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Sport is a perennial favourite on television, and one which has driven many technological innovations. Its biggest challenge, of course, is its unpredictable nature, which means technology companies have to find ever more innovative ways to ensure the action is captured. That, in turn, keeps companies which specialise in video technology and services - including building outside broadcast trucks - on their toes. Steve Burgess, technical director, KIT Digital, Broadcast Systems Integration, reports.


me if I talk in very general terms about the trends in sports production and how that influences truck design. I want to make the point that a good vehicle is a comfortable and efficient production environment above all else, and the technical design must support the creative requirements of the programme. One of the ways in which


broadcasters ensure they have captured all the action is by adding more and more cameras. Football was once shot with four cameras; a few


Trends in sport OB O


ur customers at Megahertz (now rebranded and part of KIT digital) are extremely experienced OB operators, so I hope they will forgive


years ago 16 would be good; today a major game will see 24 or more. Some of these are special purpose


Steve Burgess, technical director, KIT digital,


Broadcast Systems Integration.


cameras. Super slo-mo cameras - shooting at three times the normal frame rate onto three server channels for a smooth slow motion replay - have been with us for many years now, and today most sports will have one or more. Increasingly ultra slow motion cameras, shooting at 500 frames a second, will also be used. Once they required long rendering times, now they can play back within a few seconds. Add special purpose cameras in


cricket stumps or on cars, and point of view cameras like goalmouths or snooker pockets, keep the tally rising. All these cameras need controlling as well as routing through the truck to the switcher and server. Some special purpose cameras may be managed in dedicated vehicles with just the outputs sent to the main truck, but this adds to the complexity of the communication. In the past it has been a problem to


get suitable special purpose and point of view cameras for broadcast use. Recent advances in miniaturisation have brought more high quality HD cameras in tiny packages, allowing us to offer much more inventive ways to get that critical shot. Of course, the next challenge will be to build a 3D stump-cam or snooker pocket-cam! Stereoscopic 3D is a hot topic at the


50 l ibe l november/december 2011 l www.ibeweb.com


racing television provider RaceTech, for which we built a series of trucks as it migrated to HD. Although it moves around the country’s racecourses


moment (although it must be said very few trucks are being built which are dedicated to it). Here each camera position needs two sets of camera electronics, not to mention extra time and care in alignment. To make the operation economical, the temptation is to create both 2D and 3D outputs from the same truck, sharing cameras where practical. One benefit is that, with careful placement, broadcasters are finding that with 3D some sports can actually be covered with fewer cameras than before. All of which suggests that OB units


need to support a very large number of cameras, and consequently need a very large production switcher and plenty of space in the engineering area. This drove the industry in the direction of double and triple expanding articulated trailers, and these tend to be regarded as the flagships of any OB fleet. Interestingly, the trend we have seen


recently is for slightly smaller, fixed axle vehicles, albeit to the European limit of 12m. We have built a large number of these for a number of clients, and especially those who have a strong business in a particular market allowing the truck to be tailored to their requirements. A good example is the UK horse


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