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Articles
Case Study: All Mobile Video Simplifies HD Production With Telecast SHED/HDX Systems
The Challenge
AMV is a premier provider of end-to-end video and audio solutions for entertainment, sports, and news programming and events. The company’s mobile production units, editing trucks, and uplink solutions are used worldwide for coverage of high-profile live events ranging from professional and NCAA sporting events and popular awards shows to live documentaries, corporate events, and daily television broadcasts.
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AMV is known for pioneering the use of new technologies to enhance clients’ broadcast capabilities and was among the industry’s first companies to begin working in HD in the mobile environment. For this year’s coverage of the Indy 500, the first year the event was produced in HD, AMV faced the challenge of providing HD feeds from remote camera positions around the track. In the past, SD feeds had been set up on triax cabling.
Given the length of those cable runs, the use of fiber-to-triax converters would have resulted in the loss of video prompters and returns, an unacceptable situation during live production. Without these signals, AMV couldn’t offer its clients the standup shots that play a key role in complementing the drama unfolding on the raceway. Even if signal loss had not been an issue in this scenario, the work involved in setting up long, complicated SMPTE runs would have been prohibitive.
What AMV needed to make HD production possible was a convenient, cost-effective solution for moving signals over long runs without compromising control, functionality, or video quality.
The Solution
Realizing the need to transport HD video over long distances in mobile production applications, Telecast Fiber Systems designed its SHED (SMPTE hybrid elimination device) to replace hybrid optical fiber/copper cabling with low-cost single-mode fiber. By deploying six SHED units at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, AMV was able to leverage an existing single-mode fiber installation — originally intended to support security monitoring — to deliver HD video and other control and monitoring signals from Sony HDC-1500 cameras in hard-to-reach locations.
Each SHED system implemented by AMV at the Indy 500 incorporated two adapters to enable communication between the Sony camera and the base station over just two single-mode fibers. Hybrid cabling provided an interface between the SHED and camera control unit (CCU). The SHED was then linked over the track’s existing single-mode fiber infrastructure to an HDX situated close to the camera location. The HDX unit, which can provide power to a camera through up to 300 meters of hybrid cable, gave the AMV team the ability to power cameras remotely rather than worry about finding a power source near each camera.
The HDX’s integrated optical power meter and LED indicators allowed AMV to plug in the system and see instantly that the camera was responding. These status indicators were key in enabling operators to identify and resolve signal issues quickly.
The Result
Use of the Telecast’s SHED/HDX systems enabled AMV to provide high-quality HD coverage of one of the world’s most prestigious racing events. The SHED/HDX system eliminated the complexity of SMPTE-based solutions, reduced setup and breakdown times, and provided better quality and reliability in the delivery of signals for production.
Having successfully overcome the problem of long runs at the Indy 500, AMV has taken its SHED/HDX systems to other live events to solve the distance issues that plague remote production. The company has since used the SHED/HDX for events such as the Live Earth show on July 7 at the Meadowlands Sports Complex. At the New Jersey facility, time was of the essence and no SMPTE fiber was available to support signal transport over long runs. AMV used its SHED/HDX systems to accommodate extensive runs to positions where the use of SMPTE cable was simply impossible. As more and more broadcast events are produced in HD, AMV is ready with a proven tool for providing quality HD coverage from the most demanding of environments.
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