TSL completes broadcast system for Scottish Parliament

TSL, one of Europe's leading independent broadcast systems integrators and manufacturers, has completed the design, integration and installation of broadcasting equipment for the new Scottish Parliament building in Holyrood, Edinburgh.
The system, which is overseen by the Broadcasting Office of the Scottish Parliament, facilitates television and radio coverage of the Debating Chamber and six committee rooms. The main Debating Chamber is covered by eight remotely-controlled cameras, the two large committee rooms are covered by four cameras each, and the four small committee rooms are covered by two cameras each, making a total of 24. Coverage is supplied to the Press Tower, which houses a wide variety of television and radio broadcasters.
TSL has also fitted out a control room for the Debating Chamber - essentially a modern studio gallery equipped with a monitor stack, a control desk, a vision mixer and remote joystick control of cameras. The committee rooms are served by six smaller control rooms that resemble edit suites. In addition there is also a central apparatus room.
One of the unique features of the TSL system is the ability to operate in an 'automatic' mode. TSL integrated the "Audio and Voting System" (which provides audio to the Official Record) to trigger the rest of the system. When an MP takes his turn to speak, the Audio and Voting system provides the seat number, and this in turn instructs the camera robotics to swing the most appropriate camera into position.
In addition, TSL interfaced this system with the vision mixer, so that it automatically cuts to the correct shot. The character generator is also instructed to pull up on-screen relevant information about the speaker. The complex software behind this was designed in-house by TSL's Director of Engineering, Tim Whittaker.
Julian Knight, TSL's Director of Systems, said: "The development of this software was a key part of the solution that we provided. This project provided a fresh challenge for TSL and we are happy that we more than rose to the occasion."
(GB)