Page 40 - The Channel Issue 2 2010

40 | ISSUE 2 2010 | THE CHANNEL

The news that your transmitter site abroad is flooded is a nightmare for any broadcaster. When the BBC Asia relay station in Thailand was affected by severe flooding, support services company VT Group, which transmits BBC World Service, was able to come to the rescue – an exceptional effort which won them the

“Professional Services” Award at this year's BBC Global News Reith Awards. Margaret Keane, Head of Customer Relations in VT's Broadcast and Security

Business gives the background

T (now part of Babcock International Group) has been successfully delivering the BBC’s content to its global audience of 188 million since 1997, working in collaboration with the BBC to manage its current needs and plan together for the future.

The strength of VT’s partnership with the BBC World Service was seriously put to the test by the flooding in Thailand and the extreme circumstances demonstrated the strength of the relationship built between VT and the BBC.

Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution, BBC Global News, explained: “This was a great example of the way VT operates and the culture within its business in supporting our output. “There was a very real risk of us

incurring significant costs if they had not contained the floodwater and stopped it from getting into the building. They just got on and did it. They obviously kept us up to date with what was happening but there was little we could do from London. What the guys on the ground did was an absolutely brilliant achievement.”

REACHING TENS OFMILLIONS

The site, located in the Nakhon Sawan province in Northern Thailand, is owned by the BBC and operated by 29 VT staff. It transmits over 2,000 hours of BBC World Service radio content a month in multiple languages, (English, Bengali, Burmese, Afghan, Hindi, Indonesian, Mandarin, Urdu and Uzbek) reaching the BBC’s audiences of 40 million-plus across Asia, from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

The VT team operating the

V

EMERGENCY RESPONSE