Grass Valley To Deliver New HD-Ready Production Infrastructure For Tunisia

Grass Valley has won a substantial contract to modernise the television infrastructure of la Télévision Tunisienne (TT), the public broadcaser in Tunisia.
The prime contract was awarded to Sumitomo Corporation, a leading general trading company, boasting 150 locations in 70 countries throughout the world.
Grass Valley is the exclusive broadcast partner to Sumitomo and is providing the systems design, integration and much of the equipment, as a sub-contractor.
An official spokesperson from TT said: "We entrusted Grass Valley to assist us in the achievement of our huge modernisation project as we prepare for high-definition and are pleased to partner with them.
Shindo Tachi, General Manager, Telecommunication Project Department of Sumitomo Corp, said: "For this contract it was vital we had a partner who could deliver the latest technology, had the skills to integrate equipment from multiple vendors and who was acceptable to TT.
"Throughout all the negotiations Grass Valley impressed us with their professionalism and attention to detail, and we are looking forward to seeing this project reach fruition."
The project will create a new high-definition (HD) production and playout centre. Included in the new facility will be a news studio and a virtual production studio; graphics, audio and video post production facilities; newsroom automation; two playout control rooms and a central apparatus room. Much of the interconnection between production, post and storage will be based on IT connectivity, with the Grass Valley K2 media server at the heart of the new facility.
The project also uses multiple Grass Valley Trinix and Concerto Series routers, together with a Jupiter control system. The two studios feature Grass Valley Kayak HD production switchers and the playout control rooms have the high-performance Grass Valley Maestro continuity/master control switchers.
The project is financed with a Japanese ODA (Official Development Assistance loan and includes additional third-party Japanese equipment. Grass Valley is providing all the systems integration to ensure that TT achieves the functionality it has specified. The contract also includes commissioning and training. The order was placed in September 2008. The completed project will be handed over to TT and on air within a year.
Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley, said: "Whatever the nature of the project, Grass Valley is always determined to match the user's requirements with the best solutions in the market. All our technology is built on open architectures, and where the nature of the contract requires us to use third-party products we have the systems integration skills to make it all work as seamlessly as possible. TT has been a good customer for decades now, and we are really pleased to be helping them move into the HD era."
Further information is available at: www.grassvalley.com.
(KMcA/BMcC)