As well as operating the largest full-service HD and 4K production facility in the Pacific Northwest, Microsoft Production Studios is equipped to handle multi-lingual broadcasts via Xbox Live – as from the 2014 GamesCom convention in Germany, the world’s second largest video game trade fair.
The broadcasts relied on six Studio Technologies Model 215 Dante-enabled announcers’ consoles to handle audio and video content
‘Because GamesCom is primarily focused on a European audience, we needed to quickly produce interpretations of the American English Xbox Live production into Castilian and Latin American Spanish, French, Italian and German,’ says Systems Engineer John L Ball. ‘We had to figure out a way to produce the simultaneous interpretations within our existing facility space and, because the Model 215 is Dante-compatible, we could literally plug each unit into an available space and begin producing the live streaming broadcast instantaneously.’
Designed to serve as the audio control centre for announcers, commentators and production personnel, the Model 215 integrates on-air talkback and cue audio signal routing in a compact tabletop unit. Three pushbutton switches provide control over three audio output channels – one main and two talkback.
Ball and his team set up Microsoft Production Studios’ main studio room – which uses a Dante infrastructure – to stream the English language edition of the coverage. Since all of the audio equipment can connect to any Dante-enabled device, the studios’ video editing suites served as temporary voiceover rooms for the translating staff.
‘The entire process was quite amazing from a technical perspective,’ Ball says. ‘We simply took the Model 215s into the different rooms, plugged them into the existing Ethernet network, made the appropriate routing through Audinate’s Dante Controller software application, and we were up and running in all five rooms in less than 30 minutes. It saved us a day’s worth of set up compared to running discrete analogue audio lines. With Dante and the Model 215s, we could deliver the English version into the headsets of the interpreters and they, in turn, could translate the audio and feed the content into the Model 215 that was connected to our network. We did not miss a beat and the worldwide Xbox community thoroughly enjoyed the production.’
Studio Technologies recently became a Dante licensee, and has a line of Dante-enabled products including the Model 214, 215 and 216 announcer’s consoles, Model 45DR and Model 45DC intercom interfaces, and the Model 5202 and Model 5204 Dante interfaces.
See also:
Microsoft Production Studios moves to AoIP
Studio Technologies' announcers' consoles
More: www.studio-tech.com
