The BBC has awarded a £53m contract to equip its new Scottish broadcast centre in Glasgow.

IT provider Siemens Business Services will design, build and install network infrastructure and broadcast technology at the Pacific Quay site in time for 1,200 staff to move there in 2007.

Radio, TV and web site content produced and broadcast at the BBC Scotland headquarters is to be fully digitised.

Siemens will work with other technology suppliers to fit new studios and install digital production and editing systems.

BBC Scotland will also offer a digital library and a rich media search engine to its producers.

‘We will have a completely tapeless environment,’ said Iain Marley, Pacific Quay project director at BBC Scotland. ‘All material will be captured digitally and ingested into our content management system. Content will be available immediately to radio, TV and internet producers, so there will be no more chasing tapes around the building.’

By linking systems together, BBC Scotland believes it will be able to broadcast and repurpose content faster. ‘In the past, we would have islands of activity, but this technology will join it all up,’ said Marley.

The headquarters will be able to receive and process high-definition broadcasts and have new dubbing and graphical systems.

‘Pacific Quay offers us an opportunity to build a world-class broadcast centre incorporating the most innovative technologies, which will act as a reference site for the industry,’ said Marley.

Internet telephony will also be run over a converged network, cutting costs for the broadcaster.

‘The industry has been talking for many years about joining broadcasting, IP telephony and other technologies over a converged network, and now we will be able to do this,’ said Marley.

It is also hoped that the centre and its technologies will attract other media companies into this area of Glasgow, which is being regenerated.

The deal builds on a £2bn outsourcing deal, which Siemens signed with the BBC in 2004.

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