MCI Fit BroaMan in New NRK DSNG Van

This was the first project MCI had executed for NRK and was the result of winning a competitive tender. A BroaMan fibre solution had been in their mind right from the outset, according to project manager, Götz Ahlert.

Explaining the challenge, he said, “The task was to set up quickly, and with a minimum of cabling, a reliable connection between up to four TV cameras and an OB van — connected via satellite to the broadcast centre in Oslo. The BroaMan fibre units are designed to be located in a stagebox on the camera side, and inside the OB truck on the corresponding side.”

BroaMan supplied a small custom box with an SDI input and a fibre output to house a single camera on one side, mechanically connected to a camera battery on the other. “In that way the fibre connection is made directly with the camera unit without any additional cables or separate boxes — giving maximum flexibility to the operator,” he said.

In addition, BroaMan’s V3R-FX-IC444-SDI — a 4LI/4LO board with four GPIO’s — enables four camera signals to be routed via a single fibre connection to the vehicle and be uplinked to the broadcast centre. Transmitted in the opposite direction a monitor picture can be sent to the camera set, which is required if a speaker is communicating with the studio.

Summarising, Götz Ahlert says, “NRK’s aim was to have a simple and easy-to-operate connection between camera and OB van for distances in excess of 100m — and this is not possible with coax cables.

“BroaMan provided us with a small, cost-effective solution with the ability to transport video, audio, data and GPIO’s on one fibre cable.”

The new VW T5 vehicle is one of two small OB vans fitted by MCI for NRK which are used for quick news reports, sport and cultural events — one operating in the north of Norway, the other in the Oslo region. In addition to the BroaMan signal transport, the Hamburg company supplied a small video mixer and 16 x 16 matrix, Lawo audio mixer and self positioning satellite system with carbon antenna as part of the contract.

About BroaMan
BroaMan (Broadcast Manufactur GmbH) products are aimed at broadcasters as well as production companies, sport facilities, professional AV integrators and many more applications. The company offers customised solutions for every application that requires SD/HD/3G video transport or routing – whether a big and complex system for broadcast studio or OB Van, or a simple point to point for a small church, conference hall, etc. With DiViNe (Digital Video Network) all open standards can be integrated — digital video, audio and data — on the same fibre infrastructure. The main differentiator from other companies providing video over fibre solutions is the approach. Each video system is unique and every customer requires a different level of complexity and features. Each BroaMan system is tailored to match the customer's exact needs. Using the DiViNe system the customer, together with BroaMan’s Application Engineering team, can specify the general system performance, the interface layout — based on basic frames — and some special features. As a result each customer receives his own bespoke system, which perfectly matches his application.