Daystar Television Network chooses Quantel

Daystar Television Network, the fastest growing, second largest Christian television network in the world, has selected a Quantel sQ HD/SD integrated production system for its 24-hour program production.
Daystar operates more than 50 television stations in the major US markets with production facilities in Dallas, Houston, Denver and Kentucky. It has a potential audience of 128 million viewers in the United States alone and can be seen over 200 countries.
The new sQ system will be housed in the network's Dallas headquarters and supports six sQ Cut, six sQ Edit desktop editing applications and three eQ multi-resolution editing, effects, colour correction and deliverables systems.
Daystar chose the Quantel system after a three-year evaluation process of all the available systems on the market. Quantel's Regional Sales Manager, David Black, said: "Quantel and Daystar worked very hard to dramatically increase their workflow production and ability to more quickly get product to air."
The new sQ server will replace the network's tape-based production workflow. Currently the network has been editing on Final Cut Pro and mastering to tape. Daystar plans on using the sQ system primarily as a production editing and storage server with occasional use for production playout. The network plans to go live with the system May 1, 2007.
The Quantel sQ system will benefit Daystar's production operation in several areas. The network's primary production, 'Celebration', is live four days a week, and re-airs in two different timeslots daily.
The workflow for 'Celebration' is very much like a newscast, with support footage arriving sometimes minutes to air.
The sQ system will give the production team a newsroom workflow while maintaining a high-quality signal path that can handle multiple resolutions and file formats with ease.
'Joni' is the network's talk show and is completely post produced. The graphical content and template approach to the show's format conforms tightly into the Quantel workflow. The time in post will be significantly reduced, allowing more creativity and scheduling flexibility. Some of the station's EFP for this program is HD, so the eQ's seamless multi-resolution operation options are critical.
"After an in-depth research process, we chose the Quantel sQ server and associated editors to provide us with the most efficient, high-quality solution to our workflow issues," said Leland Johnson, Daystar systems developer. "Specifically, Quantel's FrameMagic file management became the primary factor in our decision, as it presented a very cost-effective storage and archive model that fit what we wanted to accomplish."
(SP)