ATG Broadcast Awarded Major Media Training Facility Contract

ATG Broadcast has commenced work on a £1.3M contract from De Montfort University.
The project includes installing, configuring and commissioning a large multidefinition video production facility, technical control room, dedicated video and audio analysis laboratories, two sound studios, four self-op radio studios, a radio control room, plus a highly advanced virtual-reality and fused-media laboratory.
Founded in 1992, De Montfort University has two campuses: Leicester City Campus and Charles Frears. The new installation will form the heart of the Creative Technology Studios at the Leicester City Campus, including three media production classrooms, one equipped with 21 workstations to give students experience in using the latest HD video and audio production software. Each of the other two media-production classrooms will accommodate eight workstations, one being dedicated to Mac-based audio and video production, and the other dedicated to PC-based audio and video production.
A music studio and audio dubbing studio are also being installed. Each of these will have two independent control rooms allocated to sound recording and offline post production respectively. Equipment will be varied between locations, maximising student exposure to multiple brands of hardware and software.
A radio studio with four self-op presentation desks wil be equipped, feeding a control room linked in turn to an FM transmitter for campus-wide broadcasting.
Technical measurement and QA tuition will be given in a new laboratory specialising in video analysis plus a separate laboratory for audio analysis.
"The objective is to create a facility which accurately reflects a modern production house," comments Chris Wyatt, Technical Manager at De Montfort University's Faculty of Computing Sciences and Engineering. "This will include HD and SD editing, networked online
and archiving servers, file-based workflow and media asset management. The entire installation will be integrated with a large media store enabling collaborative projects to be undertaken with project data accessible from any machine within the facility."
ATG Broadcast is also equipping the Creative Technology Studios to provide courses and research in 3D stereoscopic capture and display as well as motion capture, gaze-tracking, pressure-sensing and virtual-reality. A volumetric display, likely to be the first of its kind in Europe, will form an important element of this area.
The De Montfort University contract was put out to competitive tender and awarded to ATG Broadcast by the European office of Shen Milsom Wilke. Installation begins early July for completion prior to the commencement of the next academic year in September.
(DS)