Telegenic - HD Outside Broadcast

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Telegenic and BT Sport gave Broadcast RF the opportunity to put the Vislink HCAM system through its paces at a Women’s Super League match at the Kingsmeadow Stadium, London, on Sunday, January 7, 2018. The HCAM systems were also used on an Arena TV OB to capture live coverage from an English Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Everton at Wembley Stadium this past weekend.


This news follows a previous announcement made on Dec. 29, 2017 that BRF had taken delivery of the first HCAM systems. BRF is a leading hire company for microwave and wireless camera hardware, and has been a long-time deployment partner of Vislink in the UK. They are currently the largest single holder of HCAM systems in the world, with 28 systems purchased.


The UHD wireless camera system comprised a Sony PMW-F55, which provided 4K UHD video, and was controlled with the normal Sony camera control ‘racking’ system. The UHD RF system linked into the existing wireless camera infrastructure and operated exactly like a normal touchline camera.


Robert King, Vislink European Sales Director, comments: “The next generation HCAM wireless hardware is proving to be a major success. Getting such positive feedback from external industry experts in terms of hardware stability and the 4K UHD image quality provided over the link is very rewarding, and a credit to our team’s huge effort.”


“We have 28 HCAM HEVC wireless camera systems on order, and to see them operational in a live environment was brilliant. The UHD pictures in the truck looked fantastic; so good, that at one point it even had a stint as an 18-yard camera, which completely exceeded our expectations on its first outing,” says Chris Brandrick, Broadcast RF Commercial Director. “We’d like to thank Telegenic, Arena and BT Sports for allowing us to test the systems at these outings.”


Martyn Edwards, Telegenic OB Unit Manager for the match at the Kingsmeadow Stadium, comments: “Having evaluated the UHD RF camera during our rig day, I had no hesitation in offering the UHD wireless camera output to the match director to be included in the live cut. Broadcast RF’s impressive UHD wireless delivery with low latency surpassed our expectancy. I look forward to using the UHD wireless system from Broadcast RF in the near-future.”

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Sky Sports UK is onsite at the Ryder Cup and relying heavily on the world feed produced by European Tour Productions (ETP) and also calling NEP ND6 home for the week. But the production team is also making the most of Sky’s own facilities, most notably the impressive studio set used at the Open Championship across the pond in July and making the most of Telegenic’s T4 and T5 production trailers that have been at the center of U.S. golf coverage this season.

Many of the production trailers onsite at the Ryder Cup are similar in form and function. The exception? Telegenic’s T5 trailer, an expandable OB unit that Sky Sports commissioned earlier this year for use on all of Sky Sports golf coverage in the U.S. With T5 in the compound, the Sky Sports production team has a mobile unit that can handle a wide variety of production functions depending on the level of golf tournament being produced.

“We looked at the cost of having something proper like T5 versus using trailers about 18 months ago and have now been using it for six months,” says Clement. “This allows for simpler setup, and the talent can be in a nice environment for a week.”

The T5 expandable production trailer houses a commentary cabin, a large and comfortable green-room area for talent, a DiGiCo audio console, and a small front-bench area used to manage the Hego with Perfect Parallel for the studio touchscreen monitor used by talent for analysis. An EVS XT3 server is on hand to record clips to be used during analysis, Grass Valley Edius is on hand for editing, and a Blackmagic Videohub provides vision-mixing support. The unit features equipment racks behind soundproof glass to create a quiet environment and also separate temperature-control zones to create a comfortable environment.

The Digico console inside the T5 trailer.
The DiGiCo console inside the T5 trailer
“On the lower-level golf events,” says Clement, “the director and EP can cut a two-camera shoot of the touchscreen, and then that feed can go back to London as a separate unilateral from the world feed and then cut into that feed. So it’s kind of like a mini remote-production facility.”

At top-level events, such as the Ryder Cup and U.S. major tournaments, the T5 unit serves as the integration point for Hego, a top-notch green room for on-air talent as well as the commentary studio. Previously, Sky Sports would rent the typical portable office trailers and basically have to start from scratch for every event.

“The T5 unit can be deployed by one person in about 20 minutes,” says Andrew Wisniewski, who oversees the unit for Telegenic. “Sky wanted to create the best possible facility to combine hospitality, a good commentary area, and all of the related equipment in one unit. You can also have different temperatures in different rooms, and the rooms are very quiet when you close the doors.”

The T5 unit is complemented by T4, which is a nondescript green shipping container on the outside but inside has technical firepower for four Grass Valley Edius editing suites, featuring After Effects that can access 120 TB of onsite storage of previous golf events, and also provides quiet operation, thanks again to machine racks located behind glass doors.

At the Ryder Cup, the production team in T4 is working on show opens and three edit suites for features; the nature of the Ryder Cup makes it a very feature-rich environment.

“Also, certain walls can move to create different work spaces, like a meeting room,” says Wisniewski. “You can also have different temperatures in different rooms and the rooms are very quiet when you close the doors.”

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The Northern Hemisphere’s most prestigious annual rugby tournament; The RBS 6 Nations, will be aired live on the BBC. Telegenic has been appointed Host Broadcaster for the Home Countries fixtures and as an add-on for all the European games during this seasons Championship. Telegenic will be supplying its state of the art technical facilities and expert crew.
“Telegenic are no strangers to broadcasting Rugby internationals as they do all the live matches with Sky and BT, and they’ll be doing the World Cup [with ITV] as well, so they are very familiar with the venue and with rugby. There are no issues there, and they’ve done a fantastic job for us”. Paul Davies, BBC Sport executive producer and match director at Twickenham