British Forces Broadcasting Service Television (BFBS TV) is now broadcasting live from its new digital production and transmission center. A division of Services Sound & Vision Corporation (SSVC), BFBS TV assembles and transmits two 24-hour channels from its studios near Amersham in Buckinghamshire, UK. BFBS1 and BFBS2 can be received via satellite by personnel in 17 countries and by Royal Navy ships in various parts of the world. BFBS TV previously used tape-based acquisition, recording off-air and editing out commercial breaks, with transmission from tape via live continuity.
The network's requirement was a system that fully addressed workflow without introducing any system bottlenecks. Systems that required file-flattening following editing could not cope with the quick turn around needed for many programs.
BFBS turned to ATG Broadcast to meet these requirements. The contract with ATG Broadcast includes complete refurbishment of the TV infrastructure at SSVC's headquarters. BFBS TV is now able to deploy file-based acquisition and editing, playing to air straight from hard-disk server.
To streamline the news production process, ATG Broadcast installed a DaletPlus newsroom system. Journalists can input and review scripts and program material and will soon be able to access the system from anywhere in the world via the Web.
A 120TB ADIC Scalar 2K archive library controlled by SGL's FlashNet Hierarchical Storage Manager allows files to be saved either as a manual process or according to archive rules set within FlashNet.
Each BFBS TV channel is controlled from its own presentation suite. The suites are identically equipped with Custom Consoles furniture.
The new installation enables content to be acquired and processed much quicker than before, and has allowed file-based content distribution to reduce manual movement of tapes within and beyond the network's headquarters.
For more information, please visit www.atgbroadcast.co.uk/index.html.
