MeyerPro covered live AV workflows at the 2025 Microsoft Ignite conference, using AJA devices to deploy a remote video infrastructure handling fibre conversion, frame sync and recording.
MeyerPro, an AV solutions provider for live events located in the US Pacific Northwest, has been supporting projects around the world for over 40 years. Their clients range from Fortune 500 companies to local nonprofits.
To cover AV requirements for the 2025 Microsoft Ignite conference held in November in San Francisco, its team architected and deployed a video infrastructure prepared to handle the fibre conversion, frame synchronisation and recording. These tasks needed to run reliably throughout the event’s on-site and remote production, which spanned the venue at Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, and Microsoft's Seattle studio.
At the outset of the project, MeyerPro collaborated with Microsoft's executive team and other event stakeholders to determine the project's scope and gear requirements. The production format was set at 1080p 59.94, and the plan included transmitting live coverage of keynotes, technical sessions and presentations to a single stage surrounded by LED walls in the middle of the venue.
To capture these events, MeyerPro brought in about 30 cameras varying from broadcast-quality cameras, to spider cams suspended from ceiling cables to techno cranes.
Fibre Transmission Path
All cameras were fed to a centralised camera control room. Fibre-based conversion was crucial to ensuring the signals flowed reliably across multiple locations, including the Convention Center in San Francisco and the Seattle studio. "The transmission path was a big challenge on this project," said MeyerPro Broadcast Engineer Cole Miller. "Dropped frames, blips or errors were going be unacceptable.”
Consequently, reliability became a major factor in sourcing equipment for live delivery of content to in-venue LED walls and audiences online. “AJA FiDO 12G-SDI and 3G-SDI Fibre Mini-Converters were used to transmit 4K signals from one side of a venue building to the other, and to support the transmission of HD signals to Microsoft's Seattle studio," Cole said.
To keep everything functioning properly, Cole’s team established two on-site engineering centres connected via fibre, and the full camera control room mentioned above. Equipped with a set of racks, this room took the role of the core processing hub, driving the production. All camera feeds came back to the control room, where the standard routing and switching equipment was located, and a director and a technical director cut the show from there. With an assist from the FiDO Mini-Converters, the final feed was shared with the transmission team and sent up to Microsoft's Seattle studio, where they added captions and other small elements.
Dual Outputs
In particular, the FiDOs were supporting the transmission of computer feeds from Teams sessions, PowerPoint presentations and other sources. This meant converting all the feeds from HDMI or SDI to fibre, before Cole converted them back to SDI with another FiDO for integration into the main broadcast fly-pack system on site.
"My favourite aspect of FiDO-12G converters is the two outputs. We could feed one to the transmission team and loop the other into another FiDO and back to me on site," he noted. "It gave me confidence that there wouldn’t be any errors, and the transmission team could better troubleshoot on their side as well. The converters are built so rock solid that we always make sure we have one in our final transmission path."
Multichannel Recording
MeyerPro's setup included a rack housing five AJA Ki Pro GO multichannel H.264/5 recorders. Each unit recorded four channels of HD, and all recordings were archived for editing down the line. Via the Ki Pro GO's flexible recording options, Cole and the team recorded to NAS (network attached storage) and then onto a networked hard drive for client access. AJA FS4 frame syncs helped ensure ingested content was synced without adding latency or delay, and allowed Cole to use Proc Amps to colour correct content, with a smooth signal.
Cole anticipates greater demand for professional live event AV as well as for SMPTE ST 2110 and HDR workflows. However, his immediate focus is still to make each event production a top-level experience across the board as MeyerPro continues to grow.
He said, "I enjoy every aspect of our industry and love being able to work on these larger projects. We supply AV for some of the biggest companies in the world, and it's always exciting to see how we can be of assistance with solid, reliable support. AJA devices play an essential role in that.” https://www.aja.com/
