IMS Strengthens Fleet With HD5

IMS Productions’ HD5 is the latest remote-production truck from a company that continues to expand rapidly. Just last May HD4 hit the road, and a new B unit, B1, also took to the streets later in the year. “[HD5 is] a beast and very comfortable,” says IMS Productions President Robert S. Greene. “It’s a dual-side expando with a physical footprint that is very user-friendly.

Feedback from those who worked in the truck on its first broadcast event, the Streets of Long Beach race on April 13, were positive, he says. “Everyone was amazed it was so ready to go and had so few bugs.”

The truck’s first public appearance was actually at NAB 2014 the week prior to the race, where it was on display during Monday’s Alliance Productions party across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center. Greene points out, “It was literally driven from Beck and Associates in Denver to NAB and then from there to Long Beach, CA, for the Long Beach Grand Prix Indy Car race.”

The video-production area features a two-tier production room with five positions on the first bench and three positions each on the second and third benches. There is also room for nine replay operators, three camera-control operators, and an audio operator.

“We pay close attention to our partners and clients at the networks and choose the best possible solutions there are,” adds Greene. “So we have four Sony HDC2500 cameras with built-in slo-mo as well as a Grass Valley Kayenne K-Frame HD switcher and Calrec Apollo audio console. We have to have the best of the best.”

Other equipment includes 14 Sony HDC2400 cameras, 20 Canon lenses (including six 100X), two Chyron Mosaic XL graphics systems, two eight-channel EVS XT3 LSM systems, four eight-channel EVS XT3 replay-only units, and one six-channel EVS XT3 SpotBox. Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Shure, Electrovoice, and Sony mics are also on board alongside an RTS Adam intercom system. An Evertz EQX video router (540×540) and an Evertz EMR audio router are on hand to pass signals throughout the truck.

Greene credits much of the spacious layout and engineering capabilities to the Beck and Associates team, led by President/Director of Engineering Fred Beck.

“Fred and his team deserve a shout-out,” he says. “They over-delivered and were unbelievable in terms of the commitment as they hired additional personnel.”

The capabilities, according to Greene, make HD5 suitable not only for sports productions but also for entertainment- and concert-production needs. “It’s capable of the most sophisticated and demanding production and allows us to be considered for sophisticated concert packages.”

It’s also ready for the future, with a 3-Gbps infrastructure making it capable of handling 4K signals.

“I don’t think the world is ready for 4K, but we are, and we built this truck with the awareness that it could become a production format,” says Greene. “In 2009, we had one mobile truck, and we launched HD2 in 2010, and now we have five. It’s rewarding to see the growth.”