Bluefish444 IngeSTore Supports Diverse Recording and Delivery for RZIM
Academic and humanitarian Christian organisation Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) operates from offices around the world, comprising a global team of over 70 speakers. RZIM’s mission is to reach Christians and sceptics, to answer questions and defend the faith through communication.
RZIM use radio, TV programming and live events to reach their audience, mainly focussing on academics, business, politics and the arts. To cater for such a wide range of delivery platforms, RZIM works with Diversified, a services provider and systems integrator for broadcast, audio/visual, IT and RF producers.
Requiring four simultaneous channels of HD-SDI ingest from a multicam environment for live recording, RZIM requested a system from Diversified that could integrate with their existing Quantum metadata controller and storage server. After weighing up their options, Diversified recommended that RZIM adopt the Bluefish444 IngeSTore Server 3G appliance, powered by the Epoch | 4K Supernova S+ video card and running Bluefish444’s IngeSTore application. The system was installed and commissioned just before the NAB Show 2017 in April, and has been in constant and reliable operation since then.
Bluefish444 IngeSTore Server 3G and Quantum integration.
Bluefish444’s IngeSTore 3G appliance can capture up to four channels of SDI to a variety of standard video formats and file types. This meant that RZIM could capture their 1080i camera feeds in their native resolution, and encode the four simultaneous channels into their preferred DNxHD format, in real time. The IgeSTore software application is a complementary multi-channel ingest tool enabling the hardware to capture multiple, independent format SDI sources simultaneously, directly to QuickTime, AVI and DVCPRO50/HD codecs. It can be used in combination with regular NLE software such as Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro CC to set up a simultaneous capture and output system.
RZIM have configured the IngeSTore Server 3G appliance to capture from a Ross Carbonite Extreme production switcher via HD-SDI, which is then transferred over a 10Gb interface connection to networked shared storage. The four channels of DNxHD media are immediately available to RZIM editing suites for post-production. DNxHD formats are compressed 8-bit or 10-bit media, and all Bluefish444 SDI video cards are capable of 12-bit processing. When combined with IngeSTore, this makes sure that each feed is captured at a quality that affords RZIM consistency and flexibility in their promotional videos, lectures, multi-day live events in auditoriums and other productions.
“The IngeSTore Server 3G appliance has worked very well for us so far, and we’ve been able to capture the feeds from our four cameras at a high enough quality for directly encoding into our preferred DNxHD format,” said Jeff Feighner, Chief Engineer at RZIM. “We’ve found the training and engineering support are also top notch, with efficient, quick responses when we were installing and setting up the system.”
With their first system commissioned and producing consistent results, RZIM are planning to roll out installations to other venues, including other types of venue. “We are looking at growth through shows that will include associated off-site events, and with our success so far with Diversified and Bluefish444, we would approach them again for way to manage these productions,” Jeff said. “For example, we will be looking at a viable option for ingest in remote areas, so we are hoping that the IngeSTore Server 3G could be implemented for this.”
With their success using the compressed DNxHD formats to date, RZIM plan to record uncompressed AVI and QuickTime formats from multi-camera set-ups with the IngeSTore Server 3G appliance and software, giving them higher quality raw footage and still more flexibility during the editing process. Being able to do this would be an advantage because these uncompressed formats can sometimes be a challenge to import, export and play back. www.bluefish444.com
