Token Creek Hits The Road For ESPN With Grass Valley HD Cameras And Switcher From Thomson

Token
Creek
Mobile Television has commissioned a new
high-definition (HD) production truck based around Grass Valley LDK 8000
multiformat HD cameras and a fully loaded Kalypso HD Video Production Center
switcher from Thomson.

The new
53-foot HD truck, named “Varsity,” will satisfy the growing need for HD sports programming
among Token Creek’s college football and professional baseball, basketball, and
hockey clients including ABC Sports, ESPN, and Fox SportsNet. Varsity will be
all-HD capable when it hits the road in August, just in time for the fall
college football season. It will include eight LDK 8000 cameras, but is wired
for 12, should the need arise.

Based in
Madison, Wisconsin, Token Creek Mobile Television produces live
multicamera sporting events, in both
standard-definition and HD (with full multichannel 5.1 audio mixing), throughout
the upper Midwest.

“Our
client base is asking for more and more HD production and specifically for
Grass
Valley
equipment to help televise these events,” said John Salzwedel, president of
Token Creek Mobile Television, and the versatility of the

Grass
Valley
cameras was a major deciding factor. “We like the fact that the LDK 8000
cameras are 1080p60 native, enabling us to extract a true 1080i or 720p signal
out of the same camera. Plus, the LDK 8000 provides us with future protection
when and if we decide to produce shows in full 1080p HDTV…with these cameras,
we’ll be ready.”

“With
Varsity, Token Creek is ready for the best HD coverage available today with the
ability to produce even better pictures tomorrow,” said Jeff Rosica, Senior
Vice President, Broadcast & Professional Video Solutions for the

Grass
Valley
business within Thomson. “The ability to give their clients the pictures that they
and their viewers expect from HD is what makes Token Creek the choice for
superb on-the-road productions.”

“As the
owner of the company, when my clients tell me they want a certain switcher in
the truck, I listen to them,” said Salzwedel, pointing out that his staff will
do all of the equipment installation. “We get requests for the Grass Valley
Kalypso switcher all the time. It’s well known to the freelance community of
operators and is very reliable. I haven’t had a single problem with the one we
now have.”

With
Salzwedel now purchasing his third

Grass

Valley switcher for Token
Creek, it’s clear that his clients want the best and Token Creek is ready to deliver.
The company’s “Hiawatha” truck features a Kalypso SD switcher and its “Millennium”
vehicle is based around a Grass Valley

Zodiak

SD switcher.