PESA kit used for US Presidential Debate coverage

PESA Switching Systems equipment was used for coverage of all three US Presidential Debates between Senator John F. Kerry and President George W. Bush, as well as for the Vice Presidential Debate between Senator John Edwards and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Installed in mobile broadcast units from Game Greek Video, YES Productions, and Token Creek Mobile, PESA routers facilitated pool coverage with feeds distributed to all the major networks and cable outlets.
The three mobile broadcast production companies installed PESA routing systems in their mobile units to ensure reliability for the Presidential Debates, for which their trucks served as the sole distribution point for the main audio and video feeds.
"In live events of this magnitude, where there is no backup, the reliability of your equipment is a fundamental concern," said Paul Bonar, Director of Engineering at Game Creek Video. "We've incorporated PESA gear into the majority of our mobile units because, in addition to their functionality, performance, and space-saving footprint, they are absolutely dependable and backed by very responsive after-sales technical support."
YES Productions' OB unit YES I provided pool coverage for the first Presidential Debate, held at the University of Miami on September 30. This unit is equipped with a Jaguar 64x64 SDI video router, a Jaguar 64x128 analogue video router (for monitor routing within the truck), a Jaguar 64x64 analogue stereo audio router, and PESA's RCPMB2 multi-bus control panel.
"For this particular show, we used the MB2 panel at the technical-director position because its versatility allows us to view and control the status of multiple destinations directly and to access all the sources," explained Dave Kennedy, engineer in charge for YES Productions.
For the October 5th Vice Presidential Debate at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Game Creek Video's Southern Cross and Token Creek Mobile's Millennium trucks were responsible for providing video and audio feeds to broadcasters. The 53’ Southern Cross is equipped with a PESA Cheetah 192x384 SD-SDI video routing switcher, one of the industry's largest standard definition routers, and a Tiger 144x144 analogue stereo audio routing switcher. Millennium features a PESA Jaguar 48x32 video router and a Cougar 32x32 audio router.
The Southern Cross also served as the pool truck at the second Presidential Debate, which took place on October 8 at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Intrepid, also a Game Creek Video truck, worked the third and final debate held October 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe. Intrepid is equipped with PESA's Tiger 96x96 SDI video routing switcher, a Tiger 128x128 analogue stereo audio routing switcher, and a Tiger 48x48 analogue video router.
"PESA is there to provide support when we need it, and the company's engineers have been very helpful in providing solutions that perform well for us now and have the flexibility to adapt as our company grows," said John Salzwedel, President of Token Creek Mobile.
(GB)