorSchedulers

51 HOURSXT[2] Loop

Record

3

6

6

6

66

6

6

6

24 Hours

24 Hours

XT[2] input 10x300GB Drives = 51 hours per input @50Mbps

IP Director Schedulerto create 6-hour clips

SD SpotBoxXT[2] Server 4ch

SD SpotBoxXT[2] Server 6ch

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The deployment of additional EVS servers in the post-production environment has brought about the followingimprovements :

• more efficient media access to the Avid suites provides the production team with additional time to deliver amore polished edit;

• greater flexibility in the production process facilitates editorial decisions and ambitions that are no longerrestricted by cumbersome operating restrictions;

• more efficient workflow allows stronger collaboration amongst the production team and improves output;

• large edit jobs are more easily tackled and turnaround time is reduced;

• need to duplicate and store media on tape is reduced;

• need to spool through tapes to locate shots is almost obsolete;

• availability of 2 spare channels offers redundancy for the records of both main streams(A&B) and can also beused to record additional feeds routed via the matrix so providing additional recording capability shouldcomplex events in the house require it.

Fig1.: Big Brother Studio Production & Post Production based on EVS systems

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EVS is continuing to collaborate with Brighter Pictures and aims tofurther enhance the current system to allow for :

• access to 8 audio tracks per channel irrespective of the channelconfiguration of the server;

• increase on/near-line storage capacity to further improve instantmedia access for editors.

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EVS Broadcast Equipment / Sales & MarketingPhone : +32 4 361 7000 - E-mail : sales@evs.tv www.evs.tv

www.endemoluk.com

Case Study

Big Brother

"Thanks to the loop recording system

editors could retrieve any video input

during the last 24 hours while the

system was still recording. Once they

got it, they simply transferred their video

content onto their Avid editing station to

finalise their story".

"Editors using this set up loved it

because they finished their edit 2

to 3 hours before anybody else".

Tony GregoryDirector