ABC TV (Japan) connects their control rooms with Matrox Extio 3

Diversos Matrox Extio 3 IP KVM extenders have been installed throughout ABC TV (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation) to interconnect their control room equipment.

Headquartered in Osaka, Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings Corporation (ABC) serves one of Japan’s most populous regions with a wide range of news, sports, and informational television programming. To optimize resource sharing and better manage broadcast equipment during potential emergencies, ABC has decided to deploy Matrox Extio 3 IP KVM extenders.

Prior to installing the Extio 3 IP KVM extenders, ABC’s computer terminals were dispersed between a main control room and three secondary control rooms, with each of the control rooms separated by different floors. ABC needed a KVM IP solution that would allow it to centralize the control room resources, while being easy to install and flexible enough to adapt to the changing needs of the organization. Ultimately, it decided to implement the Matrox solution.

Extio 3 deployment at ABC

All of ABC’s emissions control room equipment is located at the company’s headquarters in Osaka. Two Extio 3 transmitter devices, installed in a dedicated server room on the fifth floor of the building, send signals to four different Extio 3 receiver devices in other locations. The main control room is installed on the seventh floor, where operators can seamlessly access and manage equipment in the organization’s sub-control rooms. Signals displayed on a four-monitor screen in each of the sub-control rooms are sent over ABC’s 1Gbps network at ultra-low bit rates, optimizing KVM operation.

Masayuki Kanda, section chief for ABC’s engineering division, broadcasting operation department, and engineering strategy department is positive about the implementation, “Matrox Extio 3 has proven to be a robust and cost-effective KVM extension solution for ABC. We have found the low-bitrate encoding to be so fast, it is hard to tell that the desktop is being accessed remotely. Furthermore, operation is incredibly intuitive and straightforward.”