Mobilimage Adds IP Live Production Capabilities With Installation of GV Node and GV Convergent

Mobilimage, a provider of on-location services for telecasting and recording entertainment, sporting and cultural events in North America, has made an investment in IP capability with its new GV Node and GV Convergent solutions from Grass Valley. The company will use the IP networking solution for its Mi3 HD OB van.

“We’ve been considering our options for moving to an IP workflow, and the GrassValley solution really meets all our needs, giving us the right equipment to operate our mobile production business more efficiently,” said Benoit Chartrand, director of engineering, Mobilimage. “This will greatly enhance the connectivity for our truck, and we can scale the technology as our needs change.”

GV Node is a true real-time IP processing and routing platform, offering multipurpose IP processing, IP aggregation and vertically accurate switching capability for live applications. When GV Node is combined with common off-the-shelf (COTS) IP switches, extremely-large-capacity routing systems can be created with thousands of I/O. GV Node is designed to handle deterministic vertically accurate switching within IP, supporting SDI, MADI and SMPTE 2022-6 IP inputs and outputs, as well as TICO visually lossless compression for 4K applications. For OB vans, GV Node offers a compact footprint, flexibility to capture in 2K or 4K as needed, distributed architecture, and built-in multiviewing.

The GV Convergent IP router control and configuration system transparently manages facility routing as the industry migrates from SDI to IP infrastructures, maintaining familiar control interfaces as well as introducing intuitive new GUIs for configuration, management and control through software-defined networking (SDN). GV Convergent is both infrastructure and signal format agnostic for easy system scalability and provides easy integration and control of IP edge devices and third-party IP devices.

Mobilimage worked closely with Applied Electronics Limited, a Grass Valley reseller and integrator, to select and install the new IP solution.

“We’ve designed GV Node and GV Convergent to help broadcasters make a seamless, smooth transition to IP,” noted Kyle Luther, vice president of sales, North America, Grass Valley. “Most importantly, the solutions are based on open standards, so customers can leverage existing infrastructure to minimize costs. This is the beginning of a major shift from SDI to IP, and we are committed to eliminating the obstacles many operations face.”