Australian Broadcaster Purchases Three Quantel Servers

SBS, Australia’s national multilingual broadcaster, has purchased three of Quantel’s Enterprise sQ server based HD production systems for its operations in Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne.

The Enterprise sQ systems will handle SBS’s in-house news, sports, and current affairs programing production needs. Scheduled to go on air by mid 2010, the Quantel systems will help SBS complete a total renovation of all its video production engineering facilities as part of the broadcaster’s transition to a multi-platform, multi-resolution outfit.

“SBS has spent the last five years working towards reinventing its workflows and refreshing its technology for the move to a fully file-based SD/HD facility that integrates into the multi-platform world,” says Paul Broderick, SBS Director Technology & Distribution. “The Quantel system fits perfectly with our aims and we are particularly impressed with its integration to Final Cut Pro.”

Sydney is home to the largest installation, with 800 hours of shared HD/SD storage and  33 of Quantel sQ View and sQ Cut journalist desktop editors as well as four sQ Edit and four sQ Edit Plus craft editors. Also connected will be four Apple Final Cut Pros, which share the same workflow as the Quantel editors. Quantel Mission provides the full raft of media asset management facilities to every workstation.

“We are proud to be working with such as forward-thinking organisation as SBS,” said Jon Sharp, Quantel Regional Sales Manager. “We were able to meet SBS’s workflow needs as it transitions to a fully tapeless, integrated, multi-platform production environment, and also to achieve their dream of a totally integrated platform across Quantel and Final Cut Pro editors.”

Melbourne and Canberra will each be home to a smaller Enterprise sQ server system, each with sQ Cut and sQ Edit workstations and a single Final Cut Pro.