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Danmon Group UK to Promote Full Range of Systems Integration and Support Services at IBC 2022

Danmon Group UK to Promote Full Range of Systems Integration and Support Services at IBC 2022

Letchworth, UK, August 24th, 2022: Danmon Group UK will promote its full range of systems integration services at IBC 2022 (Amsterdam RAI, September 9th-12th) as part of the Danmon Group exhibition on stand 8.B51. These include consultancy, project planning, workflow design, system installation, testing and commissioning, documentation, training and technical support.

"A lot of operational and technical innovation has taken place across the media market during the three year gap since the last IBC," says Jonathan Hughes, Head of Systems Integration. "We are seeing a strong resurgence of investment in every category from broadcast right through to the educational, corporate, live-events and multimedia sectors. A significant trend is the growing interest in the NDI protocol which makes IP live production more cost-effective and versatile than ever. Another is the increasing refinement, compactness and affordability of virtual studio technology made possible by latest-generation graphic rendering systems. The transition from HD to UHD continues along with growing recognition that HDR is progressing from aspirational to routine."

Danmon Group UK projects in recent months include a studio control room upgrade for one of the UK's most prestigious broadcasters. "A key challenge, and by no means an uncommon one, was the need to ensure that the upgrade could be completed without impacting the facility's daily schedule," adds Howard Dixon, Project Manager. "We were able to perform a complete changeover across a weekend prior to the new system going live on the Monday morning."

New studio facilities were also provided at the London premises of one of the world's most active financial management services. The project centred on the design and construction of a fully-featured UHD virtual production facility. It included three UHD pan/tilt/zoom cameras and an Danmon Group UK-designed green screen virtual production set.

A multi-camera studio and control room upgrade to full UHD vision, routing, recording, monitoring and archiving was completed for That Lot, one of Europe's leading providers of social media content production support. This project coincided with the relocation of That Lot's London headquarters to new premises. A full-colour LED-backlit cyclorama is incorporated to achieve sharp chroma-key superimposition over any background. 360 degree surround video and audio capture can also be performed if required.

An IP-linked multi-camera studio was created for the German branch of an internationally active provider of investment services. Situated in Frankfurt Rhein-Main, it allows fully remote operation from the company's London headquarters. The studio is used for internal and external communication and podcasting as well as allowing the company to participate in finance-related interviews and presentations for broadcast TV channels around the world. It is based on the remote-contribution model which has been standard broadcast practice for decades, in this case using latest-generation NDI IP.

Broadcast television production facilities were completed for one of the world's largest and longest established global news agencies. The project included the design and integration of two new studios plus associated galleries and a master control room. Cable prefabrication was performed at Danmon Group UK's Letchworth headquarters prior to the onsite build. Equipment installed included cameras, power-efficient LED lighting, Ross routing and RTS talkback.

A large-scale upgrade to the news production and editing resources at the headquarters of Alaraby Television in London's Park Royal was completed. Work is meanwhile nearing completion at one of Britain's largest universities, sustaining Danmon Group UK's long experience in the higher education sector as well as the broadcast mainstream.

Danmon Group UK (www.atgdanmon.co.uk), part of the Danmon Group, is an international systems integrator and a world-class supplier of broadcast systems planning, design, installation and commissioning services. Customers include some of the world’s largest television and multimedia networks. Danmon Group UK is also active in the educational and corporate sectors. The company has partnered with many clients in the construction of IT-based automated file workflow systems, high-definition studios, master control rooms and playout facilities, as well as the upgrade of existing SD systems to HD and UHD. With offices in Asia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the Danmon Group (www.danmon.com) thinks globally and acts locally to support customers with its highly experienced sales and engineering teams.

Contacts for further information

Danmon Group UK: Jonathan Hughes
Email: jonathan.hughes@atgdanmon.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

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Danmon Group UK Completes Control Suite Upgrade for ITN Productions

Danmon Group UK Completes Control Suite Upgrade for ITN Productions

London, UK, September 1st, 2022: Danmon Group UK announces the completion of a studio control room upgrade for ITN at their Gray's Inn Road, London, headquarters. The project included the integration of a latest-generation production switcher, control surface and production server. Transition to the new system was completed over a single weekend to ensure continuity of the facility's daily transmission schedule.

"The ITN engineering and production teams decided to replace a legacy vision switcher and related equipment with a latest generation Ross Carbonite Black vision control platform, TouchDrive operating panel, Abekas Tria Express Duet server and Ultrix router," comments Jonathan Hughes, Danmon Group UK Head of Systems Integration. "A key challenge was the need to ensure that the upgrade could be completed without impacting the facility's normal schedule which in this case included daily news presentations plus Monday through Friday magazine shows.

"As a Ross Diamond Elite partner, we were able to design, deliver, integrate and commission a complete system plus ancillary equipment. Production requirements included the ability for the switcher to interact with the control systems. Graphic cues and spot-on audio cues are controlled directly from the vision switcher which is linked to the sound desk. The vision switcher also interfaces to Avid iNews Command automation for clip replay, allowing the production team to set up and build the shows.

"Based on our long experience of time-critical projects, we pre-installed and tested the complete system into an onsite development environment so that daily studio and control-room operations could proceed without interruption. The development area was also used for preliminary operator familiarisation.

"We were then able to perform a complete changeover on a Saturday followed by full testing and in-situ training on the Sunday prior to the new system going live on the Monday morning. Everything went fully to plan. The new infrastructure is future proof and can be upgraded from HD to UHD and SDR to HDR if or when required."

The Ross Carbonite Black vision control platform incorporates four independent media player channels which are available switcher-wide. Stills, logos and animated graphics are played out from on-board memory and can be loaded via USB storage devices. The attached TouchDrive control panel incorporates 25 crosspoint buttons on a 15.6 inch touch screen plus three mix/effects control rows. Operators can enable functions such as panel mapping without having to step through menus. Selected menus are complemented with touch gestures.

The Ross Abekas Tria Express Duet production server can store over 38 hours of HD 1080/59.94i video at 100 Mbit/s with up to eight tracks of digital audio embedded in each video channel.

Occupying 2U, the Ross Ultrix router includes 16 × 16 HD BNC plus two auxiliary I/O ports, expandable to 72 x 72. The integral Ultrimix allows routing, mixing and processing of all embedded audio inputs plus the ability to support up to 512 x 512 discrete mono audio inputs.

ITN (www.itn.co.uk) has been one of the UK's foremost television production and news organisations for over 67 years. Combining cutting-edge technology and innovation with expert story-telling flair and energy, ITN is recognised globally for its quality, integrity and creativity. ITN makes the award-winning daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, providing comprehensive and impartial news to the British public and reaching millions of viewers every day, as well as television production; sports; advertising; corporate films; education content; entertainment and news footage syndication; and post-production. Each year ITN produces over 650 hours of non-news unscripted content for UK and International broadcasters including ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, the BBC, Netflix, Discovery, Amazon and NBC. ITN's programmes have won hundreds of major awards over the last decade, including Emmy Awards, Baftas and RTS Awards. Documentaries Watani: My Homeland and For Sama were both nominated for Academy Awards.

Danmon Group UK (www.atgdanmon.co.uk), part of the Danmon Group, is an international systems integrator and a world-class supplier of broadcast systems planning, design, installation and commissioning services. Customers include some of the world’s largest television and multimedia networks. Danmon Group UK is also active in the educational and corporate sectors. The company has partnered with many clients in the construction of IT-based automated file workflow systems, high-definition studios, master control rooms and playout facilities, as well as the upgrade of existing SD systems to HD and UHD. With offices in Asia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the Danmon Group (www.danmon.com) thinks globally and acts locally to support customers with its highly experienced sales and engineering teams.

Contacts for further information

Danmon Group UK: Jonathan Hughes
Email: jonathan.hughes@atgdanmon.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

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Danmon Group UK Designs and Integrates Latest-Generation Newsroom and Edit Suites for Alaraby Television

Danmon Group UK Designs and Integrates Latest-Generation Newsroom and Edit Suites for Alaraby Television

Accompanying images show Studios 1 and 2 at Alaraby Television’s newly upgraded London headquarters.

London, UK, August 3rd, 2021 -  Danmon Group UK announces the completion of a large-scale upgrade to the news production and editing facilities at the London headquarters of Alaraby Television. Based in Park Royal, Alaraby broadcasts via satellite to viewers throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, as well as globally via cable and online.

"News and documentary programmes form a core part of our output," comments Ali Husseini, director of broadcast operations & visuals at Alaraby. "Key objectives were to advance our news reporting, ingest, production and playout systems to latest-generation workflow, allowing staff at our headquarters and around the world to operate with maximum efficiency and creativity as a unified team. Our legacy infrastructure remained active until the new system was fully commissioned so that editors and their production colleagues could transition as easily as possible."

 

“Alaraby selected us to design, engineer and integrate a complete system from content acquisition right through to presentation," adds Danmon Group UK project manager Howard Dixon. "The front end comprises 12 channels of news ingest capturing to a dedicated server with proxy file-generation capability. This feeds through to a 75-client news production platform with full asset management resources, 120 terabytes of production storage and cloud-connected browsing. Studio playout is fully automated and includes a multichannel MPEG gallery playout server. The graphics system provides a range of image generation capabilities including a scrolling text news ticker, virtual studio generation plus a video wall feed. We were also commissioned to upgrade eight craft edit suites, replacing a third-party installation with latest-generation Avid editors, plus network switching and transcoding."

Danmon Group UKworked across the production control gallery and master control room, providing cabling, racks and interfaces where necessary. A new data centre was equipped which could be operated alongside the channel's existing data centre during the transition to the new system. This included designing and integrating KVM control interfaces allowing newsroom and edit suite operators to switch between the legacy and latest-generation systems.

"As is normal on projects of this kind, we partnered closely with Alaraby's management team and studio staff to ensure that full broadcast continuity was maintained throughout the entire process of upgrading," adds ATG Danmon managing director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "Programme rehearsal, live presentation, post production and playout all proceeded as normal throughout the upgrade. Much of the installation work was performed at night so that studio operation could proceed without disturbance. Precautions were also taken to ensure Covid-19 safeguarding."

About Alaraby Television

Part of the Fadaat Media network, Alaraby Television (www.alaraby.com) launched in January 2015. It broadcasts a variety of programmes and news shows in Arabic, focusing on news, politics  and culture. Based at headquarters in London, the channel has regional centres in Beirut, Doha and Tunis, in addition to offices in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Palestine (Ramallah and Gaza and Jerusalem), Russia, the United States and Yemen. These and other offices are supported by more than 60 correspondents around the world. Alaraby programmes are supplemented by an online web service including on-demand video. Alaraby Television broadcasts can be viewed via satellite and via various regional service providers. Live broadcasts can also be seen via the Alaraby website or using smartphone applications.

Contacts for further information

Danmon Group UK: Russell Peirson-Hagger

Email: russell.peirson-hagger@atgdanmon.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

Danmon Group United Kingdom, Unit 5, Oakfield Business Corner, Works Road, Letchworth SG6 1FB, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444
Fax: +44 (0)1462 485 777

Web: www.atgdanmon.co.uk/ | Twitter: @ATGDanmon

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Danmon Group UK Completes Studio Relocation and Modernisation for International News Agency

Danmon Group UK Completes Studio Relocation and Modernisation for International News Agency

Multiscreen_Display_and_Opereational_ATG
Accompanying image shows the multiscreen display and operational desks for master control.


London, UK, February 3th, 2021
– Danmon Group UK (www.atgdanmon.co.uk) announces the completion of new broadcast television production facilities for one of the largest and longest established global news agencies. The project included the design and integration of two new studios plus associated galleries and a master control room.

"This assignment coincided with a relocation to new premises in London's Canary Wharf financial hub," says Danmon Group UK Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "The new studios form the UK core of a global service the agency offers to television and radio broadcasters in addition to its role as an international news provider. We partnered closely with the studio management team from the initial design phase through to system completion, testing and staff training. Cable prefabrication was performed at our Letchworth headquarters prior to the onsite build. New equipment installed included power-efficient LED lighting, Ross routing and RTS talkback. We also integrated cameras from the agency's former location."

"We have installed a 12G SDI routing core which is configured for HD but can also handle UHD if required at any time in the future," adds Danmon Group UK Head of Systems Integration Jonathan Hughes. "At its core are a latest-generation Ross Ultrix router and Ross Carbonite Ultra vision mixer which we recommended to replace ageing third-party equipment. Representatives from the agency came with us to Ross Video's UK facility in Reading and were greatly impressed by the demonstration. Carbonite is an HDR-capable 3 M/E UHD mixer with a versatile control panel and a very compact processor. We have also upgraded the graphics and character generation to a Ross XPression which supports perspective-based image manipulation and real-time animation. This includes a MOS software gateway with an offline render engine."

Audio infrastructure includes Dante audio-over-IP networking which Danmon Group UK recommended and integrated. This is bridged to the Ultrix router which performs the embedding and distribution switching. ATG Danmon upgraded the intercom system to an RTS Odin which can handle up to 128 ports in a single 1 U chassis with support for up to eight such units.

Being very news focused, the agency has many incoming audio contribution feeds so Danmon Group UK integrated a SIP-based server from Broadcast Bionics with Dante emerging from the other side. This is currently configured for eight lines which are used for IFB talkback and contribution to live on-air shows.

For the Studio A gallery, Danmon Group UK integrated a main production desk with an embedded Ross Carbonite Ultra. Behind this is a journalist desk with Avid iNews terminals and Autocue teleprompt control. Both desks face a wall-mounted array of NEC UHD video monitors in multiscreen configuration. A desk with an integrated Allen & Heath audio mixer was also populated and connected into the system. This faces a NEC multi-screen monitor.

Studio B is the smaller of the two studios. For its production gallery, Danmon Group UK integrated a desk equipped for graphics, vision mixing, newsroom-computer and Panasonic robotic camera control. An audio mixer is located on the right. The monitor wall display has essentially the same configuration as that in the Studio A production gallery.

The project was completed on schedule and within budget.

Contacts for further information

Danmon Group UK: Russell Peirson-Hagger

Email: russell.peirson-hagger@atgdanmon.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

Danmon Group United Kingdom, Unit 5, Oakfield Business Corner, Works Road, Letchworth SG6 1FB, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

Fax: +44 (0)1462 485 777

Web: www.atgdanmon.co.uk/ | Twitter: @ATGDanmon

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Danmon Group UK Builds UHD Video Production Studios for Fidelity International

Danmon Group UK Builds UHD Video Production Studios for Fidelity International


Accompanying images show Studio 1 at Fidelity International in London with its dynamic rear screen plus the production control gallery. 

Danmon Group UK announces the completion of a UHD video production facility for the London headquarters of Fidelity International. The project was prompted by Fidelity's recent relocation to a new office building at 4 Cannon Street in the centre of the city's financial district.

"As a flagship location, the Cannon Street office needed to be a future-focused space," says Adam Sheldrake, Head of Studios at Fidelity International. "Good communication is essential to our business so we make full use of video media for internal communication, podcasting and participation in finance-related broadcasts. Danmon Group UK has worked very successfully with us in projects at our previous London headquarters as well as designing and equipping studios at our Hong Kong offices. I have always been happy with what they have provided and how they have supported us. They responded to a proposal based on our initial specification but, because of their experience in past projects for us, were able to suggest a more cost-effective approach which also provided more functionality and included kit of superior specification. The result meets our highest expectations."

"We have designed, integrated and configured a full TV studio and production control gallery plus a podcast studio with its dedicated control room, edit suites and a green room," adds Danmon Group UK Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "The project also included cabling through from the control areas to a technical apparatus room."

"The TV studio, Studio 1, is equipped with three broadcast-quality Blackmagic Ursa UHD cameras including Fuji lenses. These were chosen on the basis of their excellent value in terms of price and performance. Three of the cameras are mounted on Vinten robotic pedestals. Additional studio facilities include Kino-Flo and Dedolight luminaires, Autoscript on-camera prompting and Sennheiser wireless lavalier microphones. The studio backdrops are from Cirro Lite, mounted on Doughty supports. Audio monitoring is via Genelec powered loudspeakers."

"We have also installed a Panasonic UHD camera equipped with remote pan/tilt/zoom control. This can be used to capture wide angle or closeup images from a high, medium or low viewpoint to supplement the main studio cameras. An additional Panasonic camera with remote pan/tilt/zoom control is located in an outdoor housing on the roof to capture views of the City of London, primarily for use as scenery wall displays behind the studio participants. This level of robotic control allows the production process to be controlled very creatively and efficiently."

"At the core of the Studio 1 production control gallery is a Blackmagic ATEM UHD switcher with advanced chroma key capabilities that can be used to deliver a wide range of graphic effects. We have also integrated powerful titling software which can accept still or moving content in various industry standard file formats. Recording is to a Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio 12G capable of operating at up to 2160p60 UHD resolution over a single cable. This is supplemented by Apple iMac Pro graphics, a Yamaha QL1 audio mixing console and a Custom Consoles main control desk. We also recommended and integrated Custom Consoles MediaWall multiscreen video display mounting grids."

"The podcast studio, Studio 2, is fully equipped with lighting and prompting plus a Panasonic remote pan/tilt/zoom camera. The podcast control room has similar facilities to the Studio 1 production gallery, including a Black magic ATEM UHD vision mixer, a HyperDeck Studio 12G recorder, Autoscript prompting and a Custom Consoles control desk.

"For the green room, used primarily by guests prior to their studio appearance, we have integrated a 55 inch UHD video display with Genelec loudspeakers and RTS room-to-room audio communications."

"Much of the detailed processing equipment is housed in the primary technical room which includes Axon glue, Ross distribution amplifiers, Unifi networking, SNS EVO storage servers, a Quantum tape library with LTO-8 drives, Ross routing and NTP DAD audio interfaces."

"In summary, we have been able to deliver a sensibly costed and versatile production facility of very high quality, complete with staff training and all supporting documentation. We are confident that this system will have a long working life."

April 14th, 2020

About Danmon Group UK

Danmon Group UK (www.atgdanmon.co.uk), part of the Danmon Group (www.danmon.com), has been at the forefront of the transition to the file-based technology now used throughout the broadcast media industry. It has also assisted many clients in the construction of IT-based automated file workflow systems, high-definition studios, master control rooms and playout facilities, as well as the upgrade of existing SD systems to HD and UHD.

Danmon Group UK also offers a comprehensive range of products and services including transcoding and automated workflow management, accelerated global file transfer, media workflow-design, project-planning, equipment installation, software-configuration, commissioning, documentation, on-site training plus ongoing support and maintenance.

With offices in Asia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the Danmon Group thinks globally and acts locally to support customers with its highly experienced sales and engineering teams.

Contacts for further information

Danmon Group UK: Russell Peirson-Hagger

Email: russell.peirson-hagger@atgdanmon.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

Danmon Group United Kingdom, Unit 5, Oakfield Business Corner, Works Road, Letchworth SG6 1FB, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444

Fax: +44 (0)1462 485 777

Web: www.danmon.com

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Danmon Group UK Completes New HD/UHD Production System for That Lot

Danmon Group UKCompletes New HD/UHD Production System for That Lot

Danmon Group UK announces the completion of a broadcast-quality production facility for the London headquarters of That Lot, one of Europe's leading providers of social media content production support. Core of this project is a multi-camera studio plus a fully equipped control room including lighting, vision and audio mixing, routing, recording, monitoring and archiving.

"Working with Danmon Group UK, we have been able to create the most flexible possible system for use across our wide range of creative services," comments Ben Forder, Head of Video at That Lot. "The new studio and its control suite enable us to offer our clients versatile resources for creating broadcast-quality content for a wide range of media applications."

"A full-colour back-lit LED cyclorama, which we believe is the first of its kind in Europe, provides sharp chroma-key superimposition onto on any background. Lighting is from a ceiling-mounted rig which can be adjusted to get the exact style of illumination we need for live-streaming or recording sketches, scripted videos, interviews, podcasts, vodcasts and social media photoshoots. That includes 360 degree surround video and audio capture if specified."

"Danmon Group UK has also integrated a control room suite which is being used for live production and editing. External material can be sourced from wherever required or we can perform high quality production on location. The system is intuitive to operate which is especially important when working live, and highly versatile."

"This was a very pleasing project to work on, partnering with That Lot's very astute and focused production team," adds Danmon Group UK Managing Director Russell Peirson-Hagger. "The studio is equipped with Blackmagic Design URSA UHD cameras which can be operated in a wide range of lighting levels and are ideal both for studio and outdoor operation. Production mixing and internal signal distribution are via an ATEM Studio HD switcher and Smart Videohub UHD-capable router, capturing to Softron recorders and SNS EVO networked storage."

"We have also integrated Apple iMac Pro computers for post-production. Additional facilities include Cirro Lite lighting, multiscreen as well as individual video monitors, a studio floor monitor, green room monitor, Allen & Heath digital audio mixer, a Custom Consoles control room desk and Sonifex talkbacks."

Contact for further information:

Danmon Group UK
Russell Peirson-Hagger
Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444
russell.peirson-hagger@atgdanmon.co.uk

Address:

Danmon Group UK
Unit 5, Oakfield Business Corner, Works Road, Letchworth SG6 1FB, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1462 485 444
Fax: +44 (0)1462 485 777
Web: www.danmon.com