UK-based systems integrator, dB Broadcast, has started work on a new world-class broadcast facility for BBC Wales. This project will provide the TV and media facilities at a new building in central Cardiff, which will be a new  broadcast centre for BBC Cymru Wales. This will reportedly be the first BBC facility to use Internet Protocol (IP) technology across both its production and broadcast operations.

The new BBC Wales building will include a number of TV studios and media production facilities, as well as radio which forms a separate project. dB Broadcast won this integration project through a competitive tendering process, and plans to complete the work in 2019. dB and BBC Wales are working with Canadian company Grass Valley on the implementation of the Live IP system.

The project includes four workstreams: broadcast infrastructure, media production, TV studios and TV playout. The BBC Wales project is adopting an IP core for signal routing based on the SMPTE 2110 standards and AMWA/NMOS for Control.

BBC Wales is moving to a building in the centre of Cardiff . The new broadcast centre will have space for around 1,200 staff, and the new technology deployed reportedly offers simpler production for multiple and new platforms, with less time wasted converting between different video or audio formats.

“This new centre will give us a greater level of creative freedom than we’ve ever had before”, said Gareth Powell, Chief Operating Officer of BBC Wales. “We want to harness the benefits of IP technology to provide the best possible tools to our content makers, and to free them from many of the historical constraints we’ve faced at our current HQ.”

Commenting on the project, Tom Swan, Sales & Marketing Director of dB Broadcast, said: “dB is at the forefront of the industry transition to the use of IP in live, uncompressed video and audio systems. We have already delivered several large systems based on current or precursor standards such as ASPEN, Dante and SMPTE 2022.”