TSL wins Red Bee Media contract for Channel 4 Operations Move
by | Sep 12, 2008 - 12:55:41 PM
TSL has a major contract with
Red Bee Media, which will see Channel 4's playout facility move from the
broadcaster's current premises in
Horseferry
Road to Red Bee Media's Broadcast Centre in
White
City.
The new system, designed in conjunction with Red Bee Media, will be built by
TSL, and will be ready for transmission in summer 2009.
TSL will build a dedicated state-of-the-art file-based facility at Broadcast
Centre, which will deliver significant improvements in the overall efficiency
of the operations of Channel 4. It will further provide the broadcaster with
the latest technology and innovation in media management and delivery. The move
encompasses the transfer of the entire Channel 4 Channel Operations Department
with library, media management, QC, playout and transcoding relocating to Red
Bee Media's Broadcast Centre. The Post Production and Graphics Services will
remain at
Horseferry Road
under the management of Red Bee Media.
The new system installed by TSL will include four Omneon Spectrum media
systems, in a main and back-up configuration for playout of Channel 4, More4,
Film4 and E4. The Channel 4 Spectrum will deliver both SD & HD output.
Niels Thomas, Omneon's VP Sales EMEA commented, "For Red Bee Media and
other leading service providers, the Omneon Spectrum media system consistently
delivers, allowing expansion of operations and functionality as business
requires it, without broadcast disruption."
Automation (Morpheus), routing (HD Cygnus), master control (HD Masterpiece) and
the new version of Morpheus Control and Monitoring will be supplied by Pro-Bel.
The company's next generation Morpheus automation solution allows complex
sequences of events to be packaged together, instantly providing simple
presentation for the Red Bee Media operator and easy manipulation within the
Channel 4 schedule. Graham Pitman, CEO, Pro-Bel explained, "Pro-Bel has a
long history with Channel 4 and we are very pleased that it is continuing. We
have also worked extensively with Red Bee Media and we are excited that such a
comprehensive range of our technology is being deployed in this leading-edge
installation."
A Snell & Wilcox Quasar Ph.C provides Channel 4 with a motion-compensated
HDTV upconverter that delivers twice the resolution of some other systems, to
produce clear and sharp HD outputs from a variety of SD inputs. Quasar Ph.C is
a key component in Channel 4's strategy to bring HD programming to the market
as quickly as possible, while laying the groundwork for future delivery of
native HD content. The Snell & Wilcox Quasar Ph.C is the only HD
Upconverter that uses motion compensation technology improving the traditional
delivery workflow," said Joe Zaller, VP Marketing, Snell & Wilcox.
AXON Digital Design is supplying the modular infrastructure equipment (glue)
for this project. The equipment is used throughout the main play-out, back-up
and linking facilities. Over 600 Synapse modules will be used and these will be
placed in 45 SFR18-frames.
The Synapse modules for Channel 4 includes down converters, cross converters,
aspect ratio converters, audio description processors, back-up switchers, logo
inserters, signal integrity checkers (HD & SD), video delays (HD & SD),
frame synchronizers (HD & SD), distribution amplifiers (HD, SD, analogue
video, analogue audio & AES) and Dolby E encoder and decoders.
David Phillips, CEO, TSL commented, "This is one of the largest outsourced
playout projects in recent times and we are delighted to be working with Red
Bee Media again. This installation will provide Channel 4 with a sophisticated
facility that will take advantage of the latest technical innovation and
further improve its services. The Red Bee Media project is being overseen by
TSL Project Manager Andy Appleyard who is available at IBC 2008 on TSL's stand
10.B41.
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