FOX Networks Engineering & Operations Expands HD Capabilities with Quantel

FOX Networks Engineering & Operations (NE&O), which provides technology and services to FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG), has chosen Quantel Enterprise sQ technology to power its expansion. The new HD system will also enable FSMG to cover more events and offer new services.

The new HD system went live on in September when a total of 37 major sporting events were recorded and broadcast, including 15 NFL games, and an amazing 12,000+ HD clips were created and published.

The continued expansion into HD will ultimately allow FSMG to cover most of its sports production requirements from a single integrated Quantel platform whether broadcast in SD or HD. This includes the network’s coverage of Major League Baseball, College and NFL Football as well as FSN’s (FOX Sports Net) coverage of multiple sports year round.

The new Enterprise sQ HD equipment includes 50 TBytes of on-line storage, six sQ View and three sQ Edit applications and a further 14 Media Viewers for Dixon loggers. Finally, in a joint development with FOX, Quantel has supplied its new sQ Play ‘LiveTouch’ control with integrated jog/shuttle panel. This provides FOX with the ability to mark, clip and re-play to air action from a game within seconds of it happening.

“FOX Sports Media Group is renowned for the quality of its programming and we’re obviously delighted that it has chosen to drive its migration to HD with Quantel technology,” said Martin Mulligan, Quantel sales and marketing director. “To win this business, we needed to demonstrate not only speed to air and highest quality image handling, but also that our solution could fully integrate workflows across the whole operation to provide a seamless network environment between all departments.”