Yankee Stadium Gets Its Fiber Courtesy of Total RF

By Andrew Lippe

Total RF and CP Communications are making sure next week’s MLB All Star
coverage from Yankee Stadium on Fox Sports and ESPN go on without a hitch. “As a main
vendor we want to eliminate the hassle of trying to buy, borrow and
steal for whatever limited copper and fiber there is in the building,”
says Kurt Heitmann, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing of Red
House.
The All Star Game and Home Run Derby will both be RF intensive shows for the networks and Total RF cameras and HD Link research systems will be used by both networks. Total RF has three RF cameras that will be on the field and one camera turns used as a Steadicam by ESPN. All signals will pass into the CP Communications truck and then out to Fox and ESPN.
Fiber will also play a major role as Total RF laid more than 10,000 feet of fiber. “This year the majority of all signal flow, almost 90 percent of signal flow, is on fiber,” adds Heitmann.
Total RF will have 24 strands of fiber to the centerfield position, 12 strands of fiber to first base, 12 strands of fiber to third base and then 24 strands of fiber into the press box area.
“Fiber has become so reliable and people are now used to it that it they do not even blink an eye when you say we are going to run everything on glass,” explains Heitmann. “It is cleaner, quicker, more efficient and the way to go in these kind of stadiums.”