LONDON--The SMPTE ST 2110 suite of IP standards for professional media production made its mark last month on Wimbledon when NEP UK put to use an IP infrastructure centered on Grass Valley technology for the first UHD HDR live production of the tennis championship.

NEP UK deployed two SMPTE ST 2110 trucks, Venus and Ceres, for production of the 2018 Wimbledon Tennis Championship for host broadcaster Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS).

The setup included multicamera production of all 18 courts, a first for Wimbledon coverage. The camera complement included a net-cam on both Center Court and No. 1 Court as well as other production enhancements.

NEP UK’s Venus and Ceres OB trucks were responsible for HD, HDR and UHD content, delivering world feeds to 20 onsite broadcasters as well as 21 of its own production galleries. A portable IP flyaway system was used to connect the two trucks, forming one of the world’s largest SMPTE ST 2110 OB installations to date. Together they were able to handle more than 118 camera signals. The Grass Valley IP infrastructure handled movement of streams with far less cabling than the miles that would have been needed for a similar baseband setup, Grass Valley said.

The IP infrastructure was built around Grass Valley IQ UCP 25GbE gateway cards. The modular, reprogrammable cards provide bi-directional interfacing between IP and baseband equipment. Each truck is equipped with 70 of the cards, and flyaways have 200. This flexibility makes it easy for NEP to adapt to the specific requirements of any particular event or venue, Grass Valley said.

The trucks, which also were deployed to cover the royal wedding in May, include Grass Valley’s IPEDGE-SVR turnkey IP routing control system with Orbit control and monitoring software, Grass Valley Kayenne and Kahuna video switchers and IP multiviewers. These seamlessly integrate with Arista COTS network switches, AXON Digital Design master control systems, Calrec audio mixing capability and comms facilities from Telex Communications.

“As the Wimbledon 2018 project illustrates, we came together with Grass Valley to create a highly customizable live production capability that delivered high-quality action with unmatched images,” said Rob Newton, CTO of NEP UK and Ireland.

More information is available on the Grass Valley website. 

LONDON--NEP UK is making this year's Wimbledon the first Championships to be broadcast utilising SMPTE ST 2110 compliant fully redundant IP technology.

The company has installed a distributed routing system, connected by main and back up MTP fibre optic cable, to serve on and off-site domestic and international broadcasters.

NEP UK has been working with Wimbledon for 35 years, and this year is delivering IP technical facilities for its in-house production as part of Wimbledon Broadcast Services

Read: BBC To Stream Wimbledon 2018 Tennis Tournament In 4K/HDR]

Since 2014, NEP UK has provided both host and domestic coverage of the event. This year, it is providing 21 control rooms for the host broadcaster plus three for the Wimbledon Channel to serve the World Feed and archive. To support the broadcast, NEP is employing 118+ camera positions and 41+ EVS servers, plus three major OB units and a large fly-pack core to broadcast the event.

“Both the scale and range of requirements for this project are immense, from distributing directly to rights holders own MCRs, the Central Content Store, the World feed, the Wimbledon Channel and now a transmission, distribution and quality control area, as well as an additional two courts. We have also joined forces with Fletcher to provide coverage for the remaining seven courts, allowing all courts to have full coverage for the first time” said Richard Lancaster, technical project manager, NEP UK.

Paul Davies, head of broadcast and production at the AELTC added, “We have worked with NEP UK for a number of years and their experience, knowledge and expertise has ensured that Wimbledon has remained at the cutting edge of broadcast innovation throughout this partnership. This is the first year Wimbledon Broadcast Services comes into operation and we are delighted to continue to partner with NEP for a further four years and are very excited to be covering Centre Court in 4K HDR”

BRACKNELL, U.K.—NEP U.K. has rolled out Venus and Ceres, the latest in its fleet of OB trucks that are SMPTE-2110 compliant, joining NEP’s worldwide family of IP-based vehicles in Australia and the U.S. [Updated, May 15]

“We needed to replace two of our older vehicles, which gave us the perfect opportunity to invest in our first future-resistant IP capable trucks,” said Rob Newton, engineering and technical director, NEP UK. The vehicles, Venus and Ceres, will be used to televise sports and other events, NEP U.K. said.

A major benefit of the IP infrastructure is a significant reduction in cabling. Far less fiber optic cable is used than the miles of coaxial cable that otherwise would have been needed, says NEP U.K.

The ST 2110 infrastructure in both trucks is identical. Each is built on Grass Valley (formerly SAM) IQ UCP 25GbE Gateway cards that provide two-way links between IP-based equipment and existing broadband technology needed to accommodate clients using SDI feeds. The trucks can deliver dual level UHD and HD-SDI simultaneously.

[Read: What SMPTE-2110 Means For Broadcasters]

Test and measurement gear includes the Phabrix HDR and IP-enabled test and measurement solution with three Qx 12G signal generation, analysis and monitoring solutions and four Rx2000 with each providing up to four channels of 2K/3G/HD/SD-SDI video and audio analysis and monitoring.

For switching the trucks are relying on the Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center and Kahuna video switcher. They also include Calrec sound desks, Telex Talkback system, Arista 7504 IP switches and Axon Cerebrum control systems.

To meet the cooling requirements of the new trucks, NEP U.K. has designed the trucks with greater A.C. capacity, and all equipment can be cooled separately in operational areas.

Venus recently completed its first job, and both trucks will be supporting several major live events over the summer.

BRACKNELL, ENGLAND—NEP UK has deployed its new Super-Slow live camera for ITV's coverage of the Cheltenham Festival.

NEP has combined Grass Valley's RT camera and Vislink HCAM wireless transmitters as well as some "NEP imagination" to capture Super-Slow images, while recording live images at 1080p150.

The Vislink transmitters can be attached directly to the camera back and send multiple streams of 4K images. The high frame rate allows the system to transmit live images at 1080p150—which can be cut live (at 1080p50) and also fed directly to an EVS for Super-Slowmotion playback.

The OB team at Cheltenham Festival are using a GV LDX 86XS handheld wireless camera, which offers return video and full camera control.

“Super-Slow or tri-motion images have become increasingly popular, particularly for sports coverage, but we’ve never been able to capture them live with an RF camera before,” said William Norris, senior RF engineer, NEP UK.

This story first appeared on TVT's sister publication TVB Europe.