In Broadcast - December 2014 - 26

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 38 - DECEMBER 2014

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InMEDIA

Outside Broadcasts - On The Fly
Multicamera productions in 'difficult' remote or restricted locations are becoming
more practical with the advent of portable kit...

By Philip Stevens
Contributing Editor

T

hink of outside broadcasts
and massive trucks capable of
accommodating 40 cameras come
to mind. But the sight of smaller,
portable units that arrive on location
in ﬂight cases is becoming more
commonplace as producers seek
to make programmes in extreme
or restricted conditions, but with
reduced budgets. Indeed, with
ﬂyaway kits being used for an ever
wide range of projects, there are
few 'typical' ﬂyaway projects.

Global Coverage

26

" R e c e n t l y, w e h a v e b e e n
commissioned for a flyaway
in Bermuda covering a golf
tournament - and a hurricane as it
turned out, and another from the
roof of a building in San Francisco
for a corporate client at a downtown
location that could not be serviced
by a satellite uplink truck," states
Robert C. Lamb, CEO, PSSI Global
Services/Strategic Television based
in Las Vegas.
Lamb explains that the encoder/
modulators employed are typically
now MPEG-4, and often the
company is using SSPBs for
amplifiers. He continues, "The
developments that have helped us
most have to do with the size of
the equipment itself. For us, that
mostly means the reduction in the
size and weight of the ampliﬁers,
and the viability of using a smaller
aperture antenna, when possible.
Currently, we are active in testing
IP applications."

Robust Kit

With ofﬁces in India, Singapore,
Malaysia and the UK, Broadcast
Solutions (BS) is another company
well placed to provide services on
a global scale. "We use Sony HDC2500 and HDC-1500 Cameras, GVG
LDX-80 and LDK-8000, LDK-8300
SSM and Ikegami HL97A and Nac
II Ultra Motion Cameras," explains
CEO, Saeed Izadi. "These are all
robust and work well in hot climates."
BS also uses Grass Valley Vision
Mixers with four-ME Kayanne, threeME Kayak and Karrera. Other kit in
regularly deployed includes Harris
and ProBel routers, Evertz Glue
and processing, Lawo and Yamaha

Audio Mixers and EVS XT [3] and
EVS XT [2]+ units.
So, what future developments
would Izadi like to see in equipment
suitable for ﬂyaway applications?
"We are very much looking forward
to remote production in the true
sense. What do I mean by that?
The only items we want to have
in the venue or stadium would be
cameras, lenses and tripods with
the camera operators, all other
production equipment and crew
being housed either in their home
countries or in their MCR. Much
equipment being offered currently
claims to be remote production or
venue production, but all seem to
suffer from latency issues that are
not acceptable for a live coverage."

SkySports F1 Pod: The inside of the Pod used for Formula One and created by
Gearhouse Broadcast

single piece of kit, the more we can
mop up wasted space and weight
in the rack."
Harper reveals that one of the
company's most exciting projects
was at London's Trafalgar Square,
providing live production of the
Vodafone 4G Launch. "We replicated
the features of a traditional
broadcast OB truck in a single,
portable rack-mount system. The
production featured slow-motion
playback to provide a unique angle
of the day's events."

The Right Flight

Wilkie TV rack-mount system
for Vodafone 4G launch

Betwixt And Between

Claire Wilkie, Managing Director of
London-based Wilkie TV, says her
company ﬁts between high-end
broadcast events and someone
setting up a webcam to stream
a meeting: "Conferences and
seminars are a growing area. Often
these clients have rented a venue
for only a short time and require
streaming without having hours for
setup. Wheeling in a ﬂyaway rack
allows us to be ready in an hour."
Ben Harper, Wilkie's Technical
Manager, emphasises that
equipment that ﬁts best into ﬂyaway
kits tends to be the miniature,
feature-ﬁlled products. "Blackmagic
Design has a good range of products
that ﬁt well and, in fact, most of our
vision mixing is done via their kit.
They understand the requirements
of the modern broadcast and the
more features they integrate into a

At the other end of the production
scale, Gearhouse Broadcast is
heavily involved in motor racing's
key event - Formula One. "We make
sure each piece of equipment in the
pod is vital to the overall production
and always pay attention to the
weight of all the kit," explains
Chief Operating Officer, Kevin
Moorhouse. "Connectivity between
the Pods and to the paddock and
pit lane is all ﬁbre to ensure we keep
the weight of cable to a minimum."
Moorhouse sees the introduction
of hybrid routing equipment as a
signiﬁcant development. "This again
gives us more functionality from one
piece of equipment, reducing the
amount of equipment and internal
wiring needed. OBPod has been
designed around the Miranda Hybrid
RTR which brings down weight and
increases flexibility."
"The LAWO V__pro 8 is another
great example. It offers eight HD
inputs and outputs and can embed,
de-embed, frame sync, X convert
and colour correct - all in a 1RU
box. This is the sort of equipment
that makes our lives so much easier."

Flyaway Football

German broadcast systems
integrator, sono Studiotechnik,
provided one of its revolutionary
new ﬂyaway production facilities

based on Imagine Communications
t e c h n o l o g y f o r t h e 2 013
Confederations Cup. At this year's
World Cup, this technology was
scaled up to a national level and
used at 12 different locations in
Brazil to provide broadcast facilities.
Supporting each ﬂyaway facility
was Imagine Communication's
Platinum IP3 router - the ﬁrst to
accommodate separate video,
audio and data paths within the
same frame. It's also the ﬁrst signal
router that can scale to multi-frame
conﬁgurations for broadcast and
media operations using a common
architecture, simplifying installations
and eliminating costs associated
with external components and
complex cabling. The intelligent
architecture maximises on-air
security, with a new approach to
audio, video and multi-viewer signal
protection based on redundant
crosspoints and integrated
routing designs.

Cargo: Gearhouse Broadcast
built SkySports pods

Maintaining Comms

With the pervasive nature of
wireless in ﬂyaway environments,
comms specialist Trilogy has
seen an increasing demand for
seamless integration of intercom
with smartphones and tablets.
"We are leading the way with apps
that enable mobile devices to fully
participate in the talkback and
intercom system, reducing costs
CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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