G&D Assigned to Equip BSkyB’s Harlequin One

Europe’s most sustainable broadcast centre
The new building is outstanding for its sustainability – in Europe if not in the world it is reported. Consequently all equipment in use was chosen carefully after extensive evaluation to ensure BSkyB achieved this goal.The remarkable building allows access to natural daylight and fresh air, views outdoors and across floors. As naturally ventilated studios and offices serve for ideal working conditions for people the aim was to separate them from distracting and emission-intensive computer hardware. That’s when KVM came into play. By implementing this hardware, people thrive from KVM benefits. The multi-platform content production studios became heat and noise-free as computers are stored access protected in free-cooled data rooms. G&D KVM solutions provide for a seamless computer interoperability and efficient workflow environment.

Caring about the environmental footprint
Reducing the environmental footprint was one important topic at BSkyB’s Harlequin studio. “The need for efficient, reliable technology to reduce the overall energy consumption of BSkyB’s technical facilities made us plan with G&D’s hardware”, said Paul Norton, Managing Director of Omnio Technologies. “The ease of use of their products, the fact that they are extremely reliable, intuitive and backed by the best technical and after sales support Omnio had experienced gave us no hesitation in recommending that BSkyB implement G&D solutions as the KVM infrastructure within Harlequin One, confidence in our partners is crucial and that’s why we trust in G&D.”

Solutions for interaction
Now that broadcast moves from a tape-based to a tapeless culture, every bay needs to access a high number of computers and data to have content available on the desktop. For that reason Omnio chose G&D’s CATCenter NEO line, a KVM matrix switch system. It makes a wide range of computers available at each work bay. The CATCenter NEO KVM system also allows easy computer access for the engineers in the equipment rooms where computers are stored without disturbing the creative people at work. By implementing UCON-IP-NEO products the staff became able to access computers remotely over IP– even from home – more easily. For a one to one extension of a computer to let’s say the studio they chose DVIVision and DL-Vision KVM extenders. Whenever more computers are in use DVIMUX switches for both DVI and VGA video and miniMUX switches for just VGA video allow the use of multiple computers from one console at the same spot.

Future steps with German KVM
As BSkyB continue to innovate step by step, the solutions they chose needed to be resistant and well engineered. Products needed to be fit for purpose but also be of a high quality without the need of being exchanged in a few years time. Quality and service are big issues for mission-critical environments such as the ones at BSkyB. G&D and Omnio Technologies are proud and pleased of BSkyB’s trust in being reliable partners for both their current and future needs.

Live at IBC 2011
Broadcast professionals are invited to meet the people behind Omnio Technologies and Guntermann & Drunck at this year’s IBC in Amsterdam, from 9th to 13th of September, hall 4, stand 4.B74