Twin Alphas are News to Sky
Sky Television continue their march towards a total digital infrastructure with the installation of two Calrec Alpha 100 digital consoles into brand new studios.
The 64 and 80 fader consoles will be used in Studio C and Studio A of Sky’s custom built News Production Centre, a totally new studio complex at its West London Studio Centre in Osterley. Studio C is used for the production of Channel 5 News; this is a new contract for Sky News and went on air in January 2005. Studio A will be the new main studio for Sky News and will go on air later this year.
"Studio A will be the new flagship studio for Sky News & will be on-air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," says Vaughan Rogers, Head of Sound Operations.
"Studio C is used for the News injects into Channel 5. These vary in length from 2 x 30 min Bulletins at 12.00 & 17.30 to short updates each hour.
"We have had a Sigma 100 in our Parliamentary studio for a couple of years now and it has proved to be utterly reliable and flexible, and the operators have found it very easy to use.
"The Sky news operation is a much bigger and more complex operation, so the Alpha seemed the obvious choice. Redundancy is also a major factor, particularly with the Sky News desk in live- on-air at all times."
Sky launched its broadcast service in February 1989 and is now watched in over seven million homes in the UK, providing a full range of News, Sports, Movies & general entertainment channels.
Sky are committed to launching a High Definition / 5.1 service in 2006.
