HAMILTON, N.J.— As the need for compelling
television content grows, especially
for live sports and special events, mobile
production truck companies are seeking
a larger variety of switchers. At the high end
of the market, Grass Valley production
switchers continue to dominate on 53-foot
expandos that crisscross the country covering
top sports and entertainment events.
But mid-range and compact production
switchers are in demand for smaller trucks
and Sprinter vans that cover regional and
local sports and events. While the high-end
switcher market is focused on dazzling
viewers with unprecedented firepower
and whiz-bang effects, the mid-range market
wants to conserve money and space
while delivering solid production values
viewers expect.
SCHMOOZING ROCK-STAR TDs
At Grass Valley, the research and development
of new production switchers,
like the latest Kayenne, often involves the
input of technical directors in the
process. Experienced TDs who are sought
after to preside over live telecasts like the
Super Bowl or World Series insist on Grass
Valley switchers because they’re familiar
with their operation and workflow.
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Blackmagic Design’s ATEM production switchers are popular choices for companies offering small mobile units, vans, and flypacks. |
“The convention of putting more and
more buttons on ever bigger control panels
had to stop. Through our close association
with top TDs in broadcasting, we’ve
perfected the control panel of Kayenne
to allow faster, easier access to the most
commonly used features,” said John Naylor,
senior director, production switchers for
Grass Valley in San Francisco. “We’ve also
added many new TD-inspired timesavers
like Source Rules, among other improvements
to streamline workflow. Source
Rules automates tasks, such as bringing up
the sponsor’s logo whenever a particular
camera is on the program-output.”
Also, Grass Valley added over a hundred
2D/2.5D DPMs (DVEs) to Kayenne, making
it easier to do effects, such as box-outs of
many different sources. “For auto racing,
the TD might box-out 16 drivers’ in-car
cameras capturing their expressions as
they wait at the starting line,” Naylor said.
Available in 6- or 13 RU frame sizes,
Kayenne and its processing component
K-Frame are field-upgradable and consume
less power to hold the line on operating
costs. NEP in Pittsburgh, Game Creek Video
in Hudson, N.H., Lyon Video, in Columbus,
Ohio, and Mobile Television Group in
Denver, are among the mobile production
companies using Grass Valley Kayenne
switchers for major league sporting events.
RESOURCE SHARING
Kahuna 360, Snell’s flagship production
switcher in the Kahuna line, is designed
for flexible configuration and resource
sharing as well as concurrent multiformat
operation. According to John Carter, senior
product manager for production switchers
for Snell in the United Kingdom, “Several production
control rooms can share the firepower of
one central Kahuna 360 rather than buying
multiple units dedicated to each suite.
This allows flexible scheduling, less complex
wiring, and less space and power consumption.”
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KBVO, the MyNetwork TV affiliate serving Austin, Texas, uses a Broadcast Pix Granite 1000 Video Control Center to produce local high school football and basketball games. |
One control room could utilize all of
the switcher’s resources, or several control
rooms can share the inputs, outputs,
and sources from their own control panels.
“This is also true for truck fleets where the
main truck produces the program feeds
but auxiliary trucks can share switcher resources
to produce secondary shows, like
live Webcasts,” Carter said.
“On large events, the switcher drives
signals to the multiview display and oftentimes
big screens in the venue as well,” he
added. “If operators switch the main show
in 1080i HD, the switcher can simultaneously
feed 1080/60p to progressive displays.
This avoids the slight delay caused
by converting signals for display. This is
critical for a tightly produced show, like a
music concert, where picture, sound, and
effects must be cut in perfect sync.” Carter
adds that Kahuna 360, as well as the midrange
Kahuna Flare, supports industry
standard user interfaces making it easier to
crew trucks and events.
Russian truck company ANO Sports
Broadcasting (Panorama) acquired 12 units
of Kahuna 360 and several Snell Sirius 840
routers for its expanding fleet of OB trucks
to provide HDTV coverage of the 2014
Winter Games in Sochi for millions of Russian
viewers, among other productions.
GROWING MID-RANGE MARKET
With increasing demand for live local
and regional high school and college
sports, one of the biggest trends is the
growth of the mid-range switcher market.
One switcher that satisfies the needs
of this budget-conscious market is the
Ross Carbonite C2M production switcher
paired with a Ross Xpression CG. Both
ESPN and Fox Sports Net hire Miami-based
mobile production company Mobile Content
Providers to cover high school
and college football, volleyball, and other
regional sports from a large van equipped
with this Ross gear.
“ESPN asked us to base our remote production
on a Ross Carbonite switcher and
Xpression CG and told us this is the direction
they’d like us to go,” said Ray Colaiacovo,
co-founder of MCP. “We pull up to an
event, plug in Ethernet, lock into ESPN’s
server, download their latest graphics and
branding… and do their live remote from a
small format vehicle. We’re able to do three
different events at three different locations
in three consecutive days… and produce
shows at the quality level ESPN expects…
because of the way we’re set-up.”
While Carbonite C2M is a compact 2RU
system, its ergonomic control panel easily
accesses all its features, including 2-M/E’s,
32 source selection buttons, up to 8 DVEs
and transitions, and assorted keyers. Ross’
new ViewControl, part of Carbonite v7.0
software, seamlessly integrates the switcher,
CG (with data-driven graphics), and
Ross BlackStorm server, and displays all
show elements on a clean, intuitive touchscreen
control interface.
“With ViewControl, users can operate
every element of their production via
a touchscreen, not just the production
switcher but graphics and clip playback as
well, greatly simplifying operation,” said Nigel
Spratling, marketing product manager
for production switchers for Ross Video in
Iroquois, Ontario. “Carbonite and Xpression
have all the features and capabilities
customers need to produce live shows
with a big network look extremely costeffectively.”
MAKING A SPLASH
Since Blackmagic Design introduced
its ATEM production switcher in 2011 the
company now has a range of compact,
cost-effective ATEM products. These include:
the ATEM 1 M/E (8-input) production
switcher and ATEM 2 M/E (16-input)
production switcher; ATEM 1 M/E and 2
M/E broadcast panels; and the ATEM Television
Studio (6-input), which outputs realtime
H.264 signals for Webcast.
In July 2012, Sky TV, a satellite broadcast
and production company in Lansing,
Mich., used the ATEM Television Studio
and ATEM 1 M/E switcher for a live Webcast
of the 2012 USA Water Polo Junior
Olympics from the Avery Aquatics Center
at California’s Stanford University. Besides
the live Webcast via its www.skytvnetworks.com portal, Sky TV produced
game day entertainment for display on
jumbotrons in the aquatic center, as well
as commemorative Blu-ray and DVD discs.
“Our low-cost, compact switchers are enabling
customers to produce HD programs
where it wasn’t practical before,” said Bob
Caniglia, senior regional manager for North
America, based in Marlton,
N.J. “We also provide
solutions for other
remote production
challenges. Our ATEM
Camera Converter ties
in with the switcher
and enables the conversion
of SDI and HDMI
to optical fiber with
talkback, tally, and mic
inputs. Customers can
now have longer cable
runs and use low-cost
HDMI cameras.”
Caniglia said ATEM
production switchers
are popular choices
for companies offering
small mobile units, vans,
and flypacks, such as
Proshow Broadcast in
Vancouver and Scheff-
Tech, a truck company
in Peoria, Ill., focused
on regional sports
events throughout Illinois.
NFL Network uses
an ATEM production
switcher in a remotecontrolled
configuration at its New York
City headquarters.
COST-EFFECTIVE PRODUCTION
KBVO, the MyNetwork TV affiliate serving
Austin, Texas, uses a Broadcast Pix Granite
1000 Video Control Center to produce
local high school football and basketball
games. The Granite integrated production
switcher resides on the station’s 20-foot
HD production trailer. Granite 1000’s Fluent
workflow tools allow a two-person
team to produce a professional broadcast,
including data-intensive CG graphics, from
the trailer.
According to Korey Wisland, KVBO’s
production manager and director, “We
wouldn’t be doing this the old conventional
way—it costs too much. With a larger
production crew, the numbers don’t work.”
Granite 1000’s integrated functionality
makes it possible for KBVO to cost-effectively
produce two high school football
games per week, Big 12 college football
and SEC college football, among other regional
sports.
For-A’s HVS-300HS HD/SD production
switcher was part of a large equipment order
placed by Casablanca Online, a leading
provider of satellite communications services
based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
With one of the largest fleets of HD/SD
DSNG trucks in South America, Casablanca
Online backhauls TV signals for a wide
range of sporting events, including over
1400 soccer matches each year, for such
customers as Fox Sorts Latin America in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The HVS-300HS 3G/
HD/SD 1-M/E production switcher offers
frame synchronizing and re-sizing on every
channel, as well as integrated 3D DVE
transitions, chromakey, DSK, dual picture
in picture, still stores, and a 16-channel
multiviewer.
“Video signal conversion is especially
critical in South America and Central America
since there are three different DTV
broadcast standards in use as well as multiple
formats and resolutions simultaneously,”
said Pedro Silvestre, Latin America and
SouthEast Sales Manager for For-A Corp. of
America in Fort Lee, N.J.