Newsletter from 25/02/2014
Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony 2014
The closing ceremony featured some incredible light shows, more ballerina acts, and some amazing acrobatics. It really was a great way to close the Olympics in Sochi, a place that (unfairly) received plenty of criticism before the games began.
The Winter Olympics were great — full of great hockey, amazing personal stories, and triumphs — and we’re sad to see them end. See our report on how OBS was broadcasting the magic of the games across the world and how ORF welcomed national and international athletes as well as celebrities at the Austria Tyrol House.
SPORTS
Review Sochi 2014: Broadcasting the Magic of the Games Across the World
During the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, OBS has used more than 450 cameras to produce over 1,300 hours of live sport, ceremonies and Olympic News Channel (ONC) coverage. This coverage was distributed by more than 80 RHBs across the world. The Sochi Games have reached an unprecedented 200 countries, more than any other Olympic Winter Games. To implement and manage this vital broadcasting operation, the OBS team increased from 150 full-time employees to a workforce of approximately 3,200 by the start of the Games. Assisting the Organizing Committee throughout the planning phase for Sochi, OBS has also been working in close collaboration with RHBs at competition venues, the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and the Mountain Broadcast Centre (MBC). These Games saw more than 7,500 broadcast professionals working across all of these areas.
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ORF in Sochi with Support from sonoVTS
sonoVTS Broadcast from Munich provides the entire broadcast and production technology for the Austrian public broadcaster ORF at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi: In the Mountain Broadcast Center (MBC) and in the associated television studio which is located about two kilometers away at the “Haus Austria Tyrol”. Here ORF welcomes national and international athletes as well as celebrities. A total of five 8-channel EVS XT3s with close to 100 TB storage capacity, three EVS IPDirectors and three EVS XTAccess workstations with 10 TB of storage each are installed. The EVS equipment is connected to an editing system with integrated near-line storage which was delivered by ORF. The entire ingest takes place via the EVS XT3s and IPDirectors.
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Qualifying Draw Paves Road to France 2016
The qualifying draw at Nice's Palais des Congrès Acropolis matched La Roja – who followed up their 2008 triumph with victory in Poland and Ukraine two years ago – with Slovakia, Belarus, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Luxembourg in Group C. Runners-up in the 2012 Kyiv showpiece, Italy are in Group H and will play two of the teams they met en route to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Bulgaria and Malta, plus Azerbaijan, Croatia and Norway. Germany – like Spain three-time winners of the competition – are in Group D alongside the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Georgia and Gibraltar, preparing to embark on their maiden qualifying campaign. Bosnia and Herzegovina − who have qualified for Brazil 2014, their first major tournament − were the only team in pot one not involved at UEFA EURO 2012 and if they are to be present at their maiden continental finals they must negotiate a section comprising Belgium, Israel, Wales, Cyprus, and Andorra.
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MOBILE PRODUCTION
France Televisions - Le Challenger de Strasbourg
France Télévisions is the French public national television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the bringing together of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (formerly France Régions 3), later joined by the legally independent channels France 5 (formerly La Cinquième), France Ô (formerly RFO Sat), and France 4 (formerly Festival). France Télévisions is currently funded by the revenue from television licence fees and commercial advertising. France Televisions operate regional facilities in Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille Nancy, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse. Now Le Challenger de Strasbourg is included in our catalogues.
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_wigeEAGLECOPTER
The new _wige group - The Storytelling Company - comprises three divisions (Vision, Creation, Live). The palette ranges from creative consulting, via content production, through to placement of the content in global media, all with a clearly-defined focus on moving images. As such, it makes _wige unique within the world of media services groups. _wige VISION incorporates the entire strategy, consulting and concept development portfolio.
_wige CREATION covers all forms of creative services and _wige LIVE is housing traditional speciality areas: outside broadcast, broadcast technology, event management and event-related technical services. Also the _wige EAGLECOPTER has found its home here.
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TVC Delivers DSNGs to Khabar TV
System integrator TVC delivered 12 of 18 identical DSNG vehicles to News production company “Khabar” in Kazakhstan, which is well-known for its extreme summer and winter weather conditions. The remaining 6 units will be manufactured in spring 2014.
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STUDIO PRODUCTION
Clay Paky Make the Perfect Addition to Israeli Interactive TV Talent Contest Rising Star
Lighting designer Ronen Najar is utilising the easy to control beam of Clay Paky’s Sharpy Wash 330s to complement the huge video wall used on Israel’s interactive singing contest ‘Rising Star’. Contestants on the show – which is a ratings winner in Israel – perform to a blank 16 x 3.5 metre projection screen, which forms a barrier between them and the studio audience and judges. During their performing, the singers can see live images of the at-home audience, who vote on each performance, in real-time, via a smartphone app.
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FLDA Brings Light to "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon"
Ferri Lighting Design & Associates (FLDA) has designed and installed the lighting for ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.’ FLDA’s lighting designer Fred Bock, who has worked on numerous NBC shows at 30 Rockefeller Center, spearheaded the lighting design, which conformed to the upgraded Studio 6B at the facility. Bock designed the lighting, and the complete look and feel for the show's set, and also designed the lighting for U2’s rooftop performance on last night’s show debut, working closely with Mike Baldassari, from MIKE-O-MATIC Industries LLC, and Chris Landy, formerly the lighting director for ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.’
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Big Brother Canada Uses Lawo mc²56 Consoles for Production
When the second season of Big Brother Canada returns on March 5th, the setup behind the scenes must be ready for a perfect technical performance. The much more elaborate production setup for this season led Insight Production Company Ltd (Insight), entrusted with the shooting of the show, to go with Lawo technology to handle their audio production needs. The setup for this second season includes two Lawo mc²56 digital audio mixing consoles with fiber-connected stage boxes which allowed for completion of the technical installation in one day. The consoles, fiber cabling and analog breakouts were provided by Broadcast Systems & Equipment Inc. (BSI) and Lawo North America as a rental package, with configuration, training and setup support provided by Lawo North America’s Engineering Manager Doug Smith.
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BroaMan/Optocore Devices at Heart of New Coronation Street Set
The relocation of the famous ITV Coronation Street Street lot, from Manchester’s Quay Street Studios to the 7.7 acre studio and production facility on the Trafford side of MediaCityUK, has brought with it a significant streamlining of signal flexibility, with BroaMan and Optocore fibre distribution devices playing a major role in the new automation system. Set in a fictional town in the north of England, what has become the world's longest-running television soap opera is a British ‘institution’, having first been broadcast back in December 1960. A unique, fully integrated transport solution was conceived by the show’s Technical Manager, Stan Robinson, in conjunction with project engineers Phil Cooper and Nigel Fowler from system integrators TSL. The design was based on meeting all Coronation Street workflow and system requirements.
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SHOWS
Robe is a Greatest Hit for Laura Pausini World Tour
Italian based Lighting and Show Designer Francesco de Cave has a penchant for sculpting fluid, imaginative and stylish shows and this very much underpins his lighting and visual design for the current “Greatest Hits” world tour by singer and international superstar Laura Pausini which is no exception. The tour has just completed its latest European leg, and Francesco included 50 x Robe ROBIN LEDWash 300 moving lights as a core element of the lighting rig. Grammy award winning multi-lingual Pausini is one of the most successful Italian artists of all time and has sold over 70 million albums worldwide.
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Sabaton Storms Ahead With Sennheiser
Swedish heavy metal act Sabaton are currently preparing to head stateside in April to join two other bands – American metallers Iced Earth and the Dutch metal band Revamp – for the Worldwide Plagues tour which takes them to all four corners of the US and Canada. Sabaton will be using the tour to support their latest DVD, Swedish Empire Live. Filmed in front of 60,000+ enthusiastic fans at their headlining festival appearance at Poland’s Woodstock festival, Swedish Empire Live captures the band’s high-energy live stage show celebrating the triumph of the human spirit. Sabaton, who perform with a full complement of Sennheiser microphones and wireless systems, will be returning to European soil at the end of May where they will be headlining at some of Europe’s biggest heavy metal festivals.
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Adlib and Del Amitri Reunite
Twelve years after their last concert tour, popular Scottish alt rockers Del Amitri reunited and hit the road for the first time in 12 years with lighting, sound and expertise supplied by Liverpool based rental specialist Adlib. Adlib were extremely proud to be working with the band again for the hugely successful tour which played three weeks around the UK and Ireland, including an acclaimed sell out show at the new 9000 capacity Hydro Arena in their hometown of Glasgow. Adlib’s FOH Engineer Dave Kay mixed the last gigs they did back in 2002, and in the meantime he’s stayed in touch with lead singer / bassist Justin Currie and worked on several of his solo projects. Kay was absolutely delighted to be asked back, “Great people, great music and it’s been a lot of fun” he comments.
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PRODUCTS
Sunset+Vine Upgrade Broadcast Camera Stock
The new Panasonic AJ-PX5000 and AJ-HPX270 cameras allow Sunset+Vine to combine high-end image quality with cost-efficient operation. The cameras will be used on next year’s Commonwealth Games for the BBC as well as Barclays Premier League and Aviva Premiership Rugby for BT Sport. The new PX5000 ENG style camera has already been deployed on a number of productions. Mark Dennis, Director of Technical Operations for Sunset+Vine, said, “Panasonic’s P2 Technology was a significant factor in our decision to buy these cameras. Its versatility, reliability and simultaneous recording enables safe, secure backup across two cards.”
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The Public Television of Russia Launches in Moscow With Calrec Audio Consoles
The Public Television of Russia purchased four Artemis Light consoles with 32 faders and Hydra I/O boxes. The consoles are connected by Calrec's Hydra2 plug-and-play audio routing system, which enables the station to create a network of consoles at minimal cost.
"With the Calrec desks, we can configure in any combination we need for any production and send any source to any output of any console, so we can easily pass productions from one studio to another with full redundancy of interfaces, Hydra connections, and consoles," said Pavel Ozhiganov, chief technical director of The Public Television of Russia. "A decentralized system makes it possible for us to connect our mics anywhere in the Hydra network to create 'interstudio' productions."
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Ross Video Powers beIN Sports Network in the Middle East
With its headquarters in Doha, Qatar, the beIN Sports complex is made up of nine separate studios that feature the very latest products from Ross Video, most notably Ross Robotics solutions. Studio 9, the largest studio on the site, features a full Ross Furio robotic camera system with 13 cameras that was supplied and installed by regional systems integration specialist Tek Signals. According to Mr. Muhammad Saeed, Head of the Engineering Section at beIN Sports, the products are in almost constant use: “We have never been busier! There has always been a huge appetite for sport in the Middle East and we are now broadcasting everything from English Premier League football to World Superbikes, international Rugby, European Handball and all the major global sporting tournaments. As a result, our studios have virtually no down time and we have carefully chosen to partner with manufacturers who we know offer a great blend of performance and reliability."
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IMT Revs up TV Tribuna's Mobile Broadcasting Capabilities
When TV Tribuna was looking to enhance its mobile broadcasting capabilities, the Brazilian affiliate of Rede Globo turned to Integrated Microwave Technologies, LLC (IMT), a Business Unit within the Vitec Group’s Videocom Division, and a leader in advanced digital microwave systems serving the Broadcast and Sports & Entertainment and markets. TV Tribuna, worked with Videodata, a leading Brazilian systems integrator and equipment supplier, to outfit its smaller sized vehicles, such as motorcycles, with IMT’s Nucomm CPTx-II Compact Portable Transmitters), enabling the station to broadcast from remote and harder to reach locations. TV Tribuna also added RF Central VClip microLite HD Transmitters (VMLT) to its ENG gear in order to give its reporters the flexibility and mobility needed to more thoroughly cover local sporting events.
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3D/4K ARISING
The Year of 4K Video Begins at the 2014 Winter Games
NTV Plus pioneered the initiative to broadcast the Sochi 2014 Winter Games in 4K. Following an extensive period of testing during 2013, NTV Plus designed and deployed an end-to-end 4K HEVC workflow that features Sony 4K cameras, Elemental Live video encoders, NTV Plus satellite uplink and signal receiving systems and Broadcom-enabled real-time decoders for playback on Panasonic 4K TVs. A single video stream encoded by Elemental enables NTV Plus to reduce the 100Mb of bandwidth which would otherwise have been required for delivery of 4K HEVC content.
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NHK Tests 8K at Winter Olympics
8K broadcasting is challenging. NHK is the most bullish about reaching that goal. The broadcaster was covering the opening ceremony and the figure skating competitions of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in “Super Hi-Vision” 8K and is planning to begin domestic 8K satellite tests to coincide with the 2016 Summer Games hosted in Rio. Finally it aims to launch an 8K broadcast service in Japan by 2020. NHK had a small technical team at the Sochi Winter Olympics testing and recording events in 8K, Super Hi-Vision. The engineers had built a special theatre in the main Olympic complex at Sochi and equipped it with a Panasonic 145” display, plus 22.2-channel surround sound. Viewers could see the recordings made at the opening ceremony and at the figure skating competitions.
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