When Channel 7 made their big move from Martin Place to Eveleigh one of the most important equipment upgrades they had to make was transitioning their intercoms to full ST-2110. For that they turned to Magna Systems and a new RTS comms solution.
Channel 7 Broadcast Support Manager Chris Spalding explained, “Intercoms are one of the most critical parts of kit for a broadcaster as you really can’t produce content without it. When we moved we required all the new intercoms to be ST-2110 compliant and compatible. Our operators love RTS kit, its ease of use and how logical its keypanel functions are, so we asked Lucas Bohm at Magna Systems for a proposed solution.”
Along with ST-2110 compatibility the new upgrade came with RTS’ latest feature set including new colour displays, a raft of new and improved features and an easy transition from their legacy system.
Spalding continued, “The solution that Magna Systems proposed and that we installed gives us ultra-high-quality comms, the scale and functionality to produce any amount of content small or large and to manage the coordination of comms across our key programming including news and Sunrise. We were able to seamlessly trunk the new system with the old legacy system and ended up with an overall even more efficient and reliable solution.”
All in all, the new Channel 7 RTS system included multiple ODIN-64 matrices seamlessly linked with full intelligent N+1 redundancy software, KP5032 2RU colour LCD keypanels, KP4016 1RU colour LCD keypanels, EKP4016 1RU universal colour LCD expansion panels, DKP4016 desktop colour LCD panels, PAP5032 2RU colour LCD program assignment panels, MCP90-12 mics and PH-88R single sided lightweight headsets.
Spalding said, “This new RTS kit and solution is state of the art and fulfils all of our requirements. The ODIN matrix is particularly flexible enabling us to easily transition between analogue, Omneo, RVON and 2110. It’s great for connecting between offices and the ST-2110 compatibility is far better than it was with older systems. This means it still does everything we used to do and more without issues. The quality and the reliability of the RTS system really stand out.”
As Spalding explained he sees comms as the heart of the operation at Channel 7 with every media, MCR and edit suite having RTS intercoms.
He added, “The RTS kit handles every aspect of comms at Channel 7 including in-studio and remote IFBs and all network crosses between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.”
The ODIN Digital Intercom that Channel 7 have chosen is a highly scalable intercom system in a 1RU package. As the network’s capacity needs to evolve, a single ODIN can grow from 16 ports to a maximum of 128 ports. A maximum of eight ODIN units can be interconnected via an optical Inter-Frame Link creating a single matrix with up to 1024 ports.
Chris Spalding concluded, “We have always had a good experience with RTS comms and that has definitely continued with this new ST-2110 compatible kit. ST-2110 gives us a real edge as it easily manages everything we did before but now also gives us more flexibility, via ease of configuration, to be agile when we have special requirements. It also integrates far more quickly with other systems. We wanted an industry standard and we got it with this new RTS solution. Whether we use it in a small OB truck or large TV station it provides us with the same level of flexibility and functionality. I have to also make mention of RTS, Lucas Bohm and Magna Systems as their support and help with commissioning and integration has been excellent.”