CABLES & CONNECTORS FEATURE
FIBRE OPTIC CABLE TECHNOLOGY deployed in harsh field conditions
Fibre optic cable is often subject to harsh field deployment conditions or high-efficiency broadcast installation requirements, as Optical Cable Corporation (OCC) explains
T
he wide use of HD video, emergence of 4K and 8K ultra-high broadcast
standards, and increasing popularity in the audio-video sector is placing greater demands of data transmission systems. Fibre optic technology, with its ability to deliver digital, high-bandwidth and low signal-loss streams, provides an ideal solution for coping with those demands. However, when it comes to remote
broadcasting from harsh conditions, the advanced needs of permanent broadcasting studio infrastructures, and the increasingly popular use of audio-video technology among businesses and government agencies, a new set of demands is being placed on the fibre optic cable industry.
FIELD DEPLOYMENT APPLICATIONS Sporting events are among broadcast's toughest venues, requiring the rapid pulling of miles of field-deployable fibre optic cable across fences, through water and along frozen ski slopes or blazing hot racetracks. Remote broadcasts demand the brisk
deployment of dozens of strands of cable to cameras that fly over football fields, hang from cranes, and are then re-gathered and tossed into crates to be shipped to the next venue. Most important, in these harsh environments and in various industries, the cable must survive again and again. Remote broadcasting specialists such
as IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) Productions are involved with such rigorous field environments throughout the year. IMS Productions’ Mobile Unit Group travels across the United States in heavy-duty trucks equipped with studios and satellite uplinks that provide live production services for sports and entertainment broadcasts and events. “Our fleet of mobile studios travels to hundreds of events across the country throughout the year, sometimes having to set up and tear down the same day before heading to the next venue,” says Paul Nijak, director of engineering at IMS Productions. “Even with all the rigours of meeting this schedule, remarkably little fibre cable gets broken – perhaps one or two pieces a year.”
INSTRUMENTATION | FEBRUARY 2017 13 One of IMS Productions typical weeks
includes providing broadcast production for the Verizon IndyCar Series, in locations such as St. Petersburg, Florida, where the 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit incorporates city streets and a section of airport runway where 100,000ft of broadcast cable is laid behind temporary walls and fences, flown across sections of track and sometimes pulled through swamps and waterways. Immediately following the race, IMS
Productions’ crew will gather up the cable and head cross country to a PBR (Professional Bull Riders) Built Ford Tough Series event, where an average of 15,000ft of cable is unspooled by hand around a ring where it is exposed to considerable grime and foot traffic. The cable that IMS Productions
utilises for all the field events it covers is deployable broadcast-quality fibre manufactured by OCC. The broadcast quality of this fibre cable
is high enough to meet the 4K ultra- high-definition broadcasting standard
IMS Productions Mobile Unit Group are equipped with studios and satellite uplinks that provide live production services
that IMS Productions is currently field testing with Time Warner Cable Sports. “Our installations range from extremely
hot to extremely cold temperatures,” Nijak explains. “For example, this year we covered the Alberta Alpine Ski event in Calgary, Canada. At that venue we trenched down into the snow with a chainsaw to bury the cable so that groomers could pack snow over the top to help protect the cable. In total, we laid about 50,000 ft of OCC fibre running all the way up the side of the mountain.” Nijak adds that OCC invests time with
his group, going out into the field and seeing how installers handled the cable.
PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURES Permanent broadcast fibre installations require the pulling of cable through a conduit that will stay in place as lasting infrastructures. Diversified has a deep heritage in broadcast systems. The company provides design and integration services for TV stations, broadcast and cable networks,
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