BSkyB has awarded Grass Valley a contract to provide key live production tools for its new Harlequin 1 broadcast facility in West London.

The deal includes 20 LDK 8000 Elite WorldCam multi-format HD cameras and five Kayenne Video Production Centre vision mixers.

As well as providing Sky with the opportunity to upgrade its entire technical infrastructure, the Harlequin 1 project has been designed to make the broadcaster more green.

“One of our main goals for Harlequin 1 was to reduce our environmental footprint with efficient technologies that significantly reduce the overall power consumption of the technical facilities, while still delivering the best picture and sound quality possible to our viewers,” said Troy Smith, director of broadcast services for BSkyB.

Harlequin 1 (pictured) will provide studios, technical support and operational space for Broadcast Operations, Sky Sports and Broadcast Services.

For content delivery, it will serve as a central platform for the control and monitoring of programming output including encryption, compression and playout.

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