07/6/2017
Fly away pack 12
Ahead of the Winter olympics due to take place in Pyeongchang in 2018, a leg of the Biathlon World Cup was organised in South Korea in March this year. On behalf of Eurovision, AMP VISUAL TV Shipped and set up a Fly away pack offering exceptional features thanks to the technological specifications adopted when constructing the Millennium Signature 12 OB truck. Let's take a closer look.
The Millennium Signature 12, undoubtedly one of the most powerful OB trucks currently in service in Europe, was first used in France in June 2016 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. This new generation truck offers a maximum capacity of 45 cameras, thanks in particular to its brand new Riedel MicroN router core. This device offers modularity and the ability to assign part of its resources to other installations, while the OB truck can still shoot with up to 25 cameras in 4K UHD. A new tool, the Fly away pack 12 (RF12), will therefore cover major international and overseas events.
This was precisely the case with the filming undertaken by AMP VISUAL TV on behalf of the EUROVISION in Pyeongchang at a world biathlon event for which the RF12 was deployed. Franck Reynaud, Technical Director of Production, explains: "We had to provide the entire technical side of the TV production for the events, supplying four feeds: the international dirty feed along the race and three additional feeds (shooting range production, and two feeds for the graphics services); but also, all video and audio distribution for local Right holders. In addition of what, AMP VISUAL TV has also to manage technically speaking the different commentary positions requested and embedd multi-lingual audio tracks in the main uplink feed. "In total, 26 cameras, including 13 hard cameras equipped with long range box lenses and two robotic cameras served two video mixers and have been managed by four shading positions. 18 cameras were located along the three-kilometers race course, with the rest located on the shooting range. An RF camera completed the set-up. All sources were also routed to XT3 Channel Max slow-motion servers sourced locally from a korean rental company.
Since the flight away pack option was chosen, AMP VISUAL TV shipped from France and set up a complete production unit in a complex of twelve modular cabins.
The technological system was based two different modular fly away packs attached to the Millennium Signature 12's Riedel MicroN processed core router. "One of the advantages of this device is to offer almost unlimited capacity in terms of processing, embedding and de-embedding capability. On top of that, It gives us the benefit of fiber connectivity functionalities, enabling us to route and share all audio sources from the field of play, in particular, the massive amount of microphones dedicated to the shooting range coverage, to all the core router, the EVS servers and the two audio mixing consoles, just with few couple of dark fibers". Considering that the race course covers a loop of up to 3.3 km and that the shooting range was located more than 300 m from the TV Compound, it is easy to understand how this greatly facilitated cabling issues and saved a great deal of time," reveals Franck Reynaud.
Indeed, for these kinds of international shoots, it is essential to take account of both the weight of the equipment to be transported and the installation time required. The latter took no more than three days (for a 12-day event). The functionalities of the RF 12 core router additionally provide great flexibility of use, enabling continuous reassignment of all sources according with the needs of the production team and rights holder broadcasters on site.
The new RF12 is entirely modular and flexible, making it suitable for covering all major international events anywhere in the world.