Line Of Sight No Obstacle To UEFA Wireless Cameras

Link Research - a £15 million company with a reputation for technical innovation and a range of advanced wireless products for electronic newsgathering of live news and sports broadcast - has signed up Presteigne Charter, a UK company, to supply wireless camera systems for the UEFA Euro 2008 Football Tournament.
There are 31 matches in the tournament which are being broadcast in High Definition and this year, a new idea is to take the wireless cameras right down the tunnels into the players' dressing room areas.
This is easily accomplished with COFDM digital wireless cameras which are not cabled and do not need line-of-sight.
Presteigne Charter is supplying all of the wireless camera equipment for the tournament. There are eight High Definition wireless systems from Link Research, which are being used with LDK 6000 and Sony 1500 cameras.
Two RF cameras will be used at each stadium to capture the players' arrivals by bus, the line-up, the match action left and right, and the post-match celebrations.
All eight Euro 2008 venues were tested beforehand to demonstrate that the RF equipment would operate properly.
"We tested the wireless cameras in each of the eight stadiums," said Tony Valentino, Head of Presteigne Charter's RF Division.
"Initially, UEFA were not planning to use radio cameras but they considered all of the options and in our preliminary tour of the venues, the tests were fine, the Link wireless camera equipment worked faultlessly."
Presteigne Charter is a new company formed when Charter Broadcast was acquired by Avesco, the owners of Presteigne Broadcast Hire.
The combined company is one of the UK's largest dry hire and broadcast facilities companies and has worked on the Olympics, the World Cup Football and Grand Slam Tennis.
The company has invested significantly in High Definition wireless camera equipment and has built a strong expertise in RF camera operations.
Meanwhile, Link has won many awards for its wireless camera technology which uses DVB-T combined with Link's own LMS-T modulation to enhance the performance of wireless cameras in all kinds of operating conditions and environments.
Link is currently promoting its L1500 model, which works in Standard Definition or High Definition and is offered with exchangeable frequency modules.
(BMcC)