CCTV installs 50 Kaleido processors Beijing Olympics

Chinese Central Television (CCTV) has installed a total of 50 Kaleido multi-image display processors from Miranda to monitor the two channels dedicated to the Beijing Olympics. Some of the new processors are also being put to use on OB operations.

Two Kaleido-X processors and 17 smaller Kaleido-Alto-HD and Kaleido-Quad multi-viewers have been installed at CCTV's International Broadcast Centre for master control monitoring. An additional 25 Kaleido multi-image processors have been used across the Olympic Stadiums for production monitoring.

CCTV's new Television Cultural Centre, located in Beijing's Central Business District, has also installed two Kaleido-X processors, which can display up to 160 feeds across eight plasma displays in the master control room. These multi-image feeds are also displayed on 32 monitors located across four studios.

In addition, two new HD OB trucks operated by CCTV have also been equipped with Kaleido multi-viewers. One of these trucks is amongst the largest in Asia, at 14.6 meters in length, and is fitted with 20 cameras.

The Kaleido monitoring systems will monitor external signals from Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), the official broadcaster for the Olympics, which will provide International Television and Radio (ITVR) signals for broadcasters around the world. The multi-image processors allow easy monitoring of multi-channel audio, with extraction of six channels of audio from embedded signals during the Beijing Olympics. The international live signal will be broadcast entirely in high definition for the first time in Olympic history, with an estimated 4,000 hours of live television.

During the Beijing Olympics, CCTV-HD will broadcast as the 'Olympic HD Channel', and offer live coverage of all the events. At present, eight cities in China (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) can receive HD programmes.