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 185,806m 2 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 there is a programme being shot inside the mosque. This is backed up by the total lack of any kind of IMAG inside the prayer hall that could disrupt its immaculate interior design.

The first-floor control room

Ross Video is no stranger elsewhere along the signal chain. A 36-input Ross Video Carbonite Black CBF-236PLUS switcher takes pride of place in the control room alongside a Carbonite Black 2S control panel. A pair of large Carbonite multiviewers display the PTZ camera positions in front, while SHC-9642 SDI to HDMI converters from Ross feed into Blackmagic Design SmartView4Ks used for audio monitoring. Ross Video ULTRIXFR132x32 routers are used to connect different sources and destinations with each other. ‘This allows the staff to route different sources to the video switcher inputs, giving flexibility according to the shooting requirement,’ notes Ayoub. ‘It’s also used as a backup for the vision mixer in case of any problems.’

Content Generation also stays entirely within the RV domain and is handled by Xpression Studio graphics engine software running on Ross’ XPN-2RU-M7 2U Xpression hardware rack. Elsewhere, three Ross Video openGear racks provide modular signal processing and distribution.

The primary Ross Video Carbonite Black production switcher

In addition to the fixed PTZ camera positions, a camera crew can be brought into the mosque to augment the in-house setup for prominent events as required, and for which a patch-in panel installed in the prayer hall accepts video inputs.

‘Apart from the PTZ cameras installed from Ross, we’ve also deployed four Grass Valley camera control units in the control room desk,’ says the project manager. ‘Inside the hall you can connect the cameras with our systems for control. Any broadcaster, let’s say Sharjah TV or Gusto 30, if they wanted to bring their cameras and just connect to that wall box, those cameras can still be controlled remotely from the control room.’ To assist communications between these teams, Broadcast Solutions has installed an RTS ODIN16NOCORD Odin16-port intercom system for crew talkback which can be controlled via one of five KP 4016 keypanels. ‘The control room is totally out of sight, there’s not even a glass screen or anything that can see into the prayer hall,’ notes Ayoub. ‘So, it’s important that the camera crew has a means of communication with engineers.’

Four G4 wireless microphone units from Sennheiser take care of the audio input for programme presenters and moderator applications and are mixed with the Imam’s microphone feed and any other local audio inputs by a Yamaha DM1000VCM 48-channel digital mixer fitted with an MY16-MD64 MADI I/O card in order to provide the audio mix for the broadcast feeds. Sennheiser IE 40 and G4 Pro in-ear monitoring systems have also been deployed.

A PIVOTCam-SE PTZ camera located at the Imam position

‘Aside from the core equipment, we’ve got a selection of multiviewer displays, as well as six big NEC screens dotted around and several sets of Yamaha MSP5s for audio monitoring,’ explains Ayoub. Also joining the long list of equipment for the broadcast systems are Leader LV-5600 SDI and IP waveform monitors, several HP EliteDesk workstations, Ross SRG-2200 signal generators and NTP-2200 Network Time Protocol servers, Ross UDA-8705A analogue video distribution amplifiers, an ADDERView DDX30 30-port KVM matrix, Atomos Shogun Studio 4K/HD recorders and a Datavideo HDR10-A Highlight replay recorder. While the Grand Mosque control room surely houses an impressive collection of equipment, sometimes it’s the small details rather than the major aspects that make all the difference. As Ayoub opens the door to the large equipment racks at the rear of the control room and slides the access panel off the bespoke LundHalsey console furniture, he beams with pride as row after row of immaculately organised cabling emerges – all cable-tied neatly and colour-coded according to function.

Immaculate attention to detail was paid by Broadcast Solutions, right down to the cabling

‘For me, this is one of the most important aspects of our job,’ he describes. ‘Aesthetics were very important to the client, which is one of the reasons why we took the decision to manufacture our own discreet mounts for the PTZ cameras inside the prayer hall. We also completely engineered the cabling before the integration started. Everything was planned thoroughly from the outset and that is required in order to provide this level of attention to detail.’

All of this work had to be achieved in the two weeks before the opening ceremony would take place. The 12-strong Broadcast Immaculate attention to detail was paid by Broadcast Solutions, right down to the cabling Solutions team together with a variety of contractors pulled out all of the stops to keep its promise. ‘There was still no intercom, but we managed to get 70% of the setup ready for that broadcast,’ says the project manager. ‘Easily enough to get the job done properly.’

Video signals travel over Nevion fibre channel links

The remaining weeks have been spent integrating the final 30% of the systems while ironing out any kinks in the workflow. ‘We’re currently in the process of completing all of the documentation before we do the final handover to the client. Additionally, we will conduct handover training sessions and some knowledge transfer sessions where we show them how everything works, because the operators might be used to working with other video equipment and brands. We show them what features are present and how they can make the most of them.’

The audio mixing position

While, most importantly, the Broadcast Solutions systems ticked all of the important boxes for its client, SBA, the project also now serves as a showcase of how the company’s vast experience in broadcast can be leveraged for more diverse purposes than it is traditionally known for.