In Broadcast - July 2021 - 18

18
www.inbroadcast.com | July 2021
Summer of Sports
2021 - A Summer of Sports
T
here is certainly no shortage of
events, supplemented by the Tokyo
Olympics currently in preparation for
July 23rd through August 8th. Satellite,
terrestrial and online broadcasting
plays a more important role than ever
this year given the globally prevailing
recommendation to avoid nonessential
travel.
" The Covid-19 pandemic has
caused huge disruption through
isolation, social distancing and travel
restrictions, " comments
Argosy
Director Chris Smeeton. " While
no-one has escaped the effects,
broadcasters have had to face very
specific challenges, especially when
it comes to the world of sport. In golf,
the US Masters was forced out of its
regular April slot in 2020, meaning
there were two contests within five
months of each other, in November
and April 2021. Football seasons saw
massive disruption and wrangling
about promotions. And, of course the
world's biggest multi-sport event saw
its 2020 Tokyo edition postponed for
a year. But the complex situation has
also seen orders brought forward,
which can put pressure on vendors.
Working from home became the norm.
While some relied on Zoom, many
production companies created home
studios for on-air talent, requiring
smaller cameras and modest lighting
set-ups. That was another driver for
studio developments to be put on hold:
would we need the same facilities in
future? Remote production in sport
means fewer large OB trucks on the
road with their limited productivity
(they don't earn while moving from
racecourse to football ground to opera
house), with more live control rooms
in broadcast centres. IP connectivity
has opened up large-scale remote
production, which implies softwarecentric
control rooms and consequent
Summer 2021 offers sports fans a welcome alternative to the ongoing contest between
homo sapiens and the various strains of coronavirus - with David Kirk...
Clear-Com holds the team together at MRTC
changes to the technology base, not
to mention completely different cable
requirements. The distinguishing
characteristic of our industry,
though, is the level of co-operation,
communication and collaboration
between vendor and user, and
consequently the shared sense of
responsibility. Being able to pivot and
react quickly is where a good vendor
stands out. "
UK-based MRTC is a UKbased
specialist in motorsport
communications, specialising in
the provision of custom radio and
intercoms. MRTC founder Ken
Rumbold: " Communications are often
at the bottom of the barrel in terms
of consideration before a race. But
once you're onsite they are absolutely
essential. Any lapse in communication
could cost driver the race, whereas a
small piece of encouragement coming
through the driver's headset could
result in a win. The role of intercom in
motorsports has grown considerably
since the 1970s and 1980 when only
a few key people were connected
to two-way radios. The integrated
network of today means all aspects of
an event, even broadcast, are
connected over IP via a MADI
feed. We started
working
with Clear-Com over 10 years
ago. The Clear-Com products
that were introduced then
were revolutionary. Most
contemporary sites were
already wired with networkready
Cat 5e/6 cabling
so Clear-Com IP intercom
systems could be brought onsite
without major infrastructure updates.
" IP systems offer security, flexibility,
and
as
extremely
well
high
audio
as impressive
quality,
bandwidth,
allowing teams to connect easily
between different systems offsite
and at the track. This enables critical
intercommunication between different
team personnel, with a choice of pointto-point
or one-to-many connection.
IP systems can provide connectivity
to any industry-standard intercom
or audio devices over LAN, WAN, or
IP networks. It is common to switch
selected intercom chatter from the
race drivers and race control systems
to a multi-channel feed out of the
intercom which broadcasters can
use as background audio in their
commentaries. " Whereas up to 4,000
racing team members were onsite
at
motorsport
races
pre-Covid,
it's
now narrowed down to around 1,000
staff onsite. In a recent event at the
'restart' of motor racing, I was in the
UK and able to remotely program,
manage and monitor a system in
Germany using my Agent-IC Mobile
App while the live event was going
on. There were a couple guys onsite
with the primary system but most of
us connected over VPN and it was like
we were there! Agent-IC operates on
smart devices over 3G, 4G, LTE and
wireless internet networks. It connects
to the Eclipse HX digital matrix or LQ
series interfaces. " Some customers
and senior management don't want
to risk going to a racetrack during the
pandemic but they still want to be able
to have input in event operations. In
this case, they can download Agent-IC
on their phones and connect to the
main intercom system from anywhere
in the world. "
Cobalt reports that many OB service
providers and sports broadcasters rely
on its 9905-MPx openGear scaler/
frame-synchroniser card for producing
sporting competitions, including golf
tournaments, baseball games and
arena events. The 9905-MPx provides
four independent signal paths of
UDX/frame-sync/audio embedding
and de-embedding on a single card
with flexible AES and MADI embed/
de-embed for each path. Each path
also incorporates 3D-LUT and ANC
bridge as well as trouble-slate/
logo import/insert. When used with
Cobalt's HPF-9000 20-slot chassis,
up to 24 channels of processing
can be supported in a single frame.
4:3/16:9/4:3 aspect ratio conversion
is provided. Color correction and
3D LUT functions allow SDR and
HDR processing for downstream
HDR systems. The 9905-MPx can be
software-converted to a 4K Quad-Link
Input SDM/2SI 4K UDX/Frame Sync
card with an optional software license.
CP Communications
will
make
a stop on the Korn Ferry Tour, the
developmental circuit of the PGA Tour.
The TPC Colorado Championship at
Heron Lakes will be CP's first project
with the PGA, and will be available for
viewers on PGA Tour Live.
Cobalt's CDI 9905-MPx openGear scaler/frame-synchroniser
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.clearcom.com/News%20Stories/mrtc-ip-products/ https://inbroadcast.com/news/cobalt-enriches-encoders-and-decoders-with-unique-features https://inbroadcast.com/news/argosy-adds-kvm-tec-innovations-to-portfolio
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