PBDS UK AND SHS MULTIMEDIA TO INSTALL NEWS CENTRE

CENTER TV Moscow, one of Russia's leading broadcasters, have awarded Professional & Broadcast Digital Systems UK (PBDS) and SHS Multimedia (Italy) a major turnkey project worth over $15 million.
The project involves the design and installation of a state-of-the-art television news centre in Moscow that is scheduled to go on-air in 2002.
The contract for one of the most advanced digital television projects will include: a major news complex; digital archiving system; four multi-camera studios - two with a Virtual Reality capability; an Internet complex as well as transmission facilities.
On the project PBDS are responsible for the television infrastructure with SHS providing the information technology integration including software.
A key feature of the project is a server-based newsroom system controlled by the Pazap ark-e-media Content Management and Digital Archiving system.
The ark-e-media system will manage the process from ingestion of material, production, archiving to playout. With standard web browser interface, it will enable journalists to access, browse, edit and review material on the system both in the news centre and remotely via PCs and laptops.
For the Center TV complex, a fully redundant dual loop Leitch VR-440 Server System with a storage area network (SAN) using both DVCPRO and DVCPRO50 compression will provide more than 230 hours of storage. Post production is provided by Leitch Newsflash II non-linear editors with direct access to the storage area network. The system includes the development of four multi-camera studios (two of which have Virtual Reality capability), as well as newsroom facilities and post production suites.
The four multi-camera studios will utilise Ikegami HL-45A camera channels. Each studio is to be fully capable of producing both news and magazine-style programming.
The digital vision system chosen is based on the Philips 24-channel DD-35 with Scitex digital effects. Audio production is performed using a Soundcraft B800 mixer.
The complete system is under the control of the Pazap ark-e-media system which includes complete integration with the SHS Multimedia Digital Archive System, Internet ready Dynamic Hierarchical Storage Management (i-DHSM).
An important feature of the system is its Cyrillic language support as part of a multi-language capability.
A library system interfaces with the broadcast server providing seamless recording and replay of the DVCPRO files. (CD)