TANDBERG Television has secured a major contract to manage the turnkey deployment of The ABC National Digital ENG Network. The system will be supplied, integrated and commissioned by TANDBERG Televisions local engineering teams.
On completion, Australias national free to air broadcaster will have one of the most advanced digital electronic news gathering (DENG) systems in the world. The system, which includes TANDBERG Televisions award-winning Maximum Ratio Combining FFT diversity receiver technology, Voyager mobile DENG systems and CT2011 wireless camera systems, will be used for live news and event coverage across Australia.
The ABC has television coverage in metropolitan and regional Australia and has studios in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin. The network creates and delivers thousands of hours of locally produced programming, a lot of which is filmed out in the field for live news, event or sports reporting. The ABC is currently using analogue microwave technology for ENG. However, changes to Australias ENG spectrum plan will reduce the available bandwidth for broadcasters in the 2.5GHz band from February 2005.
Australian broadcasters are therefore turning to digital ENG, not only to compensate for their reduced frequency bandwidth, but also to enable them to use a more sophisticated, reliable and flexible news gathering system that will enhance their local programming and extend their news gathering reach.