LTN M&C: Nine Network

As part of their major nationwide studio and facilities upgrade, the Nine Network has chosen the LTN Monitoring and Control (M&C) system supplied by Magna Systems and engineering to control its earth stations.

Nine Network CTO David Bowers, explained, “As many will know we are upgrading our key facilities across Australia. Having moved our Adelaide studios into the centre of the city and with the studios now online, we wanted to be able to remotely control the Adelaide earth station from the new location. This meant obtaining and installing a management system that would work on our network so we set about finding the best one available.”

Geoff Osborne, Engineering Development Manager GTV9 and the NWS team, did extensive research before concluding LTN M&C was the most suitable for their requirements.

He said, “There are many systems in the market but we wanted one that we could easily integrate our newly upgraded facilities, such as our Adelaide and Perth studios, into as soon as they come online. We also wanted to be able to use and manage our earth stations from any of our major facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin and Perth. During our evaluation and assessment it became obvious that LTN M&C had some clear advantages over other systems. As the LTN solution was developed by experts in satellite control they had almost all of our requirements already covered. As we are also dealing with the RF spectrum LTN’s experience of interfacing with the Nine network’s satellite hardware, satellite uplinks, spectrum analyzers and power control was another big plus. Basically we realized that LTN M&C is a product we want to grow with."

The LTN M&C centralizes, tracks and visualizes how signals flow through entire video, satellite, and data network systems. Customized for every installation to enhance workflow, LTN M&C connects all equipment, regardless of type, vendor, or age.

With a clean dashboard view of all operations and signal flow, normal functions and problem resolution are intuitive. Through automated routine execution, LTN M&C enables rapid failure recovery and geographic diversity switching, which dramatically increase network resiliency and reliability.

Bowers said, “The LTN M&C is a very well-referenced system with the largest number of devices already interfaced of any system on the market, and that’s impressive.”

LTN M&C includes Signal Verification and Smart Routing, developed with and proven at leading contribution operations such as Fox Sports, Fox International, ESPN, CNN, and ABC.

With one click, operators can auto-route and configure satellite and IP networks and transport stream analyzers to rapidly resolve problems in acquiring contribution feeds.

Dave Bowers concluded, “Magna are commissioning the LTN M&C system on 16 November at which point it will be controlling the Adelaide earth station. Then, by simply using a web interface, the Adelaide earth station will be able to be used by Nine’s Sydney and Melbourne sites as they will have visibility and use of the network. That’s phase one. Phase two will bring the Perth earth station onto the network in the very near future.”

For more about Magna Systems, visit magnasys.tv