News from CABSAT last week: Harris has been awarded a contract to supply products spanning its entire HD broadcast portfolio to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI) at four new HD studio facilities.
The new studios — to be built in the cities of Arar, Al Joaf, Najran and Al Baha — add to the number of Saudi Television HD facilities using Harris broadcast equipment, with additional studios and transmission projects currently underway. Harris is working with Riyadh-based dealer and systems integrator First Gulf Company (FGC).
“In recent years, Harris has continued to deliver reliable and cost-effective solutions to support the rollout of our HD initiatives across Saudi Arabia,” said Dr. Riyadh Najm, deputy minister of engineering, Ministry of Culture and Information. “The company’s integrated solutions will continue to help us to drive towards greater workflow efficiencies and build real returns on our investment — while continuing to support the construction of some of the most sophisticated HD broadcast facilities seen in the region.”
The new HD studios will incorporate control rooms and playout facilities and feature interoperable solutions from Harris including: Videotek TVM test and measurement devices to maintain signal integrity; fibre optic solutions for inter-/intra-facility transport of HD signals; Predator II and Predator II-GX multiviewers for monitoring; Inscriber G-Series graphics products for live production; Platinum routers for processing video and audio signals throughout the facility and across different sites; NEXIO servers for content acquisition, production, distribution and media management; and a range of Harris core processing technology including up/down/cross converters and multiplexers/demultiplexers to ensure all content is processed at the highest quality HD.
“We have worked closely with Saudi Television and First Gulf Company for many years to implement the buildout of our integrated solutions at studio facilities throughout Saudi Arabia,” said Said Bacho, vice president, Middle East and South Asia operations, Harris Broadcast Communications. “This latest order for four new HD studio sites underscores our capability to support MOCI’s effort to modernize Saudi Television’s facilities and to build state-of-the-art facilities used by broadcasters around the world.”
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