DALLAS — July 10, 2024 — Black Box®, a leading IT solutions and consulting services provider to businesses worldwide, today announced that Australian media company Nine Network is using a Black Box Emerald® IP KVM solution to ensure reliable, flexible signal extension across offices and studios at its 1 Denison Street location in Sydney. Black Box Emerald 2K and 4K transmitters and receivers, along with the Boxilla® KVM Manager, are deployed in a redundant KVM architecture over an existing copper-based IP network to guarantee users continuous remote access to centrally located systems supporting critical tasks such as graphics creation and video editing.
“Reliable connectivity is a must within a media operation, especially one such as Nine Network, where teams collaborate to create a high volume of live content, day in and day out,” said Tom Fitzgerald, Black Box KVM product manager. “With management centralized and simplified by our Boxilla system, Black Box Emerald KVM devices integrate readily onto existing IP networks and operate seamlessly with key broadcast systems to support vital operations.”
The Black Box Emerald IP KVM system forms an integral part of the Nine Network broadcast production and studio environment used for creating 12 to 14 hours of live television each day, as well as promotional content. Capable of transporting data over standard IP networks, with redundant connections using physically different paths/networks and equipped with redundant power, the Emerald KVM solution addresses Nine Network’s top requirement: reliability. With this multi-level redundancy, the KVM system can tolerate various types of connectivity failure between transmitters and receivers, in turn preventing interruption of operators’ work.
An API integration of Boxilla with Nine Network’s LAWO VSM IP broadcast control and workflow solution allows the company to control the active connections for its new Emerald KVM receivers. Operators can switch between multiple systems for day-to-day operations, or quickly swap to backup systems in the event of a failure. Support for custom USB HID/control peripherals enables studio operators to switch between different host devices and operate them using the same custom USB devices they use to deliver live news bulletins.
“The willingness and ability of the Black Box development teams to work with us throughout deployment to resolve issues and include required features in the lifecycle was very reassuring,” said Matt Benson, group enterprise architect, Information Technology at Nine Network. “This collaboration helped to ensure that the Emerald KVM system could meet all of our needs. As we expand our Sydney site and redevelop other news production facilities around Australia to replace aging systems, the Emerald IP KVM system is a proven solution that we can deploy consistently to ensure essential performance and reliability.”
Information about Black Box and its full product portfolio is available at www.blackbox.com.
About Black Box
Black Box® is a trusted IT solutions provider delivering cutting-edge technology solutions and world-class consulting services to businesses across the globe. The breadth of our global reach, continuous innovation, and depth of our expertise accelerate customer success by bringing people, ideas, and technology together to solve real-world business problems. Our IT infrastructure solutions, services, and products enable secure, flawless connectivity and meaningful collaboration for businesses in every major market across six continents.
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