Game Creek Stocking New Trucks With Grass Valley Kayenne

Longtime mobile production company Game Creek Video, based in Hudson, N.H., has a long relationship with Grass Valley and its line of switchers.

Now, the company has purchased of several Kayenne Video Production Centers, which are slated to be at the center of its next fleet of trucks.

Game Creek is building two 3G-capable (1080p60) HD production trucks ready for deployment this year with the Kayennes on each. Game Creek has also committed to taking delivery of four additional Kayenne switchers for future truck projects, for a total of six Kayenne switchers.

The new trucks will be dedicated to supporting sports productions for both ESPN (the “Larkspur” truck) and the YES Network (an as-yet-unnamed truck)—home of baseball’s New York Yankees.

The ESPN truck is hitting the road at the end of July, and the the YES Network truck will be ready for action by the end of August in time for the 2010 MLB playoffs.

“Our crews like the layout and functionality of the Grass Valley Kayenne, so we have committed our scheduled new truck builds to this very powerful switcher platform,” said Pat Sullivan, president of Game Creek Video. “As productions become more and more complex, we recognize the value and flexibility of the Kayenne and how it can help our clients produce the most exciting shows on television.”

Game Creek has been using a Kayenne switcher successfully for about a year, having produced college football games for ABC and NFL games for ESPN and FOX Sports last season, as well as the 2010 Daytona 500 in February for FOX.

“Game Creek has a reputation for quality and has handled a number of the most watched sporting events with Grass Valley switchers,” said Jeff Rosica, senior vice president of Grass Valley. “Their past success with Grass Valley technologies has led to this significant agreement to install Kayenne switchers on board all of its largest and most sophisticated vehicles going forward. We’re pleased to support them as they grow.”

Initially, "Larkspur" will help ESPN televise “ESPN College GameDay.” The second truck will start out doing Yankees gamwes for YES and then post-season MLB and the World Series for FOX. Later it will produce NFL games for the NFL Network.

The Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center is a family of powerful, highly modular production switchers, with from 1.5 M/Es to 4.5 M/Es. It provides the most video processing power available with up to 30 keyers and 20 DPM effects channels in a 4.5-M/E system. Grass Valley’s DoubleTake split M/E technology effectively increases the available M/Es to 10. The modular control panel is designed for easy expansion and service. Each source select and aux bus module has two rows of OLED Source Name Displays that provide ultra-clear text with extremely wide viewing angles.