Since the 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006, AVtech has been providing all broadcast, AV solutions for sports venues and games. So when it came to the AFC Asian cup, AVtech was the obvious choice.
AVtech is a leading supplier of high-end audio, video, broadcast and lighting equipment from the some of the most reputable manufacturers in the world. The company is well known for designing leading-edge live performance systems and projects with superb performance-ready systems in the field of sound, lighting, video and multimedia applications.
For ACF, AVtech, along with its partner Gearhouse Broadcast Ltd Qatar, carried out turnkey broadcast solutions for four stadiums for permanent installation of broadcast infrastructure cables and TV room equipments of AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011. The time-frame for the installation was very short with AVtech contracted for the job in late November 2010 and the system needing to be in place for the first match in early January 2011 to enable telecast.
"It was a very tough job involving nearly 150 people working day and night," recalled AVtech general manager Hadi Arzouni. "We sourced cables and connectors from all over the world, and from one particular place we had to charter a flight just for the cables because there was no other way to bring them here on time."
Multiple cable suppliers were used for the project but the main two were Belden and Draka.
"We shipped 18,000 tons of cables by air freight and had 65 technicians working on the audio visual and broadcast installations," Arzouni pointed out before describing the job as "a risky challenge that we took on successfully".
Each venue had the broadcast control room fitted with a Harris routing, synchronizer and converters. Monitoring devices included Tektronics Waveform Monitor, Bell Audio and Sony.
Wall Boxes at locations as per international broadcasting standards allowed great flexibility with varying numbers of Triax, Video, Fiber, Audio connectivity to the control room.
The cable backbone ran not only around the seating area of stadiums but also through studio, commentator and press rooms so that broadcasters could set up and broadcast from wherever they wanted around the whole facility.
AVtech also provided the electrical requirements, including power boxes at specific locations for broadcasters, TV rack and the power panel for the OB Van.
Audio, video and lighting installations for the Media Centre, conference and press rooms for five five stadiums was also handled by AVtech. Selection naturally fell to Meyer Sound speakers, Christie Digital projectors and Sennheiser microphones, including: Meyer Sound UPM-1P self-powered speakers, Christie LW 400 projectors, Sennheiser EW 100 G3 wireless microphones and gooseneck podium microphones MZH 3062+ME34+MZTX31 with Allen&Heath ZED 1402s used in all locations.
Lighting for press rooms and the media center was provided using DMX Dimmer controlled ARRI 1200 Fresnel Daylights and Kinflo Parabeam 400 Fixtures.
The conference rooms were equipped with Taiden HSE 4100 MA Digital conference system.
All five stadiums were provided with technical support teams during the games. Organizers and press teams were satisfied with the quality of the service and the support provided.
(Claire Beeson)
