Gearhouse, a UK-based equipment rental and production company, has developed a new HD flyaway pack for live sports and entertainment productions that is easy and cost-effective to ship anywhere in the world. Relatively lightweight and easily portable, when compared to a full-sized production truck, the kit includes a Grass Valley Kayak HD switcher and up to eight LDK 6000 mkII WorldCam HD cameras. The new package was recently used by ESPN on Jan. 14 for the Hula Bowl, the annual college football championship game in Honolulu, HI.
For the Hula Bowl HD telecast, the flypack was sent from Gearhouse's Los Angeles location to Honolulu. Steve Boland, president of Gearhouse's facility in the U.S., said the flypack sent to Honolulu was half the weight of any HD truck, yet performed just as well. The package was set up in office trailers onsite and performed without problems. To viewers, the game was produced as well as any seen on national television, complete with multicamera angles and layered graphics.
Jim Toten, vice president of operations for Gearhouse, was onsite during the Hula Bowl and reported that everything went exceptionally well, and that ESPN was pleased with the results.
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