CTV Upgrades Three Flagship OB Units To Ultra-HD

A new Ultra-HD upgrade has been rolled out by CTV Outside Broadcast to three of its large flagship OB units.

The recent refurbishments feature Axon Synapse 4K signal processing, infrastructure, control and monitoring as standard.

The refit project is now complete on OB4 after successful ventures debuting OB2 and OB11 in 2017, delivering landmark 4k events such as the Isle of Wight festival and international test cricket for Sky. CTV has worked closely with Axon and benefited from Synapse signal processing for a number of years.

"The challenge in adopting Ultra-HD and HDR is how to effectively implement the new workflows without radically increasing costs – both in terms of technology and operator downtime," said Richard Morton, CTV's Head of Projects. "With Axon, we have a future-proof infrastructure that has enabled us to transition from HD to 4K without a snag."

After the OB4 went through a technology refit it delivered Sky's 4K coverage of the PDC World Darts Championship over the 2017 Christmas period. The triple-expanding-side OB features 24 Sony 4K cameras, a 160-input Sony MVS-8000X mixer plus six EVS server positions. It is supported by Axon 4K signal processing and 3G glue with Axon's 4K production tools providing up and down converters that fit in the same form factor as the 3GB/s modules. Axon's Cerebrum monitoring and control platform is at the heart of the operation, running three UHD galleries through an easy-to-use graphical interface and custom-built panels of 42 LED buttons.

"Axon continues to provide us with a proven unified workflow and control solution. We now have an efficient blueprint to roll-out across the fleet making the move to UHD, and eventually HDR, seamless and risk-free," concluded Morton. "This strategy is keeping CTV at the leading edge of technology."

CTV supports a variety of live sports and entertainment events, as well as capturing original entertainment shows in UHD HDR commissioned by Netflix.

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