I recently had the opportunity to work on a newly developed mobile production package put together by Cox Cable out of Rhode Island. This fly pack system rides in a van and you can either keep the production, tape graphics, and audio departments inside the vehicle, or pull it all out and build your control inside the venue you are shooting. This new production unit is called, “Sprinter”.
This cable company has two standard definition OB full production mobile television trucks, named “Mercury” and “Phoenix”. For more information on what gear travels on these rigs, look here.
The first show I worked on (and the Sprinter’s sixth debut) was a Providence College women’s volleyball game in Alumni Center. I have shot tv out of here before and when using a full sized truck, the cable runs are horrible. The TV truck usually parks around back and we have to fly five or six triax, video mults, and dt12 audio mults over two different roofs to get inside the arena. If the weather is bad, this can be very time consuming and difficult.
But, now with the Sprinter fly-packs, this all changes. The van is small and all the cases have wheels on them. The built in ramp was very helpful as we off loaded all the gear.
We started our day unloading the Sprinter van. Cox decided that at this venue, we would pull the large Anvil fly-pack road cases out of the van and bring them inside the building.
Cox got permission to set up production, tape, graphics and audio in a hallway just outside the volleyball court.
This fly pack system is very close to operating as a multiple camera, high definition mobile production facility. Currently the switcher and the replay system are the only areas that would need to be upgraded to shoot in 1080i.
The production department includes a NewTek TriCaster with a Live Control LC-11 switcher. This device is partly virtual and you build effects and transitions on the Samsung computer screen. Ikan LCD monitors make up the small monitor wall. Below the switcher are two HVR-1500a Sony HDV decks for master records.
The graphics department includes a system also built by NewTek and the TriCaster. One cat5 cable is all that is needed to interface the Sony Vaio Windows PC with the TriCaster so that graphics and effects can be keyed through the switcher.
Audio also has their own Anvil case full of gear. One of the engineers even custom built some racks on top of the cases to hold some sound processing equipment. The audio console is a Mackie Onyx 1640. It is small, but works well for a small live sports broadcast.
The tape department consists of a single channel “EVS” with one input and one output. It is not really an EVS, it is a cheap all-in-one controller with dvr hard drive called a “Buf”. The Buf Sport does work like a real EVS is some ways. It allows you to clip off video footage and build timelines and packages. One limitation is that while you are clipping off stuff and building a playlist, the device stops recording. This is different from a EVS hard drive system because when you work with a clip on the EVS, you never miss a play. The hard drive is always recording. Cox did install a passive router that can select between four video and audio sources so that you can put a tight camera in for a few minutes and then switch it up and record the handheld for a couple plays.
There is no video department. Other than engineering helping to set up the production room, the camera guys do all the white balancing and iris adjustments while working the game.
The cable we run is transmission cable. It is very thick (compared to triax) and the chances of an end breaking off is very real. The cables are all about 400 feet and they each contain two BNC video lines, four audio lines. One of the video cable is used to send SDI from the camera to the flypack. The other video line is to get a return video feed back to the camera. The audio lines are used for mics and RTS beltpack intercom systems. We run all of the cable through yellow jackets in high traffic areas. There is no power in this camera cable. We run all the Sony 270 cameras off batteries (or plug them in if fixed and near an outlet).
The cameras we use are Sony HVR-S270U semi-full sized HDV camcorders. For more info on these cameras, look here. We set them up in a studio configuration with rear zoom and focus controls.
Cox purchased three Fujinon ZA17×7.6 BERM-M58H “real” camera lenses. They had to purchase special rings to allow these 1/2 inch lenses to mount to the Sony 270s. I really liked these lenses. They are a great improvement over the stock “Zeiss” lens that comes with the 270. The focus is instant and the zoom is fast. They are very sharp and include a 2x extender, doubling the zoom range. These Fuji lenses even have a zoom speed adjustment so you can dial in the perfect speed.
This is the stock version of the camera. Like I said before, Cox has three Fuji lenses. This production had four cameras. A game, a tight, a slash and a hand held. The handheld guy had to use the factory version of the camera with the slow and hard to focus stock lens.
The viewfinder we used was the Ikan V8000HD 8 inch LCD monitor. This monitor accepts a y, pb, pr analog hd component feed to display the camera’s image. I liked the monitor, it was sharp, but defiantly not hd. I did question the quality and durability of this bit of gear. You do get what you pay for and this monitor was not very expensive. We powered the monitor off Sony camera batteries, but it did have the option for a/c power. The mounting bracket is very cheap and I predict that it will break on a future production. We do not have tally lights on these cameras and our return video feed is simply sent back to this monitor as a secondary video input. In order for me to see my program return, I must press the video input button several times to find the feed and then get it back to component so that I can continue to shoot the game! Not a very good system, but I understand that there are limitations with this setup. Expect whip pans and poorly framed graphic shots if the director is not perfectly clear with his commands.
This is a shot of another Sony 270 camera that we set up to cover the volleyball game. This camera is in the announce booth and this is show camera number 2, “tight follow”. It is tricky using the Miller tripods and 17x lens to follow the action tight and smoothly.
There is a major problem with the Fujinon lenses that have been mounted on the Sony 270s using the ACM-17 adapter ring. By pulling the lens just about an inch from the 270’s lens mount, the 7.6mm back side of the Fuji lens is changed to something much higher. The result is that these lenses cannot go very wide when fully zoomed out. They gain a little bit at the far telephoto part of the lens but that is not really necessary. It is important to be able to have a fast and professional lens with rear controls that can go wide. These lenses with this adapter ring are not able to.
During this volleyball game, we were unable to use the game camera to cover the game. It simply would not go wide enough to be able to follow the action. Our director had to use the slash camera (camera on the far corner of the court) as the game camera. The slash camera was just far enough away from the action to be wide enough to capture it. Because of this, we had two “tight follow” cameras up near the announcers where only one was actually needed!
Since swapping one of these lenses for the stock Sony “Zeiss” lens would mean giving up the rear Fuji controls, my suggestion would be for the cable company to purchase a Century Optics wide angle conversion lens and screw that on the front of the game camera lens! Or contact Fuji to see if there are any options to fix this with a different lens or adapter.
This equipment is brand new and most of it right off the assembly line. This is uncharted waters for both me and the guys who make the decisions at the cable company. We are all figuring it out as we go and the engineers are making improvements as the Sprinter logs hours.
Here are a few more pictures I took during the day as I worked on this Sprinter fly pack truck. I am shooting Thanksgiving football at a rather large stadium tomorrow morning with this kit. I am looking forward to it… except the lens tightness, return video and tally light limitations.
November 26th, 2008 | Category: Behind The Scenes, New Gear Review, TV Gear, Television OB Trucks | Leave a comment
