ATG awarded major British Forces Broadcasting contract

ATG Broadcast, one of Europe's leading systems integrators, has won a contract to digitise the entire production and transmission of television services for British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS).
The contract was awarded by Services Sound & Vision Corporation (SSVC).
BFBS 1 and 2 are available to UK military personnel stationed around the world, enabling them to watch highlights from UK broadcast television channels.
Programmes are ingested off-air or via line feeds into two Quantel sQ Servers under IBIS automation and controlled via record lists from a Provys scheduling system. 30 megabit/s D10 files and 1.5 megabit/s proxy files are created in parallel. The recorded clips are reviewed using IBIS Vistapoint and any original channel branding such as voiceovers or end credit squeezes marked. Clips ready for transmission are then transferred to mirrored Quantel sQ playout servers or to the near-line archive. Provys schedules are downloaded into IBIS Landscape for transmission, with IBIS controlling template recall on the Miranda PresMaster Presentation Mixer to replace original channel branding. A 120 terabyte ADIC Scalar 2K Archive Library, controlled by SGL’s Flashnet Hierarchical Storage Manager, allows files to be archived either as a manual process or according to archive rules set within Flashnet.
The system includes seven Quantel QCut workstations, three of these used in preparing material for the BFBS News programme ‘BFBS Reports’. The other QCuts are employed in preparing trails and promotional content. Three Quantel QEdit Pro edit seats are used for finishing material ready for transmission.
To streamline the news production process, ATG is installing a DaletPlus Newsroom system. Web access will allow journalists in the field anywhere around the world to input and review scripts and programme material. A MOS interface to IBIS enables all news clips to be displayed within the newsroom system. Character generator and prompter interfaces allow dynamic updating of story information. A Quantel sQ Server under IBIS control provides clip replay for BFBS produced news and children’s programming.
Simon Shute, Director of Technology for SSVC, said: "ATG’s proposal was the only one that fully addressed our workflow requirements without introducing any system bottlenecks. Other systems that require file-flattening following editing could not cope with the quick turnround we need for many programmes when they are retransmitted with only a short time delay."
Alan Pimm, ATG Broadcast Sales Director, added: "We are delighted that SSVC has chosen us for this important project which will form the heart of its operations. This is a true end-to-end digital system. Quantel’s Frame Magic technology enables files to be streamed at very high speed between servers using IBIS intelligent workflow methodologies, a key element to the success of our bid."
(GB)