Snell’s Sirius 800 series of large-scale multiformat routers will provide core video routing for the BBC within the newly redeveloped London BBC Broadcasting House. Dubbed the W1 Project, the restoration and expansion of the BBC's central London facility will consolidate radio, news and world service into a single facility in the heart of London. A system of Sirius 800 routers has been purchased through the public procurement process.
The Sirius 800 routers are being integrated as part of the second phase of the project, which includes the addition of a brand-new extension to the broadcast facility. Designed to be in harmony with surrounding structures and to incorporate the latest technology, this spacious and modern broadcast center will contain one of the largest live newsrooms in the world.
Snell routing systems allow engineers to mix and match signals — 1.5Gb/s and 3Gb/s HD, SD and ASI on fiber and cable interfaces, as well as AES and MADI audio — within the same frame and to add cards as routing demands grow. Expandable to 1152 x 1152, the Sirius 800 router also features redundant video and audio crosspoints, a wealth of multiviewer outputs and extensive status indicators and reporting.
A simple touch-screen interface provides quick and easy access to a comprehensive range of status and diagnostics information. All this information can be linked to Snell's MCM system, enabling remote access to the same information, or through the MCM rules engine for automatic rerouting of signals. Support for a variety of high-performance processing input and output modules makes the Sirius 800 series a highly adaptable and flexible solution for evolving broadcast operations.