HD OB Vans Help Meet Demands for HD Content In Europe
by Brian Smith, 05.23.2008
Digital video technologies provider Thomson Grass Valley was recently selected to provide HD outside broadcast (OB) vans to two leading production companies in Sweden and Germany.
Sweden’s Prisma OB, a large, live-production outfit in Scandinavia, ordered two new all-digital trucks and an HD upgrade for one existing van, a value of €18 million. Work will be complete in time for China’s hosting of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August.
The mobile units’ payload will include 15 Thomson Grass Valley LDK 400 SD cameras, 56 LDK 8000 HD cameras, four 3X Super SloMo HD camera systems, Kayak 4.5 M/E HD digital production switchers, a Thomson Grass Valley Trinix routing switcher and the hardware to move data at speeds up to 3 Gb/s. Each van will also feature a pair of standalone Thomson Grass Valley K2 HD media servers.
“We were looking for flexibility and reliability in the production tools we plan to use for the Olympics and other live sporting events; that’s why we chose Thomson’s Grass Valley HD OB Van solutions and products,” said Prisma OB CEO Paul Henriksen. “Especially the LDK 8000 camera series provides exceptional image quality capture and can be used in a variety of ways for our clients.”
Thomson Grass Valley’s entire LDK 8000 camera series is available with HD fiber, HD triax and HD wireless solutions to provide the most production flexibility.
“Prisma OB is another major mobile production company in Europe to entrust its HD business to Thomson,” said Thomson’s Senior Vice President of Integration and Networks Solutions Patrick Montliaud. “The world over, outside broadcast companies have overwhelmingly chosen Thomson to build their HD vans, upgrade their vans from standard definition to high definition, and equip them with Thomson Grass Valley multiformat HD production equipment, giving them the competitive edge they need to succeed in the outside broadcast marketplace.”
Inspired by the field-proven success of a similar contract with Studio Berlin Adlershof in 2006, Media Mobil GmbH (MMG), a live sports and production company, has also called on Thomson to design and build their first HD OB van. The 54-foot (16.5 meter) expandable HD OB van will be cabled for a maximum of 26 cameras and equipped with eight LDK 8000 HDTV WorldCams, one 3X HDTV Super SloMo camera and two Kayak HD switchers.
The truck will be partitioned into a production room, an editing area, a second production room, an audio room and a camera control/shading area.
“As we migrate our company to all high-definition production, we are happy to be working with Thomson, which we feel is the ideal partner capable of providing such turnkey services in the delivery of new HD OB vehicles,” said Klaus Kuka, managing director of Media Mobil GmbH. “Thomson’s System Group engineers have delivered great results in the past and we expect them to continue to provide us with the best OB production facilities in the industry.”
The Thomson-built van will help meet increasing demand for HD content following announcements from German broadcasters that they will commence HD transmission in 2010.