Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) Systems Integration 2017 | Page 17

TRANSITION TO iP
As Mediacorp’s consultant and master systems integrator, Qvest Media was commissioned with
the overall technological advisory, design and the entire systems integration of the Mediacorp
Campus, a new 79,500sqm broadcasting and media centre in Singapore.
“Thanks to the close and efficient
collaboration, we achieved our common goal
of creating flexible and scalable workflows.
The system architecture enables technologies
to be easily integrated, expanded or replaced,
thereby reflecting future innovations and
market changes as needed.”
The Mediacorp Campus includes six TV
and news studios, as well as a 1,500-seat
broadcast-ready theatre, eight TV stations,
12 radio stations, and about 100 editing
and post-production stations across various
business fields, extensive online distribution
and OTT services, integration of OOH (out-
of-home) media, as well as the press and
publishing departments.
The centrepiece of the Mediacorp
Campus is an integrated multilingual
newsroom on a single 3,000sqm floor plate.
It supports multiple platforms — including
digital, TV, radio and print — with three news
studios featuring cutting-edge LED video walls
and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)
technology, as well as four additional flashcam
positions that are embedded in the newsroom.
The newsroom embraces a digital-first culture
and is home to more than 600 journalists who
break stories on the digital platforms first,
in four languages throughout the day while
feeding the traditional platforms.
In terms of project management,
Mediacorp and Qvest Media decided to follow
a vendor-neutral approach, allowing them to
selec t the best-of-breed solutions available on
the market. As a result, Qvest Media oversaw
and managed 42 different manufacturers
from 20 countries worldwide for playout,
transmission, IT networking, servers,
managing application for content, post
production, radio and news system, workflow
orchestration and many more. Qvest Media
supported Mediacorp to maintain operations
during the migration period and at the same
time ensured the integration of new assets,
as well as reutilisation of technology from
Mediacorp’s old campus.
Next to the modular integration of IT
and broadcast products and solutions of all
business units, Mediacorp was also looking
for a highly reliable system architecture and
its sub-systems, which can ensure a platform-
centric environment.
Today, a Service Orientated Architecture
(SOA) design and automated end-to-end
file-based workflows ensure “seamless
processing” and requires only minimal
manual interaction. In addition, format and
equipment standardisation and simplified
cross-media strategies facilitate the innovative
working environment. All former independent
technology silos have been removed and
integrated into a common repository by using
an orchestration layer, thereby enabling flexible
file exchange for all business units.
Through the deep integration of all
contribution, production and transmission
departments, all Mediacorp employees
have the same abilities to use centralised
technology, resources and functions. A
dedicated, centralised news ingest facilitates
close interoperability and increases the speed
of production, allowing the newsroom to
access material and content very quickly.
An enterprise media asset management
(MAM) and archive system enables the
units to exchange content or use the same
workflows to deliver to dedicated or common
destinations such as individual channels and
OTT platforms.
All systems of the central IT core
infrastructure are also unified. User access
and restriction is organised at an application
level and is no longer limited by the former
independent silos. For maximum scalability,
a post-production platform has been
implemented, where 13 post-production
departments are currently working in
parallel.
The centrepiece of the Mediacorp Campus is an integrated multilingual newsroom on a single
3,000sqm floor plate. It supports multiple platforms, with three new studios featuring cutting-
edge LED video walls and augmented reality/virtual reality technology, as well as four additional
flashcam positions that are embedded in the newsroom.
Qvest MEDIA: systems architect and Ict integrator
Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, Qvest Media is an international leading systems architect
and ICT integrator in the fields of broadcasting and media technology. Specifically, the company
specialises in the TV, media and telecommunucations industries, and offers services consisting
of consulting and development, systems integration, as well as service and support.
With its Managed Technology business unit, Qvest Media supports media organisations
along their entire digital transformation process by covering everything from technology infra-
structures to services and technical operations offered within streamlined and future-oriented
payment models.
Qvest Media is also one of Europe’s largest trade and distribution houses for technology
in the fields of professional A/V, IT and broadcast. The company has a commercial portfolio of
around 250,000 products, as well as partnerships with major manufacturers from the media
and IT industries.
systems integration 2017
15