theibcdaily Transforming live broadcast with fibre
Steve DeFrancesco, VP and general manager, Telecast Fiber Systems, documents the benefits of fibre and its superiority to copper coaxial and twisted-pair cabling
Steve
DeFrancesco: ‘hotbed of signals’
In live sports and entertainment broadcasting today, the burden falls to mobile production and OB crews to adapt their operations for delivery of high- quality HD and even 3D programming.The good news is fibre optic technology, which is transforming live production
because of its vast superiority to traditional copper coax cable for handling the increased bandwidth requirements of HD and 3D signals. Fibre can carry signals further and with greater fidelity over a smaller, lighter, and cheaper medium – lightening the load on
trucks and enabling faster deployment and strike. While copper cables are designed to carry specific signal types, fibre cables can handle any type of signal with the appropriate terminal gear. It’s no wonder that many of today’s leading- edge sports and entertainment venues are pre-wired with a built-in fibre infrastructure, which makes the OB task even simpler and more carefree. Camera connectivity and support poses one of the biggest challenges for any mobile production, and one that is ideally suited to fibre solutions. One of the most important Telecast Fiber Systems innovations for remote camera control and operation is the CopperHead family of camera-mounted fibre optic transceivers. The CopperHead provides a robust fibre optic link between any professional camera or camcorder and the broadcaster’s truck, control room, or video village position.
Over a single fibre connection, the system simultaneously transports bidirectional digital (SDI or HD/SDI) and analogue (NTSC or PAL) video, as well as all two-way camera control, audio, video, data, sync, tally/call, prompter, and intercom signals between the camera and the base station.
Opinion The more complex the
production, the greater number of trucks that are required to produce all of the individual segments and tie them together into a cohesive programme. With an interface such as
Telecast Fiber’s Python 3G, operators can multiplex up to 16 HD-SDI signals onto a single optical fibre; for instance, they can select a transmitter and a receiver frame for eight or 16 channels in one direction or two transceiver frames for channels
in each direction. The broadcast booth is another hotbed of signals that need to be transported across long distances (depending on how far the booth is situated from the production plant). One new Telecast innovation that is perfectly suited to the demands of the booth is the TR6442i (CommLink), a fibre optic transceiver system designed to carry two intercom channels over a single strand of fibre spanning distances of more than 40 kilometers.
In today’s highly competitive world of broadcast television, it’s the quality of live productions that truly differentiates the standout players. For these broadcasters, leading-edge fibre optic technology has become a critical component in maintaining production standards by offering a lightweight, lower-cost, and highly efficient means of transporting HD signals across long distances without any degradation in signal quality. 10.B39
RAI Amsterdam Conference 6-11 September : Exhibition 7-11 September
IBC Production Village
Take advantage of a unique chance to get to grips with advanced acquisition technology at the IBC Production Village in Hall 11.
including stereoscopic 3D, DSLRs and high speed cameras.
You can now track the creation management journey and assess the options for
cloud creation for brands and broadcasters as well as ‘look and learn’ presentations by current users.
All of this is played out adjacent to a practical demonstration of tapeless news production in action from the IBC TV News team.