ESPN Strikes Digital Deals with Quantel, BBC Technology

To transition into a digital, tapeless environment, ESPN has been making some large purchases for its conversion to digital.

BBC Technology recently sold the sports channel its Colledia for Sports and elements of Colledia Control, training and support. Quantel is also set to supply generationQ SD/HD server and editing technology for ESPN's new Digital Center based in Bristol, Conn.

ESPN plans to implement SD and HD compatible BBC Technology products to integrate IT and broadcast environments using hardware and software components from partners like Quantel. The Colledia for Sports and Colledia Control ingest media feeds, which then become available to any client for viewing, logging, editing, presenting and archiving.

Installation for ESPN's order from Quantel, which is the single largest deal in Quantel's 30-year history, includes 68 servers, 23 craft editing seats and 200 desktop edit/browse licenses and will begin in June.