In broadcast facilities and

television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...

s, a central apparatus room (CAR, pronounced "C-A-R"), central machine room, or central equipment room (CER), or central technical area (CTA), or rack room is where shared equipment common to all technical areas is located. Some

broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

facilities have several of these rooms. It should be air-conditioned, however low-noise specifications such as acoustical treatments are optional. Equipment is connected either directly with an attached foldout monitor, keyboard and mouse or remotely via KVM switch, SSH, VNC, RS-232 or remote desktop.

Equipment

These rooms contain broadcast and broadcast IT mission critical gear necessary to broadcast and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

operations. CARs usually house audio routers, video routers, video servers, compressors and multiplexers that utilize broadcast automation systems with

broadcast programming Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast autom ...

applications to playout

television program A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via Terrestrial television, over-the-air, Satellite television, satellite, and cable te ...

s. They contain broadcast and monitoring equipment, through which all the operations are monitored by the transmission engineer, without disturbing the studio recordings. CER may also house analog and digital TV transmission systems, satellite up-link systems, digital processing synchronizers, video patch panels, and audio patch panels, including video monitors.Bob Zelin U N L E A S H E D Series – Why do you want Central Machine Room?

Common equipment

* 19-inch racks * Antenna tracking system * Audio router * Broadcast delay * Camera control units (CCUs) * Conditional access system * Character generator subtitling systems * Distribution frame * Digital TV encoder * Fiber optic transceiver * Frame synchronizers * GPS receivers * High-power amplifiers for transmission ( television transmitter) * Integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) * IF distribution. * Media storage * Multiplexer * Network switch * Audio monitoring tools * Radio frequency devices * Router * Serial digital interface (SDI) audio de-embedder * Talkback (recording) * Transport stream analyzer * VTRs and/or VCRs (formerly, replaced with video servers) * Video router * Video server (also called playout server) * Video switcher frame or main unit *

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

monitoring tools * Video monitor * Vectorscope * Waveform monitor

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Apparatus Room Broadcasting Broadcast engineering Rooms Television terminology

Equipment

Common equipment

See also

References