Rohde & Schwarz Transforms 3Cat’s Broadcast Monitoring
Rohde & Schwarz enhances 3Cat’s 24-hour news channel with R&S®PRISMON multiviewer, enabling seamless monitoring of SDI, IP, and NDI signals for superior broadcast quality
3Cat stands as Catalonia’s premier television network, broadcasting a diverse array of content from its Barcelona studios and headquarters. Recently, the 24-hour News Channel has undergone a comprehensive upgrade, transitioning to HD with SMPTE 2110 technology. This renovation integrates SDI signals and incorporates other IP formats, such as NDI and transport streams, to ensure a versatile and future-proof broadcasting infrastructure.
The R&S®PRISMON multiviewer is built on a networked server architecture, enabling users to create numerous customised multiviewer displays. Each server accepts a mix of SDI and IP feeds, eliminating the need for external converters, reducing capital costs, and lowering the carbon footprint. This design allows each feed to connect to just one server, with mosaic tile feeds shared across the network, simplifying processing demands while providing complete display flexibility.
This advanced system allows engineers to configure multiviewer displays to meet the specific requirements of each operator and area, regardless of the source format. Operators can monitor feeds side-by-side, incorporating audio VU meters, tally signs, countdowns, stopwatches, clocks, and warnings, ensuring a comprehensive and dynamic monitoring experience.
Marc Sanclimens, Specialist Engineer at 3Cat, expressed his satisfaction with the new system, stating, “We have a very busy technical setup, and we need a large number of different multiviewer layouts. Rohde & Schwarz was able to demonstrate how Prismon could provide all the different layouts we required from just three servers and allow us to freely mix SDI, NDI, ST2110, and other feeds as necessary. Like all modern broadcasters, we need to be flexible in our operations, and Prismon gives us the complete freedom we require to set up and dynamically change our monitoring.”
Echoing this sentiment, Marcus Ruoff, Product Manager Multiviewing and Monitoring at Rohde & Schwarz, said, “We designed Prismon for critical live production applications such as those at 3Cat, delivering extremely low latency and a completely flexible mosaic design. We understand the needs of a busy media facility, and we responded to those demands with a highly innovative design that brings everything into the networked server, eliminating the need for external converters and additional router paths.”
R&S®PRISMON operates on COTS hardware and is cloud-ready, supporting Ultra HD for both inputs and displays. Its networked design ensures that each feed only needs to be processed once, making it ideal for complex applications. The system easily integrates with control and automation systems and directly connects with IP-based tally and UMD signals for live production. The implementation at 3Cat was carried out by distributor and systems integrator Unitecnic, which offers ongoing support from its Barcelona office.
With the integration of R&S®PRISMON, 3Cat is poised to deliver superior broadcast quality, maintaining its position as a leader in Catalonia’s media landscape. This technological upgrade not only enhances operational efficiency but also sets a benchmark for future broadcast monitoring solutions.
