News Express, India, goes HD with Quantel

News Express, the New Delhi-India based national broadcaster, has purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ production system to power its new all-HD national news broadcasting operation, which is slated to go on-air in July 2011. This will be India's first national HD news broadcast service.

News Express plans to produce 12 30-minute news bulletins a day on the system with country-wide story input from around 25 contribution centers spread around the subcontinent. The system will also be used to produce other channel output including regular 20-minute documentary programs.

The Enterprise sQ system is configured with 350 hours of DVCPRO 100 storage and 10 sQ View and sQ Cut journalist viewing and desktop editing applications. These will run as Active-X applications within an ENPS Newsroom computer system. Craft editing is handled by 10 Final Cut Pro editors, fully integrated into the Quantel workflow. Ingest is handled by Quantel sQ Load (files) and sQ Record (video) applications, and playout will run under OmniBus Colossus automation.