One year after the first brick was laid, Cambridgeshire-based independent system integrator dB Broadcast has commissioned Jordan’s first independent television station, ATV.
Located in the heart of the capital Amman, ATV initially has one channel, on air 24/7, broadcasting a mixture of entertainment, and regional and international news.
According to dB Broadcast, the main contractor for the project, equipment suppliers such as ENPS, Leitch, Pebble Beach, MSA Focus, Ross and Pixel Power are currently on site carrying out final training, prior to the station going on-air before the end of the year. dB says that its personnel are also remaining on site until the end of the year to assist with training and to fine-tune the systems.
dB Broadcast, together with sub-contractor Electronic Media Systems (EMS), was responsible for the complete technical installation on this multimillion pound project. These responsibilities included the newsroom, with 70 journalist workstations, the broadcast infrastructure, studios, control rooms, playout system, edit suites, graphics areas and satellite system. The company was also responsible for the design and installation of the IT and telecoms infrastructure within the building.
“We were responsible for liaising with the architects, builders, electromechanical and other contractors,” commented Tom Swan, dB’s director of sales and marketing. “Another major task were the health and safety issues. In fact, David Bird, MD of dB Broadcast and manager of the project, estimates that some 50% of his time on site was taken up with health and safety matters. He was able to draw on his CDM experience, having been responsible for health and safety for projects such as the refurbishment of TC10 at the BBC Television Centre.”
