Snell Solutions Drive High-Quality HD Webcasts of All Parliament Sessions and Hearings
READING, U.K. — January 29, 2014 — Snell today announced that the broadcasting arm of the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) chose a Snell Kahuna 360 Compact multi-format production switcher and a Snell Sirius 830 large-scale router with Advanced Hybrid Processing (AHP) for the final phase of its migration to HD operations. Supplied and integrated by Video 4 AS and Megahertz Broadcast Systems, the Kahuna 360 Compact and Sirius 830 enable live 1080p coverage of all Parliament sessions.
“The production switcher and router are the workhorses in any high-output broadcast facility, and we knew we’d need to choose these systems carefully for the design of our new HD studio,” said Thomas Andresen, Advisor, Stortinget. “With the Snell Kahuna 360 Compact and Sirius 830, we chose wisely indeed. In addition to uncompromised broadcast quality and high reliability, both systems provide the ease of use that Snell is known for. This was especially important since we needed to enable freelancers from NRK to come in and use the systems without any significant training.”
From its new HD production studio within the Parliament complex in Oslo, Stortinget streams all live sessions from parliamentary chambers and hearing rooms to its website and also offers a video library of pre-recorded sessions for viewing on demand. In a space-saving 6U mainframe, the Kahuna 360 Compact acts as a shared switcher to re-distribute resources across Stortinget’s four control rooms from a single mainframe. Using Snell’s unique Make M/E technology, operators are able to custom-build an M/E feature set to match the production requirements of each control room, with a 2 M/E Compact Kahuna control panel and three Kahuna micropanels providing the control surfaces.
Snell’s Sirius 830 router gives Stortinget up to 288x288 inputs and outputs in a compact 16U frame size, with the ability to add an additional 144 independently controllable outputs for connection to Snell or third-party multiviewer solutions. Stortinget has chosen Virtual Studio Manager from LSB for overall system control and full integration with the Sirius 830 allows VSM to control both its routing and processing functions.
The Sirius 830 provides embedding and de-embedding and applies its AHP functionality on every input and output. Integrating multiple channels of processing modules into a single chassis, something that would previously have consumed several bays of modular equipment, minimizes the need for external glue and saves on space, costs, power and cabling.
“According to Norwegian law, Stortinget is required to make a high-quality recording of every word of every public debate, and then make that video available to citizens – so the technology that went into the new HD facility had to be absolutely bulletproof,” said Robert Rowe, Snell's chief technology officer. “This is the perfect environment for our Kahuna 360 and Sirius 800 product lines, both of which provide the high degree of integration, reliability, and versatility the Stortinget broadcast operation needs to meet its legislative mandate.”
