Al Jazeera Sports chooses Trilogy for new studios

Qatar: Al Jazeera Sports is installing a Trilogy Communications intercom system for its three new studios as part of the first 3G installation in the Middle East. Work on the new centre at Al Jazeera Sports’ headquarters in Doha, Qatar, is being overseen by systems integrator Tek Signals.

Three 36-port Trilogy Commander intercoms supplied by Tek Signals will operate on two matrices. One system will cover edit suites and Al Jazeera Sports News, which produces a daily one-hour programme rounding up the day’s sporting events.

The other two systems will be dedicated to facilities used to receive clean feeds of sports coverage from the UK, chiefly football. Commentary and match analysis, in both Arabic and English for separate feeds, is added in these studios.

The intercoms are connected to each other over an E1 network, which is also used to link them to the master-control room. Also part of the installation are operator key panels, UHF wireless beltpacks used by floor managers, and in-ear monitoring for the presenters.

Trilogy reference generators have been installed to monitor the performance of the broadcast centre as a whole. Two Mentor Xls cover the three studios and will provide HD test signals, tri-level sync, and timecode and vector modes. The video, timecode, and audio signals have been locked to one stable reference using the Mentor Xls and GPS receivers.

Commenting on the installation, TEK Signals Division Manager Joseph Varghese says, “Al Jazeera Sports needed a communications system they could depend on during live broadcasts, with full confidence that it would not fail. With experience of Trilogy systems spanning over a decade, Tek Signals was confident they could rely on these products to provide the right communications systems on budget and on time.”