PROJECTS

Canal Barça’s infrastructure migration to HD

Barça Studios

Objective

Renewal of the technical infrastructure of Barça official television channel for its technological changeover to High Definition.

In 2015, the technical media and the operation of the Barça television channel became part of Telefónica, based in an agreement which includes the transfer of the Club audiovisual fees and other areas of technological renovation, such as the implementation of Wi-Fi in the stadium and the revamping of its television channel.

In collaboration with FCB’s audiovisual technical management, Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales was the member of the Group Telefónica responsible of the renewal of the channel’s technology. It was essential because the available technical production media belonged to the previous company who was the awardee of the service contract and furthermore, Barça TV wanted to take advantage of the changeover to make a technological leap to HD.

All the technical areas that made up the channel were located in the Gate 104 of Camp Nou Stadium: continuity, television stage sets, production, sound and broadcast controls, newsroom, post-production rooms, etc.

The challenge of this renewal was presented in the “seamless” switch-over of technical and human resources, who had to go from one broadcasting system to another overnight, working and broadcasting with the new technology inmediatly.

The key to success was the flawless management of the project which was coordinated perfectly together with the collaboration of our best partners, in order to have transition teams and on-the-job training, which ensured that the whole team was trained effectively.

Project Scope

The technical areas integrated for the new Barça HD channel were:

Solution
45 m2 studio, 25m2 press zone and 12m2 stands area fitting out to use as physical and virtual television studios/sets are designed to share production and sound control room. Main equipment: camera chains, prompter, wireless microphones, lighting, set boxes, etc.	GV studio cameras, press set and stands cameras Panasonic, Sennheiser
Studio Control Room with playout and HD replay server, playout automation, audio and video mixer, technical monitoring, auxiliary mixer for booths and backup VTR.	EVS replay server, Airspeed playout server and Avid Command automation, GV Karrera video mixer and Yamaha CL5 audio mixer, Tektronix + Kroma, Sony VTR
Master Control Room that acts as a control centre for contribution signals and delivery to differentt destinations and channel clients. From here the traffic system is also controlled. Main equipment: 2 broadcast chains (main and backup) with a 4 channel videoserver for each chain, traffic system, channel branding, multiviewer system shared for master and studio control rooms, technical monitoring and backup VTRs.	Multicom continuity automation and traffic system by VSN, EVS video server, Vizrt branding, GV Kaleido multiscreen, Tektronix, Sony
Technical Room houses all the new equipment and shares the space with the archive system, owned by FCB, where the integration of the workflows are implemented with the PAM Production system, with which the channel’s editing department works. Equipment: central matrix switching, intercom system, synchronism, legal copy system, network and glue.	Glue and Matrix GV 180×180 HD / SD-SDI, Kroma Intercom and Tektronix synchronism
Digital Production system with a 600 hours shared storage in HD. 2 locutories and video post-production rooms are also equipped, as well as 2 audio postproduction rooms with microphone. The system is completed with 11 advanced video editing booths adn 14 text booths.	Avid Production System, ISIS, Nitrix, Protools with Neumann microphones, iNews and Media Composer
The infrastructure is supplemented by a team of ENGs equipment that provides the coverage of image capturing for the news system and the different events covered by the channel.	Sony