BBC World Service has selected Autoscript to provide systems and services for the new BBC Persian television channel. The free-to-air channel will launch early this year with a production facility modelled on the one built for BBC Arabic.
“Our experience of the Arabic development and review of proposals for Persian made Autoscript the right solution,” stated Andy Cooper, technology stream manager, Persian TV Project, Broadcast Technology Team. “It made sense to work with the same technology that had been proven previously. In terms of workflow though, it will be configured to meet the specific requirements of BBC Persian.”
A key difference is the specification for a dedicated Farsi speaking teleprompter to operate the Autoscript system which Autoscript are currently recruiting for.
Four TFT 17” on-air monitors have been supplied supplemented with the Windows-based +WinPlus+ prompting applications which works with all TrueType and Adobe fonts and with any language or character sets including Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hindi and Farsi.
For BBC Persian, it links directly into AP ENPS text newsroom computer system and an IBIS play-out automation platform.
Autoscript is providing additional operational support including a Farsi prompting specialist; a Autoscript RAT (receive and transmit) wireless scroll; and a wireless ‘Opto’ foot control that offers maximum precision for controlling scripts.
The studio and playout facility at Broadcasting House also features Omneon Spectrum Media Servers for ingest and playout and a DaletPlus News Suite media asset management system. The media produced will feed the TV channel and also be repurposed for output on the web and for radio broadcasts.
“The production platform for BBC Persian is tuned to the unique demands of the new service,” added Brian Larter, worldwide managing director, Autoscript.
