RiAus – Bringing Science to People and People to Science
The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) has recently purchased an Editshare Flow Ingest Server & Digital Rapids Stream Z Live Server as the backbone for their live presentation and digital media requirements. RiAus, which is based in the former Adelaide Stock Exchange building, opened it’s doors in October 2009. With links back to the Royal Institution of Great Britain (RiGB) RiAus continues it’s counterpart’s tradition of bringing the findings of science to the broader community as well being a central access point for science and education, for local and remote institutions.
With this in mind, RiAus needed the ability to not only host and record live presentations, but also needed to provide real time coverage of events through efficient web streaming, as well capture in HD to produce programmes for DVD or Broadcast. Their broadcast system comprises of five POV camera’s on robotic pan and tilt mounts in various locations in the auditorium. This is all tied back to a production switcher which provides vision back to the audience via multiple projectors and LCD screens. There is also a conference system that allows communication and interaction with other venues. The production switcher also provides 4 HD-SDI outputs for ingest.
At the heart of this system is the Editshare Flow 4 Channel HD Ingest Server, which provides multiple channels of HD/SD-SDI ingest, in up to three codecs on each channel, including low-resolution proxies. Along with the attached 12TB of storage space, RiAus are able to ingest a live presentation and start editing whilst still capturing.
“We were after an ingest system that would allow us instant access to our material with large capacity storage and the future ability to be in use with multiple editors. The Editshare was the perfect choice, for filling all of these criteria and having a clean, simple interface” Commented Peter Sansom of RiAus.
The deadline was tight – with only 6 weeks lead time, RiAus turned to Digistor to offer a solution that could be easily integrated into their recently installed live production system. The Editshare Flow Ingest Server is easily attached to either Final Cut or Avid clients for direct access to media and project sharing. Using a fully featured Final Cut Pro Edit Suite, RiAus are able to start editing straight away whilst the live production is still in progress.