Technical Infrastructure
To begin with, the channel started its activities by hiring MANA TV studios at Hyderabad. In 2009 most of the activity was shifted to Tirupati, by creating two TV studios at Bhudevi complex and post production facilities at Alipiri Guest House. One studio was also created at SV Guest House, Tirumala to record interviews of eminent persons visiting Tirumala. Hiring of Mana TV Studios at Hyderabad was discontinued from 2009 but was resumed in October 2011 to help programme production based in and around Hyderabad. A permanent control room with multi-camera set up was installed inside the main temple at Tirumala for live coverage of daily sevas to the Deity. Feed from the control room to the studio at Bhoodevi complex comes through OFC link provided by M/s Reliance Corp. Two OB vans with a complement of 6 HD Video cameras each were procured from M/s VTI, New Delhi for outdoor production purposes. 2 DSNG vans with all necessary equipment and uplink on Ku-band were taken on lease from M/s Essel Shyam Technologies and later bought over from them to transmit live feeds from locations to the Bhudevi studio complex. Broadcasting on C-Band through INSAT 4A is being done by hiring bandwidth and up-linking services from the teleport of M/s Essel Shyam Technologies at Noida. OFC linkage between the Bhudevi complex and the teleport at Noida is provided by M/s Reliance, with a stand-by link by M/s BSNL. A similar control room was erected for covering live the ‘Nada Neerajanam’ – classical music/dance performances being held at Tirumala daily in the evening hours. Outdoor coverages not requiring OB van are handled with the help of P2 kind of portable professional cameras and associated gear. On the post-production side, 7 NLE systems (DPS Velocity make) and 3 graphics systems at Tirupati, and 2 NLEs and 1 graphics at Hyderabad are in operation. The final playout for transmission is through an ‘Omnion’ video server which has capacity to store about 270 hours of broadcast quality footage. In July 2011 SVBC’s own teleport was inaugurated which consists of a 9.3 meter dish antenna installed atop the Bhudevi complex, with electronics for transmitting four TV channels in MCPC mode (4+1 system). At present we are simulcasting the SVBC channel through this teleport as well as Essel Shyam’s at Noida. Steps are on to upgrade the uplink / downlink system to MPEG 4 & DVB S2 format.