Sky News

Case study

Sky News are pioneers of new technology and this studio is no exception. At 7,500 square foot Sky News’ 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.

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.

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.