James Media Productions Taps ABonAir to Take Complexity Out of Live Production
Story Highlights
In the past, live broadcasting came with a long list of limitations. Cost, physical size and weight, power requirements, complexity of the operation, and distance limitations all restricted the production environment. Many of the available solutions up until now have been long out of the reach of all but the few with the deepest pockets. Distance and mobility issues have also added to the challenges of today’s ever changing live broadcast market. The marketplace had solutions that in some cases may have met a customer’s requirements, but they were expensive and difficult to setup and operate in ever changing broadcast locations. After exhaustive research, James Media Productions, an international broadcast company, found ABonAir.
They shared with ABonAir an anecdote about a meeting they had with one of their
customers after introducing ABonAir into their product line.
Recently, a customer came into a James Media Productions mobile unit with the facilities house engineer and wireless expert. This customer was considering the purchase of a wireless system for permanent installation at their stadium and wanted to see the image quality side by side with a wired camera. The “experts” looked at the images side by side, on scopes, split screen and zoomed in. After their testing, they determined the wireless image was pretty good but they still thought the wired camera image was superior.
There was a moment of silence and shock when James Media’s engineer told them that they actually were identifying the image coming from the ABonAir 420 system as being the one with superior quality to the wired camera system. To prove the point, the receiver was switched off and they saw the superior image disappear from the screen. An NBA client called the ABonAir image the Best they had ever seen in their arena when their system from another manufacturer malfunctioned (for the third time, in two years), and James Media provided an ABonAir 420 system. James Media arrived at the arena with a system and within 20 minutes, they were all setup and ready to go for the game that night.
Wireless transmission faces a myriad of hurdles to deliver a high quality images in a world where the available frequency windows are always shrinking. ABonAir has innovated the use of MIMO technology and provides very affordable, very high quality products which include features that other manufacturers may offer but at a cost of up to double that of ABonAir. ABonAir 420 system could not be simpler to operate and does the link setup automatically, no matter where you are. Manually link setup options are also available for situations where the user would like to do so. With operating frequencies being in unlicensed space, there is no worry about restrictions from location to location either. A typical use is in a large stadium of 60,000 seats (or more), and normally includes no more setup than placing two antennas inside the stadium and connecting them to the truck through single-mode fiber. Turn the system on and let it do the rest.
James Media uses the system at distances of up to greater than a mile from camera to receiving antenna, and finds the ABonAir system to be very reliable.
The reliability of the system is complimented by the outstanding image quality. The ABonAir 4-wire Intercom, and IFB option, are compact in size, lightweight, have low power consumption, which are far better than that of any ABonAir’s competitors’ products.
At the end of the day it’s not just about the price, convenience, quality, reliability and ease of use that ABonAir provides. It’s about the entire solution, which means providing the customer with the best product and support for their needs.
