MONTREAL—Dome Productions  has chosen to outfit UHD5, its latest outside broadcast (OB) truck, with an IP infrastructure, and has selected Grass Valley to provide end-to-end, standards-based IP solutions, Grass Valley shared. 

The OB vehicle, scheduled to go live in Q3 2020, will be capable of producing live shows, including sporting events, concerts and awards shows, in everything from HD to 4K UHD. It also supports high dynamic range (HDR) production.

“Dome Productions has a reputation for being resourceful and adaptable to meet our clients’ needs,” said Mary Ellen Carlyle, senior vice president and general manager, Dome Productions. “Looking ahead, IP will be central to helping us remain agile. The ability to have a true end-to-end IP infrastructure and workflow—from glass to glass—means, with our review complete, we are now prepared to make the leap into IP infrastructure.” 

With Toronto and Montreal locations, Dome Productions is among the largest production facilities providers in North America.

The centerpiece of the new truck’s IP workflow is the GV Orbit dynamic system orchestrator. It provides full system control and configuration, simplifying the deployment of an IP network. From the GV Orbit interface, operators can configure systems and change them on the fly, said Grass Valley.

UHD5 also will rely on Grass Valley IP switching and routing solutions, the MV-821-IP multiviewers and IQUCP25/50 gateways. The move to IP also makes it possible for Dome Productions to support multiple signals on a fiber, allowing more capability in a single truck to be used and eliminating the need to roll a second unit to larger events, the company said.

“Grass Valley is best placed to help us create a dynamic production environment that is robust and flexible enough to handle any challenges without compromising on performance,” said Carlyle.

The OB truck also will rely on a Grass Valley Densite 3+ XIP-3901 modular signal processing platform to deliver multiformat operation and process SDI and IP 4K, 3G and HD at the same time. It also will use the company’s Audio Live router for live multi-stream IP audio.

More information is available on the Grass Valley website.

MUNICH—NEP Belgium has taken delivery of core technology from Imagine Communications, including the company’s Platinum IP3 router, for a major refresh of its Unit 14 outside broadcast truck.

“Our Unit 14 still had many kilometers in it, but with a technology platform that was life-expired,” said Geert Thoelen, transitions manager at NEP Belgium.

“We wanted a solution that would fit into the existing space, would give us all the functionality we need today and be ready for the future, including increasing use of IP connectivity. And we could really only take the truck off the road for little more than a month earlier this year, so our partner had to be capable of moving swiftly to install and commission.”

Imagine and VP Media Solutions, its Belgian dealer and partner, were able to meet the tight deadline for the refurbishment, said Imagine.

The new Platinum IP3 router, which was delivered with a single 15RU chassis, offers high-density switching of HD-SDI signals and the capability to seamlessly integrate uncompressed video over IP, making it ready for a migration to IP connectivity, such as a move to Ultra HD signals, the company said.

The router installed in Unit 14 is also fitted with Platinum SX Pro multiviewer cards, which reduces the amount of rack space needed as well as power consumption. Overall system control is provided by Imagine’s Magellan SDN Orchestrator. It delivers unified operational interfaces in a hybrid environment, making the transition between SDI and software defined IP infrastructures easier.

“The small frame size fitted well into the truck, but what really made it the right choice for us was the integrated multiviewer,” Thoelen said. “The multiviewer is also much more flexible than our old monitoring setup. Unit 14 might do football Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then entertainment and concerts during the week, so we constantly need to change the configuration. We can set up as many PiPs as we need for whatever the director wants.”

The refresh of Unit 14 took five weeks. It returned in time to cover a Ladies of Soul concert in Amsterdam.

More information is available via Imagine Communications.