Grass Valley addresses sportscasting needs

Grass Valley unveiled two new products designed to help sportscasters improve camera operations.

First up is SuperXpander, which combines support for large lenses with a new 7-inch viewfinder, mounted closer to the optical axis of the camera. The camera can stay in the SuperXpander during transport, saving storage space and allowing the camera to be set up on location as quickly as possible.

Grass Valley says the new viewfinder uses a monochrome, high-brightness, multi-format CRT to provide maximum sharpness. This feature is in response to requests from operators for a large, precise viewfinder to aid framing and focus, particularly for sports coverage.

The SuperXpander can be used with both standard standard-definition (SD) and HD cameras from Grass Valley, and, due to its modular construction, can be used with triax, hybrid fiber, or dual-fiber infrastructures.

Also new is the Mixed Operation Box (MOBox), designed to help sportscasters work with both fiber and triax cabling as arenas and stadiums upgrade their infrastructure.

Where a stadium is fitted with fiber, a new cover is available for each camera’s triax adaptor to convert it to fiber, and a compact base station (three cameras in 2U of rack space) performs the reverse in the truck. Trucks fitted with Grass Valley cameras and MOBox devices will be able to deliver excellent HD pictures in any venue with equal ease. And in other triax news a new version of Grass Valley’s HD triax transmission system will be introduced at NAB 2006. This enhancement will improve overall S/N performance and extend the safe operating range of a camera from 1,000m (3,300 feet) to 1,500m (5,000 feet).