34 l May 2013
www.psneurope.com broadcastreport EUROPE Pro audio takes to the slopes
Broadcasters boot up the digital kit they can trust for Winter X Games and the Alpine Ski Championships, writes Dave Robinson
BOTH OPTOCORE and Yamaha equipment has been involved in high-profile broadcast winter sports events this season. Brought in to assist with
the large-scale audio signal distribution for this year’s Winter
X Games in Tignes, France was rental company Gilles Bouvard Events and Entertainment (GB4D), a specialist at big productions in extreme conditions. Bouvard has long been a fan of Optocore’s optical fibre networks, and once again a
One Optocore ring was used for the Super Pipe competition area
large deployment of the German company’s interfaces ensured successful signal flow within a redundant system. The event, which this year saw
125 athletes competing, was co-produced by Canal+ Events on behalf of ESPN, and GB4D provided virtually all the audio equipment for the competition zones, to assist A+ Events. This included the control tower audio boards and FOH equipment, the fibre network, the PA, cabling and some of the freelance technicians. The company also provided the event video distribution. The audio transmission was based around two Optocore loops – one ring for the Super Pipe competition area, and a second for the Slope Style competition area – and the entire Optocore system was controlled from a single desktop PC. For signal transport, since the distances between nodes were long, GB4D used mainly 300m Neutrik XTREME fibres for all links. The primary ring measured a distance of 2.1km and the secondary 600m (constructed around 12 nodes, plus spares). L-Acoustics LA8 and
Lab.gruppen PLM10000Q amplifiers fed the main PA hangs and the Super Pipe’s deck fills were remote controlled via Optocore’s LAN. GB4D designed a redundant FOH position, deploying two Midas digital desks, fully backed-up. Inputs included background
music, live DJ, wireless announcer microphones, various media sources and TV truck feeds. “For the announcers, the wireless links were greatly simplified thanks to the Optocore network, and the ease of feeding signals into the system from various nodes,” confirmed
Gilles. “As for the outputs, the Optocore fibre network allowed a simple routing of the various signals feeding the amplifiers all around the site, and the possibilities offered by macros allowed a simplified routing and ease of modification for all the various live and recording feeds.” Earlier in 2013, Euro TV subcontracted Hannover-based TVN Mobile Production to supply OB facilities for the men’s course at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Austria. A Yamaha CL3 digital system was on the inventory. The Championships featured 650 skiers from 70 nations taking part in 11 events: that’s 50 hours of live production over 14 days. With over 100 microphones and 98 cameras, many located from the top to the bottom of the men’s course, the broadcast was both a technical and logistical challenge. TVN installed the CL3 to handle submixes in its TVN- UE2HD High Definition OB van. “We chose the CL3 Dante because of its flexible Dante connectivity and compact design,” said TVN’s head of audio, Stephan Thyssen. The technical challenges of
the production were considerable, with microphone signals needing to be relayed from the top of the ski runs and from ambient camera mics all the way down, with further ambient and presenter mics at the bottom of the hill. Adding to the broadcast complexity was that, as soon as one competitor finished the next started, meaning that the reaction of the skier who had just finished could have been missed as coverage switched to the next. To ensure that both were
enjoyed by the TV audience, freelance engineer David Heuer and the CL3 handled the top half of the course, the audio signals being transmitted from two Yamaha Rio1608-D units by fibre optic, via 13 Riedel MediorNet units and MADI to the OB van, where it was recorded on to hard disk. To accommodate footage of the just-finished skier, the broadcast directors showed a slightly shortened recording of the next competitor’s start, switching to live action as they progressed down the hill. “Everything worked perfectly
throughout,” says Heuer. “The CL3 made it a very enjoyable job to do.”n
www.yamahaproaudio.com www.optocore.com
Hours of live production at the Alpine World Ski Championships
50
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