Bahrain TV recently invested in a brand new, state-of-the-art Master Control Room (MCR) and upgraded its existing uplink facility to support its HD transmissions. With the upgrade, Bahrain TV can now add HD channels to its uplink bouquet. The US $1.2 million HD project, which was undertaken with the intention of launching an HD channel […]
Bahrain TV recently invested in a brand new, state-of-the-art Master Control Room (MCR) and upgraded its existing uplink facility to support its HD transmissions. With the upgrade, Bahrain TV can now add HD channels to its uplink bouquet.
The US $1.2 million HD project, which was undertaken with the intention of launching an HD channel in time for Formula One, was completed by Salam MediaCast in early summer.
Although Formula One was cancelled in early summer due to the unrest in the country, the state-backed broadcaster is now fully geared to run a HD channel in the country.
At the core of the new HD MCR facility is an Evertz EMC master control switcher. The 3025EMC platform helps end users migrate their facilities cost-effectively to an SD, HD and 3Gb/s infrastructure. A Xenon router along with an X-Link multi-viewer was used as an up-stream router for the EMC master control switcher.
A video server from Harris records and plays back the HD transmission content. Separate clients have been provided for ingest and playout.
Axon Synapse HD modules were used as glue and the foundation to interconnect several components while the present SD satellite platform from Ericsson was upgraded to facilitate HD transmission.
The new MCR has been fully integrated with the old system, thereby, enabling Bahrain TV to broadcast its sports channels in both HD and SD. Viewers can view their channel in SD or HD depending on the receivers they have in their homes.
Bahrain TV also has a full-fledged HD virtual studio that was built late last year by Salam MediaCast. The virtual studio will be utilised to produce programmes and talk shows for the HD sports channel.
Salam also upgraded Bahrain TVs satellite uplink facility as part of this project. The uplinking facility previously supported only SD transmissions. Now, the received HD feeds from the satellite are fed to the HD virtual studios and the HD MCR. A test HD transmission was conducted in early summer.
The MCR has been installed alongside Bahrain TVs existing playout facility for its sports channels while the upgrade for the uplink was undertaken at its satellite area.
As with most projects in the Arab world, Salam MediaCast worked towards a tight deadline. In addition, upgrading Bahrain TVs present SD satellite bouquet platform to accommodate HD channels without disrupting the current satellite transmission setup was a challenge, the SI claims.
We addressed this by first installing a replacement to the present SD system, explains Muhammad Saleem Afzal, technical manager, Salam MediaCast.
We then carried out the upgrade to the older system. After completing the commissioning, we tested the new upgraded satellite bouquet on air before removing the temporary solution.
Bahrain TV is also looking to upgrade its entire sports infrastructure to HD.
Salam MediaCast also provided training for the Evertz MCR, the Harris Server and the IVSM graphics package to the end user.
