Posts Tagged ‘gearhouse broadcast’
Gearhouse Broadcast Helps Take Sky Sports F1 Coverage on the Road
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
After competing in a fully competitive tendering process, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Projects Solutions division was awarded the contract to build a series of interconnecting Flyaway Pods for satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting for their coverage of Formula 1 motor racing. Since the award of the contract in late October 2011, the design, build and integration of the Pods took four months to complete.
Sky Sports are broadcasting Formula 1 races for the first time in a deal which started in March 2012 and will run until 2018. Sky Sports are broadcasting all the races, qualifying and practice sessions live and uninterrupted on their dedicated HD satellite channel Sky Sports F1 HD. All races are being produced in HD and 5.1 audio which has added a new dimension to Sky Sports coverage.
Sky Sports full onsite broadcast specification is a mixture of portacabins linked into the Flyaway Pods which contain the servers, audio facilities and all the technical equipment needed to support the production. The portacabins house the main production gallery, on air EVS, editing, logging and the production office.
The bespoke Flyaways, built and integrated by Gearhouse Broadcast, comprise of four 17 tonne interconnecting airline Pods that are standard Q6 construction with aviation bases. They are made up of a MCR Pod housing all the distribution, routing and camera control, a Server Pod housing all the EVS, Avid and SAN storage, an Audio Pod which houses the 5.1 audio control room and a Stowage Pod which is used to store all the loose equipment.
When the F1 races are in Europe the Pods will travel on flatbed trucks and when the races are taking place outside of Europe they will fly as cargo on Boeing 747’s.
An overview of the equipment chosen for the project includes EVS XT3 Servers, Omneon MediaGrid storage, Avid, Harris Glue, Pro-Bel Routers, Grass Valley Kayenne Mixer, Grass Valley Karrera HD Vision Mixer, Lawo Audio Console, Riedel Communications System, a mixture of Panasonic 3100 and Sony HDC-1500’s Cameras and Fujinon Lenses.
“Gearhouse Broadcast’s Flyaway Pods are the perfect solution for Sky Sports F1 needs; the Sky team will have an identical production facility at all 20 races. This is vitally important to the success of their broadcast as the production team can focus on their roles without having to find their way around different facilities around the globe” explained Kevin Moorhouse, Chief Operating Officer at Gearhouse Broadcast.
Darren Long, Sky Director of Operations said “We chose Gearhouse Broadcast because we needed a very specialist facility company that had the experience to understand the complexity of how to build and then deploy one of the most complex broadcast systems to 20 racetracks around the world”.
Bel Monitors at Australian Open Tennis
Monday, February 13th, 2012
Gearhouse Broadcast recently purchased 52 Bel Digital Audio 3G HD compatible BM-A1-2SHD audio monitors/de-embedders and used them in their HD coverage of the 2012 Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne.
Gearhouse Broadcast provides the technical facilities as the Host Broadcaster for Channel 7 which includes TV coverage from seven courts plus the World Feed and Channel 7’s unilateral facilities. They also provide uni-lateral facilities to ESPN and Tennis Channel from the USA and facilities to tennis Australia for their delivery to various platforms. The newly purchased 1RU units where used together with their current stock of the 2RU Bel boxes to provide all the audio monitoring in the entire facility.
The BM-A1-2SHD is a 1U high quality 2 channel audio monitor that de-embeds and permits the monitoring of the audio content of 3G, HD and SD SDI bitstreams but crucially maintains the simplest of control surfaces on the front panel. The unit was particularly suited to Gearhouse Broadcast’s requirements for this project because of its compact 1U size.
The BM-A1-2SHD accepts 2 x SDI sources and automatically detects between 3G, HD and SD SDI bitstreams, extracting the audio content appropriately. This automatic operation results in a very simple setup procedure and a very uncluttered and self explanatory front panel.
All available functions were accessible directly from the front panel via rotary controls, making operation extremely simple. A single 8-position rotary control enables the operator to monitor any channel pair from the selected SDI source. Two buffered loop-through outputs are provided for the SDI inputs.
The BM-A1-2SHD is suited to operation within Master Control Rooms, Outside Broadcast Vehicles, or indeed anywhere where audio monitoring of SD, HD and 3G SDI sources is required, especially when within a space conscious environment.
From broadcast to post: workflow integration from EVS to Avid and Final Cut Pro
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Recently, clients have been coming to Gearhouse Broadcast attracted, in part, to its experience and offerings in the area of workflow integration from the broadcast truck to the edit suit. In the past, file compatibility and transfer speed rendered live broadcast and post-production very separate entities. Not any more.
Through its close relationship with EVS and recruiting experts with particular skills in data management, Gearhouse Broadcast has developed fast, agile and seamless workflow solutions- whether you’re dealing with two camera channels or 20.
Gearhouse Broadcast tailors ingest to your specific file types and codecs, and utilises EVS’ XFile, XHub and XStream products to plug in to your Avid or FCP suite.
This means post-production can begin the moment the on-air light goes out.
METRO BROADCAST, PURCHASES HD EQUIPMENT FROM GEARHOUSE BROADCAST
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011Gearhouse Broadcast, a leading reseller of professional broadcast equipment announces the sale of various HD broadcast equipment to Metro Broadcast to assist with the build of their new Hi-Definition portable production unit.
Gearhouse Broadcast Sales Division worked very closely with Metro Broadcast to offer and source broadcast equipment that would meet fully with the company and its client’s needs. The equipment selected by Metro included Sony HXC-100 Cameras channels fitted with Canon HD Lenses, supported with Vinten Tripods whilst the production unit was fitted with Panasonic & Ikegami monitoring, Panasonic production switching & Harris routing as the main stay products.
The delivery of the equipment to Metro proved a great challenge for Gearhouse Broadcast. The recent effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami made it increasingly difficult for Gearhouse to deliver the equipment in time due to limited availability and shortage of broadcast equipment. To avoid any disappointment from Metro and to ensure their project deadline was met, Gearhouse Broadcast had loaned much of the equipment from its extensive inventory of Rental stock held until Gearhouse were able to completely fulfill the order.
Mary Metcalfe, Managing Director at Metro said “it was a pleasure to deal with Gearhouse Broadcast both from a perspective of their technical expertise and also their helpful and flexible attitude with regards to “loan” equipment ensuring that we could keep to all our deadlines.”
As a leading reseller, Gearhouse Broadcast have supplied broadcast equipment to many other broadcast markets including Studios, Broadcasters, Outside Broadcast, production and Post Production companies as well as educational, corporate and commercial markets.
Gearhouse Broadcast to Deliver Malaysia’s First HD Studio Facility for Astro
Friday, June 24th, 2011After competing in a fully competitive tendering process, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Systems Integration division was awarded the contract to upgrade Astro’s studio facilities in Kuala Lumpur to accommodate HD productions. The studios are used by both Astro and Arena to produce a wide range of shows including singing and dancing competitions, live music performances, game shows, talk shows and sport highlights.
The state-of the-art HD digital broadcast facilities will be the first of their type in Malaysia for market leader Astro.
The project will include upgrading 4 Studios Floors, 3 Production Control Rooms and a Central Equipment Area. The project will be carried out in two phases. Phase one will be the technical upgrade and refurbishment of studios 1 & 2, incorporating their associated Production Control Room and Audio Control Room areas. Phase two will involve the technical upgrade and refurbishment to studios 3, 4, 5/6, 7 and their associated Control Rooms.
In addition to the core contact, Gearhouse Broadcast are providing Consultancy and Project Management Services to Astro including time line management, location and design requirements, awarding supplier contracts, design of the Production Control Rooms and lighting systems for Studio 1 and Studio 2, managing upgrade and renovation works to the studio floor spaces, broadcast systems design and looking at Astro’s current and future production requirements so that their new systems meet all their future needs.
Central to Astro’s broadcast requirements was that their new broadcast system was designed around the ability for part of the system to be taken off site and used in a flyaway mode, the Production Control Room to be able to control any studio floor space and interface with Astro’s pool of OB trucks, flexibility in sharing of central resources e.g. camera channels, replay service and VizRT graphic engines, additional production needs designed around tapeless workflow, allowing rushes recorded in the studio to be transferred directly to Astro’s Post Production Facility and an interface with Astro’s Playout Centre for live productions.
In order to provide a full integrated bespoke solution, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Project Managers and Systems Engineers needed to gain a full understanding of Astro’s production requirements, including how every department operated. A significant period of time was spent time on site observing how productions were made and meeting with individual areas and Heads of Departments e.g. Sound Team, Directors, to ascertain their exact production requirements.
In terms of the equipment chosen for the project, Gearhouse Broadcast selected Snell Routers and Glue products, Harris Quads and Yamaha PM5D 64 Channel Analogue Consoles. The Snell range of routers are renowned the world over for quality and reliability. Coupled with extremely flexible control operations, they cater for all sizes and operations from simple edit suites to outside broadcast trucks. Snell were also able to provide Astro and Gearhouse Broadcast with 24/7 customer support within the Asia region ensuring rapid diagnosis and resolution of any issues that might have arisen.
Eamonn Dowdall Business Development Director at Gearhouse Broadcast said, “We were awarded the contract by Astro based on our proven track record for delivering broadcast solutions for major international studio facilities. We are highly skilled in the provision of broadcast infrastructure installations, and in particular, the area of studios systems integration having carried out numerous installations for studios and venues such as the Qatar State Mosque and Al Jazeera studios in Qatar”.
Gearhouse Broadcast Confirms its Commitment to EVS with a Multi-Million Deal Including Over 20 XT3 Servers
Friday, June 24th, 2011Gearhouse Broadcast, a market leader in TV broadcast services specialising in Equipment Rental, Equipment Sales, Outside Broadcast, Project Solutions and Systems Integration, has recently confirmed its long-term commitment with EVS solutions for production servers and associated systems. The terms of the agreement include a mix of new and upgraded systems allowing Gearhouse Broadcast to be at the cutting edge of live production technology.
Among EVS’ top clients, Gearhouse Broadcast is extending its existing comprehensive range and inventory of servers (including 57 latest generation XT2+ Servers and supporting IPDirectors, XFiles and XHubs) with the addition of 20 new XT3 servers introduced by the Belgian manufacturer at the NAB Show in Las Vegas last April. The new XT3 server offers eight full configurable video channels with 96 audio ports and six 3D channels. It’s the first system to natively support all popular codecs without requiring hardware changes.
This transaction additionally includes the full upgrade of their existing rental fleet of EVS systems including IPDirector content management suites, XF2 media storage allowing them to guarantee their clients the most efficient and advanced production tools.
Gearhouse Broadcast’s headquarters are located in the U.K. with operating offices in Australia, US, Qatar and India. With a large inventory and always investing heavily in new technology, experienced engineers and a wealth of global experience in exceeding broadcaster’s needs, the company offers a full range of solutions and a proven track record in the delivery of broadcast solutions for all types of live broadcast events including football tournaments, Olympic Games, major reality television shows and music concerts.
Chief Executive Officer at Gearhouse Broadcast John Newton comments: “Our contract with a broadcasting equipment leader such as EVS places us at the forefront of live production technology operations. It allows us to meet demanding broadcast requirements for current and future live operations anywhere globally.” Newton continues that “Gearhouse Broadcast provides our global rental clients with the most up to date broadcast solutions on the market and EVS always guarantees the best of live technology while opening up the way to future broadcast operations.”
Head of APAC, EMEA & Events at EVS Luc Doneux says: “EVS is very enthusiastic with the success of its new live production solutions recently introduced at NAB. Doneux continues: “The XT3 platform was conceived to keep up with live production solutions offering unrivalled flexibility, and a real path to future sports broadcast operations. When a leader in TV broadcast rental services, like Gearhouse Broadcast, confides in EVS equipment, it allows us to proudly keep up with market trends offering superior technology, and to open roads ahead towards future of sports.”
Gearhouse Broadcast pass I’m a Celebrity Trial to Return to Jungle for Series Ten!
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Gearhouse Broadcast is back in the Australian jungle this month after again winning the contract to provide ITV with broadcast equipment and technical expertise for hit reality TV show ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!
And with the popularity of the series showing no signs of waning and new areas of the jungle being added to the show, Gearhouse Broadcast’s technical team has been called upon to come up with ever more complex broadcast equipment solutions to ensure none of the action is missed by its millions of viewers back home. (more…)
Gearhouse Broadcast to Launch New Online E-Auction Service
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Professional broadcasters are now being offered a unique new way to buy state-of-the-art professional broadcast equipment as Gearhouse Broadcast announces the launch of its very own online auction service this month.
The e-auction facility is a feature of Gearhouse Broadcast’s improved and redesigned website, and allows the company’s sales division to group together ‘lots’ of new and used broadcast equipment and offer customers potentially huge savings on professional broadcast equipment.
Interested parties are invited to register for the first auction, to be held on Wednesday, 24th November at 9am by going onto http://www.gearhousebroadcast.com/uk/equipment-sales/e-auctions/ and completing the simple registration form. (more…)