Mediaset replaced its cameras with a fleet of Grass Valley’s 4K native, ST 2110-compliant LDX 135 cameras, with UHD with HDR recording, creative grading control and selective upgrades.
Mediaset, one of the main private TV publishers in Italy and Spain, operates three main television production centres – two in Milan and one in Rome – with five general networks and about 30 free and pay theme channels. It makes original free and pay content available via streaming and dedicated apps for smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles and connected TVs.
Mediaset also produces a large catalogue of original content every year, ranging from movies and entertainment to documentaries, sports and news, broadcasting many of these assets live. The company recently replaced its existing cameras with a new fleet of 4K native cameras complying with the SMPTE ST 2110 standard, choosing the Grass Valley LDX 135.
The two companies made a framework agreement in which Grass Valley will supply the cameras and services on an ongoing basis. This deal is Grass Valley’s first such agreement for the LDX 135 camera with a major Italian broadcaster.
Modern Workflows – IP, HDR, Virtual Production
MediaSet chose the LDX 135 for its technical features such as NativeIP, which enables the camera to directly stream ST 2110 output. It can function as a network-native, complete IP endpoint with bandwidth up to 100Gb/s, setting up IP connections for audio, video and camera control. By distributing content on the network whenever it is needed, the LDX 135 helps avoid the delays associated with sending signals to a separate control hub. It also makes separate base stations unnecessary.
The LDX 135 can record UHD with HDR as well. The high sensitivity of the camera, due to its three new Xenios imagers, enables wider dynamic range in HDR mode, improved signal-to-noise ratio and control over depth of field by allowing smaller lens apertures.
Marco Di Concetto, Director Broadcasting Production Systems at Mediaset Group, said, “We wanted to replace our existing camera fleet with cameras natively equipped for modern workflows such as IP, UHD, HDR, virtual production and XR, and remote production. The LDX 135 fulfils all of these requirements and others, representing a significant upgrade.”
Creative Grading
Another feature that attracted Mediaset is the Creative Grading camera shading control panel and tablet application that uses either on-prem IP or the cloud from connected locations via AMPP, and supports all LDX cameras. This app can control up to 99 cameras, supporting multiple control points per camera. Operators can work with either a tablet, a CGP 500 hardware control panel or both.
For ease in visualization, the application’s large UI gives a graphical representation of the impact of parameter changes. The vision engineer can see and control how a single change affects related sets of parameters in a system-wide view of on-screen modifications. Camera parameters may be adjusted as logical groupings.
Engineers have other functions as well, such as shifting a camera from one look to the next, even when on-air, with one hand, experimenting with different looks and sharing the same look across multiple cameras.
Options and Upgrades
As part of the LDX 100 series of NativeIP-enabled cameras, the LDX 135 can achieve fast turnaround and configuration times, and allows Mediaset to upgrade each camera feature by feature, perpetually or just for one or multiple days.
Among its options, the camera includes JPEG XS low-latency video compression, creating the compressed video signal inside the camera when running in NativeIP without relying on external equipment. Compressing single-speed HD and UHD signals, this compression format is especially efficient for remote productions, saving significant bandwidth.
Thirty Cameras in One Month
The framework agreement has already resulted in the installation of 30 cameras in a single month. “One of the biggest challenges we faced was installing so many cameras in such a short space of time, but Grass Valley ensured a fast turnaround in delivery from its factory in Breda to make it possible,” Marco said.
The installation is being carried out by Mediaset engineers in partnership with Video Progetti. Radio frequency solutions provider Domo Broadcast Systems is supplying a wireless solution to be used with the LDX 135 RF. www.grassvalley.com
