BBC Northern Ireland embraces IP with new multifunctional Outside Broadcast truck

GTC Patron Sony, announces the delivery and provisioning of BBC Northern Ireland’s first IP based Outside Broadcast (OB) truck, together with integrator Megahertz. For the BBC, the aim was to secure a sustainable path to the future of broadcasting, by gaining greater flexibility in production, optimising equipment usage and supporting existing and creating new workflows.

The project is a keystone in the broadcaster’s regional regeneration effort. The renewal came about as the current facilities are coming to the end of their life. Based on learnings around distributed production from COVID amongst others, the new truck project needed to consider that, in time, the central BBC facilities in Belfast would be moving from SDI to IP. This meant that interoperability both with SDI and IP were required, ultimately allowing processing capabilities for both the truck and the facilities to be used and controlled by staff located either in the truck or the facilities.

The other drivers of this project were flexibility and optimisation, both achieved through the technological and design choices made: the truck will be able to serve as a main gallery for productions in the Belfast headquarters or be sent to locations as needed. It is designed to be extremely versatile, able to deliver quick turnaround times between programmes.

From a technological deployment point of view, the truck provided is built around Sony’s Networked Live, an ecosystem of solutions for live production with hybrid on-premises and cloud capabilities. It  also includes a large number of third party products. Networked Live products used in this deployment include the camera network adaptor CNA-2 for camera control, HDCU-3500 CCU for SDI-IP adaptation for cameras, MLS-X1 for video switching, and MKS-R4020 remote control panels. The media network is a fully redundant spine-leaf configuration and SDN (software-defined network) orchestration, based on SMPTE ST 2110, under the control of Nevion’s VideoIPath. VideoIPath controls not only the network, but also the end devices. It does so with a combination of custom-made drivers and NMOS interfaces.

BBC Northern Ireland, Megahertz, Sony, and Nevion (a Sony company) managed the project, which began after a public tender in 2022 and was delivered in spring 2024.