Gearhouse Broadcast Completes Marathon-Like Aussie Open in Fine Form

By Kevin Hilton

SVG Europe Editor

The 2009 Australian Open climaxed this past weekend with yet another
epic battle between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. This year’s
Australian Open has also been a marathon for players and broadcast crews
alike, as many matches stretched into the early hours of the morning.
Channel 7 was the host broadcaster, with facilities provided by
Gearhouse Broadcast. Due to the scale of the project, and its Sydney
office being busy with other contracts, the transmission was managed
from Gearhouse Broadcast’s London base.

Matches played in the
Rod Laver and Hisense Arenas were broadcast in high definition, using
23 and eight Sony HDC 1500 cameras respectively. The Laver court was
additionally covered with six HDC 3300 super-motion cameras, while the
Hinense featured only one. Sony BVP E30 SDI cameras were used for the
five other courts; seven on the Margate Court (plus one super-motion),
five each for courts 2 and 3 (each with one super-motion) and three
each on court 6 and court 8.

All this was enhanced by one HD RF
unit, three SDI RFs, an Arri Extreme slow-motion camera, four Sony BRC
700 small robotic cameras, plus another four SDI robots on buildings in
Melbourne for scenic shots. Footage was produced through 28 EVS XT2s,
22 IP Directors, an Avid Unity media server and two Adrenalines. HD
vision mixing was on a Snell & Wilcox Kahuna and a Thomson Kayak,
plus three hybrid Sony MFS 2000s (HD/SDI). SDI mixers included two Sony
DVS 7350s, one DVS 7150 and one Thomson DD35.

Audio was stereo,
mixed on six 56-channel Yamaha MC7s and three Yamaha DM2000s. All
equipment was supplied by Gearhouse Broadcast as a flyaway package.