RTBF's studios and new HD OB Van launch with Riedel Artist Intercom infrastructure

Brussels, Belgium (8 September 2006) – With more than 200 guests attending, RTBF, the public broadcasting company for the french-speaking Belgian population, celebrated the launch of their new HD OB van Magellan. The OB van, equipped with a Riedel Artist intercom system, is part of an extensive renovation project at RTBF. The complete communication infrastructure at RTBF TV as well as RTBF Radio converted to the Artist digital intercom platform. In total the projects contain 15 Artist matrix systems and over 350 intercom panels.

RTBF chose Riedel’s digital intercom matrix Artist as the basis for the upgrade of their current installations as well as for the equipment of their new studios and OB vans. “From our point of view, Riedel’s Artist platform has established itself as the intercom standard in Europe“, says André Curnel, project manager for the RTBF-TV intercom project.

RTBF-TV completely changed to Artist
RTBF-TV’s upgrade includes the renovation of the main TV studio in Brussels as well as the regional studios in Charleroi, Namur, Mons and Liège in the future. In addition, the Magellan, One-Shot and TVC2 OB vans have been fitted with Riedel systems. The studio in Brussels utilizes five Artist 128 systems which are connected by a redundant dual ring fibre-optic network to form a master-less, non-blocking matrix. “The trouble-free connection of the Artist systems via fibre was one of our major reasons for selecting the Artist system. For large productions, it allows us to integrate our OB vans into the studio infrastructure by adding the van’s intercom matrix into the Artist fibre-ring of the studio installation“, Curnel explains. RTBF also uses Artist 128 systems in their regional studios, which are intelligently linked to the main studio in Brussels. The 230 control panels of the intercom installations consist of a mix of the Artist 1000 panels with their well proven LED-keys and the more economic Artist 2000 series panels with LCD display.

RTBF relies on 25 Connect Duo ISDN/Telephone codecs to connect the intercom system to the outside world. For wireless communications in the OB vans as well as in the studios, RTBF uses proven Motorola radio technology. The connection to the intercom system is facilitated via Riedel’s RiFace radio-interface.

Integration of Artist and Aurus consoles
The Stagetec Aurus consoles used in the OB vans offer optimal and space-saving integration of the Artist intercom system into the sound direction. The Aurus intercom interface supplies the user at the mixing console with full functionality of the Riedel intercom panels. For this purpose push buttons and rotary encoders are built into the main unit of the mixer surface. LED-displays show the name of the available intercom panels or the panel name of the incoming call. The intercom interface incorporates 20 keys in two pages, so there are a total of 40 different destinations to choose from.

RTBF Radio also makes the change to Riedel
The RTBF Radio Studios were also upgraded to the Artist Intecom Platform. Besides the main studio in Brussels the renovation included the regional studios in Mons, Liege, Charleroi, Namur, Perex, Arlon and Verviers as well as the two broadcast vans. The radio broadcast installation in Brussels consists of an Artist 128 matrix mainframe, while the regional studios use the Artist 32 system. More than 120 of Riedel’s Artist 2000 LCD-series intercom panels complete RTBF Radio’s intercom installation.