MONTREAL—Sky Italia has made the investment in Grass Valley LDX 86N Series cameras as part of the broadcaster’s wider studio camera upgrade. The addition of the new cameras will assist with things like live production and new services, including IP and 4K UHD.

One of the key features of the LDX 86N cameras is the DirectIP functionality, which enables the XCU UXF base station to be located as far as 20,000 km away from the camera, enabling production to be managed from a remote or home studio. The base stations and cameras are linked through an IP network.

In addition, the LDX 86N cameras will give the Sky Italia team a choice between 3G/HD and 4K UHD image capture.

“The ability to use our existing studio set-up and move the cameras as needed among various studios is central to keeping our live news and studio production content flowing,” said Enzo Paradisi, engineering director at Sky Italia. “We are also laying important groundwork for migration to SMPTE ST 2110-based IP infrastructure and can operate in hybrid environments in the meantime.”

Video Progetti, a Grass Valley reseller, is handling the studio upgrade, with the cameras expected to go live in 2021.

For more information, visit www.grassvalley.com.  

MONTREAL–Euro Media Group (EMG) has selected Grass Valley’s LDX 86 4K HDR RF camera heads for its sports and live events coverage worldwide. The cameras will form part of EMG’s upgraded, RF high-speed wireless solution.

According to Grass, the camera heads are the industry’s only wireless, shoulder-mounted 4K RF head, offering EMG a single solution for transmitting HD, 4K and HiSpeed HD over the same link while covering sporting events such as international road cycling and marathons in UHD.

“We’ve developed unique wireless solutions to provide our clients with the best coverage of their projects, and we always aim to deliver the highest frame rate possible with the highest quality imagery,” said Ronald Meyvisch, chief technology officer, EMG. “To complement our UHD wireless technology, we were looking for a lightweight, robust and native 4K HDR RF camera. We have been a Grass Valley customer for many years – their solutions are unmatched and we had full confidence that they could meet our requirements for this project. The new LDX 86N4K RF camera head was the perfect solution for what we needed. With no compromise on image quality, we have the agility we need to successfully operate in an RF broadcast environment. Grass Valley has consistently worked hard to address today’s market challenges head on, making them the perfect technology partner for us.”

MONTREAL—NEP Europe is going with consistency with its new slate of trucks that are currently under construction, choosing to purchase Grass Valley’s LDX 86N 4K cameras for all trucks.

The LDX 86N cameras are fully capable of switching from 4K resolution to 3G/HD. It is able to upgrade to LDX 86N Universe functionality, with 6X HD and 3X HD/3G high frame rate capture. All five of the new trucks expected to be added to NEP Europe’s fleet in the next sixth months will feature the LDX camera, including a triple-expanding truck that can accommodate up to 30 cameras.

NEP has announced that all future trucks will also carry LDX 86N cameras for future UHD productions.