Bel Sees Increased Middle East & Central Asia Monitoring

posted:

09/06/2014

The BM-A2-4HD is a high quality four channel 2U HD audio monitor, capable of monitoring the audio content of 3G, HD and SD SDI

Bel Digital Audio has recently seen an increase in orders from the Middle East and the emerging Central Asian Republics, with Qatar and Azerbaijan both having placed recent orders for their specialist broadcast monitors and digital delays. This appears to be part of a growing sales trend with more and more interest being generated from the emerging Central Asian region alongside the more well-established Gulf States and MEA more generally.

Aj Jazeera International in Doha recently created four new Final Cut Pro edit suites and specified Bel’s BM-A2-4SHD audio monitors for each of the suites via Omni Group, Bel’s dealer in Qatar. Whilst regional Azerbaijan broadcaster Xeyal TV has recently taken delivery of two Bel 7150 digital audio synchronisation delays and a pair of BCR-A1OB in-rack audio monitors, via Bel's Turkish distributor Idea Pro, for use in their newly built HD TV studios.

The BM-A2-4HD is a high quality four channel 2U HD audio monitor, capable of monitoring the audio content of 3G, HD and SD SDI bitstreams, plus AES/EBU and analogue audio sources. The unit accepts two SDI sources and automatically detects between 3G, HD and SD SDI, and extracts the audio content appropriately. This automatic operation results in a very simple setup procedure and a uncluttered and self-explanatory front panel. The units also have an audible and visual alarm which can detect out of phase signals, loss of audio or excessive levels.

Omni Group’s Sales Director, Mustapha Hallab said “When we were showing the options available to Al Jazeera, alongside the audible and visual alarm the simplicity of operation was an overriding factor in Al Jazeera’s decision to build the Bel units into their new edit suites.“

Xeyal TV in Azerbaijan was established 16 years ago and has just purchased Bel's 7150 audio synchronisation delay alongside two BCR-A1OB units. The 7150 was designed by Bel to be the perfect solution in situations when video processing introduces latency, resulting in a need to resynchronise the audio content - for example in Virtual Studios. The 7150 provides up to 10.4 seconds of delay in increments of samples, milliseconds, fields and frames and is Dolby transparent.

The BCR-A1OB is an analogue 2 channel 1U device and is only 200mm in depth so presents a high quality, compact audio monitoring solution where space is limited. It has a pair of analogue audio inputs on the rear permitting the two channels to be monitored as a stereo pair or as two independent channels. There are also two auxiliary ¾” jacks on the front panel enabling users to swiftly patch in signals to monitor. Audible monitoring is either via the pair of two-way magnetically screened speakers or by headphones using a jack socket all of which are located on the front panel.

Around 16% of broadcasts by Xeyal TV are domestic productions with the remaining material being produced outside the country. Of the programmes sourced abroad approximately 41% are English language and 59% other languages.