Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news channel--which reports it will begin broadcasting "globally" in early 2006--has ordered an HD Vizrt package as the core graphics system for its four broadcast centers at its headquarters in Doha, London, Kuala Lumpur and Washington, D.C. The deal is the second biggest in Vizrt's history, according to the Bergen, Norway-based company. The network became a household word in the United States and Britain around the start of the Iraq war in 2003.
The HD system will be installed in stages at the four sites through the remainder of 2005. Vizrt has concentrated on real-time 3D graphics in recent years, and will provide its latest technology for Al Jazeera's news graphics, maps and template graphics, accessible through its Octopus newsroom system. Producers will be able to access animations and template files created in any of the four broadcast centers through constantly "mirrored" graphics file servers that will be permanently interconnected.
