dB Broadcast
dB Broadcast completed a major contract to deliver the Audio Visual broadcast system for the new International Criminal Court (ICC) courtrooms in The Hague. Broadcast quality is a key criterion for the ICC, as the courts handle very high profile cases, and the ICC is called upon to provide broadcast feeds to many of the world's largest international broadcasters. dB has a proven track record and expertise in remote controlled camera systems where high end broadcast quality video pictures are required. For this project, dB wasable to draw upon extensive experience of working on prestigious buildings, new-build facilities and relocation, including its work at Parliament buildings, and the new BBC facility in central London. 2015 India: Studio for Genuine Gemstone dB Broadcast completed a project to design, build and test a new studio in Jaipur, India for TV retailer The Genuine Gemstone Company (TGGC). This highly successful project went live at the end of September 2015. By implementing a prefabrication stage at its headquarters near Cambridge prior to dismantling and shipping the hardware to its final overseas destination, dB was able to install, test and commission the studio, gallery and associated technical area in only two weeks. The HD studio is based on Sony HXC-D70 cameras, Vitec pedestals, a Snell Kahuna vision mixer and Pyxis router, Pixel Power graphics and Grass Valley servers. Constructed as a 4-camera studio, the control room has been designed for operation by 3-5 people. dB was responsible for the shipping of the goods from its factory to the customer site in Jaipur, including all paperwork - a process that went very smoothly, with goods taking less than 10 days door to door. 2014 UK: Studio upgrade at The Hospital Club After a competitive tendering process, dB Broadcast was awarded a contract to upgrade the TV studio facilities at their prestigious London site. dB replaced the vision mixer and Multiviewer display system all within a 2 week window. 2014 UK: Arqiva Chalfont CTA dB Broadcast supplied, installed and wired 62 racks for the new Arqiva facility at Chalfont, including mains wiring and cold aisle containment system. 2014 UK: BBC News Hub for local and general elections dB Broadcast was selected to provide a News hub at BBC Elstree for their coverage of local and general elections which were previously broadcast from the Television Centre (before its closure). The Hub manages all the outside broadcasts and filter a subset through to the TV Gallery and is similar to a small Control Room operation, except it is staffed with up to 26 editorial staff who make decisions about the outside broadcasts and which ones to route to the Studio. The system comprises 26 editorial positions, 2 engineering desks, monitor wall comprising two rows of seven 50" monitors and 14 bays of equipment. 2014 UK: BBC radio Home Services for Arqiva dB were selected to install and configure new radio encoding and distribution systems at New Broadcasting House and also at the Emergency Broadcast Centre. The project involved installing AM, FM and DAB systems for encoding BBC radio feeds for onward distribution over the BT Global Media Network. 2014 UK: Upgrade chamber camera system at Scottish Parliament After a competitive tendering process dB was awarded the contract to replace it's the eight cameras in the Chamber with an HD system with remote pan and tilt. The change to HD working involved significant changes to the technical infrastructure including an HD matrix and new edit suites. All work was carried out during Scottish Parliaments summer recess. 2014 UK: Transmitter monitoring and Protection systems for R&S dB Broadcast upgraded the R&S Transmitter Monitoring & Protection systems at 26 transmitter sites across the UK to support the addition of the two new HD Muxes 7&8. In addition to the M&P rack upgrades dB Broadcast supplied custom transmitter interlock bypass panels and custom spinner switch frame interface boxes and also added new cross site cabling, transmitter power sensors and environmental monitoring at these sites. 2014 Studio upgrade at City University London dB was selected to upgrade the City University studio facilities from SD to an HD virtual studio. City University required a facility to allow its students to effectively compete within the journalism market. This HD TV Studio upgrade gives the Journalism students a "virtual TV studio experience" and using the latest TV studio production technology and ENG live location cameras. 2014 State-of-the-Art Broadcast Facility for British Forces Broadcasting After a competitive tendering process dB Broadcast was selected for the design, installation and delivery of a state-of-the-art production and transmission facility for the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), suppliers of the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) to the UK's armed forces. The new facility will be equipped with highly flexible and workflow efficient solutions capable of handling current and foreseeable future TV broadcast requirements dB won the project because they could demonstrate not only their experience and ability in respect of broadcast engineering and proven design, but also their considerable experience in Workflow, MAM and Scheduling and Traffic systems, with a firm focus on the use of such systems to provide highly-automated workflows, eliminating repetitive tasks, minimising manual processing of media and guaranteeing the optimisation of both equipment deployment and operator duties. 2013 UK Ericsson Television signal distribution cabling at Strategic Park After a competitive tendering process, dB Broadcast was awarded the contract to undertake the installation of the broadcast cabling within the recently refurbished building. This involved more than 100KM of cable and the work was carried out in several phases to work around the on-going building programme and the relocation of staff. 2013 UK: BT Sports Playout at Red Bee Media Red Bee Media appointed dB Broadcast to design, build and commission the playout services for BT's new live sports offering, BT Sport. These new channels are available across the UK via various platforms including satellite, fibre broadband and in pubs. BT Sport has the rights to show 38 live games a season from the Barclays Premier League, including 18 of the top clashes, plus up to 69 live rugby union games a season from the Aviva Premiership and action from the Women's Tennis Association tour. 2013 UK: Single camera interview positions for BBC The BBC regularly interview local dignitaries from around the country for broadcast on its main news programmes. On average this occurs 1-2 times a week in each region, but frequency is dependent upon the region and the news story being covered. Staffing is a major consideration for these bookings as they can take place at any time of the day and keeping full studios on standby to interview a guest is not feasible or cost effective, so facilities were provided by dB which allowed for operation by a single person. Seven systems were provided covering Oxford, Bristol, Southampton Nottingham, Norwich, Tunbridge Wells, Plymouth and Jersey. These HD and SD systems comprised a single camera with remote pan and tilt, blue and green switchable chroma key light ring and low power lighting system. All BNCS controlled. 2013 UK: Bulletin studio for BSkyB dB Broadcast supported Sky engineers in designing a small 2 camera bulletin studio. This was installed on the third floor of the Sky Studio building in an area previously allocated as office space and used for Sky Sports bulletins within Sky News programmes.. dB were responsible for the cabling and installation of equipment as well as testing and commissioning. Timescales were critical as the studio had to be operational in time for the start of the new football season. The system was based upon GVG mixer, cameras and automation and a Calrec audio desk 2013 UK: Studio for SSVC dB Broadcast was responsible for the design, detailing, provision, testing and commissioning of a TV News studio with gallery and self-op facility, suitable for immediate use by SSVC on acceptance, with no additional work required. This also included cabling and installation of equipment within the existing CTA. The British Forces news bulletins continued to be produced and transmitted from the Newsroom throughout the duration of this contract. Therefore dB had to take the greatest care not to interrupt or disturb the smooth running of the Newsroom. It also meant that noisy and disruptive work took place outside the normal operational times of the Newsroom. 2013 UK: TV Studio Sound upgrade at BBC Bristol dB Broadcast replaced the ageing analogue audio system . This included the removal of the existing sound desk, furniture, technical bays and cabling, and the installation of new furniture, digital sound desk, cabling and bays, taking into account working in a live news studio gallery. The upgrade occurred over a weekend period for minimum disruption. 2012 UK: BSKYB: F1 Studio A new broadcast rights deal was announced on 29 July 2011, that Sky Sports would cover all F1 races live, whilst BBC Sport would cover 10 live including the British Grand Prix. In November 2011, Sky announced the new dedicated F1 channel would launch in March 2012, and would air all F1 races with coverage of practice sessions, qualifying and the race, live and commercial free. dB won the contract in Jan 2012 to build the new F1 HD studio at the Sky Studio building in Osterley and this was completed in 3 months. 2012 UK: Ericsson Television Olympics feeds for BSkyB The innovative agreement between the BBC and Sky meant that Sky homes had access to comprehensive coverage of the London Olympics, with up to 24 live dedicated HD and SD channels running simultaneously at peak times during the games. The 48 brand new channels, which were created specifically for the Olympics, showed every sport from cycling to archery, swimming to wrestling, tennis to the 100 metre final. Alongside coverage on the existing BBC channels, Sky homes were able to enjoy 2,500 hours' worth of live BBC coverage throughout the Games. dB was contracted by Ericsson on behalf of Sky to provide a temporary installation at at Salford Media City to support these requirements. 2012 UK: MTV MCR expansion MTV undertook a major building redevelopment and many areas were moved. dB undertook a 22 rack system with the newly expanded MCR. The racks were prefabricated at dB Broadcast's premises while building work was completed allowing installation time to be minimised. 2012 UK: Discovery HD Foundation dB Broadcast carried out the upgrade to dB of the server system of the Discovery playout system. dB also added Dolby capability to each of the 70 streams. 2012 UK: Turner CN Germany channel dB expanded the Turner Playout system with 6 new channels including one for CN Germany. 2012 UK: Discovery three Ingest suites dB Broadcast designed, supplied and installed 3 new Ingest suites. Material typically arrives on tape and each suite included a Sony SRW-5800/2 HDCAM VTR, Harris waveform monitor, Wohler audio monitoring, Studio Technologies 5.1 surround sound and genlec speakers. 2012 UK: Red Bee Media various projects At the beginning of 2012, dB Broadcast won the contract to carry out Systems Integration work across the Red Bee portfolio of clients. The work involves supporting and delivering projects around both the playout and creative facilities predominantly based in London. The dB team have successfully delivered a host of new services and upgrades to Red Bee client's including - • 4Seven for Channel Four. • BBC World News. • BBC Worldwide. • Signing Studios. • Creative Refresh including the installation of a new AVID ISIS system.