IBC 2008 | Sports Technology Blog | IBC: Packing It In...

IBC: Packing It In...
by Kevin Hilton | Sep 16, 2008 - 4:31:28 AM

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Navigating around the RAI Centre for this year’s IBC has been an uneven experience. The building and improvement work has made getting to some halls far easier than before but, at the same time, made once familiar parts of the place extremely unfamiliar. Trying to get to appointments on time is further hampered by hordes of people dragging their luggage around behind them. The “bag on a stick” phenomenon is already threatening to bring transport systems to a grinding halt and will do the same for exhibitions if we’re not careful.

Getting past the rows of trucks outside the RAI is daunting, but weaving between the vehicles is worthwhile to get an idea of where OB technology is going. In the case of Gearhouse Broadcast, it’s Australia. The company’s new HD truck is not destined for the UK market; representatives were quick to point out that fellow Gravity group subsidiary O21 Television is the branding in Britain and there would be no sense in internal competition.

HD1 is a three-expander and will accommodate up to 28 Sony HDC-1500 cameras, 12 six-channel EVS servers, and four Sony HDCAM VTRs. The vehicle is still to be fully fitted out, but desks and console frames are in place, and cabling is due to begin this week. Other gear will include Pro-Bel routing and Riedel intercoms, but right now, the only piece of equipment that has been installed is the Calrec Audio Sigma mixing console, featuring Bluefin processing. HD1 is to be used for sports and entertainment programming in Australia and will make its long journey there in January.

Further up the road is SIS 3, the new HD production vehicle from SIS. It is part of an overall modernisation of the uplinking and sports-data company’s fleet and coincides with a rebrand that brings together three formerly separate divisions together as SIS Live. This umbrella name covers not only SISLink and FatPipe but also the recently formed SIS Outside Broadcasts, presumably so journalists will stop putting “previously BBC OBs” in parentheses when we write about it.

SIS 3 has up to 20 Sony HDC-1500 cameras, a Sony MVS8000G vision mixer, and the now almost obligatory Calrec Sigma with Bluefin, alongside three edit areas and a large production suite. SIS Live director Mark Tugwell (previously with BBC OBs) calls the truck “an important investment,” describing it as “the new design template for our fleet.” Managing director David Meynell says the rebrand was due to the “recent growth and expansion of the company,” which had allowed the creation of “a cohesive, recognisable identity for the broadcast elements of the business.”

As televising sport gets more competitive and complex, wilder and wackier equipment appears to do jobs that people didn’t even know existed a few years ago. Broadcast Pix launched its new take on the good old production switcher at NAB and, during IBC, not only gave the Slate a European premiere but added a few new features for good measure.

Darts is hugely popular in The Netherlands, which is perhaps why Broadcast Pix used it to demonstrate the touch-screen feature and the newly added joystick controller for a Panasonic camera. Using a graphical representation of the dartboard, the operator is able to hit, say, a double-top, which will automatically refocus the camera on that area and change the score. The Slate is able to hold 60 hours of clips, as well as offering character generation and connection to an XML database.

Among the more daunting pieces of technology on show is the Norwegian Squarehead AudioScope concept. This arrangement of a wide-angle camera and 300 microphones in a directive array is designed to allow “audio zooms,” homing in on what is being said during an incident on the pitch or court. Mind you, judging from some competitors’ creative language heard through more-conventional means, Squarehead might have to build a profanity delay or bleep into the product.

The cost of AudioScope has put off many potential buyers, but TV2 of Norway is showing national solidarity by being the first to buy the system. This is being used by the broadcaster’s outside broadcast division OB Team and went into operation at the end of the summer. Perhaps we could use the technology to find out what will be the big trend for next year’s show by listening in on conversations among IBC attendees. Or maybe we should let that come as a big surprise.