AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 16) w h a t ’s u p UK whatsupuk@audiomedia.com Hearing What Parliament Has To Say KEVIN HILTON listens in on the sounds of parliament of the Northern Ireland Assembly. controller. The mic switcher sits in the balcony above the Assembly chamber and runs a touch screen that presents a graphical representation of the room, showing where the Members of the Assembly sit and the position of the 84 mics. The core of the user interface is based on TSL’s TallyMan system, a PC-based selection management and control application that works with the majority of switchers, routers, vision mixers, and multiviewers used by broadcasters today. This touch screen controls the existing IRP microphone system; when the operator selects a particular mic a cue is sent to the Shotoku robotics system, which automatically searches for shots of the relevant area. The Assembly Chamber and the Senate have their own production galleries, and the directors there are able to select the best shot from those presented, which is then mixed into the main feed through a Ross vision mixer. HD footage is managed and recorded by a Gallery Sienna (System Integrated Network News Automation) asset management system, which is based on off-the-shelf Apple hardware and servers, and incorporates virtual video tape recorders. The equipment is owned by the NIA itself but is operated under contract by local broadcast service company Pi Communications, which has nine staff working at the Parliament Buildings to cover proceedings. The video system is also integrated with the overall IT infrastructure of the Assembly and the hope for the future is that people will be able to browse the tape archive over the Internet. Brendan O’Neill points out that there are the matters of cost and security to be considered before this becomes a reality, but he hopes the new AV system at the NIA will go beyond being just a way of storing speeches. “This is an exciting and dynamic time for the Northern Ireland Assembly,” he says, “and we need exciting and dynamic technology to bring our work to the local people.” ∫ T he United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to give this collection of rocks huddling off the coast of mainland Europe its full title, is unified but also very much the sum of its parts. In recent years Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have been granted devolved government, although breaking up the union and granting full independence is resisted by most politicians in London and many citizens. Each devolved nation has its own parliament, and as with the blueprint of Westminster these are televised, although TV cameras have been covering the UK Parliament for 18 years. The first plenary (full) session of the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) after the summer recess took place in September, boasting an upgraded microphone system that leads new robotic cameras, which are shooting in high definition to create a completely futureproofed library. Televising parliamentary proceedings plays an important role in involving everyone in the business of governing the Province. “Northern Ireland has a politically aware population, with the highest voter participation in the UK,” says Brendan O’Neill, NIA Project Manager. “We need optimum coverage because the communities here have invested in making the Northern Ireland Assembly a success.” This means providing broadcasters with good links and quality pictures, as well as giving access to coverage of sessions to the public, particularly schools and community groups. The NIA meets in the Parliament Buildings in the grounds of Castle Estate, to the east of Belfast. Two chambers are housed there; the main legislative chamber and what was the upper house, the Senate, which is now used for committee meetings and youth parliaments. In the audio-visual installation of 1998 the Assembly Chamber and the Senate each had microphones and four robotically controlled cameras fitted. Committee rooms in the Parliament Buildings complex are equipped for audio coverage only. Ten years can be a long time in equipment terms, and as the NIA broadcast operation has to be ‘no fail’, the decision was taken to replace the existing system with something that will last another decade, which explains the move to HD. “Changes had to be made to meet the needs of the public and reflect advances in technology,” says O’Neill. A tender specification was drawn up for the removal of the old analogue robotic cameras and their replacement with digital HD models, plus new cabling, racks, monitors, and furniture, plus the necessary training and support. The most crucial requirement was for the new camera system to work in conjunction with the existing microphone selection and operation set-up, which is run by an operator who identifies those who wish to speak before switching the mics ‘live’. A suitable electronic interface between the vision and audio was a major requirement. The project went out to tender in April this year, and on May 5, was awarded to systems integrator TSL (Television Systems Limited). To keep to the schedule a large proportion of the equipment was assembled and tested at TSL’s Maidenhead factory, while the Parliament Buildings in Belfast were being fitted with cables. “All the companies that tendered for the contract were looking to pre-build off-site but there was still a lot of work to be done here,” comments Brendan O’Neill. There are now six cameras in the main Assembly Chamber and five in the Senate. These are the Sony HDC-X310 multi-purpose model. The cameras are mounted on robotic heads that are part of an overall Shotoku automated camera control system, which is linked to the microphone Introducing the new PortaGig. Glyph’s second generation PortaGig 800 can handle over 55 tracks of 24bit/48k audio, with edits, running on FireWire bus power. Weighing less than 10 ounces, all this power is backed by Glyph’s Advance Replacement and Data Recovery Policies. Up to 320GB capacity (2) FireWire 800, (1) USB 2.0 port 7,200 or 5,400 RPM SATA II drives Universal AC power supply included Store in a cool place.. A U D II O M E D II A DNE O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 5 200 AUD O MED A CEMBER Steyler Str. 121 D-41334 Nettetal +49 (0) 2157 870 22 32 mrichert@glyphtech.com glyphtech.com 16 http://www.glyphtech.com http://www.glyphtech.com
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