Systems Design & Installation

A number of examples but not exclusively are:

Tender for the Provision of Video Camera Systems - Unattended Broadcast - UK Parliament

Bow Tie television was invited to tender against a number of systems installations companies for the provision of this ground breaking contract. We were successful and are close to completing the second stage. We have now completed the installation and commission of ten committee rooms in Parliament with unique, bespoke, robotic camera systems to significantly increase the committee coverage available on the web.

The project was to design a system that takes the Glensound audio from initially six committee rooms and use the instructions relating to the microphones that open (when a contributor speaks) to control the position and shots of robotic cameras, and then cut these shots to air.

Point-to-point broadcast signal distribution network for the COI

Design, manufacture, installation and support of a broadcast signal distribution system in Central London. Involving: multiple Microwave RF links, Laser signal links, vision and audio routers, remote switching and system interrogation, and interfaces to different users' in-house systems.

Caption insertion onto broadcast signal distribution

Design, build and install a live captioning system for parliamentary signal distribution. Data streams from PCs in offices and control rooms are fed to a bank of teletext encoders via timer-controlled switches. The multiple outgoing feeds then have appropriate and synchronous metadata associated with each channel, which is decoded by users as required. This system operates 24/7, the only human interface being the director or assistant who calls up pre-loaded text, or adds information live.

Webcast Encoders for Parliament

Design and install an encoder installation for live streaming of parliamentary vision & audio signals, in both SDI and PAL formats. This involved supplying 20 PCs equipped with high quality encoder cards, plus routers, hubs, and full monitoring facilities. This was housed in 2 purpose-built bays and interfaced to the existing parliamentary televising infrastructure. Since the install in Summer 2003, this encoder system has run unattended and has proved very robust in the live streaming operation.

Televising Courts pilot project, Royal Courts of Justice

Project start and finish dates: Oct - Dec 2004

Design, install and operate a temporary system to pilot the televising of the proceedings of the UK Courts of Appeal. The design and installation had to take great care with the historic and highly valued fabric of the Royal Courts of Justice buildings in The Strand, London. Remote-controlled cameras, TV cables and a temporary control room were installed professionally and unobtrusively, to the complete satisfaction of the Royal Courts' staff.