Chukyo Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., also known as Chukyo TV, is a metropolitan area television broadcast station located in Nagoya, Japan. Every Sunday at 4:55 PM, they streamed “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day.” The company needed to transmit reliable, low latency video and audio at a cost-effective price. To meet these needs, Chukyo TV leveraged Matrox Monarch EDGE encoders and decoders. We spoke with Jun Iwasaki, Chukyo TV’s leader of the program production technology, about the decision to go with the Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder pair for their weekly “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” broadcast.

Background

Chukyo TV was founded in 1968 and started television broadcasting a year later. With over 50 years of broadcast experience, Chukyo TV, owned by Nippon Television Holdings Inc., and the Nagoya Railroad company Ltd., broadcasts a wide range of content ranging from the news, weather, events, movies, and sports. Their company philosophy is to gain the trust and compassion of the viewers in the region. 

Chukyo TV was interested in adopting a remote production workflow that would effectively encode and decode the video and audio of their multi-camera set ups from the conference room in Tokyo to their broadcast station in Nagoya. Their challenge was to be able to transmit video and audio in high quality and near-real-time on a stable network without using any additional personnel and production vehicles. 

After comparing multiple SRT-compatible transmission devices, Chukyo TV chose the Matrox Monarch EDGE E4 encoder and D4 decoder to support their remote production due to its reliability, low-latency, and cost effectiveness.

Challenges

Chukyo TV’s broadcast of “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” faced three main challenges–reliability, low-latency, and cost– that were entirely solved with Matrox Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder technology. 

Low Latency

Low latency was another significant challenge. Given that “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” was a live event, it was crucial for the SRT-compatible technology to produce minimal delay. Monarch EDGE provided Chukyo TV with near-real-time SRT streams while still providing viewers with high quality live action. 

Cost

Cutting costs without compromising on reliable and low latency streams was important for Chukyo TV. Sending production vans and additional personnel to Tokyo would be very costly. Luckily, Monarch EDGE allowed most of their remote production resources to stay in-house, reducing costly travel expenses. 

By using the Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder pair, Chukyo TV was able to overcome their challenges by providing their viewers with a reliable, high-quality, and near-real-time stream of “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” at a minimal cost. “Our challenge was to transmit stably at a low price without using personnel and relay vehicles, but this [Monarch EDGE] combination solved the problem,” said Iwasaki.  

Reliability

Reliability was essential for Chukyo TV to seamlessly transmit the video and audio of three SONY ENG cameras from their Tokyo conference room to their Nagoya headquarters broadcast station. With Monarch EDGE, Chukyo TV was able to transmit stable and uninterrupted SRT streams from Tokyo to Nagoya.

Solution

Matrox Monarch EDGE technology enabled Chukyo TV to cover “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” with a low latency and high-quality stream. The Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder also eliminated the need to send production vans and on-site staff, saving Chukyo TV money and time. As a result of the Monarch EDGE encoder and decoder pair, the company seamlessly processed and transmitted three camera feeds, one audio, and one TDVE. In addition, it took only an hour and a half to set up all the equipment and camera settings prior to the event.

Moving forward, Iwasaki and the team at Chukyo TV have high hopes for their broadcast company. They plan to take on more multi-camera live programs like “Sunday is Ladies’ Golf Day” in the near future with the help of Matrox Video’s reliable SRT-compatible Monarch EDGE technology.