THE THREE biggest television studios at the largest news organisation in the Netherlands have been upgraded to incorporate multi-screen display walls for media playback at ultra-high resolution. The solution to the high-stress signal distribution demand of this installation is provided by the x4 display wall controller from Datapath. The Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) has a statutory obligation to deliver independent and reliable output for three Dutch public television channels. Typical programmes include daily news bulletins, parliamentary reporting and the coverage of sports events. In early 2012, the NOS decided to implement a completely new house style and setting for all its news, sports and current affairs programmes. To best facilitate this decision, it organised a high profile design contest. The brief for the contest outlined the new way of news broadcasting that the NOS wanted to introduce: modern, dynamic and closer to the viewer. It was clear that such a transformation would entail the upgrade of various studios, making them capable of giving each programme a brand new style and identity. According to the NOS, the design project submitted by systems integrator Fisheye of Ghent, Belgium perfectly matched its perception of the news of the future. Supporting Fisheye on the NOS project was system technology specialist and studio integration consultant, Blinkblink, a Datapath distributor in the Benelux region. The company recently added to its technology portfolio by becoming a distributor of the Datapath x4 stand-alone display wall controller. “Looking at the project
brief, it was pretty tough to be honest,” says Blinkblink’s Owner and Managing Director, Kris Goubert. “Literally, the NOS wanted 12 x HD and said ‘can you deliver a solution?’ Of course, we had the Datapath x4 up our sleeve and knew this could match up to expectations.”
Wall-to-wall benefits The design proposed by Fisheye allowed for a surprisingly large
studio to be built in a small space. A stratified video rear wall, in (Continued p55)
A Datapath x4 is connected to each of the server’s outputs, providing a custom HD resolution of 3840x1080 at 50Hz