Wimbledon Taps Thomson for HD Coverage

Thomson Grass Valley high-definition equipment covered all the tennis action at The 122nd Championships live from The All England Club this year. Several production companies used a variety of Thomson’s production equipment to follow every lightning-fast serve, which some broadcasters carried in HDTV for the first time.

NEP Visions helped produce the event and sent live HD feeds back to the U.S. for ESPN, NBC and The Tennis Channel. The U.K.-based company used three of its state-of-the-art HD trucks, (HD2, HD4, and HDR3), each featuring a Thomson Grass Valley Kalypso HD Video Production Center switcher, Trinix HD digital video router under Jupiter control, and more than 40 LDK 6000 mk II HD cameras.

Prisma Outside Broadcast, a live production company based in Gotenburg, Sweden, was also onsite at Wimbledon with an HD outside broadcast van, built by the Thomson Systems Group. The truck—used by Japanese broadcaster, NHK—includes LDK 8000 HD cameras, a Kayak 4.5 M/E HD digital production switcher, Trinix HD routers and GeckoFlex signal conversion modules.

U.K. rental house Presteigne Charter also supplied Thomson Grass Valley equipment to a variety of international broadcasters that covered the Grand Slam tournament, including numerous LDK 8000 HD cameras, multiple LDK 6200 2X Super SloMo HD cameras and Trinix routers.

Wimbledon 2008 ran from June 23–July 6.