Sharjah Grand Mosque sings praises with Broadcast Solutions ME and Ross Video

More than five years in the making, Sharjah Grand Mosque opened its doors in 2019, becoming United Arab Emirates’ second-largest mosque. The building occupies 185,806 square metres with a capacity to accommodate over 25,000 worshippers.

To make prayers available to all faithful, even if they can’t visit the sermons, Sharjah Government Planning Department appointed the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority (SBA) as a consultant to implement a modern and innovative broadcast system to cover the events within the mosque. The SBA approached Broadcast Solutions ME to deliver a broadcast system to support the mosque’s busy calendar of sslamic events that includes several cameras, an impressive control room and consultancy.

To fulfil the customer’s demands, Broadcast Solutions approached Ross Video which in return offered a white version of its PsVOTCam compact camera — 12 of which are used around the mosque. So as not to spoil the delicate and artistic impression of the mosque’s interior, Broadcast Solutions built a camera mount to ensure the cameras could be fixed discreetly around the prayer hall and building without standing out.

The control room, located in the building’s first foor, is used to manage the cameras and to edit, store and air the content created. Broadcast Solutions ME installed a 36-input Ross Carbonite production switcher.

Further Ross Video equipment in the signal chain is a pair of large Carbonite multiviewers, while SHC-9642 SDs to HDMs converters from Ross feed into Blackmagic Design SmartView4Ks used for audio monitoring.

At the core of the system, a Ross ULTRsX-FR1 32×32 router handles signal management. To add further video signals to the programme Broadcast Solutions ME also deployed four Grass Valley camera control units in the control room desk to be connected to cameras using the connection panels in the hall.

To assist communication between teams, Broadcast Solutions installed an RTS Odin16-port intercom system. Further audio equipment taking care of all audio signals in the system is a Yamaha DM1000VCM 48-channel digital mixer fitted with an MY16-MD64.