Years of focus and persistence have enabled our team to accumulate extensive theoretical and practical experience. Through requirements analysis of most domestic TV stations and performance analysis of comparable international products, we developed a complete, efficient, and advanced Unified Control Platform (iSwiftMedia) for production and playout systems. The platform has been deployed at multiple provincial and municipal TV stations nationwide. The automation control systems built for CCTV, Chongqing TV, Nanjing TV, and Hangzhou TV received the Science and Technology Innovation Award from the National Radio and Television Administration (broadcast industry regulator), serving as a model for successful automation and intelligent operation of TV production and playout systems.
Canxing (Shanghai Canxing Culture Media) 6-Channel Studio Compact Tally System
Canxing (Shanghai Canxing Culture Media)
1. Project Overview
To meet program production requirements, Shanghai Oriental Media Technology Co., Ltd. needed to build a new HD studio. The studio primarily serves live broadcast and recording of HD programs with 6 or fewer camera channels, and is positioned as a high-reliability, safe-playout studio.
The studio requirements for the Tally system include low cost, high reliability, easy operation, convenient maintenance and management, and good openness. The Tally system hardware and software must provide sufficient scalability to accommodate the ongoing expansion of the studio.
Figure 1: Canxing studio console
2. "Compact Control Platform + Tally Function Module" combination for Tally functionality
The Compact Control Platform is a high-performance, high-density, high-reliability industrial control computer built on a Linux embedded environment. It operates reliably under harsh conditions such as strong radiation, frequent vibration, and frequent power loss, providing the hardware foundation for stable Software Module operation.
The Tally Function Module is purpose-built for Tally requirements in compact systems, supporting Multiviewer source name following, red/green TALLY for Multiviewers, and red/green TALLY for cameras.
Figure 2: Tally system diagram
3. System Features:
1. Cross-platform deployment and operation
In this project, the Tally system runs on the Linux operating system, eliminating the dependency on Windows and achieving cross-platform operation.
Cross-platform operation offers several benefits: Using the open-source, free Linux system saves the cost of purchasing a licensed Windows system, thereby reducing project costs and meeting the low-cost requirement.
Using the Linux system effectively isolates the Tally system from viruses and trojans in the studio environment, meeting the high-reliability requirement.
Figure 3: Linux platform interface
2. High-density industrial PC, simpler deployment
The industrial PC in this project occupies only 1U. Combined with a 1U GPIO signal acquisition driver, the entire Tally functionality requires only 2U of rack space.
Additionally, the industrial PC requires no monitor, keyboard, or mouse. All configuration is performed remotely, making system maintenance and management highly convenient.
Figure 4: Tally industrial PC
In this project, the Tally Function Module is a custom red/green version, implementing red/green Tally for 6 cameras (expandable to 16 cameras) and red/green Tally indication on the technical area Multiviewer, without source name following. This is also the first project case for the Compact Control Platform, and it has been running stably since commissioning in November 2014.
Screenshots on this page show the Chinese user interface. English materials are available on request.
