TORONTO—As a leading production facilities provider, Dome Productions executes live sporting events and entertainment, as well as corporate productions, working closely with major broadcasters, leagues, teams, production companies, government bodies and content creators. We pride ourselves on providing technologies and expertise that contribute to a visually engaging and immersive end result. We’ve been a longtime Sony user, incorporating their imaging technologies into our workflow, so we’ve come to trust their expertise and dependability.

At Dome, we’ve produced more than 1,000 live 4K events over the past five years, and as our clients began embracing 4K and HDR production, we needed advanced monitoring solutions to meet those needs.

4K MONITORING ON WHEELS

In our previous truck builds, we had been using Sony’s BVM-E170 and BVM-E171, which were always reliable and priced right. When we were looking to outfit our newest greenfield IP core mobile unit, Dome Gateway, we knew we wanted to explore the latest options from Sony. We were pleased to learn about Sony’s new PVM-X series picture monitors, the 24-inch PVM-X2400 and 18.4-inch PVM-X1800, which incorporate a 4K native panel, HDR and wide color gamut while offering the color accuracy we’ve come to expect from the company.

4K was an extremely important selling point for us. With the PVM-X series, we recognized the benefits of using a native 4K monitor that doesn’t require scaling and has no delay in internal processing. For our line of work, lip sync is especially important, as is the ability to work in real time and provide an accurate representation of what is going out to air. It’s also great that the monitor accommodates whatever format we have, from 720p all the way up to 2160p.

In our field, a video operator serves as the main point of quality control so they need to have the best tools for the job, so having a dependable monitor like the PVM-X series that combines 4K with high-quality color accuracy, very low processing latency, wide color gamut, HDR support and options for LUTs, is critical.

In addition to the key features, it was beneficial to choose a Sony panel that fits perfectly into the fixed space in the truck’s wall. It was also instrumental that the PVM-X series seamlessly color match with our other Sony monitoring technology and complement the imaging from our Sony cameras. We always look to select options that can easily integrate into our existing workflow, grow with us and have a long lifespan to ensure a return on our investment. That’s why we’ve been so pleased to be among the first users of this new series of monitors.

MORE TO COME

There are more features incorporated into the PVM-X series that I hope to take advantage of in the near future; for instance, the quad-view capability. The monitors provide four independent inputs so you can display four different signals at the same time or compare the same signal in different ways. We haven’t used this yet, but we look forward to deploying it soon when we get back into HDR productions.

Based on the success we’ve had with the PVM-X series monitors in our Gateway truck, we are currently in the process of replicating the monitor setup in our all-4K Dome Silver truck, along with implementing Sony’s HDC-5500 system cameras, to continue the collaboration.

Al Karloff has worked in various engineering roles at Dome Productions over the past 17 years. He is currently engineering project manager where he has designed and built numerous 3G/1080p, UHD mobile trucks and remote production facilities. He can be reached at Alan.Karloff@domeprod.com.

For more information, visit pro.sony.

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.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Dome Productions is doing graphics on the go with the addition of new ChyronHego equipment in its fleet of 17 mobile production vehicles.

Dome already utilized ChyronHego’s LyricX graphics creation and playout environment, but with the addition of 13 Mosaic XL2 graphics platforms it can bring the trucks into its overall LyricX graphic workflows. The 1080p capable Mosaic XL2 will help with Dome Productions reported ventures into 4K.

“A common character-generation format across our entire fleet will give us a boost in both speed and capability and help accelerate productions of all sizes,” said Mike Johnson, director of engineering for Dome Productions.

BURLINGTON, MASS.—When the athletes that made up the 2017 Invictus Games—wounded, ill and injured armed services personnel and veterans—descended on Toronto, Dome Productions relied went with Avid tools and workflows to create and deliver the content for global broadcasters.

Dome Productions was the host broadcaster for this year’s games and was required to produce and deliver a 48-minute highlight show after each day of competition. They utilized a workflow that was powered by the Avid MediaCentral platform. The workflow also consisted of the Avid Nexis software-defined storage platform to help streamline the collaboration of nine editing systems.

Dome Productions also implemented Avid’s MediaCentral | Production Management system for asset management and the Avid Media Composer nonlinear editing system.

The 2017 Invictus Games featured more than 550 athletes from 17 nations participate in adapted sport competitions.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Calrec Audio’s Brio system has found its way under Dome Production’s roof as part of a recent studio upgrade. The Brio system was implemented to replace Dome Production’s 15-year-old main studio audio console.

Installed into Dome’s Studio95 facility control room located in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the Brio is used in conjunction with the mobile units for “remote-at-home” style broadcasts. Brio’s compatibility with other Calrec consoles allows Dome to configure audio mixing in various productions; it can also expand the studio’s capabilities by adding more Calrec Hydra2 Fieldboxes.

Dome Productions, which provides broadcasts of live sport events, went live with the Brio in September 2016.