UTV expands HD Television broadcasting for Northern Ireland

UTV, the ITV network company for Northern Ireland, has invested £1.5 million in a new state-of-the-art HD television production facility, which will take all programmes made by UTV into fulll HD.

 

UTV, the ITV network company for Northern Ireland, has invested £1.5 million in a new state-of-the-art HD television production facility, which will take all programmes made by UTV into fulll HD. Pictured above: Sean Ferrin, Head of Resources, Michael Wilson, Managing Director and Alison Fleming, UTV Live anchor drop into the new state-of-the-art production gallery.

Michael Wilson, Managing Director, UTV said: “We launched UTV HD last year and so this is the next step towards broadcasting all our studio programmes in high definition. We are firmly committed to this project and will continue to make significant investments in new technology going forward.”

The High Definition gallery boasts a 96 screen wall and a 5 metre long mixing desk. This new HD production gallery is the to be the technical nerve centre for UTV Live and UTV Live Tonight.

Sean Ferrin, Head of Resources, UTV said: “This new gallery makes working on live programmes faster, easier and more flexible. It’s a purpose-built production gallery, using high definition technology. It allows for a very smooth operation where – for example – we can incorporate live news’ pictures from London or Stormont into a programme, while at the same time linking in to the studio or adding in graphics.”

The investment in UTV television comes just a week after Ofcom announced it was a pretty pointless regulator when it revealed it would be unable to stop ITVplc cutting back and even dropping its public service requirements beyond 2014. This comes after years of the regulator allowing PSB requirements to be scaled back and ITV losing its original structure of local companies providing programmes to the network. Only UTV, STV North, STV Central and Channel Television remain independent of ITVplc which was founded by the Granada take-over of Carlton in 2002.

ITVplc’s aim has been to change the regional ITV network into a single national channel branded as ITV1 in England and Wales.