UK-based microphone windshield specialist Rycote has secured an order for nearly 70 windshield kits from On Site Broadcast Australia (OSB), one of Australia's newest outside broadcast companies. The order was won via Rycote's Australian distributor Syntec and will be used in Sobs' outside broadcast vehicles.

OSB is the result of a merger between Sydney's zerO1zerO and Melbourne's Broadcast Rentals. Of a total order for 68 units, 20 Rycote windshields will be used to kit out a new HD OB vehicle, commissioned with assistance from Sony Broadcast. Additional windshields have been ordered for the Sennheiser MKH416, MKH70 and Shure VP88 stereo mics used on all the trucks, as well as a special windshield for the multi-capsule Holophone 5.1 microphone used in the new HD vehicle. Rycote Duck rain protection coverings were ordered alongside the windshields.

The investment comes in a bid to refurbish two of Broadcast Rentals' older SD vehicles and to re-equip zerO1zerO's existing SD truck.

"Rycote have always been the standard-issue windshields used on our trucks," explains former zerO1zerO Head of Sound Keith Cooper, who is now Audio Supervisor at OSB Australia. "The show has to go on whatever conditions we may encounter, and with the Rycote windshields and the Ducks, we're ready for anything the weather can throw at us! We will be placing a similar order again with Syntec and Rycote in the near future, as construction of a second new HD truck, a double-expander, is now in the final planning stages."