WAYNE, N.J.—People won’t be able to exaggerate their fishing tales at this year’s 2016 Geico Bassmaster Classic, as JVC cameras will be on hand to provide live coverage. Little Rock, Ark.-based production company JM Associates will use JVC’s GY-HM200 4KCam and three GY-HM850 ProHD camcorders to capture the action in the field, and a BR-800 ProHD Broadcaster powered by Zixi in its studio.
Because of the area of lakes, rivers and other bodies of waters that JM Associates have to cover, the production company struggled with live coverage in the past. In late 2014, it went with JVC’s IP-based system and were able to stream live HD coverage of a tournament in February of 2015.
The JVC cameras are equipped with 4G modems that plug in directly to the camera’s USB port. The camera feeds go to the ProHD Broadcaster in Little Rock, then back to six Teradek decoders on a truck being used for live production. In total, it results in about a one-second delay. Three cameras are usually transmitting at any given time.
The cameras are also able to work with 4G network availability restrictions. The GY-HM850 can automatically reduce its picture quality to compensate for a weak signal. Cell connection and Internet connection are available in the cameras’ viewfinder.
The three-day 2016 Geico Bassmaster Classic starts March 4 in Tulsa, Okla. JM Associates will provide 18 hours of live coverage, as well as five hours of edited coverage for ESPN2 after the event.
