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Digital Distribution for Merrill Lynch In January 2002 Feltech completed work on a project for Merrill Lynch, the Investment Bank, at their new European Headquarters in the City of
The system was designed and put out to tender by Broadcast and AV consultancy Arup Communications. Feltech won that tender and were commissioned to install a system capable of routing broadcast quality video and audio signals between the main meeting areas around the site and linking them to broadcast circuits out of the building and to other facilities. A major part of the brief was to provide maximum flexibility and ease of control. The system had to be installed using the extensive fibre optic structured cabling, spanning 6 floors of the main building and two adjacent buildings on the same site. Arup were looking for a company outside of the normal ‘AV Installer’ category. They needed a supplier who understood exactly what ‘broadcast quality’, ‘fibre’ and ‘BT Circuits’ meant, but could also work in the AV domain in order to link to other systems and using IP based software control. Feltech’s unique experience in all these disciplines helped them to win the contract. Web-Browser Control Page for SDI Matrix At the heart of the system is a Pro-Bel 32 x 32 serial digital matrix which handles all the “broadcast quality” video and embedded audio signals. SDI signals are converted to fibre and back again to distribute the signal around the vast site at optimum quality. This allows multiple inputs from around the building and incoming external circuits to be routed to an assortment of internal display systems and to the outgoing broadcast circuits. The system provides ‘Broadcast’ positions from various locations around the building including the Trading Floors to allow live interviews to be conducted by the news organisations eg. Where signals are sent and received from local AV systems they are encoded or decoded from SDI to the required formats, composite, component or YC video and analogue audio. This conversion is all achieved using the Snell &Wilcox IQ range of card-based modules. Giving every option of conversion at broadcast specifications, the system employs 14 rack frames containing 95 assorted IQ cards. Control of the matrix switchers and other elements of the system is achieved using Crestron controllers fitted with Ethernet expansion cards and running bespoke software. This allows some limited ‘user’ control of switching from assorted meeting room locations using their local AV system touch panels and full engineering control from designated PC’s on the company network. There is a ‘Technicians Control Room’ which, as well as providing full Crestron control of the systems routing matrices, has extensive monitoring facilities for any SDI, video or audio signals which is essential when routing signals out of the building to the broadcasters. Local, manual control is available in the basement Master Control Room (MCR) area where all the major hardware is housed.
The use of IP networks for control systems is becoming the standard and understanding how are requirements would fit in with the massive Merrill Lynch network was of the up most importance. The use of existing structured cabling particularly Category 5 for video and audio signals in AV systems is becoming widespread but this option always has an effect on quality, which is not acceptable in the broadcast world. Using Fibre optics and digital video technology is the direction the broadcast industry is committed to and our experience in this area was one of the major reasons that Feltech won this prestigious contract. As more City Corporates raise their profiles via the Digital TV networks we are confident that our proven experience will stand us in good stead to win similar work in the future. Project Manager – Peter Fell Deputy Project Manager – Greg Moores |