Media Links @ 2011 UCI Road World Cycling Championships

GigaContent providing Contribution Services for 2011 UCI Road World Cycling Championships with Media Links technology

Darmstadt, Germany – December 20, 2011 It’s the 19th September, and in a forested area north of Copenhagen a large crew and OB unit from Denmark’s primary independent broadcaster, TV2|DANMARK, are waiting for the arrival of the first riders to cross the finish line in the 2011 UCI Road World Cycling Championships. These championships, run over 7 days, are part of a World Tour run by UCI, the governing body for sports cycling. They represent the pinnacle of competitive road cycling, so global interest is huge. TV2|DANMARK, as Host Broadcaster, were delivering pictures and sound to the International Broadcast Centre in Copenhagen for worldwide distribution, signal quality and reliability was a key factor in the design of all parts of the Contribution system.

GigaContent, the largest Contribution Service Provider in Denmark and most of Northern Europe were contracted to provide high quality, ultra reliable links, both at the remote site of Geels Hill, and for the central Copenhagen site where the Elite Mens Road Race had its start and finish. They in turn used Media Links equipment to deliver this service. GigaContent used the Media Links MD2000 series encoders and decoders, to provide for bi-directional video (with embedded audio) in SD-SDI, plus additional bi-directional circuits for audio, talkback and networking (V-LAN). The very low latency of the Media Links technology allowed the live programme environment to function as though all parts were in close proximity, and the high level of path redundancy ensured that service was available 100% of the time – essential for such a prestigious project.

Commenting on the project, Brian Slott Kristiansen, Technical Director of GigaContent, said “GigaContent has developed a wide range of products to meet the various demands of broadcasting and content distribution. But for supreme quality and reliability, there’s nothing to beat passing signals via fibre using the Media Links systems. We’re fortunate to have our own fibre backbone serving most of Denmark, and although we had to install some new fibre connections for the UCI Road World Cycling Championships, the results and quality of service were well worth the extra effort.”

GigaContent has been using Media Links equipment for a couple of years, and has a clear understanding of the advantages. They have developed a management software package that links directly to the Media Links units, and works in connection with their GigaBooking on-line bookings system to provide customers with an easy-to-use self-service interface. Slott continued, “The Media Links equipment has proved its worth on several occasions, and we are very satisfied with the signal quality provided, plus the high reliability we’ve experienced. This sort of technology isn’t very visible, but it is essential for our business, and Media Links have delivered exactly what we need”.

About Media Links

Media Links is a leading developer and manufacturer of broadcast network infrastructure solutions. Its mission is to offer broadcasters and network providers throughout the world leading edge technology, enabling them to economically convert and move the complete suite of broadcast signals - whether video, audio or data - onto their multi-service networks. Operating as a pioneer at the forefront of technological innovations and advancements, Media Links provides the only standards based product suite in the market that enables the adoption of media signal types to Telecommunication standards like Ethernet, IP, SDH and SONET.

Media Links solutions have proven themselves in the field and in the studio. Leading broadcasters and network service providers throughout the globe depend on Media Links technology. Media Links solutions and services have also been used in the most watched major sporting events throughout the world, like Super Bowl, Euro Cup and World Cup. Media Global Links is the parent company of Media Links.

About GigaContent

GigaContent offers international services in broadcast quality for anyone wishing to communicate and bring visual content out to viewers and users – GigaContent clients are TV broadcasters, media houses, TV production companies, venues for events, enterprises and corporations, and organizations. In 2009 GigaContent became the first supplier of TV content services in broadcast quality based on its own fibre backbone. GigaContent is owned by the Danish telecommunications company GlobalConnect and electricity company Energi Fyn.

Media Links Systems EMEA

Patrick Geldmacher
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