Qvest delivers IP-based broadcast facility for Asharq in Saudi Arabia

Qvest has completed a new full-IP broadcast facility for Asharq at Saudi Research and Media Group‘s (SRMG) headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and migrated the network’s live news operations from Dubai without interrupting broadcasts.

The facility, located in the King Abdullah Financial District, spans four floors of SRMG’s headquarters and includes four studios, two newsrooms, post-production and graphics systems, media management and archive infrastructure, master control, playout, transmission, satellite operations and broadcast IT.

Qvest served as master systems integrator, overseeing the facility’s design, engineering, procurement, systems integration, vendor coordination, training and commissioning. The migration and final cutover from Asharq’s previous Dubai facility were completed within two months.

The new broadcast facility is more than twice the size of Asharq’s previous operation in Dubai. Its two newsrooms support editorial and production workflows for up to 160 journalists.

“The new Riyadh broadcast facility brings our key production capabilities together in one connected environment designed for the demands of continuous live news. It gives our teams greater flexibility across newsroom, studio, production and distribution workflows, while providing a strong foundation for the continued development of our operations from Riyadh,” said Omran Abdallah, vice president of engineering, IT and technology at SRMG News and Asharq Bloomberg.

The four studios support a range of production requirements, including automated news bulletins, interviews, virtual production and extended reality (XR) workflows.

Studio 1 covers 350 square meters and includes three robotic camera chains, two manual pedestal cameras, a tracked camera crane and six video walls. Studio 2, also measuring 350 square meters, supports automated bulletin production and virtual production with four robotic camera chains, a tracked crane and seven video walls.

The 250-square-meter Studio 3 supports daily news bulletins and interviews, while the 150-square-meter Studio 4 is configured for green-screen and XR production, including virtual sets, financial reporting, election coverage and breaking news.

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The facility uses a SMPTE ST 2110 IP architecture to connect production systems over shared network infrastructure. Precision Time Protocol (PTP) synchronization, network redundancy and hitless switching support live production operations.

The multi-vendor installation integrates broadcast and IT systems across the production environment, allowing centralized management of resources and supporting distributed production workflows.

“What makes this project stand out is the combination of technical scale and operational continuity. We brought together a highly complex production environment and completed the migration and cutover of a live news operation without taking it off air. Managing technology, systems integration and project delivery as one coordinated process was central to making that transition work,” said Philipp Glänzel, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at Qvest.

The Riyadh facility is connected by fiber to Asharq’s production facilities in Cairo and Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter. These connections support centralized operation of production resources and remote workflows that require smaller on-site crews.

Qvest previously worked with Asharq on the development of its full-IP media infrastructure in Dubai.