Tour de France broadcaster turns to Thomson Grass Valley cameras

France Television was on-site with its two OB vans and 35 Thomson Grass Valley brand SD digital cameras to capture all the action of the recently completed Tour de France.

France 2 and France 3, the exclusive broadcaster, also used six Thomson Grass Valley LDK 23HS Super SloMo camera systems that were positioned at pre-selected destinations along the race course, including at the start and finish lines.

Euromedia/SFP (Société Française de Production), which ordered more than 130 Grass Valley LDK500 cameras last year, is the largest OB production company in France. SFP served as the main contractor for the Tour de France 2004, using its own digital teleproduction vans, as well as MPEG-2 transmission systems supplied by Live Tools Switzerland.

Euromedia/SFP also provided complete ground-to-air transmission of live images with three helicopters equipped with Grass Valley TTV 1657D 12-bit digital cameras and two planes. Also, six Grass Valley LDK 500 SD cameras were mounted on motorcycles following the riders as they made their way through the grueling course.

For more information, please visit: www.thomsongrassvalley.com.

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