Full service broadcasting solutions company WRN Broadcast has been a leader in its field for nearly twenty years. The company has recently made major investments in a new media centre as well as a recently opened Broadcast Data Centre and a media village that offers facilities and accommodation to media companies buying its services.

David Treadway, Managing Director, WRN Broadcast, comments, "We have seen considerable growth in our managed services business in the past eighteen months and have won a number of major client contracts. As a result, we've invested in a state of the art media centre in order to deliver the best available technology for our clients."

Some of the key components in the media centre are the Harmonic encoders and Evertz video routing and distribution units, all financed by Fineline. As an integral part of the WRN Broadcast facility this equipment has been used on two of the company's most recent projects: Top Up TV, and Zuku, the new multi-channel offering based in East Africa. Handling playout for both stations, including Zuku's HD channels,Treadway comments, "These are significant projects that put WRN Broadcast at the very forefront of the HD playout sector."

As well as investing in the latest technology WRN Broadcast cites its investment in people as a reason for its longevity and success; it has recently doubled the size of its ingest and MCR staff. "It's all about partnership between our staff and our clients. We work hard to understand their business and develop the most cost effective and technologically sound solutions," adds Treadway.

This partnership is one of the reasons that Treadway chose to work with Fineline, which came to his attention after reading a copy of Preview. "They responded quickly to our enquiry and worked with us to structure the best available options to suit our needs. We have developed an excellent working relationship with Fineline and look forward to that continuing."

Looking to the future, Treadway says, "We have set ourselves a challenging growth target for the year and are on course to exceed it, so it's all very exciting."

www.wrnbroadcast.com

One of the growing problems for newsgathering organisations around the world is that of access in the world's increasingly congested capital cities. Which is exactly where SNG Broadcast Services' newly-launched independent fixed receive network for COFDM wireless cameras in London comes in.

"Our usual business is operating uplink trucks and flyaway kits from difficult locations," comments SNG Commercial Manager, Francis Lovell. "And, over the past decade, with the increase in live coverage, central London has increasingly become one of those difficult places to operate with a SNG uplink."

The system, which according to company MD, Ken Suckling, represents a "substantial" investment, was devised with the assistance of Link Research, which first developed the concept of Cellular Diversity for wireless cameras in city centres in 2005. Essentially, the network is based around fibre inject points across central London with a COFDM receive hub in a high building near the London Eye, and allows camera crews to capture material and inject it into live programme without an uplink support vehicle.

Also operating as a helicopter camera receive site, the system currently covers an area of central London roughly 12 km2, with SNG already planning to install a second receive hub and widen coverage further.

"We've implemented this to give our broadcast clients better live camera coverage across London," says Suckling. "Getting finance from Fineline for the project – which was an easy and trouble-free process – was crucial, allowing us to spread the cost over several years. There has been a lot of interest in the system already and all its users to date have been extremely satisfied. As have we. It really has outperformed even our own expectations."

www.sng.co.uk

Based down in Bristol, Thin Air Broadcasting provides mobile satellite uplink/downlink and SNG services to the broadcast, production and corporate television industry, covering everything from Champions League football to awards ceremonies and short-notice news live from Wales and the West Country. Owned and operated by Dave Smallwood, the company was originally set up nearly four years ago as a vehicle for Smallwood to offer his services as a highly experienced freelance broadcast engineer specialising in satellite uplinks. A vehicle itself was always part of the long-term plan, but not one that Smallwood felt he could make economically viable.

At least, that was the case until recently. Then, all of a sudden, what has become the Thin Air 1 satellite uplink vehicle came on the market second-hand from a major satellite truck systems integrator.

"It came very well specified at an attractive price with most of the key features I was looking for including vision and audio mixers, radio comms base stations and, on the RF side, a satellite comms modem and a phase combiner to guarantee the security of the broadcast," explains Smallwood.

"I needed to move fast after it came on the market," he continues. "There were a number of buyers interested and in order to secure it I had to arrange the finance and put down a deposit in a very short time. I found that Fineline were excellent to work with in that they understood the need for speed, understood my business plan and my financial analysis of the market sector and were able to confirm the finance in a very short time. They were also very flexible when it came to adding the cost of extra kit to the original purchase price. John Bartlett was very helpful and knowledgeable and made a very stressful transaction as easy as possible."

The extra kit included 200 meters of multi core cable, a full audio kit, a full lighting kit and two VTRs, a Sony DSR 1500AP DVCAM player/recorder and a Sony J30 SDI multiformat player. Smallwood says that this gives it the capability to replay all the most common formats and record DVCAM.

"If there is enough client demand I will also purchase a camera kit and a digital radio link for it," he adds. "Currently I can supply these at short notice but don't carry them on the truck."

Satellite Broadcast Facilities has for some years been a major facilitator in the broadcast and post production industries with a client base that includes the BBC, ITV, Zone Vision and Playboy TV. This has been achieved through investment in top quality equipment, the latest technology and highly trained staff.

In recent years Satellite has expanded its portfolio and is now a leading provider of TV stations and satellite services in the Middle East. Founder and Chief Executive Gilbert Shawo explains "No business can afford to stand still, particularly in media where the demands of the market are matched by the ever increasing push of technology."

In the last two years Satellite has seen its Middle East operations become a substantial and important part of the company's business. Gilbert continues "We are now supplying Satellite News Gathering (SNG) Vehicles and purpose built TV stations to many parts of world, but in particular the Middle East, where our services range from supplying equipment to design and implementation specialists. Two recent projects involved us providing a Sat- Comm Galileo Earthstation satellite up-link system for Libya and a Cygnus SNG vehicle for France. That's when we needed the help of Fineline."

Martin Stanley, Fineline Credit Director recounts "Providing finance for assets that go overseas can be a problem for some banks and other such institutions, where their perception of risk is different and therefore an added factor. Our first task was to gain a clear understanding of what Gilbert wanted to achieve and then work alongside Satellite's supplier Sat-Comm to ensure we could deliver the best possible deal for all parties."

Tim Williams of Sat-Comm comments "As a company we specialise in the supply of mobile and fixed satellite systems and have worked with both Fineline and Satellite Broadcast Facilities respectively over a number of years. Once we had received a brief specification, it was a simple matter of putting the right equipment in place – in this case a Galileo Earthstation, and a Cygnus rapid response SNG vehicle."

Gilbert has the final word "Designing and building TV stations and providing satellite communication systems for the Middle East is an expanding part of our business. We cover every aspect from edit suites and production rooms to supplying the full range of camera, lighting and sound equipment. We are also expanding our UK operation by creating a 4 camera digital studio with play-out system in our Park Royal studio. This facility will be for our own use as well as that of our customers. Without partners like Sat-Comm and Fineline we would not be able to expand as quickly and easily as we have."

www.sat-facilities.co.uk