Introduction

NBC is the state owned free to air terrestrial television channel in Papua New Guinea. They are based in the national

Capital region of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.

NBC is the oldest Television channel in Papua New Guinea. The NBC was set up by the Australian Broadcasting

Corporation before independence in 1973. On 1 December 1973 the NBC (the National Broadcasting Commission as

it was known at the time) was handed over to the Papua New Guinea government.

About the Project

In early 2015, it was clear to NBC that they needed to upgrade and re-build their facilities for the upcoming South

Pacific Games. The South Pacific Games were supposed to be held in Port Moresby in July 2015 and time was

running out.

They started calling for bids. They received bids from numerous companies based in Australia, India, Singapore and

so on.

A committee was set up to evaluate the bids – as per the government rules This committee decided to select

Whiteways Systems Pte Ltd as the prime bidder after a thorough and exhaustive evaluation process.

The evaluation and award of the order took a long time – as the customer had to follow numerous government rules  and regulations. By the time we got to know that we will be doing the project, very little time was left.

We urged the customer to move forward quickly as time was running out. We had to make sure that the proper infrastructure was in place (space, UPS, air con, generator, electrical supply and so on)

We could install the Racks and equipment in the racks only when all this was in place. After that we could start the installation and commissioning of the equipment.

Finally, we got only 2 months to deliver the equipment, ship it to Port Moresby, install it, commission it, test it. Then  we had to provide training to the operators, journalists, anchors producers on the new system. They in turn had to execute the show in a professional manner. This was huge challenge.

Whiteways worked very closely with the entire team of NBC to make this project a success. Some of the  manufacturers could not provide the equipment on time. We explained the situation to them and asked them to  rush in the equipment quickly. Once the equipment landed, we had to rush in additional man power to finish the installation and testing in record time. The team had to work round the clock to finish the installation and testing in record time.

Then the training process was started. NBC staff was trained in record time. They did some testing one day before the games kicked off.

While the games were on air, Whiteways decided to keep their core staff in Port Moresby to provide support (should it be required). Along the way, we faced numerous challenges, but each one was solved.

Due to the new equipment and training, NBC was able to shine during the games. The entire team was jubilant, when Papua New Guinea athletes won the maximum number of medals and gained the top spot.

NBC top management was very happy with our performance. They sent a long letter of appreciation to us. Clearly, Whiteways had gone above and beyond the norm to help NBC shine during the games.

Facility Layout

NBC TV has 2 in-house studios. These are:

       Main studio with a virtual set

       News studio

Each studio has its own Production Control Room (PCR). In addition, the Station has a Master Control Room (MCR) and an Ingest Room all connected to a Central Equipment Room (CER).

INGEST

Ingest is equipped with Vector box ingest machines. Old VTRs are provided for tape ingest.

PRODUCTION CONTROL ROOMS(PCRs)

The Production Control Rooms (PCRs) are primarily used for managing and controlling in-house events. Additionally, the News PCR (NPCR) is equipped with vision and audio mixers as well as VTRs for tape playout.

MASTER CONTROL ROMM(MCR)

The Master Control Room (MCR) is responsible for the final on-air signal. This is the top, in control room hierarchy. The MCR has a Switcher console for switching and channel branding; an audio limiter and video legaliser for standardising the output signal; and a waveform monitor for monitoring the signal. The Vector box has the final rundown. During the airing of live events the MCR gets the playout from the PCR and control is transferred to the PCR while it is on-air.

CENTRAL EQUIPMENT ROOM(CER)

The Central Equipment Room (CER) is where all the servers and systems are deployed – the video-servers, storage, Wasp 3D engines, main signal router, talkback system mainframe, sync-pulse generator, some of the glues, the GPS clock server, etc. As virtually everything is automatic, human intervention is at a minimum.

STATE-OF-THE-ART

The entire TV station is on par with the latest in international technology and global standards. Redundancies and  fail-safes have been built in at every stage. From mirrored storage to mirrored video server, everything is adhering to  international standards. 

ABOUT NBC

NBC is the state owned, free to air, terrestrial TV and Radio of Papua New Guinea.