Lawo's Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) serves as the overall IP production layer and controls all aspects of the IP infrastructure at Asharq News.
Asharq News, a major multiplatform economic and political news service launched in November last year, has deployed Lawo’s VSM Virtual Studio Manager Broadcast Control System for the overall control of its infrastructure. The first project in the MENA region to have a fully IP-based media infrastructure, it uses virtualised on-premises systems and cloud applications as a hybrid architecture for content aggregation, production and distribution.
Asharq News has ambitious goals in the development of its media centre, and relied on a team of international architects, local construction companies and systems integrator Qvest Media for all technology issues right from the design concept and space planning of the building.
Lawo’s Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) as the overall IP production layer controls the video backbone and manages the audio IP streams. 34 hardware panels and several software GUIs are in place as a system interface for a smooth, standardised workflow. VSM integrates with the broadcast equipment, including video routers, video switchers, audio routers, audio consoles, multi-viewers, intercoms, modular equipment and many special third-party devices. By talking native protocols where possible, equipment from different manufacturers can be seamlessly “glued” together, giving recall and logic control possibilities system-wide. With a modern TCP/IP backbone, VSM utilises standard IT hardware but enhances reliability and redundancy with sophisticated software redundancy concepts.
An additional service for multi-studio facilities with frequent changes to the studio floor setup, like Asharq, is VSM’s new Wallboxing functionality, which allows moving devices across an API-controlled IP infrastructure and to maintain flow connectivity. In a large production facility, devices like stage boxes, monitors, teleprompters, etc., are likely to be moved around a lot. Wallboxing ensures that existing IP links are re-established when a device is connected to a switch port at the new location.
