Sri Lanka’s Derana Taps Quantel for Fast-Turnaround News Production

Leading Sri Lanka free-to-air broadcaster, Derana, has purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround news and sports production system to produce hourly news bulletins. Based in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, Derana broadcasts two Sinhalese-language channels: TV Derana and Adaderana 24×7.

Derana’s Quantel system consists of around 300 hours of storage with file ingest handled by sQ Load. Journalists can review and select shots via five sQ Cut workstations. In addition, craft editing is handled by five sQ Edit desktop editors and two high-end Qube editors, with playout supported by Quantel’s sQ Play application. The system was installed and on air in less than three weeks.

“The transition to Quantel Enterprise sQ has been very smooth and we are very happy with the system, especially with the fantastic support we have received from Quantel’s training and installation teams,” says Madhawa Madawala, Executive Director and COO, Derana. “Enterprise sQ gives our editors a simple to use and consistent user interface; after just a few days training on the new system, our editors were already up to speed and creating news packages ready for air!

“I would also like to mention the fantastic support we have received from Quantel’s Julien James,” continues Madawala. “We had heard that Quantel systems are way beyond the reach of smaller nations like ours, but Julien has recommended the right products and workflow that is not only affordable, but the perfect fast-turnaround news production solution for Derana.”

Quantel and Snell CEO, Tim Thorsteinson, said, “Enterprise sQ is the perfect system choice for Derana TV, providing the team with the fastest and most efficient broadcast workflow in the industry.”