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Customer profile<br />
Sky News Arabia airs with <strong>EVS</strong> workflow<br />
Sky News Arabia (SNA), the sister channel of Sky News in the Mid-<br />
dle East and North Africa, was officially launched on 6 May 2012.<br />
The 24-hour service goes out in both SD and HD from a state-ofthe-art<br />
production facility in Abu Dhabi. The channel is a joint venture<br />
between the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation and BSkyB<br />
and is available on multiple viewing platforms, including tablets and<br />
smartphones. The channel is based in Abu Dhabi's twofour54 media<br />
zone and has a network of bureaux spanning across the MENA<br />
region, along with offices in London and Washington, DC. It also<br />
shares access to Sky News' wider international bureaux network.<br />
CaseStudy<br />
The project’s challenges<br />
With new installations, the biggest challenges often involve getting<br />
the newsroom to adopt and rely on the new workflow. Introducing<br />
the new <strong>EVS</strong> system required training for engineers and journalists<br />
to help them settle into the new environment.<br />
The <strong>EVS</strong> teams offered constant guidance on every aspect of the<br />
workflow, making sure everyone understood the key steps of the<br />
production process. This level of support was maintained throughout,<br />
with an <strong>EVS</strong> workflow specialist onsite four days a week to<br />
make sure all questions and requests were answered quickly.<br />
A new channel,<br />
a new workflow<br />
Sky News Arabia needed a solution that promised speed and<br />
reliability as well as ease of use. Having already provided a workflow<br />
for Sky News in the UK, <strong>EVS</strong> were more than equipped to provide<br />
the new channel with a fully integrated workflow - for ingest, central<br />
storage, media browsing, editing, playout and archive management.<br />
www.evs.tv
Ingest<br />
The workflow consists of two types of ingest: baseband ingest<br />
for SDI video recording and file-based ingest for video file import.<br />
Ingest is based around:<br />
• Eight four-channel XS servers<br />
• A six-channel XT3 server with LSM control<br />
• 12 XTAccess workstations<br />
This delivers 32 ingest channels for baseband recording controlled<br />
by <strong>EVS</strong>’ IPDirector or by SchedulAll/Miranda iControl software.<br />
Once ingest is scheduled, the 12 XTAccess workstations stream<br />
the material from the XS server to the central storage. This enables<br />
32 real time streams to be sent simultaneously with the files<br />
immediately available for all users on the SAN setup.<br />
In addition an XT3 server in the playout gallery is used for ultra fast<br />
ingest and playout - ideal for breaking news. The XT3 is connected<br />
to XNet2, <strong>EVS</strong>’ high-bandwidth media sharing network, allowing the<br />
XT3 operator to instantly access all 32 ingest ports giving instant<br />
ON AIR playout.<br />
PRESS<br />
Satellite<br />
VTR<br />
PRESS<br />
Press Files<br />
PRESS<br />
ENG<br />
News Feeds<br />
News Feeds<br />
CaseStudy<br />
Sky News Arabia<br />
Production &<br />
Content Management<br />
Browsing & Clipping<br />
Post-<br />
Production<br />
Bureaux<br />
Ingest<br />
Central<br />
Storage<br />
Playout<br />
32 Recording<br />
Channels<br />
x 8<br />
140 editing<br />
stations<br />
File-based ingest for news agency files is completed via a dedicated<br />
folder from which material is transcoded to high and low resolution<br />
on the <strong>EVS</strong> central storage. The files are immediately available for<br />
the newsroom journalists or FinalCut Pro editors. Another folder<br />
created specifically for Sky News UK gives Sky News Arabia instant<br />
access to their material for editing and fast turnaround review.<br />
ENG file import is available for the direct import video into the<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> central storage. The system recognises the ENG cameras<br />
connected to the system and allows users to import files and create<br />
timelines for fast access to the new material.<br />
FCP<br />
Hi-Res SAN (210TB)<br />
DVCPRO HD<br />
Proxy: H.264 TS Breaking News<br />
Deep<br />
Archive<br />
NRCS<br />
DIVA LTO Tapes iNews<br />
x 2<br />
MOS Gateway<br />
Web<br />
TV
Editing<br />
All baseband or file-based videos are instantly available for editing<br />
in the newsroom. Operators use two editing tools as approporiate:<br />
• Xedio CleanEdit<br />
140 of these editing applications are available for journalists in<br />
the newsroom with ingested material ready for editing within<br />
ten seconds. CleanEdit works on the low resolution material<br />
allowing multiple users access to files at the same time with<br />
multiple formats and different aspect ratios being edited on the<br />
same timeline. As a result, users can swiftly shape content and<br />
push it to post-production for advanced editing or directly to<br />
the galleries for playout.<br />
• Final Cut Pro<br />
16 FCP stations are used for advanced editing, including 3D<br />
effects and multi-layer editing. FCP integrates seamlessly with<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> solutions with users able to browse and edit content<br />
directly on the <strong>EVS</strong> central storage.<br />
Playout<br />
Gallery playout is done from an XS server controlled by an IPDirector<br />
and connected to AVID iNews with a further XS server used as a<br />
backup. iNews is the AVID newsroom system where all the news<br />
bulletin rundown decisions are made by the editorial team. iNews<br />
also runs on the Xedio CleanEdit workstations to allow journalists<br />
to add finished edits directly into the rundown. Due to the MOS<br />
protocol support, IPDirector then automatically synchronises the<br />
rundown content with the playout server content. <strong>EVS</strong> developed a<br />
dedicated iNews browser plug-in, so that the iNews operator is able<br />
to see and browse the entire <strong>EVS</strong> server content.<br />
CaseStudy<br />
For breaking news, playout can be done directly. Since the XT3 is<br />
connected to XNet2, it can access any of the 32 ingest ports to<br />
play content to air using the XT3 time slip function. A playlist can be<br />
created with the breaking news element, which is played in loop to<br />
let the director decide when he wants the elements on air.<br />
Media Storage<br />
The vast number of files recorded and imported at a news channel<br />
all need to be stored and archived. Three types of storage are used<br />
at Sky News Arabia:<br />
• Playout server (on line)<br />
The XS playout server has 50 hours online capacity. Files<br />
stored on this server are the ones needed for the immediate<br />
news bulletin and are cleansed regularly.<br />
• Central storage (nearline)<br />
The scalable <strong>EVS</strong> SAN stores ingested files for editing and<br />
backups of files for playout. The SAN’s capacity is around<br />
3,000 hours of HD at 100 Mbps. Once used, material is<br />
archived or deleted to make space for the new ingest.<br />
• Deep archive<br />
A DIVA tape library from Front Porch Digital is used for deep<br />
archive. <strong>EVS</strong>’ IP2Archive solution allows operators to store<br />
media files on LTO tapes and restore the files on the central<br />
storage at a later date when the material is needed.<br />
www.evs.tv
The results<br />
The free-to-air rolling news channel is now being transmitted in both<br />
SD and HD across the region. <strong>EVS</strong> worked with the SNA engineers<br />
on the workflow design, then installed and commissioned the system<br />
on-site. <strong>EVS</strong>’ Dubai office trained both the engineering and editorial<br />
newsroom staff to ensure success.<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> products were new to the majority<br />
of the team at SNA. “<strong>EVS</strong> means<br />
speed to me - it gives me what I need in<br />
a fast-moving environment,” explained<br />
Anees Jebreen, chief sub video at SNA.<br />
“News is the fastest moving broadcast<br />
environment and you need something<br />
that answers you immediately and<br />
immediately delivers material to screen. So far this is exactly what<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> has achieved.”<br />
The journalists at Sky News Arabia have<br />
been using Xedio CleanEdit since its<br />
deployment and have been thrilled with<br />
its ease of use. “CleanEdit is very important<br />
to us. Thanks to Xedio CleanEdit,<br />
I do my LVOs in a maximum of five<br />
minutes” said Romeila Ferrat, sports<br />
presenter at SNA. “I couldn’t do my<br />
job without CleanEdit, especially in a breaking news environment. It<br />
makes our lives faster and easier.”<br />
CaseStudy<br />
Sky News Arabia<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> Broadcast Equipment / Sales & Marketing<br />
sales@evs.tv<br />
+32 4 361 7000<br />
www.evs.tv<br />
Sally Nabil, news producer at SNA<br />
added “I trust Xedio CleanEdit.<br />
A producer’s worst nightmare is to<br />
start a project and lose your material.<br />
Xedio CleanEdit removes this fear.<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> helps me to do all my work in the<br />
shortest time possible. The two most<br />
important things for a journalist are<br />
speed and quality, and Xedio CleanEdit provides exactly that.”<br />
Dominic Baillie, chief technical officer, Sky News Arabia concluded:<br />
“<strong>EVS</strong> provides reliable technology that’s designed for fast<br />
turnaround of content which is essential to a breaking news channel<br />
like Sky News Arabia. The level of support we have received from<br />
<strong>EVS</strong> through the design, launch and live phases of the channel has<br />
been and continues to be high. It is very encouraging to see a key<br />
partner pro-actively investing time and resources to fulfil their part<br />
in our success.”<br />
Sky News Arabia - 08/2012 - <strong>EVS</strong> Broadcast Equipment is continuously adapting and improving its products in accordance with the ever changing requirements of the broadcast industry as a result of which all data contained herein are<br />
subject to change without prior notice. Companies and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies
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