Sky News Arabia shortlisted for Innovation Award

Sky News Arabia has been shortlisted for an Innovation Award in the Content Management category following nomination by TSL, a systems integrator for the broadcast industry.

“We’re delighted that IBC has recognized the technical innovation, expertise and hard work that went into the launch of Sky News Arabia,” said David Phillips, managing director of TSL. “It’s a very commendable and highly successful project and we’re glad to hear that it has been shortlisted for this prestigious award”.

Sky News Arabia has brought 24/7 news coverage in Arabic to the Middle East. It is transmitted in both SD and HD with content available online, on tablets, and on smartphones. As a start-up, its production facilities represent the state of the art in television and online news, and building its new center was one of the largest projects undertaken in the region.

Amongst other elements, the facility uses a modified universal bookings system by automating the scheduling and QC of all input/output circuit bookings across Sky News Arabia’s control room. As all of the station’s content transfers over IP, TSL had to design a very solid IP infrastructure, while achieving broadcast standards of reliability, and allowing priorities to be set for traffic close to airtime.

While the infrastructure is firmly file-based with as much emphasis on connection to social media as to ingest, the center itself still has to operate as a highly pressurized broadcast center, and the build, by TSL, features some of the largest monitor walls ever constructed in a broadcast station.