QTV has opened its cutting edge remote production centre on the ocassion of Var is implemented in Scottish Premiership. The VAR operations centre will be based at Clydesdale House and is the final part of the centre’s operations to come onstream, following QTV’s move there in the summer.

Clydesdale House will be home to the company’s expanded production offices and four state-of-the-art remote production galleries, each capable of delivering up to eight-camera broadcasts. The centre will also host QTV’s dedicated MCR, post-production and off-tube commentary facilities, as well as flexible production spaces for the company’s digital and livestreaming operations. The expansion complements a similar growth of the company’s outside broadcast fleet.

CEO Jack McGill explained: “The aim was to help facilitate the seamless and professional introduction of VAR to Scottish football, provide a world class environment for referees to excel, and enhance the national and international reputation of both the Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League.”

“We were conscious of the need to achieve this within a budget that was realistic for Scottish football, so the planning really started four years ago when we first proposed the idea of a centralised remote production facility, knowing that – when the Scottish FA and SPFL were ready for VAR – we’d be half way towards a solution and that the uplift in cost for the clubs would be bearable.”

QTV has been producing Scottish Premiership coverage remotely for two seasons, but the company’s immediate expansion into new premises was hampered by the Covid pandemic in 2020 In the intervening period, the VAR operations centre, where the Scottish FA referees will be based on matchdays, became an integral part of the centre’s design and was delivered by systems integration specialists ES Broadcast.

“It has been fantastic to continue our relationship with QTV on Clydesdale House,” said Jonathan Lyth, Group CTO at ES Broadcast. “The project is the culmination of two years’ hard work to support QTV in creating their remote production facilities including the build and migration of the temporary Davieland Court facility – created during the first Covid lockdown – to Clydesdale House. Being able to bring in the VAR element alongside the launch was a great bonus for us and we’re really happy to see QTV go from strength to strength.”

Over 120 Premiership matches will be remotely produced from Clydesdale House this season. BT Media & Broadcast have also been a critical partner making that a seamless transition. The partnership with BT Media & Broadcast provides extensive connectivity to stadiums and venues throughout the UK, and points of presence globally. Camera signals from all matches ingested via BT Media and Broadcast’s network are then distributed as produced match coverage, world, betting and data feeds to the SPFL’s broadcast and content partners.