HD Cricket Hits Caribbean

By Kevin Hilton

SVG Europe Editor

The inaugural Stanford 20/20 for $20 million cricket tournament gets underway in Antigua, setting another landmark by being the first high-definition broadcast from the Caribbean. UK-based outside broadcast specialist NEP Visions has supplied a flyaway package for production company Century TV to provide similar facilities to those used by broadcasters like Sky.

Equipment began the journey to the West Indies at the end of last week. Among the 32 cameras are 19 Grass Valley LDK6000s, two HD slow-motion cameras and a range of other units, including handheld cameras.

Replays will be handled by eight six-channel EVS XT-HD production servers, with highlights packages assembled on two Avid Adrenaline workstations that have 5TB of storage. Two Grass Valley Kayak production switchers are also being used, with one for the television broadcast and the other for the video screens on the grounds. HD transmission will be in 1080/50i but the audio remains in stereo. Analysis tools familiar to followers of cricket have been provided, including Hawkeye, stump mics and stump cams.

The Stanford 2020 for $20m will be shown live on Sky and the broadcaster has its own presentation studio at the ground. Coverage will also be distributed to SuperSport in South Africa and ESPN, which is distributing to Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.