In Broadcast - June 2016 - 36


36

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 6 - Issue 6 | June 2016

InMedia

KVM 2016 - A Very
Different Proposition
Contributing Editor, Andy Stout, discusses how KVM has become a
key trend in the broadcast industry, and some of its recent advances
on display at this year's NAB Show...

K

eyboard, Video and Mouse... KVM
has, for many years, been one
of the quieter areas of the broadcast
industry - and with good reason:
KVM switches just work, part of the
invisible panoply of glue products that
stitch together the very visible enduser functionality of the broadcast
workflow, and are only rarely noticed
when something goes awry. But in
recent years that perception has
shifted, as not only the workflow needs
of broadcast but also the technology
itself has changed. In many senses,
KVM has come of age and KVM2016 is
a very different proposition to the one
that existed a handful of years ago.
"Actually two things changed," says
Jochen Bauer, Marketing Director,
Guntermann & Drunck. "For a first
the need of the industry changed.
Looking at the buzz words from the
last few years: transition from tape to
file based workflows, from SDI to IP
and any topic gathering around the
Broadcast IT Workflow - it's simply that
much more computer systems have
to be handled now. Whereas in the
past we had all those origin broadcast
technologies, these by now become
supplemented by (sometimes even off-

the-shelf) IT systems to accommodate
today's broadcasters' needs.
"That's why we need the appropriate
control tools to handle all these
(further) systems in a perfect way,"
he continues. "And this leads to the
second factor: KVM technology itself
evolved, too. Where in the past you
could somehow describe it simply
with the term "switching technology",
nowadays a KVM system forms a
complex control tool. This pretty much
eases broadcasters' lives when they
need to handle a number of systems,
especially when having to handle a
large number at a time."
In many ways it is all about
potentiality. KVM is an industry subset
that is not confined to the broadcast
field, but handily other areas of
activity feed very much into broadcast
demands - i.e. air traffic control
requiring mission-criticality, data
centres necessitating scale, and so on.
That means that broadcast KVM can
piggyback on developments elsewhere,
and as workflows have been pulled
apart and reassembled to assist the
great transmigration towards IP, its
greater capabilities have dovetailed
with increasing demands.

Inside Game Creek's new Spirit OB truck,
the design of which had notable flexibility
added by IHSE KVM

"It is becoming more visible now
as organisations realise the potential
KVM systems have to streamline their
broadcast workflows and achieve
operational benefits to a far greater
extent," comments Enno Littmann,
MD, IHSE. "They are also paying more
attention to it. This has happened
largely through the wider availability
of larger matrix switches and the
increased functionality they offer."
Enter the Matrix
As Littmann hints, one of the biggest
changes in the field in recent times has
been the introduction of the matrix
switch. Before then, KVM tended to be
a simple analogue device that enabled
a remote computer in a point-to-point
relationship. Matrix switchers with
hundreds of ports have opened up a
much wider range of options for SIs
and more.
"Digital KVM Matrix switches
have added a new approach for
broadcasters," says Daniel Hinton, AV
Sales Manager, ATEN UK. "Where a
KVM switch in the past was quite linear
and if you needed to add a new user
would possibly require an overhaul,
the digital variant now can easily be

upscaled/downscaled depending on
project requirements. Also the higherend graphics help."
The resulting solutions can be
astonishingly complex and have farreaching implications for workflow.
Guntermann & Drunck, for example,
worked with Sky to move over 1000
computers into remote machine
rooms at its West London-based Sky
Studios broadcast facility, removing
units from five fully-equipped HD
studios, 45 edit suites, 14 voice-over
studios, and four audio suites along
the way (all the while, incidentally,
while daily broadcasting continued
uninterrupted). The result has been
better working environments all
round: for people without the space
occupied by computer systems, and
for the computer systems themselves
that can now be maintained in ideal
operating conditions.
Meanwhile, US OB provider, Game
Creek Video used IHSE kit to manage
the workflow in its latest 53-foot
Expando A/B truck, Spirit. Indeed, KVM
made the concept possible: the idea
was to create a lot of working space
so all replay operations in the B unit
could operate as virtual workstations
anywhere there was a workstation
available - no matter if it was in the Aunit or B-unit.
These illustrate nicely two
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.ihse.com/company/news/news-article/2016/04/game-creek-video-counts-on-ihse-kvm-system-for-their-new-expando-ab-broadcast-truck-spirit.html
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