LIVE on TV and LIVE on STAGE

TV Skyline's Ü7 HD is on the Road

Germany’s TV Skyline has unveiled its OBVan Ü7 HD, the company’s latest addition to its fleet of remote production units. Ü7 HD hits the road on 5 May and is the largest unit in the company’s OBVan line-up and it is the first OBVan to feature the new Snell Maverick control surface. Ü7 HD is 4.6 meters wide and offers nearly 60 square meters of space for 32 workplaces. This is twice the number of operator positions of previous TV Skyline OBVans making Ü7 HD suitable for a wide range of clients, including broadcasters, event agencies, corporate clients and more. One of the biggest advantages is the offering of three separate control rooms that are all under the control of a single Snell Kahuna 360 vision mixer and a Snell Sirius 840 router. Ü7 HD has a main control room and a second control room. The third control room that measures about 10 square meters is located in the tender truck.

Get the specs for Ü7 HD here

"Double Blow" for the DVS 6 at the Stade de France!

No. 6, the new Slow motion OBvan from DVS was hired by France Television to complete its outside broadcasting plan for both main finals of the League cup and the national French Football Cup. With 12 positions for slow/ultra motion or graphics, this lastest generation of Slow motion Obvan, innovates even more with new developments allowing greater editorial flexibility. This Obvan also provide a video mixer, offering the opportunity to pair with the main OBvans director or to make a premix of the replay sequences. With its VSM router allowing a great flexibility for video, audio, intercom, and management of multi-viewer, operators enjoy a comfort and efficiency never seen before.

Get the specs of Unit 6 here

Ireland's Observe Outside Broadcasting Chooses Calrec for First Truck in U.K. Expansion

Observe Outside Broadcasting, one of Ireland's leading outside broadcast (OB) providers, has installed a Calrec Artemis digital audio console in a new OB truck — the first truck at its new London operation, OBSTV. OBSTV will use the console to mix and route audio signals for a variety of live programming focused on sports, music, and special events. OBSTV installed a 48-fader Artemis Light desk with a complement of Hydra I/O, which includes a ruggedized remote stagebox with mic splits designed specifically for Observe's requirements for large events. The console is also equipped with high-density Hydra I/O containing 3G de-embedders and Dolby E decoders. The fully integrated 3G HD truck, OBS 1, is the first 3G truck in Observe's fleet. The 45-foot single-expander truck rolled out just after Christmas 2013 to cover rugby's Heineken Cup and RBS 6 Nations matches throughout Europe.

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MIKO Event Equips New 15-Ton OBVan with Studer Vista 1 Digital Console

Austrian OB broadcast specialist MIKO Event & Rental has purchased a HARMAN’s Studer Vista 1 for installation in a newly configured OB van. The hub of a fully redundant system, the all-in-one Studer control package—which had been one of the specification prerequisites—has provided MIKO with a ideal solution. The company runs a fleet of trucks that provide outside broadcast services, mainly for ORF, the Austrian public service broadcaster, and Red Bull Media House, the multi-platform media company with a focus on sports, culture, and lifestyle. The new MF11D 15-ton OBVan has been designed as a hybrid solution for video and Internet broadcasts or as high-quality radio. The sound infrastructure can also support complete live recording (up to 7.1). Originally built by Krämer in Germany it was rebuilt by MIKO to handle these video broadcasts.

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Neutrik | No Loops at RSI in Lugano Any More

After the successful opticamSWITCH integration at Swiss television in 2011, the enter-prise unit in Lugano, RSI (Radiotelevisione Svizzera), updated its studio routing with Neutrik’s camera switch as well. The latest fiber optic technology now connects the cameras of 4 studios with 2 control rooms. Further extensions are possible. For this purpose Neutrik delivered 7 opticamSWITCHes as well as the whole fiber optic infrastructure to Lugano. A big challenge was the first combined integration of the opticamSWITCH and BFE’s KSC Commander. The KSC Commander is a universal broadcast control system which gives the user a standardized, manufacturer-independent user interface for a variety of systems. After the initial problems were resolved, the system was working stably for the final in-spection on June 18, 2013. The studios went live in September 2013. Now all cameras from any studio can be switched to every control room at the push of a button.

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TV3 Barcelona Enhances its Productions with Orad’s Virtual Studio

The Catalan national public television station, TV3, and Orad have joined forces to develop a new state of the art studio using Orad’s ProSet virtual studio solution. The new studio is the fourth Orad based virtual studio used by TV3, and combines Orad’s tantalizing virtual studio, on air graphics and rich augmented reality capabilities. The studio is used for prime time productions including daily news, weather, breaking news and other news programs. The studio is divided into two areas; the main area which contains a virtual background over which the virtual graphics are keyed. It is further enhanced with rich augmented reality graphics and a large video wall resulting in an immersive virtual environment that accommodates a variety of productions. The second half of the studio contains a huge cyclorama where TV3 produces their weather show.

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Vinten Radamec Launches the Ultimate Heavy Weight Robotic Studio Solution

The new pedestal supports the weight of Vinten Radamec’s renowned Fusion FH-145 head, plus the combined weight of the studio camera or build-up kit, studio lens and prompter/vanity monitor combination of up to 66kg/145lbs, maximising the payload capacity of the FH-145. The FPR-210+ offers the smoothest on-air operation, across all speeds.  It recognises the compact L shaped floor targets that work across a wide range of floor finishes or can be supplied with the Fusion Absolute Positioning System (APS).  The award-winning APS delivers the ultimate positional accuracy and operational flexibility never before possible when using free-roaming robotic camera support pedestals.

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Off the Wall

All the young dudes were out in force one sunny August weekend, when the Vans Downtown Showdown skateboard event rolled into Paris. With €50,000 prize money at stake for the 12 teams in competition, the event promised to be serious fun.  The live streaming specialists, 3xScreen Media, captured it all using NewTek TriCasters, 3Play instant replay and LiveText graphics. The skateboard competition saw 12 teams skating four obstacles, each one representing a Parisian icon – from the Eiffel Tower to a designer suitcase obstacle representing Parisian chic! The skaters, as well as peripheral art and music events, were filmed and streamed live to screens around the venue, as well as to various web platforms, and the footage was recorded for later use.

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Robe for Spectacular Beira-Rio Stadium Opening in Brazil

Over 500 Robe fixtures were in action for the stunning Opening Ceremony lightshow designed by Patrick Woodroffe to celebrate the official re-opening of the refurbished 56,000 capacity Estádio Beira-Rio (Riverside Stadium) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The 531 Robe moving lights were specified and supplied by leading Brazilian rental company LPL. The stadium – the second biggest in the south of Brazil, home to the Sport Club Internacional team and legendary in the history of Brazilian football - has undergone massive redevelopment at its picturesque location beside the River Guaiba to bring it in line to host key matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Woodroffe – who needs no introduction as a creator of internationally renowned lightshows – brought his vast experience of producing stadium events to Brazil where he collaborated closely with Sao Paulo based Lighting Designer Cesio Lima on the project.

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RCS Expands On-Air Creativity for Sky Sport Deutschland F1® Coverage

In preparation for the 2014 Formula One® (F1) racing season, Reality Check Systems (RCS) upgraded its Uppercut production system for Sky Sport Deutschland as part of a three-year engagement designed to streamline the network's live broadcasts and minimize production overhead. To bring advanced digital video effects (DVE) capabilities to Sky Sport's existing Uppercut system, which RCS originally developed and installed for the network last year, RCS' Steven Heimbold led a five-person team in designing innovative state logic software to simplify 3D DVE transitions and broaden creative graphics capabilities on Uppercut for Sky Sport's remote F1 productions.

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Presteigne Tames the Thames for Boat Race Coverage

Each April teams representing the two oldest universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, meet on the Thames for one of the toughest challenges in rowing. A very popular event, this year’s race, which was covered by BBC Sport, saw Oxford claim an emphatic 11-length victory over their old rivals. Leading hire company Presteigne provided all the RF and special camera facilities, and enabled comprehensive coverage by implementing a new wireless mesh technology to route a large number of differing sources over one RF network. The course, from Putney to Mortlake, stretches along 6.8km of the river in west London, and huge crowds pack both riverbanks to watch the action. CTV was the outside broadcast company charged with this year’s television coverage, and needed to get fixed camera positions along the length of the course, plus a number of mobile cameras, back to the production vehicles near the start at Putney.

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EVS Tapeless Workflow Gives NEP High-Quality HD for 2014 Festival Season

NEP, provider of the largest fleet of mobile units and global production studios, has selected a tapeless workflow from EVS, the leading provider of live video production systems, to support its global live music and entertainment festival production. NEP provides mobile video production for some of the world’s largest entertainment events, including Coachella, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo music festivals in the United States, as well as large-scale events throughout Latin America. The new tapeless system, based on EVS’ XT media production server, supports multiple channels of high-definition content. The workflow is designed to support as many as 25 cameras set up at multiple stages, providing extremely high signal quality for webcasts and streaming to social media, as well as critical timeshifting and archiving capabilities.

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Riedel Artist Intercom for The House of Dancing Water

Designed by Pei Partnership Architects, the state-of-the-art Dancing Water Theatre created for The House of Dancing Water includes a stage pool that holds a record-breaking 3.7 million gallons of water, equivalent to five Olympic-sized swimming pools, within an arena boasting a 40-meter-high steel-trussed space that provides the generous height required for the show's diving and acrobatics elements. The show itself centers on an epic love story and spectacular journey through time, showcasing dazzling costumes, special effects, and performances. One Riedel Artist 64 frame and two Artist 32 frames support 62 panels distributed across the Dancing Water Theatre.

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World’s Most Influential Electronic Artists Trust Avid Live Sound Systems at Moogfest

Avid announced that its live sound systems were selected to record and mix headline performances at Moogfest, an annual five-day technology, art and music festival featuring some of the world’s most influential electronic artists. Moogfest, which celebrates the visionary and creative spirit of Bob Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer and founding father of electronic music, took place on 23-27 April in Asheville, North Carolina. For the main stage, which hosted headline acts including electronic music legends Kraftwerk, Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, and M.I.A., Moogfest needed a powerful and reliable front of house console that could cope with the size, scope and complexity of the headliners’ live sound requirements.

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Here Lies Love Stands Up and Gets Down with DiGiCo SD10T

The production is ambitious. Set within a dance-club atmosphere, theatergoers stand and move with the actors for the duration of the show as Imelda Marcos’ journey is told in song with lyrics by Talking Heads founder David Byrne and music by both Byrne and Norman Cook, aka DJ Fatboy Slim. For all its magnificence as a theatrical production, Here Lies Love was born as a music recording with performances by artists including Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos and Allison Moorer, and the music propels the narrative as the cast moves from one end of the theater to the other, with dozens of loudspeakers in a complex sound system design keeping the audio in phase and in focus. Holding it all together are the signal management capabilities and sonic quality of the DiGiCo SD10T – the “SD Ten Theatre”.

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Grass Valley Partners with AJA Video Systems

Grass Valley announces a partnership with AJA Video Systems that will provide 4K enhancements to its K2 Dyno Replay System. Grass Valley is integrating AJA’s Corvid Ultra and TruScale scaling hardware into the K2 Dyno to drive real-time pan and zoom to allow HD extraction from 4K acquisition with DynoZoom. With DynoZoom functionality integrated into the K2 Dyno, and available on all resolutions, customers will now have extended workflow flexibility to create engaging replays and highlight packages. Corvid Ultra video capture cards are part of AJA’s family of video and audio I/O products to facilitate high-bandwidth and high frame rate workflows. They support 2K and 4K as well as high-quality scaling capabilities for all resolutions through true 4K.

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Belfast PA Company Uses GLD for ArenaCross UK Tour

Belfast PA company, Wackiki, employed its Allen & Heath GLD digital mixing system, comprising the GLD-80 mixer and accompanying AR2412 remote I/O rack, for the recent Arenacross UK tour, which visited seven arenas from Belfast to Wembley, showcasing an international line-up of pro racers and Freestyle motocross. Pro racers from 10 countries came together with French two-time European SX Champion Fabien Izoird (Apico LPE Kawasaki) emerging victorious ahead of Australian Daniel McCoy (MBO Sport ASA Yamaha) and another Frenchman, Cyrille Coulon (SR75-Molson Suzuki).

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DPA Microphones d:vote™ 4099 Adds More Bravura to Break of Reality Performances

When a group of cellists decided to blend their classical music skills with their love of rock ‘n’ roll, the result was a cello-rock band known as Break of Reality. Comprised of three cellists and a percussionist, the group has been performing for more than a decade. During that time, the quartet has experimented with a series of audio setups, including both pickups and microphones, but continuously fell short of finding an ideal audio solution. That is, until they discovered DPA Microphones’ d:vote™ 4099 Instrument Microphone and its clip for the cello. Formed in 2004 by Laird and percussionist, Ivan Trevino, who met at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, Break of Reality also features cellists Laura Metcalf and Adrian Daurov. Since its founding, the group has self-produced three records, with a forthcoming album appropriately named TEN, to celebrate a decade of success, released on March 25, 2014.

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Globecast Provides SNG Services to Mark Historic Pope Canonisation

Marking the historic canonisation of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II  on April 27th, Globecast, a leading partner at the event, provided a number of SNG trucks to manage and deliver HD, 3D and 4K images. Transmitting live from the Vatican throughout the ceremony, Globecast supplied satellite uplinked video and audio services via its SNG trucks to Vatican Television, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, BSkyB and Eutelsat. The event was produced by the Vatican Television (CTV), in collaboration with established partners including Sky and Eutelsat. Globecast provided 3D services for Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland and BSkyB 3D channels as well as providing HD services for the Sky Italia  and BSKYB News channels; HD and 3D services for digital cinema and the 4K feed for a dedicated 4K view position at the Vatican.

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Vienna State Opera Streams Nabucco in 4K

Elemental Technologies announced that the Vienna State Opera, one of the world’s most famous performance institutions, will use Elemental video processing solutions to stream the world’s first live production in 4K high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) delivered via MPEG-DASH over the Internet. Set for 7 p.m. CET on Wednesday May 7, the production of Verdi’s Nabucco with opera star Plácido Domingo in the title role will be streamed for global viewing on UHD smart TVs as well as to a 65-inch Samsung UHD TV at the opera house. The new Wiener Staatsoper Samsung smart TV app will have been released ahead of the performance and is the first such app with fully integrated UHD playout functionality that will allow viewers worldwide to watch the broadcast at their respective prime time, through Vienna State Opera’s unique time-shift feature.

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