MG Group

Leading French broadcaster Metropole Television SA (commonly known as the M6 Group) has futureproofed its new Master Control Room near Paris by placing state of the art Evertz IP technology at the heart of its operation. The switch from SDI to IP (ST 2110) will allow M6 to easily incorporate new HD services, new delivery platforms and new video formats such as Ultra HD 4K and 8K.

Based in Neuilly sur Seine, M6 is the most profitable private national French TV channel and the third most watched television network in the French-speaking world. Its new Master Control Room now hosts playout for 11 channels including the broadcaster’s premium M6 channel and other popular channels such as W9, Série Club, 6TER, TEVA, Paris Premiere, M6 Music and M6 International.

The Challenge

The decision to build a new MCR was taken in 2018 when the M6 engineering team, headed by technical manager Franck Martin, recognized that the old SDI facility had been in place for more than 10 years and was reaching the end of its viable life. Most of the equipment no longer had manufacturer support and, in addition, M6 needed the flexibility to add more channels, reflecting the fact that it is a vibrant and expanding company.

“We had to imagine how M6 might look in 10 to 15 years’ time and build a technical facility that could deliver on its long-term goals,” says Franck Martin. “That meant creating space for new channels and embracing new technologies. It would have been simpler to rebuild in SDI because everyone understands that format, but after much debate we decided to switch to IP technology because it will be much quicker and easier to add more channels as and when we need them, and offer UHD channels in the future.

The Solution

Most broadcasters would agree that switching to IP is a logical next step for the industry but making the transition still requires a significant leap of faith because the technology is so new and revolutionary. Finding a way to successfully meet this challenge was crucial for M6, and the main reason why the broadcaster chose Canadian company Evertz as its technology partner.

At the heart of M6’s new television playout Master Control Room is Evertz EXE-VSR IP switch fabric, which provides 46Tb/s of switching capacity and delivers exceptional flexibility and scalability for video transport over IP. Using SMPTE ST-2110, EXE supports up to 13,800 uncompressed HD-SDI signals – and many more when compression technology such as JPEG-2000, H.264, or MPEG-2 is utilized.

The Results

Despite its complexity, Franck Martin and Fabrice Tauzies say they are delighted with the end result. All the channels are now working perfectly and although IP still occasionally presents challenges, both men feel that the learning curve has been hugely valuable.

The Future

Evertz is also delighted with the success of this project, which has now given it a strong reference for its IP technology in Europe. Robert Peter, the company’s VP International Operations, says: “We are pleased to continue our relationship with the management and engineering group of M6 as they use Evertz IP technology in their upgrade and transformation project.  As this was one of the larger IP / ST 2110 installations in Europe, we were able to work closely with M6 in all stages of the project from solution and design to the deployment and training.  We are very excited to continue to provide local support for the deployment of remaining channels and participation in any future M6 projects.”

Having a solution that can be used for future projects was always M6’s plan, and there is now talk of building a second backup IP playout facility although this is still some way off in the future.

“We have made a big investment and we need to get used to what we have before we build anything else, but we now have a roadmap and any future system will be much easier to implement,” Franck Martin says. “Having an IP based MCR has already brought great benefits in terms of future channel expansion and format expansion with UHD and we are very happy with what we have achieved.