TSL has scooped the contract to design and install a new London-based playout operation for rapidly expanding broadcaster Setanta Sports. The facility will be based at Input Media’s Production Centre in Shepherds Bush, West London. Setanta Sports has added the London site to its in-house facilities alongside operations already established in Dublin and Glasgow, writes Fergal Ringrose.
Setanta Sports plans to launch three new channels over the next 18 months beginning in January 2007 with Setanta Golf. This 24-hour specialist channel follows Setanta Sports recent acquisition of rights to broadcast the US PGA Tour over the next five years. The network’s popular Setanta Sports 1 will transmit live English Premier League football matches and the new facility will also extend the scheduling of the already popular Setanta 2 channel.
“We chose TSL as our partner for this project after extensive research. We need the project to be delivered on time and to budget, which allows us to do what we do best; deliver high-quality sports programmes to our viewers,” commented Richard Sweeney, Setanta Sports’ chief operating officer. He added, “We have decided to set firm roots in London because of the wealth of production talent that the city has to offer.”
As part of the project, TSL will work with Input Media to integrate its post production facilities with the new transmission suite to prepare recorded programming for broadcast on the existing cable and satellite platforms.
Russell Grute, TSL’s head of Sales, said, “With this new design, TSL will introduce Setanta Sports staff to new systems such as Pebble Beach Anemone and Miranda Presmaster that adopt alternative workflows on the ingest, playout and presentation side. The project is already being built at TSL in Maidenhead with the installation of the Omneon server system and the core infrastructure. We are working very closely with Paul Ryan, Setanta Sports’ new Technical Director to ensure that Setanta Sports can maximise its full potential with a next-generation playout system to ensure reliability of service and the flexibility required as Setanta continues to expand.”
