Global Brief
The latest news from the international broadcasting industry
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Quantel powers ESPN’s
SportsCenter
into the HD world
June 7 marked the first broadcast from
ESPN’s new purpose-built, 120,000 sq. ft.
state-of-the-art Digital Center in Bristol,
Connecticut, USA, and also the beginning
of regular High Definition transmissions of
its flagship
SportsCenter
programme. In the
process, the US sports fan benefited from
the same leap of viewing experience as the
change from black and white to colour in
the 1960s. The broadcast technology
behind this feat of engineering is
spearheaded by UK company Quantel. The
digital production system comprises 6,000
hours of random access storage on 68
Quantel HD broadcast servers and nearly
250 Quantel edit and viewing stations.
“June 7 is the realisation of an incredible
18 months’ partnership between ESPN and
Quantel,” says Richard Taylor, Quantel
Executive Chairman. “When we first started
it was all little more than a gleam in our
eyes. Now, Quantel technology and ESPN
sports coverage prowess are together
creating a revolution. We know that the
sports broadcasting industry around the
world is watching with bated breath. Soon
every major sports broadcaster will be
following the trail blazed by ESPN and will
go HD,” Taylor concludes.
Encoda invests in digital asset
management firm
Encoda Systems is acquiring a majority
interest in Arkemedia Technologies, a UK-
based digital asset management solution
provider focused on the media and
entertainment industry. The two companies
now intend to accelerate and expand their
joint development activity by integrating
the full Arkemedia suite of digital assset
management tools with Encoda’s
comprehensive automation and programme
management solutions, designed for both
the advertising and broadcast markets.
The companies will deploy an extensible
and configurable data model that enables
the combined Encoda/Arkmedia solution
to map to the customer’s preferred
workflow, rather than forcing the customer
to adapt to rigid system architectures.
Technological islands within a media
company can now be joined through a
tightly integrated digital asset
management layer that acts as the glue
between operational departments. Don
Doctor, CEO Encoda Systems, explained that
“With the closer relationship between
Encoda Systems and Arkemedia, we will now
be delivering solutions devised at the
engineering level that offer our customers
a digital foundation which truly enables
them to seek and exploit new revenue
channels that were previously unavailable.”
Autocue add to Flat Display range of prompters
Autocue have developed two new entry level Flat Display Colour Prompters - the
12.1" On Camera unit and the 18" On Camera Unit.
The 12.1" FDP comes complete with hood, glass,
cabling and a universal mounting plate for fluid
heads. The 12.1" FDP has composite andVGA inputs
as well as a built in 240-110AC power supply. The
12.1" FDP is the perfect solution for studio based
prompting applications and can be used with all the
software packages available from Autocue. The 18"
FDP is ideal for larger prompter displays. The 18"
FDP comes complete with hood & glass assembly
and a suitable mounting may be required for certain
head or pedestals. The unit has an external power supply to reduce the overall
mounting weight and also has the features of composite and VGA inputs.
Harris breakthroughwith HD Radio combiningmethod
Harris Corporation has developed new technology that offers FM stations a significantly
more efficient method of transmitting an HD Radio(tm) signal. The patents-pending
approach of the company’s newSplit-Level Combining Systemcan reduce an FMstation’s
energy costs by as much as 25 percent over High-Level Combining, and enables stations
to continue using existing FM analogue transmitters that are already operating near
peak capacity. The new, more efficient method of adding HD Radio to FM stations is
sparking great interest among FM broadcasters, as a station’s overall power consumption
could be between 5 and 25 percent less than with High-Level Combining.
RadioScape’s DAB Broadcast Suite chosen; supplies
DMB broadcast equipment for trials in Korea
Dutch public service broadcaster NOS (Netherlands Omroep Stichting) will be using
RadioScape’s Professional DAB Broadcast Suite for its DAB radio service throughout
The Netherlands. Nozema, the largest and most experienced broadcast infrastructure
provider in The Netherlands, will be installing and running RadioScape’s Broadcast
Suite for NOS.
The Professional DAB Broadcast Suite from RadioScape consists of a series of
software modules, connected by a unique, IP-
based architecture that controls and delivers audio
and data from the studio together with any
external service providers. It takes care of
encoding and multiplexing to provide a complete
baseband DAB broadcasting solution.
RadioScape’s easy to use scheduling software
enables users to simply manage what has
traditionally been a complex task. The software
runs on standard industrial PCs so that hardware
maintenance is straightforward. New software
updates and enhancements can be easily uploaded
to provide system improvements.
RadioScape has shipped more than fifteen DAB/DMB evaluation systems to Korea.
These are being used by leading companies and research institutes to allow them to
develop and plan Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) networks and receiver
products. At the Korean International Broadcast Show in May in Seoul, RadioScape,
together with its Korean distributor Dizipia, demonstrated this equipment along
with new products to help the roll out of DMB in Korea, which is pioneering the
implementation of this technology.
RadioScape is currently undertaking field trials with WorldDAB to determine the
required field strength for high performance DMB networks. Professor Seo, who is
a director of the Centre for Advanced Broadcasting Technology at Yonsei University
in Korea, said: “RadioScape has a unique position in that it is a leading provider of
both infrastructure and broadcast equipment for digital radio giving it end-to-end
systems knowledge. The leading broadcasters in Korea are already using
RadioScape’s digital radio field monitoring equipment to evaluate reception
conditions all over the country prior to rolling out DMB services.”
