Posted by Joe Commare
A great article by Carolyn Braff, Managing Editor of the Sports Video Group on some of the broadcast challenges at the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Jeff Coleman is a veteran sports producer, having spent the last decade producing a variety of events from countries around the globe. But nothing could prepare him for the challenges of spending 17 days broadcasting eight alpine ski events atop a mountain. Home to men and women’s downhill, super combined, Super-G, slalom, and giant slalom Olympic events, Whistler Creekside is a steep, unforgiving hill, made all the more difficult to navigate because the rest of the mountain remains open to the public throughout the Games. Coleman took a few minutes out of his non-stop schedule to explain to SVG how his team has overcome the early challenges that this venue – and these Games – have posed to his Olympic Broadcast Services productions.
Of course, Telecast and fiber optics were a critical component in delivering all those great images you saw. Jeff said: "The Telecast SHEDs where we can send six cameras back on one fiber, that system is fantastic. I’m pretty pleased with the way that was installed."
Head over to the Sports Video Group site for the full article.
Posted by Ed Miley
On New Years day the NHL’s Winter Classic rolled into Fenway Park for a nationally televised game on NBC between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers. What a great place for the outdoor game complete with a classic ending!While the event by all accounts was a great success there were considerable changes made to the typical setup that the local news media is accustomed to over at Fenway.
The biggest change was to the normal SNG/ENG truck parking location which was hi-jacked by the NHL for trailer mounted generators and the mobile plumbing unit for keeping the ice frozen. The usual parking area for the locals at Fenway is on Van Ness Street with an access point into the stadium cross connects right inside the ambulance bay. While during the baseball season this would be the typical setup for this eventa whole new approach was taken.
The NHL secured parking for the local media in a parking lot beyond the right field area of Fenway Park and put the local trucks about 500’ further away then usual and on the opposite side of the street from Fenway.
So you ask, how does Telecast figure into this equation? Would you venture a guess as to which type of cable you were not allowed to flyover the street to cable into Fenway? Now would you venture a guess as to which cable was allowed to be hoisted over the street to connect into Fenway? Yes the answer is fiber optic tactical cable. A temporary modification made to a street light pole and some rope paved the way for some Tactical Fiber to flyover the street. On a side note, a very similar scenario takes place during MLB Playoff and World Series games at Fenway. This tradition started at Fenway in1999 when Fenway hosted the MLB All-Star game.
Through the NHL and some other local vendors Thistle Communications (Telecast’s New England rental house) from nearby Pelham, NH was contracted by the NHL to supply fiber to connect the media lot to the cross connect point inside the ball park. Any media outlet wishing to provide live shots from inside the park was tied into a series of TelecastFiber Systems Diamondback II and Adder II systems for audio and video transport back to the local truck compound. The Diamondbacks provided the path forstandard def video and the Adders were used for “dry” analog audio . With some prior arrangements Thistle Communications could also supply HD/SDI video and Ethernet connections using the Telecast Viper system that was also on scene. In all a few of the stations from Boston, Philadelphia, Comcast Sports and ESPN tied into the fiber system on New Years Eve which was the setup day and kept the lines in place through the end of New Years Day.
Thistle Communications racked up the Telecast Fiber equipment and secured it in a trailer that served as the field office and the demarc in the truck parking lot, while the otherend of the gear was located inside the ambulance bay at Fenway where the localmedia normally ties in. According to Thistle Communications President, Jim Thistle and his engineer Jay Arthur the setup and performance of the Telecast equipment was flawless and made life very easy for all involved. Noting that there are really not many options available seeing as conventional copper cables were not going to be allowed to be hung over the street.
The weight of the Telecast Fiber Tactical Fiber that was used is about 15lbs per 1000’ feet, far less then conventional ENGstyle copper cables. The weight of the cable crossing the street from the pole to the park was probably between two and three pounds. The total reel of 1000’of fiber plus the reel is close to 30 pounds total. As mentioned earlier for the MLB playoff games at Fenway a similar setup is used and again due to thelight weight the fiber is the only cable allowed to fly over the streets astemporary install. Again the increased signal capacity on the fiber vs.conventional copper lines makes the fiber a logical choice.
Without a doubt another example of how fiber can solve the problems of multiple connections, different standards, distance and weight all in one light weight manageable cable.
Posted by Paul Kamp
Just read the November 2009 article by David Feherty in Golf Magazine about the CBS crew breaking down and setting up the communications at an event. David provides a great behind the scenes account of how the "smellies" tear down the set up after a tournament, pack it up and then set it up again the for the next tournament.
However, we would take issue with one of his statements:
Other teams work on the fiber optic cable, which as I found out, has to be treated differently. There is no bending, knot-tying or knitting with this stuff, as you can it shatter it easily and annoy the production manager, who is the person who can have you assigned to the dumper crew, or worse still, McCord's tower next week.
Fiber optic cable is actually quite durable, weighs much less than copper, can send more data through the system and as such is much easier to pack up after a tournament.
We thank David for highlighting the efforts of the crews that set up at each tournament. To those of us in broadcast production they are the real heroes.
Posted by Paul Kamp
In today’s anemic and highly volatile economy, choosing the right school for a student has become more important than ever. Gone are the days where college & universities are chosen based on prestige and reputation, or “that’s where Mom or Dad went…..”. Now decisions are based on very specific skill sets that can be offered to students, and help prepare them to enter a competitive work force.
For every level of collegiate entity, Television and more specifically, Sports Production are at the forefront of this demand. Recently the Sports Video Group ran an article about how 
Kent State University has implemented their Sports production.Schools need top notch media services for their athletic programs and academic offerings. Curriculums are being designed around this while keeping the student’s best interests in mind. Often times, budgets are tight and getting the most out of dollars spent on these endeavors is the key.
One-way schools are looking to maximize their budgets in choosing equipment that can pull double duty. The first key in any production chain is acquisition. Schools today are looking for alternatives to the traditional “hard” studio camera, and opting for an ENG style Instead. However, giving up those Operational Studio luxuries is hard to do. The Telecast Copperhead Series, Fiber enables these ENG Style Cameras, yet offers the Flow of signal compliment found in traditional Studio Camera configurations. As most of today’s Eng cameras offer on board recording, now the camera itself is free to be utilized in any production style environment.
Another big demand in university & college production setups is the ability to have a centralized control room with connectivity to stadiums, arenas and other points around campus. To do this effectively, Fiber Runs are the only choice. Telecast Fiber Systems have a full Compliment of equipment to address this, like our Adder II System for Audio, Data & Intercom on to Fiber. Our Viper II Terminal Gear, which handles a full compliment of HD/SDI, SD, Ethernet & Audio needs. Also, offerings of Multiplexing Gear like our Teleport & Telethon Systems round out & simplify very complex System Designs.
Posted by Steve Nelson
One of our clients here in Boston is
NESN (New England Sports Network) who are a very progressive, all HD regional sports network that broadcasts the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins. NESN is unique in that their entire connectivity is accomplished over dark fiber from their headquarters in Watertown MA to Fenway Park, the Bank North Garden, and their uplink facility in Needham, MA. They needed to add an additional uncompressed 1080i program return from master control to the Garden for the Bruins Sky Suite feeds to minimize latency. All the dark fibers were in use over this 24 mile run.
Our choice was to take the existing program return fiber, add CWDM multiplexing and run both return feeds on the same strand, taking advantage of our newest
6292 series digital video cards. The 6000 series gives an end-to-end performance increase of about 6db over the 5000 series. Two new
TX6292 transmitters and a four channel CWDM mux replaced the original program return module in Master Control. At the Garden, the incoming fiber arrives at the mezzanine level studio connecting first to the CWDM mux. The program return feed then goes to a two way splitter; one leg to the studio receiver and the other to a house fiber which takes the signal to the truck bay.
The separate Garden return feed from the CWDM was also connected to a house fiber which brought the signal to the Garden frame room where the new receive module was installed to feed the HD video to the flat screens in the Sky Suites. No more three second delay between the hockey game in front of you and the picture on the flat screens.
So what about this title referring to tigers? When we got to the
Garden we discovered it was also load-in day for the Ringling Brothers Circus. Garden staff and big signs warned us to “stay off level #3” where the animals were in their cages. In our travels around the Garden to install and test, we made sure we routed well away from the “Land of Big Cats”. However, when we were working at the NESN studio above on Mezzanine level #5, all we ever heard were a couple yipping little dogs who were on the same level as the big animals. It must have been time for a CatNap. (GROAN)
Posted by Steve Nelson
This last weekend I went to see WPRI-TV using our equipment at the Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington, RI for their expanded news broadcasts from the rain soaked CVS Caremark Charity Golf
Classic. WPRI needed to set-up an announce position next to the course for two reporters, two guests, and a jib camera for beauty shots. The system operated for three days, much of it in the rain. As the broadcast area off the fairway turned into a swamp, it spotlighted fiber’s immunity to water; no hum buckers, no plastic bagging of connectors, no shock hazard, etc. The entire interconnect was accomplished on a single 500 ft. run of TAC-4 cable between the announce set and production trailer.
There was some old and some new equipment on site. 
A legacy Ethernet Viper was used for the heart of the announcer system, moving HD program video, return video, six program audio channels, IFB , and ClearCom channels. One of the new Sony EX-3 cameras was fed through the Viper Mussel Shell while the second set camera was connected through the spare Mussel Shell fibers to a new, Telecast Copperhead equipped to interface with the Sony EX-3. The Copperhead provided full camera signal interface, remote control functions, operator intercom, and tally. 
The third Sony EX-3 jib cam was fed back to the production trailer using a Telecast Rattler system.
At the very end, you should have seen the Jumbotron Truck trying to leave, driving up the muddy hill. A lot of money changed hands with each attempt up the slippery slope.
See Broadcast Engineering Magazine coverage.