Digital Azul, the Lisbon-based production company, has launched a new Master Control Room (MCR). This initiative looks forward to significantly expanding its capability to deliver multi-site productions with centralised editorial control, as the company has claimed in a statement.

The new MCR aims to position Digital Azul as a European mid-tier remote production hub, capable of managing up to three simultaneous productions spanning multiple geographies.

The facility is built around the Vizrt TriCaster production platform with video connectivity from Intinor Direkt routers, and a Dante audio backbone that extends through to the company’s live studios and sound booths.

The MCR handles a wide range of signal formats including NDI, with contribution ingest supported through Intinor and LiveU bonded transmission systems. Encoding and delivery leverage multiple platforms such as Haivision, with multi-protocol distribution across SRT, RTP and RTMP, direct contribution to broadcasters including DAZN, and satellite uplink and downlink workflows.

Additionally, resilient connectivity is provided by dual ISP pathways, with dual redundant SRT transport aligned with SMPTE ST 2022-7 principles.

Communications are handled by an extensive RTS intercom platform, including RTS OMNEO, NOMAD wireless and ROAMEO, with the intention of providing the coordination layer that connects MCR teams and field operators throughout distributed environments.

To complement this approach, Digital Azul has developed portable flyaway production kits, fully integrated with its MCR workflows. These kits include bonded connectivity solutions and Starlink-enabled field units and are designed to travel by air with a reduced crew footprint, enabling rapid international deployment with full integration into the Lisbon-based production infrastructure.

Because the MCR sits within Digital Azul’s Lisbon facilities, productions have direct access to live studios and professional sound booths, making it straightforward to incorporate remote commentary, multi-language broadcasting, local presenters and remote guests within a single unified workflow.

By centralising switching, graphics, audio and editorial decision-making in Lisbon, Digital Azul aims to reduce the operational footprint of mid-scale events, replacing traditional OB workflows and cutting travel, crew size and complexity across projects.

“Our goal was not to build another control room”, affirms João Tocha, founder of Digital Azul. “We built a system that allows productions to scale without scaling logistics. Editorial control stays centralised, while capture happens anywhere in the world”.