Discover the Future of AV Networking
Media and marketing departments for businesses large and small all face the same challenge: broadcast and AV workflows have migrated to the network, while cyber threats and security require peak focus from the IT Department. Entities like healthcare, government, utilities, and financial institutions require even more stringent network protection than the average customer.
How can their media teams stay cutting edge and not get left behind?
Midtown teamed up with ASI Signage and the consultant Showy to deliver the answer for Cure, and we can do the same for you: a parallel, high-performance network purpose-built to support VLANs, multicasting, and the latest AVoIP protocols.
Delivering top notch, AV-Focused network architecture means that our clients can stay safely behind the IT Firewall and still support creative production, including multiple venues with hundreds of AV endpoints.
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The Goal
The goal was to create a centralized control room where operators can access audio and video sources from multiple venues throughout the facility, and distribute them both internally and to the internet at maximum quality. Centralizing control allows Cure’s team to remove cumbersome and unsightly AV control stations that attract attention away from the events taking place.
Cure also needed a future-proof system to stream 4K video from any venue in the building, with a central control room on the second floor. With venues spread across the 2nd floor, 12th floor, penthouse and roof, ASI ran multimode fiber throughout the facility to link network switches on each floor.
The Challenge
As a healthcare company, Cure’s network must be tightly controlled, to the point of preventing downloads of programs onto company computers.
Additionally, David Profitt, ASI’s field engineer, noted that the hardest part of the project was cutting the existing cable infrastructure and moving the rack to another room entirely. The previous contractor had installed a separate cabling layer on top of the existing system. At one point, they made the executive decision to cut through a massive run of SDI cabling with a power saw. Without that decision, they would have gone way over their labor allotment.
The Equipment
The equipment needed to complete this project included:
- Vizrt TriCaster Vizion with Dual Flex Control Panel and eight SDI connections to include existing SDI sources onto the new NDI network
- 25gbps QSFP-enabled Netgear 4350 AV Switches
- Kiloview N60 encoders to get some of the baseband sources, like SDI and HDMI, onto the NDI network
- Existing Panasonic PTZ Cameras, Shure Wireless Microphones, and Dante-enabled Audio Equipment
The Solution
The following groups worked together to design, build, and implement a parallel network separate from Cure’s corporate network, configuring the system to support five event venues across several floors of the office building.
- Jeff Casserino, an AV/Broadcast consultant and founder of Showy
- ASI Signage, an AV integrator, whose team included Andy Shevak, an AV specialist, and David Profitt, their gangster field engineer
- Midtown Video, AV integration experts, including Director of Engineering Johnny Van Duyne, Broadcast Engineer Hernan Polo, and CEO Jesse Miller
ASI led the herculean task of wrangling and removing obsolete cable and gear, running new multimode fiber between all venues, as well as new copper cabling for audio and video.
Midtown specified the network and streaming equipment, configured the TriCaster, trained Cure on the system, and provided remote configuration support for up to nine Netgear switches. VLANs were created to support each protocol and prevent multicast traffic from stifling the corporate network, while keeping them consistent across all nine Netgear switches.
Because it’s a network-based system, Midtown’s team was able to remotely access Cure’s system and assist with configuration, as well as view the cameras and NDI sources, and route their Dante audio sources.
Cure’s in-house networking team supplied WAN access without risking sensitive access to the regular corporate network.
Due to the size and scope of the project, Netgear dispatched a network engineer, Nicole Lewis, to support the implementation on the go-live date. She worked with David Profitt and got the project over the final hump of configuration to make sure that everything sings. And it does.
The Result
So, how did the finished project turn out? Cure and David Profitt said it best.
“This technology upgrade required the highest quality and most experienced team. We had a finite time window to decommission and install the new system with critical shows to broadcast on specific dates. The team of Showy, ASI Signage, and Midtown Video delivered at every level, from brilliant design to gritty execution to enthusiastic training and support. This was a home run.” –Fred Cannock, Director of Audio Visual at Cure
“I wear a lot of hats at my company. Crestron programming, DSO configuration, AVoIP setup and deployment, Dante and NDI network configuration all fall under my umbrella. And I don’t mean, “those guys report to me.” I mean, these are my responsibilities to complete. The only way I was able to pull this off was to have Jesse and his team at Midtown Video there to support me in my time of need. They were critical in helping us bring this home.” –David Profitt
For Profitt, one of the most satisfying and validating moments was being able to see the fluid video streams sync up exactly as they needed to. Previously utilizing SDI and analog infrastructure to keep things afloat, Cure, who is knee-deep in the frontlines of innovation in the medical field, now has modern infrastructure with massive bandwidth capacity to support their efforts.
The Future of Network Security
Every organization and industry across America is now struggling with how to keep their networks secure, from healthcare to finance, manufacturing, utilities, retail, and government. As the emerging AV over IP transition occurs, maintaining secure networks becomes even more challenging.
Here is the answer. All streaming, conferencing, and AV gear now requires network residency. This approach keeps multicast traffic off the corporate network, preventing it from shutting down critical land traffic, such as POS systems, and keeping it secure.
At Midtown Video, our tagline is “Totally Awesome Systems,” and this one definitely qualifies. To learn more about working with our expert audio-video integrators or to schedule a site survey, contact Midtown Video.