Harris Broadcast constructs playout centre for leading Asian sports broadcaster
Harris Broadcast has announced that it has completed the build out of a major broadcast production facility for TEN Sports, the leading sports channel in Asia. The new production playout centre and studio went on air in mid-September.
“We were looking for a major upgrade of the TEN Sports facilities which included migration to full HD production and playout, advanced file-based media workflows and an interface to massive archival and retrieval systems,” says Amitabh Kumar, chief technology officer, Zee Group. “The assignment was very challenging as it involved the migration of hundreds of thousands of hours of content from legacy systems which had to be interfaced to diverse broadcast equipment. We have a long standing relationship with Harris Broadcast, and had full confidence in their technology and integration capabilities, as well as the high level of service we continue to receive from the company.”
The installation centres on Harris Broadcast’s playout automation system, together with multiple servers, its media asset management and online storage systems. The technical infrastructure also includes Harris Broadcast routers and multiviewers, as well as signal processing and distribution hardware.
“We are very pleased to extend our long-standing relationship with Zee TV across their cutting-edge TEN Sports operations,” says Kerry Wheeles,product manager, Harris Broadcast. “Much like news operations, sports broadcasters require unique capabilities for instant and fast delivery of live events coverage, for which our playout automation system is uniquely designed. Our customers look to us for support and partnership throughout the entire life-cycle of the technology with confidence that we will advance their systems according to future requirements and demands.”
TEN Sports is part of the Zee TV Group, which also relies on Harris Broadcast systems for its news channels. The broadcaster has long-term rights to major sports events including ATP tennis, European and American PGA golf, and UEFA Champions League football. It has presented all its coverage in HD since 2011.