INC helps Al Jazeera overcome wireless dropouts
Published: MEA
QATAR: The Doha office of systems integrator INC Technologies has completed a project with Al Jazeera to solve the issues its Arabic news channel was having with wireless dropout for its microphone and IEM systems.
‘They suffered a lot from audio cutting on air, which was a big problem,’ explained Mohamed Makky, area sales manager for INC. ‘They are professional broadcasters and have high standards.’
The broadcaster invited tenders for its Studio 3 facility to provide wireless coverage to the broadcast studio, newsroom and mezzanine level. ‘We suggested Sennheiser because they have a large amount of experience with this type of application and they have a good reputation,’ said Mr Makky. ‘We proposed a solution based on a six antenna system which is distributed inside the studio and newsroom.’
INC worked with Sennheiser Middle East to put the proposal together, and this was accepted by the broadcaster. However, the project could not start immediately as the systems integrator needed to wait for the studio to be taken off air for a period before it could begin.
During a four day window the systems integrator installed the Evolution G3 wireless system in the rack room and positioned the antennas around the building. ‘We put two antennas in the studio, two in the large newsroom, another one in the mezzanine and one antenna for IEM,’ recalled Mr Makky. ‘We also put in boosters and antenna combiners and we had to use very good qualified antenna cable to reduce the losses.
‘The antenna can work now as main and standby systems. It is fully redundant. One antenna is enough, but for the system we have these features,’ he continued. ‘It was a very good result, it avoided all the problems they had before. There is no interference at all, the signal is powerful and accurate for both mics and IEM. We selected the best position for the antenna to cover the whole studio.’
Al Jazeera was clearly satisfied with the result. It has subsequently specified the same solution for a further project. ‘They liked the system and recommended it for another installation in Studio 2.’