Gearhouse Broadcast Provide Facilities For I'm A Celebrity…

Once again, ITV Studios have awarded broadcast solutions company Gearhouse Broadcast the contract for this year's I'm A Celebrity… Get me Out Of Here!
Gearhouse Broadcast's Equipment Rental and Projects divisions will provide I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, ITV's autumn reality programme set in the Australian rain forest, with technical and broadcast facilities.
The flyaway facilities will create a large Production Gallery, an MCR area, a CCU area, a VTR/EVS Room, two Audio Control Rooms and a Comms area.
Lucy Eagle, ITV Studios Line Producer, said: "We are looking forward to working with Gearhouse Broadcast again on Series 10. They continually meet our production needs, whilst providing excellent technical support and the best equipment available."
Kevin Moorhouse, Gearhouse Broadcast Chief Operating Officer, said: "We are looking forward to returning to the jungle for Series 10 of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Once again, we will have many tough challenges working in the jungle with its extreme terrain and weather conditions, but we are confident that we have the expertise and experience to deliver the technical facilities required to meet ITV's needs."
Kevin continued: "For the first time, this year's I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is being shot in HD. To achieve this we have 30 Sony HDC1500 cameras alongside 17 Hitachi DK-H32, seven Q Balls and 14 IR cameras positioned around the two camps, the studio and trials area.
"To get the signals back to production we are using an extra 5km of fibre optic cable and have had to upgrade to HD on all the signal distribution, video over fibre and video processing equipment.
"The video router we are using this year is a Pro-bel Cygnus 288 x 288 HD/SDI and there are two Sony MVS8000 vision mixers cutting all the cameras. One vision mixer creates eight video streams which are recorded on 2 EVS XT2+ machines and 8 Sony XDCam recorders. The other is used for the live transmission back to the UK."
For the two camps, the audio is mixed on two Yamaha Audio Desks and for the ITV 1 and ITV 2 live shows, a Calrec Omega Audio Desk is being used. The two camps, studio and trials areas are covered by a comprehensive Radio Microphone Receiver system. This allows the viewers to hear every word no matter where the celebrities are in the jungle. The audio is then sent back over the fibre to production using an Optocore system which allows access to any of the audio on any of the audio desks.
Gearhouse Broadcast's engineering crew fly out to the Australian jungle to set up the production facilities in early October. A technical team will also be supplied to provide onsite engineering support once transmission starts.
(KMcA)