Shanghai Media Group CBN G01 studio network management system

Shanghai Media Group

I. General Overview

The Shanghai Media Group CBN GO1 studio handles both studio program recording and live studio broadcasting. Each audio and video subsystem is equipped with comprehensive signal routing and monitoring equipment, capable of independently fulfilling its technical functions. Meanwhile, signals can be flexibly routed between subsystems via the routing switcher for scheduling, meeting the recording and playout requirements of different program types.
Compared with previous facilities, the new studio has a notable trend: systems incorporate more equipment from different manufacturers with varying characteristics, and overall system complexity continues to grow.
These trends call for a centralized monitoring system to support the successful supervision of modern broadcasting facilities. To achieve the goals of safe and high-quality playout, it is necessary to establish a system-wide equipment monitoring and alarm system capable of comprehensive status monitoring of broadcasting infrastructure and diversified alarm information display.
The Multi-Platform Monitoring System is the product we developed to meet this market demand, offering comprehensive functions with greater flexibility, convenience and alignment with customer needs.

Related system equipment:

- Peripheral equipment: Snell Wilcox
- Switcher: GrassValley Kayak
- Audio console matrix: Studer OnAir3000
- Multiviewer: Evertz Vip series
- Optical transmitter/receiver modules: Evertz 7700 series
- Temperature and Humidity Sensor: Changying Technology LTM9950

2. System Features

1. System Composition

(1) Studio Monitoring and Network Management System
System functions: Provides real-time monitoring of studio equipment, completing the process from fault occurrence to alarm notification within 3 seconds, and enabling accurate, rapid fault localization based on alarm information.

Figure 1: Monitoring System Interface

(2) Signal Comparison
System functions: Performs quality and consistency checks on 2 playout output signals. When either signal experiences signal loss, frozen frame, black field or other faults, an alarm is triggered immediately. During normal program time, an alarm is raised if the 2 signals become mismatched. During commercial breaks, alarms are intelligently suppressed, achieving tight integration between monitoring and playout operations.

Figure 2: Monitoring System Signal Comparison

2. Real-Time Performance

The system meets the specific equipment monitoring needs of broadcast stations. The monitoring system interface is intuitive and visual, and monitoring operations conform to the station's operational practices.
Critical alarm information during program playout is captured in real time, with an average of 3 seconds from fault occurrence to alarm notification.

3. Accuracy and Speed

Closely integrated with the signal flow topology diagram familiar to operators, enabling rapid navigation to physical equipment locations.
Clear hierarchy of views. During centralized playout assurance, shortcut keys allow rapid switching to the core equipment topology, displaying the current status of critical playout devices.

Figure 3: Video Core Topology

4. Professionalism

(1) Dynamic linkage and intelligent alarms -- closely aligned with actual operations
Background: The G01 studio outputs 2 signals during daily playout operations: the PGM signal and the dual-platform PGM signal. These 2 signals carry the same content during normal program segments, while during commercial breaks each carries its own advertising content.
Requirement: The studio must ensure the correctness and consistency of playout output signals. During normal business hours, the dual-platform PGM and PGM output the same signal, requiring strict consistency between the 2 signals, with immediate alarms when inconsistency occurs. At the same time, during non-standard business hours such as commercial breaks, the 2 video outputs carry different signals, requiring the monitoring system to suppress "consistency" alarms and restore them after the commercial break ends.
Solution design and implementation:
- Signal comparison module: Uses the Evertz 7860 signal comparison module. In addition to standard detection of signal loss, frozen frame, black field, audio loss, muted audio and other traditional parameters, this module card can also check the consistency of 2 signals and trigger an alarm when they become inconsistent.
- Signal comparison system: Beyond traditional monitoring and detection functions, the system also implements a linkage function with the switcher. When the switcher performs a business switchover, it sends a switching notification to the GPI information acquisition module, which in turn notifies the monitoring system of the business trigger. The monitoring system then determines alarm generation or suppression based on the current trigger information encoding.

Figure 4: Signal Comparison System Workflow

Result:
- The monitoring system achieves intelligent linkage with playout operations through the switcher stage, applying different alarm strategies during normal program segments and commercial breaks. In this way, the intelligent network management system provides real-time monitoring of program equipment while achieving seamless integration with actual playout operations.
- No manual intervention is added in the implementation, achieving truly intelligent and convenient operation that genuinely reduces the burden on users.
(2) Easy System Maintenance
The software adopts a plug-in architecture internally; adding new equipment does not affect the stable operation of the existing system. All monitoring system configuration resources can be exported as standalone XML files. During fault recovery, simply importing the XML file restores the monitoring system, greatly reducing recovery time.
(3) System Reliability
System operational reliability: The monitoring system polls equipment to read device status parameters, ensuring no alarm information is missed. The polling frequency can be configured to maintain alarm timeliness without interfering with normal equipment operation.
(4) Flexibility and Practicality
Different interfaces can be selected for different operations, such as studio program production or live broadcasting, video or audio. Different users can choose different focus areas for display.

Figure 5: Audio Peripheral Monitoring Interface

Figure 6: Equipment Room Monitoring Interface

(5) Log Management
The system includes alarm log query and statistics functions. Through query and statistics, users can clearly identify potential issues in the system for convenient troubleshooting.
(6) Flexible Alarm Reporting
For critical alarm information, the monitoring system can deliver customized alarms via SMS to relevant personnel or report them to the information center.

What do our customers say? Please refer to: Modern Television Technology, 2020-5, Application of Intelligent Monitoring System in CBN Studio