From 6 to 8 June 2008 the XII St Petersburg International Economic Forum (the SPIEF) has been held. As in the previous year, our Company has been invited to arrange the direct live broadcasting of that world-wide important event. We have set up and ran an air studio.

Due to a large number of attendees and lead speakers, the highly-charged and event-extensive business programme with participation of top political executives and heads of states and governments, the St Petersburg International Economic Forum has come to be widely regarded as a truly global economic event on the universal scale that has attracted many thousands of guests to the city. Furthermore, the preparation of this paramount event is managed on all levels of the national state structures; for instance, the Presidential Decree stipulating its formation is sanctioned and signed by the Russian President himself. Like last year, the Forum has been financed from the funds belonging to the non-commercial St Petersburg Economic Forum Foundation.

The 2 key plenary sessions, 11 conferences, 2 special working sessions and 13 round tables dedicated to political and economic topical issues have taken place over the two working days within the Forum framework. Besides, 5 special events have been organized under the Forum auspices (workshops and sessions concerning the issues of partnership between Russian Federation and other countries.)

To ensure broadcasting of such a wide range of events as well as to inform all Forum guests about topical news, the SPIEF Foundation has decided to set up an internal information television channel. Back in 2007, the Forum organizers had already approached ourselves for implementation of a similar television channel that had proved instrumental in providing the Forum’s information support. (You are welcome to read about that in detail in the XI SPIEF article). At the beginning of 2008 our specialists were invited again with a view to undertake a serious task of putting into effect the creation of the Forum air studio.

Based on positive work experience accumulated by us at INTV, the Forum’s host broadcaster – the VGTRK (Russian State Television & Radio Holding) has supported the idea of creating an air studio by ourselves.

However, unlike 2007, when as many as 7 internal television channels had been formed for direct broadcasting of the Forum events, this year the SPIEF Foundation has decided to unite all live broadcast streams into one, making it a far more dynamic and information-packed channel. Its creation has made it possible to broadcast hourly news and all special Forum announcements, while the rest of the time would be occupied by broadcasts of the most important events transmitted either live or with a brief time delay.

Judging by the impressions of the Forum guests, such an approach has provided a more flexible delivery of materials. In turn, this has made it easier for reporters to observe the events watching them unfold on 40 large plasma screens installed all over the Forum venue – the LenExpo Exhibition Centre.

Ultimately, the Forum’s internal TV channel developed and operated by us has turned out as dynamic and information-packed that it could easily rival with such popular television channels as BBC, Bloomberg, Russian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC), etc. All the major technologies used were familiar to us, for we had successfully made use of them on a large number of previous occasions while broadcasting many similar political events, award ceremonies, festivals, concerts and TV shows.

To solve the task we were faced with in an efficient and timely manner, our specialists have not only developed a signal flow diagram, but also set up 2 000 kg of the TV equipment for use in the air studio, its total floor space occupying over 50 m2. A great deal of attention has been paid to the ergonomics of creating a TV studio which had to operate 24/7 reliably and efficiently. To meet these important requirements, we have worked with our creative TV experts: art directors, editors and audio engineers – best specialists in St Petersburg. Their hard work, professionalism and dedication have ensured that the Forum’s television informational channel has operated in an uninterrupted way, producing the highest quality pictures with modern graphics.

Provided by the VGTRK, an OB van studios (cameras, video equipment, audio-mixers, etc.) have been installed at the Forum’s Congress Hall and other locations. The TV broadcast signals were supplied by Metrocom Company using fiber optics communications. We have provided the two 6-channel EVS LSM-XT2 videoservers to be used to record and playout the video materials, an XFile-2 electronic archive, the AVID Media Composer editing stations, as well as their technical support and maintenance. The modern equipment we have used allowed us not only to broadcast the Forum events live on air, but also to deliver materials with time delay, if and when appropriate. The two videoservers were actually able to record as many as 8 signals. 7 of these were transmitted from cameras installed at the Forum’s plenary halls, and the 8th would broadcast an international signal produced by the VGTRK. All these were used to facilitate a playlist for the information channel, as well as to create the Forum archive. All these important materials were available for use by any broadcasting facilities in Russia and/or overseas.

All 8 input signals were recorded by the EVS LSM-XT2 videoservers operating in an EVS native format IMX D10 with Metadata. This has allowed to transmit the materials via Gigabit Ethernet for instant editing performed on the AVID Media Composer workstations. The playlists could be formed without wasting time for transcoding. After craft editing on the AVID station all materials were transmitted to the EVS server to replay the playlist, likewise without transcoding.

The 4 channels from the videoserver were configured as players, while the 2 players would serve for preview, and 2 others for replaying the MIX effects. Thanks to this operational scheme, we have functioned most effectively, which in turn has positively impacted on the highest quality and reliability of all TV materials broadcast.

If necessary, the video editing on the AVID Media Composer equipment could be made simultaneously with recording of materials. This permitted to create announcements and short promo commercials and breaking news. Apart from broadcasting later via the Forum’s channel, these rolls and promo tapes were consequently replayed at the Internet on the Forum’s official website.

One of the main ideas for inception of the Forum’s informational internal TV channel has been to make it replete with the cutting edge television graphics with title crawls. To meet these key objectives, we have made extensive use of an ATLAS graphic station. This has provided the usage of the Forum’s logos, captions indicating its main events and venues, locations where they were taking place, current time and broadcasting modes (Live or Recorded.), and other captioning data pertaining to the key speakers’ names, their official job titles, etc. These large volumes of textual information would display automatically in English and Russian languages. In actual fact, most of the Forum’s events have been accompanied by simultaneous interpretations available in all major European and Asian languages. In this case, all original speeches and their translations were made available and exhibited on the 8-channel infra-red receiving sets. This was done to allow the Forum guests to tune in their receivers to the appropriate language.

Apart from the static titles, an ATLAS station would continuously broadcast on air two title crawls – in English and Russian languages. For the first time this year we have successfully implemented an advanced shorthand technology to comprehensively highlight the key speakers’ reports and speeches. For that purpose, the two extra editors’ workstations were set up in the air studio for the English and Russian editors responsible for preparation of title crawls. From these stations via the local network the text information came to the ATLAS graphic station which would render and playout the title crawls. An editor, while listening to the speaker’s report, was able to catch its main points and topics, and immediately type all of these within a special and highly-efficient text editing software. The system was successfully developed and tested by our engineers and programmers.

The text typed by editors would be automatically spell-checked and in case no errors were spotted it was instantly sent on air by the ATLAS graphics station appearing in a moment at the bottom of television picture. The use of this progressive technology was particularly appreciated by the Forum’s foreign and national guests and reporters, for occasionally some of them had to observe the events outdoors where the video walls were installed; in somewhat overcrowded halls where the hearing might have been difficult due to many people present; or/and in press centres. At times it was not always possible to be able to grasp the foreign tongue of a speaker, or there might have been some noise indoors or outside, preventing those listening from catching what had been said. The title crawls have turned out the most effective in resolving these problems, allowing everyone to comprehend accurately the gist of every speech being made. Besides, the availability of textual information appearing on screens permitted all viewers to familiarize themselves with other important data – news, announcements and all other relevant pieces of information. For instance, the Forum guests would be frequently informed about the transportation means by which they could travel to and from their hotels; other information about the city of St Petersburg was also constantly provided: e.g. timing schedules for opening of bridges (available in summer months only), essential info with regard to the local facilities, restaurants, sightseeing tours, places of interests to be visited, etc. During the pauses in between the speeches, the crawls have continued to emerge, which, in turn, has created a pleasant notion of all events never being interrupted for a second. The extra crawls becoming visible during intervals would carry the relevant data as regards the speakers and the topics of their reports.

In spite of the substantial volumes of both textual and graphic information constantly delivered on air, the ATLAS station’s working capacities allowed us to perform efficiently in terms of automated delivery of materials. These were sent on the basis of layouts and work scenarios, which has made it possible for one operator to work on air virtually on his/her own.

Another technological novelty of the last year’s Forum has been the solution we have developed in tandem with our partners from Metrocom and MTC: this was the brand-new “Forum Close at Hand” innovation based on the IPTV and 3G technologies. It allowed all Forum guests and participants to follow closely its events by way of using their mobile phones and similar smartphone devices. All 8 video signals from the Forum halls would pass through the ALPHA SDI video inserters. These were used for mixing of television graphics into the mentioned 8 TV signals. We actually produce the abovementioned inserters ourselves. Their primary purpose lies in inserting the sponsors’ logos before being passed to the IPTV and 3G encoders. Broadcasting on mobile devices was carried out via the Wi-Fi in Windows Media and Apple Quick Time formats, as well as by using the 3G MTC network. These innovative methods have let us pervade the highest possible number of phones and other mobile devices.

The Russian Federation President has been made aware of “The Close At Hand” technology, praising it very highly.

The afforementioned technological achievements and advanced TV technologies were successfully utilized by our Company with the view of making it easier for the informative channel of the XII SPIEF to broadcast in a reliable, friendly and convenient way.

It is small wonder that all Forum participants, guests and media representatives were united in expressing their opinions that it had gone on so smoothly, with no glitches at all. They have agreed that all its organizational issues had been solved successfully, including the broadcast solutions developed and offered by our company. Responding to the praise we have received, we are happy to emphasize that we were delighted to work so efficiently at the last year’s Forum. We hope therefore to continue our fruitful partnership with its Foundation in the years to come.

In conclusion, we are pleased to remark that our company specialists participating in the Forum have all been awarded their honorary diplomas.