Some years ago VSC Design worked with Octagon CSI, a leading producer and distributor of televised sports and entertainment to build the company’s production facility in Wimbledon, south London.
Octagon CSI produces global programming for The English Football Association, including live transmitted FA Cup matches and England internationals to TV broadcasters, mobile and internet customers. It also produces and distributes live matches for the Coca-Cola Football League and Carling Cup as well as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
When BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services and Octagon CSI, decided to expand their strategic alliance to produce and distribute content for TV, mobile, internet and broadband – they required a new state-of-the-art post production facility to be build at the BT Tower in London.
They turned to VSC Design to build this new infrastructure at the BT Tower. While they wanted to use some of the existing components from the Wimbledon facility they wanted to expand on the capabilities of the facility. VSC Design completed the design and build in time to meet the deadline of the FA Cup first round last August.
The original Wimbledon facility was made up of four linear edit suites, four Avid edit suites, a Master Control Room (MCR) and a format dubbing suite. While the new bigger BT Tower facility housed two linear suites, an Avid Unity ISIS shared-storage and networking system for simultaneous sharing of all media and projects.
Feeds come into BT via the normal lines and are routed to this new facility where they can be cut into highlights packages or where for slow-mos can be prepared on the fly for instant replay. Material is distributed to worldwide broadcasters via satellite.
This new BT Tower facility built by VSC Design supports both BT and Octagon CSI to meet theincreasing demand for high-definition television content and high quality, digital programming, delivered over broadband channels and mobile devices. The alliance also adds value to rights owners and ensures that they can truly maximise their distribution options – and this facility will no doubt earn its weight in gold over time.
