FEATURES: WORSHIP
Seeing is believing
The UEA’s second biggest mosque required a way of transmitting prayers and events to the wider population. Broadcast Solutions ME rose to the challenge HAVING ACQUIRED VIDELIO MIDDLE EAST AS PART OF A strategy to increase business throughout the Middle East and Africa region, Broadcast Solutions ME has taken the wraps off its first large integration project conducted under the new identity. While still firmly focused on the broadcast side of the signal chain, the integrator’s renewed local strategy is in part being built upon with the ability to provide services into new niche markets, something that Videlio is more than accustomed to. With this in mind, rather than the familiar crowded and cramped setting of an outside broadcast truck or IBC, Pro AVL MEA took a trip to an impressive new construction on the outskirts of the UAE’s Sharjah Emirate. Located at the junction of Emirates Road and the road to Mleiha and officially opened in May 2019, Sharjah Grand Mosque is the long-awaited vision of the emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi. Drawing aesthetic inspiration from Ottoman architecture, the AED 300m construction occupies an impressive 185,806m2 and is capable of accommodating more than 25,000 worshippers via its front hall, side lobbies and outdoor terrace areas, thereby making it the second biggest in the country after Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Such is the importance of the building to Sharjah that a commemorative coin was launched by the government to mark the construction when it opened. Inside, the building’s main prayer hall features arched windows with stained glass, walls decorated with verses from the Quran, a large chandelier in the centre and a premium red carpet covering the floor. Outside, the building has a multitude of domes, minarets and columns designed to reflect Islam’s unique architectural style. To call it impressive would be an understatement. Unsurprisingly, the building will play host to several prominent Islamic events throughout the year. As such, it required an audiovisual system capable of broadcasting these prayers and events to the masses with minimal human resources. The client was adamant that the solutions be simple to operate and unobtrusive yet still capable of providing broadcast quality. While the onsite audio reinforcement is handled by multiple Bose column array loudspeakers, the broadcast feeds created by Broadcast Solutions ME rely predominantly on equipment from Canadian manufacturer, Ross Video. ‘The Sharjah Broadcast Authority [SBA] was appointed by the Sharjah Government Planning Department as a consultant to recommend a systems integrator capable of building this broadcast infrastructure,’ explained project manager Salah Ayoub from Broadcast Solutions ME. ‘We were recommended to SBA by another systems integrator who we had worked with several times in the past and were ultimately handed responsibility for the entire broadcast systems integration at the mosque. ‘But one of the major challenges we had was the timeframe,’ he adds. ‘SBA would be broadcasting the opening ceremony from inside the prayer hall just two weeks after we began working on the project. Everything had to be completed during that time: shipping, installation and configuration.’ The interior design of the mosque is without doubt its most impressive feature and was something that must be left untarnished by the kilometres of fibre cabling they would conceal. But without the ability to effectively and coherently transmit prayers to followers, such interior grandeur would serve little purpose. To create the broadcast feeds, the SI opted to install a grid of 12 white Ross Video PIVOTCam-SE PTZ cameras throughout the mosque interior, six of which are located in the main prayer hall, that can be controlled centrally using Skarhooj PTZ PRO controllers over Nevion fibre channel links from the spacious first-floor broadcast control room. However, the equipment that Broadcast Solutions has installed here is only being used when
34 PRO AVL MEA Januar y–Februar y 2020
