BT Broadcast Services has enhanced its news gathering offering by adding three Electronic News Gathering (ENG) points in prime information collection hotspots.

Located at number 10 Downing Street, the London Stock Exchange and the new Football Association headquarters in Soho Square, the ENG points provide broadcasters with a simple, secure and highly reliable process of collecting and transmitting fast breaking news to viewers in the UK and around the world.

Live news stories are transmitted to the studio by connecting a camera or video player to the ENG point. Alternatively, taped material can be delivered through the same infrastructure.

The new ENG points feature as enhancements to Broadcast Services’ existing fiber infrastructure, which provides connectivity to 300 venues in the UK and Channel Islands. This includes the London Mayor’s headquarters, The Crucible Theatre, the BAFTA Centre and all English and Scottish premiership football stadia.

Malcolm Campbell, head of global commercial and sales division at BT Broadcast Services said, "All media companies demand a cost-effective means of transmitting first-class picture quality. Fiber transmission fits the bill and provides a high digital bit-rate to enhance the image. Also, as the resilient Broadcast Services network operates digitally, picture quality is not compromised by being continually encoded and decoded."

The fiber-based infrastructure connects these venues to the hub of Broadcast Services’ network, BT Tower in London. From here, the broadcast material can be switched to customer’s local ends, delivered to any other network switching center or transported via the BT international gateway to access the world.

Broadcast Services’ booking office is open around the clock, where ENG services can be reserved at short notice.

Campbell added: "The provision of a secure and resilient transmission system is a No. 1 priority for BT Broadcast Services -– our 5,500 km fiber network is virtually 100 percent reliable.

"This means that media agencies can concentrate on their prime objective of gathering fast breaking news, confident that Broadcast Services’ robust fiber infrastructure will deliver a secure transmission."