Lyon Video Expands Company Bandwidth With Lyon 14

At a time when IP is looming over baseband like a guillotine waiting to drop, Lyon Video introduced a mobile unit that shows that the traditional infrastructure isn’t going down without a fight. When drawing up the latest addition to its mobile-production family, Lyon 14, the company’s engineering team designed a unit with the largest baseband core Lyon has ever produced.

Lyon 14 features the largest baseband core ever produced by the company.

“We went to 460×902 crosspoints and went larger with the embedding and de-embedding than we’ve ever done,” says Account Manager Chad Snyder. “Also, our optical infrastructure was the largest it’s ever been.”

Lyon 14 was displayed at NAB 2014 last April as an incomplete unit with an IP infrastructure but filled with baseband gear. Following the show, the truck was returned to the shop, and baseband was installed before it hit the road for its debut event, a Little League World Series regional event in Indianapolis in early August.

Lyon 14 features a Grass Valley Kayenne Elite 3G K-Frame production switcher with 5M/E, 96 inputs, and 48 outputs; a ChyronHego Duet HyperX3 for graphics; and an EVS record and playback network; that 460×902-crosspoints router is an Evertz EQX 3G. The truck also comes stocked with Grass Valley LDX 80 3G cameras equipped with fiber/triax base stations.

According to Snyder, the company gave special attention to Lyon 14’s interior layout, placing a dedicated communications desk right next to the truck’s audio console, a Calrec Apollo. That allows an extra audio specialist to have a workstation. The internal-comms system is a 176×176 RTS ADAM Matrix intercom. Also, the truck contains back-to-back tape rooms instead of two separate over-the-top benches.

“It’s a maturing of the layout but still being able to operate as a single mobile unit without a support unit,” says Snyder.

As for that leap to IP, he acknowledges that there certainly have been conversations and that, although the company does not have a new truck in the plans for this year, he sees big changes around the corner.

“We’ve been to several meetings with manufacturers about it and sessions to get us involved in it,” says Snyder. “As we go up and look at the next unit, certainly an IP infrastructure will weigh into that.”

As for Lyon 14, the unit worked ESPN2’s marquee college football game in the fall and moved to college basketball for ESPN following a handful of bowl games in December.