Reinventing live production workflows
As was the case with many of the world’s broadcasters, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced VRT to reinvent its live media production workflows. In response, VRT began a series of simulations in order to test remote production equipment and ultimately find new ways to share its stories. What they found was that Monarch EDGE was ideal for flexibly delivering high-quality, low-latency remote productions. With its exceptionally low glass-to-glass latencies and its ability to securely deliver video streams over public networks, the Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder pair – VRT determined – would allow them to produce exceptional video while keeping staff safe and socially distant.
Remote production, simplified
The Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder pair made its debut with VRT delivering live streams from a concert held at Ancienne Belgique (French for “Old Belgium”), a world-renowned contemporary music hall located in Brussels’ historic core. At Ancienne Belgique, two SDI cameras captured individual musicians and the band as a whole and were input into the Monarch EDGE 4:2:2 10-bit encoding device. Meanwhile, a stereo mix from the soundboard was sent using the balanced audio input of the Monarch EDGE encoder. The two SDI cameras and microphone. The Monarch EDGE encoder then transported these feeds using the SRT streaming protocol at 1080i and 20 Mbps over public internet. The feeds arrived at VRT’s production control room – also located in Brussels – and were received by the Monarch EDGE decoding device. The decoded feeds were output as SDI and embedded audio into the live production environment where producers made cuts between the two cameras, added graphics, and more.
