Sky News Arabia Launches The Content Hub

Blackmagic Design has announced that Sky News Arabia, the Arabic language 24 hour breaking news broadcaster, has launched The Content Hub, a new virtual production, transmission (TX) and playout environment, equipped with broadcast infrastructure from Blackmagic Design, including the ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher, Compact Videohub and UltraStudio 4K.
Engineers for the Skynet project have built in high levels of redundancy across every aspect of the new virtual studio workflow. 40 x 40 Compact Videohub routers handle signal distribution for The Content Hub while separate 16 x 16 Micro Videohubs are responsible for monitoring. The smaller router handles multiview outputs from the vision mixers and other sources while also feeding streaming encoders.
Receiving feeds from studios and live positions around the world, Sky News Arabia routes those signals via the Compact Videohub to the ATEM 2 M/E Production Switchers where the show is crafted. A second ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher is used for adding graphics. Four UltraStudio 4K I/O devices are connected to Mac Minis in the studio outputting Internet based programs.
Using the ATEM's SDK, Sky News Arabia's developers have built a custom control system and graphical user interface (GUI) for the system providing a simple, user friendly interface that manages the multiple devices, redundancy and system flexibility. Each component in the workflow has a mirrored counterpart, which means operators can lose either and remain on air uninterrupted.
"The system we've developed allows multiple workflows incorporating two or more of every component; so that's two Compact Videohub routers feeding four ATEM 2 M/E Production Switchers," explained Dave Mace, Project Manager for Sky News Arabia. "However, the custom GUI means operators only see this as one system regardless of what is actually controlled to achieve their objective. If any components should fail, the GUI automatically detects this and changes what is available within the user interface."
www.blackmagicdesign.com