Barco total visual solution provider for new SKY facilities
Kuurne, Belgium, 3rd November 2005 - Sky News is now broadcasting from its hotly awaited new, state-of-the-art Sky News Centre studio complex in the UK. At its heart is the main combined studio-newsroom, complete with the first LED backdrop solution in a 24/7 UK broadcast facility. Visualization specialist Barco is proud to have supplied all of the LED backdrop walls equipped with unique diffusers especially developed for the broadcast market, and projectors used in news studios and monitoring rooms in the new purpose built facility in West London.
A major factor in the decision to purchase all of the visual solutions for the news studio from Barco was the desire to use one supplier for the whole news room. Paul Vickerage, Head of Studio Production for Sky News states, “One reason for the purchase from Barco was that Barco is a total solution provider and could provide us with all the LED and projectors needed for this new and technologically advanced studio”.
Sky News are pioneers of new technology and the new studio is no exception. At 7,500 square foot Sky News’ new newsroom is over twice the size of its previous facility, which was around 3,000 square foot. LED was soon considered as an option for the main wall and the central presenter's desk. Measuring 14m x 3m, and 34 tiles long and 6 tiles high, the main news LED wall (ILite 6) is nearly twice the size of the previous wall, and has a total resolution of 2448 x 432 pixels. This is the first LED backdrop application in a 24/7 news environment in the UK.
The key feature of the decision to use LED over cube projection was the high brightness allowing the large wall to operate in a very bright environment. During operation the wall operates at about 50% of capacity giving plenty of scope to the Sky technical team, should they need to alter light conditions or levels within the studio.
Installing LED in a broadcast situation is very different to any other application. The biggest issue to resolve is the Moiré pattern that can be seen through the camera. Following many discussions Barco and Sky co-developed a cutting-edge visualization solution to resolve the Moire issues. The result is a true technological advancement in the use of LED, creating a ‘broadcast’ LED backdrop solution that utilizes specialist diffusers on the LED tiles to eliminate Moiré pattern and loss of saturation during camera panning.
At the heart of the newsroom-studio is a state-of-the-art motorized presentation desk that rotates. The desk has been installed with a purpose-built LED screen, another television first, that can mirror the images on the news wall, giving depth to the picture used. Alternatively the LED on the desk can be operated independently, giving Sky flexibility in methods to portray the story under presentation. Sky has chosen the Barco ILite 3 complete with controller, renowned for its picture integrity and flexible form factor, giving SKY the opportunity to use the ILite 3 tiles in any shape as on the anchor desk.
Nick Pollard, Head of Sky News, says: “Sky News is an innovator. We were first on the 24-hour news scene in the UK and have consistently set the standard to which others aspire. We are committed to developing the service we offer to viewers and these changes will seek to broaden our appeal while cementing our position as the most innovative force in news television.”
Stephan Paridaen, President of Barco's Media and Entertainment division adds: “The fantastic installation at Sky demonstrates Barco’s ability to truly provide a total visual solution for our customers. With the LED diffusers we have another example of Barco working in partnership with our customers to provide bespoke solutions and specially developed products to ensure that the final result is a perfect fit with the customer brief”.
The Vision Control room is equipped with a Barco managed monitoring solution comprising of 4 x 1 67” rear projection cubes driven by Hydra controllers. The Sound Control room is an enclosed room that provides full audio facilities for SKY news. There are Barco Hydras controlling these outputs, giving flexibility to change layouts monitor dynamic Under Monitor Display’s (UMD’s) in conjunction with the Colledia management system. Hydra control units also allow signal error monitoring, audio monitoring, aspect ratio management, as well as subtitle decoding and teletext signal monitoring.
Next to the main newsroom, studio C, the ingest/playout room and the NewsActive Control Room also feature dedicated Barco broadcast solutions. Studio C, used for five news broadcasts, has been equipped with three RLM G5 projectors. The Gallery has been equipped with a Barco display wall consisting of 3 x 1 67” rear projection cubes controlled by two Hydras, and as in the case of studio A the sound room is also equipped with two Barco Hydras.
The Ingest/Playout Room, used for monitoring playout on transmission and incoming feeds, utilises a 3 x 1 67” rear projection screen, controlled by three Hydras. The NewsActive Control Room, designed for the monitoring and transmission of the feeds into the Sky News Active service, is equipped with a 2 x 1 67” rear projection screen and 2 Hydra controllers.
Carl Peeters, President of Barco's Control Rooms division, states, “This is a wonderful example of Barco’s capabilities within the broadcast industry and how adaptable and flexible the Barco range of solutions really is”
The new Sky News Centre facilities have provided Sky News with the opportunity to redesign its distinctive on-screen graphics, develop its weather graphics and revamp its programming schedule, introducing a new presenter line-up. There will also be increased emphasis on viewer participation. For the first time it will broadcast in widescreen.
About Sky News
Sky News is the UK’s leading 24-hour news channel. Founded in 1989, it is consistently the first place to turn for breaking news. The channel was awarded a BAFTA in 2002, 2003 and was named ‘News Channel of The Year’ by the Royal Television Society (RTS) for the fourth consecutive year in 2005.
About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB).
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