New Century Productions (NCP) of Allentown, Pa., will soon begin using a 96-channel Yamaha PM1D Digital Mixing System for production truck NCP IV, which was recently rebuilt as an HD truck. NCP currently operates seven production trucks, three of which are HD-capable. The company offers its multi-format mobile production units and services to a variety of corporate and broadcast clients throughout the United States, including Fox Sports for NFL football, and the Presidential Inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C. last January.
Digital audio is one of the major technologies that has moved truck design toward a single flexible architecture that will accommodate the coverage of sports and entertainment. Other affecting technologies include the cable industry offering HD as an enhanced tier of service, and the post production industry raising the bar to digital audio and video. In the signal chain, all camera feeds, mics and announce headsets come back to the truck.
Once the mix is created, NCP hands it off to a transmission service, and from there it goes to compression equipment and a fiber line, or an uplink that will take it and bounce it back to wherever it's going, or both. NCP says 5.1 surround sound should always accompany HD productions.
