24/7 IP network project driven by Proximus and Lawo receives one of the AV Awards

Proximus, a Belgian digital services provider, and several of its business units, have received the Broadcast and Media Project of the Year award at the AV Awards ceremony. Ihre solutions play a key role in the project.

Der ViCoNG (Next Generation Video Contribution Network) initiative is structured around a configuration based on permanent fiber optic network connections between 18 sports stadiums and the production center in Brussels (Belgium), the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) headquarters in Tubize and all rights holders. This Proximus initiative with Lawo equipment has two main objectives: it enables more live coverage in a reliable, high-quality and cost-effective way, and it allows video assistant referees to work from a central location instead of traveling with a van and supervising from outside the stadiums. In this way, more sporting events can be covered with fewer team members, who no longer have to travel to locations that can be up to 150 km away.

Designed for both classic and remote production, and with bandwidths of up to 100Gbps, Die Lawo-powered ST2110 IP infrastructure allows up to ten sporting events to be produced, broadcast, controlled and monitored simultaneously, mit 16 to 24 cameras, audio streams and control each. The Proximus infrastructure features bi-directional signal transport from the stadiums to Brussels, Tubize and beyond, and back for live audio and video consultation between referees inside and outside the stadium.

The system is complemented by custom-built outdoor cabinets that have been specially designed to convert baseband signals received from headquarters to IP and transmit the resulting streams over two separate fiber optic links using separate Lawo V__matrix units for redundant fail-safe operation.

Proximus and Lawo Workflow

In a classic production scenario, live coverage (i.e., video streams and dual-language commentary) are produced on an on-site mobile unit whose output signals are transmitted to Brussels. At the same time, all camera signals and audio streams (crowd environment and intercom) are sent to the VAR center, which uses multiviewers, replay servers and a slow motion machine to monitor the action on the field and communicate with the referee via headphones. The infrastructure is ready for remote production for those players in the audiovisual market who choose to work in a greener and more cost-effective way.

Rudi Antonissen, sales director for Lawo in Benelux, recalls that although they only had 90 days to get the project up and running, “Lawo’s experience with wide area IP networks, as well as the proven versatility of our software-defined V__matrix C100 platform and VSM broadcast control system, allowed us to be ready for the first test matches in July 2021.” Dirk Sykora, Lawo’s business development director, also confirms that the ViCoNG project is supported “in almost all product categories manufactured by Lawo,” a company “future-proofed and ready for expansion to deliver live production scenarios that cover all areas of entertainment and information.”

Finally, Geert Standaert, CTO of Proximus, appreciates very positively that this “transversal and spectacular” project has been “facilitated by a fantastic collaboration with our partners and Lawo”.