Axon’s Cerebrum control platform removes engineering bottle-necks in world’s biggest fully-IP Sports production at Wimbledon 2018
Gilze, The Netherlands. July 3, 2018: NEP UK, leading OB and broadcast facilities provider, has confirmed that it has deployed Axon’s Cerebrum platform to control and monitor its complex IP workflow, which will deliver technical Host Broadcast Services for The AELTC Championships at Wimbledon this month.
This year’s tournament, which is believed to be the world’s biggest fully-IP sports production, will see NEP’s two new state-of-the-art IP OB vehicles in action paired with a huge modular custom-designed fly-pack to provide the core IP infrastructure and technical facilities. Together the systems become a single integrated solution, allowing greater integration of multiple concurrent feeds and sharing of sources to broadcast the event to an audience in excess of 1 billion in over 200 territories.
The complex IP infrastructure – which simultaneously offers dual level UHD, HD-SDI, SDR UHD and HDR UHD – required a reliable and comprehensive control system to seamlessly integrate and manage the latest technologies from GVG, Arista, EVS, Phabrix, Calrec and Evertz in a unified IP workflow. Following extensive trials last year, NEP selected Axon’s Cerebrum as its chosen platform.
“Cerebrum provides both power and flexibility and scales effectively to allow multiple users on the system,” says Gareth Phillips, Head of Vision and VT for NEP UK. “It simplifies our workflow by minimizing engineering bottlenecks and is easy to configure at speed.”
Image courtesy of NEP UK
Three main Cerebrum systems will be deployed within the two trucks and fly-pack, featuring a total of 150 hardware control panels. The fly-pack will be later split into four configurable systems. Each Cerebrum system allows rapid configuration and wide integration of 3rd party technologies with comprehensive tally management – all through a customizable user interface.
“In a fast-paced production environment, familiarity and ease-of-use for our skilled operators is critical. This is where Cerebrum comes into its own,” Phillips explains. “It gives us a really simple user-friendly graphical interface that enables the crew to get their heads around the workflow, to customize it and quickly preconfigure a show file to be pulled up later. They can get to work and focus on the production, without concern for the complex and changing technology layer underneath.”
Adrian Richmond, Sales Director UK, Ireland and Africa concludes, “IP offers true interoperability and scalability for production but it requires a control system capable of managing the complexity. We’re delighted that NEP has chosen Cerebrum to deliver control and management within its IP infrastructure. With operational familiarity and such ease of use, Cerebrum is becoming the de facto standard in production control worldwide, helping to ease the adoption to IP and deliver the benefits that move promises.”
The two 24-camera multi-cast trucks – Venus and Ceres – have already been successfully deployed at major events including The Royal Wedding and will be in action at various prestigious sporting events this summer.
-ends-
About Axon
Headquartered in The Netherlands, and with offices across the world, Axon develops, manufactures and markets high quality broadcast equipment for the conversion, processing and compliance recording of audio and video signals. Products integrate advanced signal processing techniques, innovative engineering and modular flexibility and provide high quality, affordability and reliability within mission-critical broadcast applications. For more information please visit www.axon.tv.
For more information, please contact:
Axon Digital Design
Geert-Jan Gussen / Margot Timmermans
Email: press@axon.tv
