NASHVILLE, Tenn.—TNDV Television has launched Aspiration 35, a new version of its 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multicamera productions.

Developed in collaboration with dbV Rentals, Aspiration 35 is one of the first ARRI camera-equipped trucks and among the first to deliver a complete cinematic workflow natively from a TV truck, offering a blend of film-quality imaging and traditional live production infrastructure.

TNDV debuted Aspiration 35 on July 8 at a special block party in Nashville. The event featured hands-on demos of the truck’s cinematic workflow and brought together production professionals, vendors and industry groups. The party also featured new products from local vendors like Elite Script (debuting its new Jumbo Bright Teleprompter system) as well as interactive experiences from media outlets, such as the Cams Channel podcast.

“Our refreshed Aspiration 35 truck is more than just another upgrade,” TNDV founder Nic Dugger said. “It’s a leap into the future of what live production can look like when it embraces the art of cinema. The ARRI Alexa 35 has long been a top pick of DPs on many films. There are only one or two other trucks like this in the country, but Aspiration 35 is the first to have ARRI Alexa 35 Live systems.”

TNDV sees Aspiration 35 as the industry’s answer for filmmakers and high-end corporate clients who want the look of cinema in a scalable, broadcast-capable truck environment. While traditional broadcast trucks are engineered for 1080i and 60p sports or news content, Aspiration 35 is built to handle today’s demand for cinematic aesthetics across sectors that include entertainment, corporate and sports productions through technologies that bring together true 35-millimeter sensors, 4K and 24p acquisition and shallow depth of field, TNDV said.

“For years, producers have been rigging together handheld cinema-style cameras and running them into trucks that were never really designed for that type of workflow,” Dugger said. “There is now a native, professional solution where everything is built up clean and transmitted to the truck over traditional SMPTE cable without additional hardware or cabling. These cameras are powered from the truck, they’re tethered with full shading and tally and they give us that beautiful, film-like imagery without sacrificing any aspects of production control.”

Nashville-based video production rental house dbV Rentals provided the ARRI Alexa 35 Live cameras and worked closely with TNDV to develop the single-wire architecture to new base stations installed on Aspiration 35.

The truck’s camera packages are fully scalable, can support up to 12 Alexa 35 Live multicam systems with each deployment, and are also integrated with essential live production systems, including return video, tally, intercom and remote camera shading, TNDV said.

The partnership also gives TNDV and its clients access to a very large inventory of specialty cinematic lenses from ARRI, Canon and Fujinon.

“The industry has made significant advances in offering lenses that can provide both cinematic image quality and broadcast integration capabilities, especially with extremely long-range zoom lenses,” dbV Rentals owner Doug Bates said.

“They have quickly reached the level where they are familiar to the seasoned broadcast teams with their boots on the ground, while also providing DPs from the cinematic world with the images they’ve come to expect from years of extremely high-quality optical designs,” he added. “We have truly reached the point where cinematic multi-camera shoots can offer clients the very best of both worlds from top to bottom.”

More information is available on the TNDV and dbV Rentals websites.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Mobile production truck provider Live Media Group has added a 72-dual fader Calrec Argo Q and a 48-fader Argo S console to its new MU-16 mobile unit.

Designed and built exclusively for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the vehicle debuted with the July 6 episode of “AEW Collision” on TNT from the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.

The new truck is equipped with dual Argo control surfaces and doubles as a Calrec IP ImPulse core for redundancy. It marks a milestone for the Columbus-based mobile facilities company, which moves to a native internet-protocol production environment for the first time.

“The fact that the Argo and the ImPulse cores are ST 2110 IP-native was a big factor in our decision to go down this route,” Live Media Group sound engineer Kevin Norris said. “It totally removes the need for any of the conversion or audio bridging we have required on our previous installs, which saves us space and simplifies all our interconnections.

“We’ve worked with Calrec for many years, and our operator base knows the console workflow well,” he added. “Not only do we find them easy to drive, but our relationship with the team at Calrec means that we’re able to plan hardware adjustments in advance.”

The truck runs two Argo surfaces from one pair of redundant ImPulse cores. Its Argo Q surface operates as the main mixing console. The compact Argo S serves as a subconsole.

“We’re also operating two complete IP networks: one for all the Calrec AoIP I/O boxes connected to the truck and a second 2110 network with EVS Cerebrum control and Arista MCS as the Software Designed Network,” Norris said.

More information is available on the Calrec and Live Media Group websites.

LOS ANGELES—Live Media Group Holdings has announced the acquisition of TNDV: Television, Harb Production Services and Coastal Media Group. The three companies will join Live Mobile Group, an owned-and-operated division of Live Media Group Holdings, to form what the company says is the “largest mid-level, full-service live production facilities provider and company in the broadcast and live event industry.”

For mobile production, the “mid-level” market includes mobile production units smaller than the standard 53-foot expandos that are so common in the industry. Brad Sexton, president and CEO of Live Media Group Holdings, said the acquisitions were driven by an increase in demand for smaller mobile production units.

“We looked at the market for the last five years or so and this is what clients are really asking us for,” he said. Five years ago, half of all mobile production units being deployed were 53-foot expandos but since then, “it’s been a pretty dramatic shift where you can do a lot more with a 40-45-foot production truck.”

The consolidated company has approximately 50 employees and will consist of 18 mid-sized production hybrid units, with additional standalone smaller production uplink units.

Live Media Group Holdings will retain the staff, facilities and structure of all organizations. Los Angeles will serve as a West Coast production and truck operation, with plans to relocate its corporate operations to TNDV’s headquarters in Nashville. The Harb Production Services facility in Knoxville, Tenn., will serve as a truck operations and integration facility. Sexton adds that “all companies will continue to operate under their current business names for the time being,” citing the strength of their brands, expert engineering execution and professional reputations.

Danny Harb, president of Harb Production Services, will join the expanded management team and sit on the Board of Directors of Live Media Group Holdings. Nic Dugger, president of TNDV: Television, will also join the management team of Live Media Group Holdings and sit on the Board of Directors. 

MONTREAL—Featuring a fleet of more than 20 outside broadcast (OB) trucks to cover sports and other events across the U.K., Arena Television has announced that it will add three more that will embrace 4K UHD and IP-based production. To support these new trucks, Arena has selected equipment from Grass Valley.

The three OB trucks from Arena—OBX, OBY and OBZ—will feature GV’s LDX86N series native 4K cameras with XF Fiber base stations. In addition, the trucks will include one Kayenne K-Frame Video Production Center switcher with two panels; two GV Convergent IP/SDI router control and configuration systems with SDN license; iControl customized end-to-end facility monitoring; Densité 3+ FR4 frames with IPG-3901 high density SDI/IP gateways; and GV Node IP processing and edge routing platforms with Kaleido KMX-4911 cards.

The IP workflow utilizes SMPTE ST 2022-6 as well as video and audio IP standards such as VSF TR03/04, which GV supports through the AIMS initiative. Arena is running 4K UHD over 10GigE with GV’s 4K one-wire system that uses Tico compression. OBX, which is the first of three to be equipped and ready for use, is future ready for emerging formats, including HDR; OBX runs UHD 2Si for monitoring and can integrate Quad-Link if required.

Arena will release the OBY truck later in 2016, with OBZ set for 2017.

MONTREAL—Rec4Box has installed some new equipment into its new 37-foot Galleon series and updated 26-foot Corsair mobile production trucks, announcing each now features the Karrera K-Frame Video Production Center switcher from Grass Valley.

The Karrera switcher provides mid-range switcher performance while also facilitating workflows for complex productions. The Galleon and Corsair trucks will be used throughout the U.S. market.

Grass Valley is a provider of end-to-end TV production and content distribution workflows.

CRANBURY, N.J. – They might not have been going 200-miles an hour, but Game Creek Video’s new production trucks, PeacockOne and PeacockOne B, drew some attention during NBC Sports first NASCAR broadcast over the Fourth of July weekend. Set to help provide full coverage of races for the rest of the NASCAR season, Game Creek Video will rely on IHSE KVM matrix systems for instant replays and video production management.

PeacockOne was designed to maintain the main equipment racks and move the playout and graphics rooms to PeacockOne B. The IHSE KVM equipment allows workstations on either unit to access any available server by connecting the workstation to a specific server. Pre-configured and stored connection paths allow the replay operators to connect their data servers with no interruption to workflow.

Specifically, Game Creek went with the Draco tera enterprise 160 port matrix as the primary KVM for PeacockOne and a Draco compact hybrid 32 fiber/48 cooper matrix for PeacockOne B. Using 32 fiber interconnects, the two KVM systems are able to act as a single KVM switch system. Software control of the two KVM matrices was handled by IHSE USA’s Grid Manager.

Game Creek previously installed IHSE’s KVM equipment into its FX-HD, Riverhawk and Spirit trucks.

IHSE is a provider of KVM products for long distance signal extenders and switching based in Cranbury, N.J.