The challenge

Arab Radio Television Corporation (ART), is one of the leading Arabic pay TV & entertainment content providers. With headquarters in Saudi Arabia & major transmission facilities in Jordan & Italy, ART produces Arabic-language family dramas, documentaries & live sports programs to a global audience. In late 2006, the Corporation won an exclusive contract to broadcast Saudi Arabian football championship matches, which required the speedy expansion of their existing fleet of outside broadcast vehicles, together with trained staff to operate them.  The vehicles had to be suitable for use in the arid Saudi climate, & were also required to be affordably upgradable to HD operation in the near future.

The solution

MHz understood ART’s urgent need for a swiftly deployed solution, & quickly delivered plans for two future-proof ‘HD-ready’ SD uplink vehicles, designed to operate in high temperatures & resistant to airborne sand & dust. The plans included HD-capable components for all of the most important aspects of the vehicles’ infrastructure, including Leitch HD/SD 8x8 routers, BES 2x24 HD video jackfields, Marshall HD-capable TFT video monitors & high-definition Evertz distribution amplifiers & cabling, in order that the any future HD upgrade would be cost-effectively implemented. The MHz team manufactured the vehicles in-house & trained ART’s engineers within the available timescale of ten weeks, ensuring that they were ready to begin transmission of the championship matches on time.

Why MHz?

According to ART’s Director of Engineering, Hassan Merei, the Corporation chose MHz for two reasons. Firstly, thanks to its efficiently integrated in-house design & coach-building teams, MHz has an established track record of delivering well-engineered vehicles within tight deadlines. Speedy deployment was an essential business requirement for ART, saving them the high cost of hiring in vehicles from abroad to handle the football coverage. Secondly, MHz’s quote for the HD-upgradable uplinks was itself very competitive. When MHz delivered the first two uplink vehicles on time & on budget, ART contracted the team to produce a further three vehicles to the same design — testimony to their confidence & satisfaction in MHz as an SI partner.

Business Benefits

• Speedy deployment. Time is money & MHz’s in-house design & coach-building facilities can meet very tight deadlines, saving on both.

• Futureproofing. MHz’s expert specialists will design with your future requirements in mind, helping to safeguard your investment in broadcast infrastructure & significantly reducing the cost of future upgrades.

• Seamless project management. MHz can act as the central point of contact for an entire end-to-end design, build & operational training process.
 

• Long-wheelbase VW Sprinter and lveco Daily 3.0 HPI vehicle chassis used
• Leitch HD/SD capable 8x8 router
• BES 24x2 HD jackfields
• Marshall HD LCD flat-screen monitors
• Evertz HD-capable video distribution amplifier & cabling