dB Broadcast Completes New TV Studios for Berkeley Studios International

The new facility at Park Royal in London comprises two brand new studio facilities, successfully converted from four industrial units. As well as two large multi-camera studios (144m² and 125m²), there are two small news inject studios, three post production edit suites, MCR and transmission control rooms and a further three edit suites to be fitted out when required.

The core video and audio systems content are produced using HD-SDI, AES and MADI. This decision was motivated by the wish to utilise existing HD equipment. However, the opportunity to achieve 4K video was also important, so the latest iteration of SDI was deployed, capable of handling 12Gbps data on a single coaxial cable. 

This was made possible with a system that is self-contained, and designed with the shortest distances between the core equipment, studios and control rooms. Ross was chosen as the primary equipment supplier of the broadcast and automation systems, using openGear hardware with their Ultrix router and Carbonite vision mixer products, all capable of supporting 12G-SDI.

The newsroom, along with the production and sound galleries, were designed to be an attractive and functional backdrop for the studio to be seen by viewers of the news channel. The studio includes an impressive 8 metre video wall.

The apparatus room comprises 18 equipment racks containing all the central broadcast and core IT hardware. A satellite up/down link station was installed with a roof mounted three metre dish and ten receive channels.

As extensive construction work was being carried out on the site, dB arranged for the construction of the apparatus area and control rooms was completed early, enabling dB to start the technical fit out in these ‘clean’ areas.

“Our guiding philosophy is to build trust through establishing strong relationships between our project team, the client teams and other contractors such as builders, striving to achieve seamless integration”, said Tom Swan, Sales and Marketing Director at dB Broadcast.

“This was a complex project that pushed SDI to its limit”, said Yasser Youssef, Project Manager and CTO at BSI. “dB Broadcast worked with us to create a high performance system capable of taking us into 4K broadcasting, yet building on our existing expertise and resource profile.”