Centred on a 64-fader Calrec Artemis audio console and wired for 30 cameras – including Sony 3500 Ultra HD, 5500 super-motion and 4800 ultra-motion cameras – Supersport’s new IP1 outside broadcast truck has space for as many as 14 EVS replay operators. Thanks to South Africa’s traffic regulations, the truck is probably among the largest OB vehicles ever built with is 16m long, 4.3m high and 2.6m wide trailer expands to 5m.
Built by media systems integration specialist Broadcast Solutions, overall control throughout the truck uses the hi human interface. This is an extremely powerful control layer, providing auto discovery and auto configuration of all systems, and an intuitive user environment that enables fast, secure and accurate set-ups and transitions. Broadcast Solutions recently retro-fitted hi to two other OB units at Supersport.
‘We needed to be able to cover a lot of those events in Ultra HD for world feeds, so we needed a new truck which would have all the tools we need, and which we could very quickly configure to each job,’ says Supersport Head of Production Operations, Dheshnie Naidoo. ‘We spoke to systems integrators everywhere, and Broadcast Solutions impressed us with their understanding of our requirements, their skills in IP networking, and the simple way we control everything using the hi human interface.’
‘Using IP and software tools, the Broadcast Solutions design team is able to pack huge amounts of production ability into outside broadcast trucks now,’ says Broadcast Solutions UK MD JP Delport. ‘What makes Supersport IP1 so exciting is that we were allowed to make the coachwork bigger than would be allowed in Europe, so we were able to create more space. Everyone is together in one truck, but they still have comfortable working space.’
The new truck was built in Broadcast Solutions’ workshops in Bingen am Rhein, Germany, then driven under special permission to Hamburg for sea transfer to South Africa.
