Our Work
- September 2017
- London, UK
Custom Consoles MediaWall Goes Live at London Studios of Al Sharqiya
Altered Images, a leading UK supplier of visual communications technology solutions, has completed a large Custom Consoles MediaWall for the London production centre of the Al Sharqiya satellite channel.
The MediaWall is being deployed as an dynamic video background to the network’s news programmes. “We operate six broadcast studios with a variety of video wall types,” says Al Sharqiya Group CTO Ahmed Bin-Afif. “This time it was a special requirement to create a curved video-wall with large screens. The Custom Consoles wall design if even more effective that we expected and is being used for a variety of shows, fed by a versatile server-based graphics system.”
“The challenge was to create a very wide curving display which the studio cameras would see as a convincingly real element of the studio presentation,” adds Altered Images’ Broadcast & Media Solutions Director Russell Butcher. “MediaWall offers a modular approach to multiscreen displays that we know from experience are configurable to practically any scale as well as being highly robust. The requirement in this instance was for a 6.7 metre wide backdrop in a concave configuration giving wide-angle production options. We designed the display based on three MediaWall support frames, each two metres wide. These support a total of 18 55-inch NEC X series monitors which are ideal for this application, including features such as an ultra-narrow edge bezel and high-contrast imaging. The display is augmented in this application by LED light-boxes with adjustable brightness and colour temperature.”
Custom Consoles’ MediaWall allows monitor displays of practically any width to be constructed from standard horizontal and vertical support elements. MediaWall can be used as a fully self-supporting structure or coupled directly to the studio wall. Individual screens can be positioned so that their edges meet exactly to form a continuous horizontal display limited only by the boundary of the monitor panel itself. All wiring is fully concealed and can enter or leave the structure at any desired point. MediaWall is available in a silver-anodised or black-powder coated finish and in any specified element widths.
Altered Images was established in 1996 and has developed into one of the UK’s major resellers of technology for the television production and corporate communications industry. The company has a deep understanding of the way visual communications technology works and how production professionals can get the best out of it. Altered Images can provide a complete solution from consultancy to design and installation, with full maintenance support from premises in Manchester, Nuneaton and Shepperton.
Custom Consoles Ltd is an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer of project-specific and modular broadcast, process-control and security furniture. The product range includes motorised, manually-adjustable and fixed-height units plus fan-cooled sound-insulated equipment housings. Celebrating its 21st anniversary in 2017, Custom Consoles operates from a 1,200 square metre UK-based production facility equipped with 3D computer-aided-design facilities, computer-controlled cutting machinery and a thermoform press. These resources provide the dual benefits of precise quality control and prompt delivery times, typically 21 days from receipt of order. Custom Consoles’ clients include broadcasters, production and post production studios, governmental and corporate organisations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australasia.
Al Sharqiya, ‘The Eastern One’, commenced regular transmission on May 4th, 2004, as Iraq’s first privately owned satellite television channel. Its mixture of popular current affairs, satire and Iraq’s first reality TV programmes soon gained popularity. The channel has also gained a high reputation for its humanitarian assistance and charity work for cities all over Iraq.
