Telerecord-Aret Partnership for UNIT 22

A new broadcast vehicle on sports venues and Serie A football scene

Telerecord is a well known company based in Florence, very active in the broadcast production and rental markets. Aret Video and Audio Engineering on the other hand is an international well known turnkey systems integrator, with over 40 years experience and more than 400 OB-Vans manufactured and delivered worldwide. The two companies often work in partnership and recently another result of these joint efforts is on field, an HD OB-van named "Unit 22".

More specifically, this new mobile vehicle stems from a 'concept' derived from the long experience of Telerecord in major productions, and was integrated by Aret. 10 m long, it is on field within the major European and Italian sports events and venues and it represent the latest in a series of similar projects carried out in recent years: it is the fifth ob-unit in a row created under the same name. It is again an OB-Van integrating on board the latest technologies and the result of the experience of those professionals who daily use such vehicles in their broadcast video productions.

Giovanni Bertini, founder of Telerecord points out: "These mobile vehicles jointly signed by Telerecord - Aret are 'ready to go', high performance and flexible and guarantee on field up-to-date operational functions and great reliability. All technologies have been carefully selected and even each smallest detail both technical and structural and aesthetic have been rigorously examined; This concept is valid not only for the key technologies but also for the secondary ones that span from the hinges to the seals, paints and all the materials of the body and also the typical expansion gears. Here comes our many years of operational experience."

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Fabio Bertini co-owner of Telerecord explains: "The collaboration with the Milanese system integrator Aret Video and Audio Engineering -involved in several international projects- is also crucial; especially to speed up construction of the vehicle and to guarantee important quality levels.

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In recent years we have intensified our cooperation with Aret Video and Audio Engineering, which is partner with many market products and brands: actually we often integrate broadcast products distributed by Aret on ob-vehicles, like Calrec, Ross Video, Vinten, Kroma Telecom, Wohler, Tektronix and several others.

Alessandro Asti Vice President of Aret continues the description: "We loved this 'concept' by Telerecord, first of all for the available room which is definitely wide thanks to a double expansion in the main video control section, which has allowed us to board three workbenches in just 10 m , with a result comparable to that of far longer vehicles. Inside Unit 22 we have provided for 15 very comfortable operational areas, thanks to the double expansion for a total of 4m of width.

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On board the main video mixer is a Sony and a second surface is meant for production assistants and authors. A third workbench accommodates slow motion operators. So this is a truly remarkable achievement in terms of floor room for a rather compact production vehicle. This mobile unit operates on top class sports events such as football matches in Serie A and this speaks volumes about the quality of the equipment that must be on board: it is a guarantee of reliability and quality."

Aret started by defining the desired workflow and including products such as modular equipments by Ross Video, Tektronix instruments and Quad Split Kroma Telecom monitors. After cabling, second phase is the installation and configuration of all technologies up to the "turnkey" delivery.

In addition to this, Aret is more than used to providing solutions such as designing, coachbuilding and System Integration suplying turn key completely custom and tailor made solutions, always starting from the main needs of the customer in terms of performance, layout and budget, up to providing coach-building, integration, commissioning, training and 'babysitting'.

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The technical equipments on board unit 22 are 10 Sony HDC 2500 cameras, SuperMotion configurable as 2x, Sony MVS 3g video mixer, 60 inputs 20 outputs, wall production monitor with integrated quad split display up to 80 sources; for the engineering and slow motion section several Quad Split 18'' Kroma Telecom Monitor are chosen. All monitors boast a very low delay of just a frame; the choice was not to use the multi-viewer in order to minimize the delay and maximize reliability.

On board there is a multi-format 3g Snell Sirius 128-in 192 out video matrix; 3HDR BLT SMS 4U six channels of recording for slow motion, all on the net, 2 +2 HDCAM VTRs / XDCAM 3G distribution, Up- Down-Cross cross converter, mux, DA, AD, VDA by Ross Video, 4 frame synchronizer FA 9500 by For- A, Tektronix WVR7200 control instruments, TSL TM1 under monitor tally system. On board audio equipments include a Yamaha audio CL5 mixer with 72 analog inputs, 40 analog outputs, 32 AES outputs and interfaces RIO 3224D, auxiliary audio mixer Yamaha 01V96, AES-EBU audio matrix Snell Pixis 36x36.

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All audio distribution is by Ross Video, Intercom System by Clearcom, Eclipse ch 48, DP 570 Dolby-E. Audio control loudness instrument by Harris CMN- LA, Glensound commenting system, GSM ISDN telephone hybrids. The tv cameras are Sony HDC 2500, fiber connected, and can operate at full quality even 10 km away from the ob-van; this capability is often considered peculiar, for instance, in Ski Championship shooting.

Such configuration for this Ob-van is definitely future-proof, as it can produce in 3G video.