AMPVISUAL TV to deliver Milan – San Remo cycle coverage for RAI

AMPVISUAL TV already has a strong presence in motorsports thanks to the expertise of its crews in wireless technologies. Now the company has established a foothold in the cycling world, with involvement in a number of major recent events.

“After the Strade Bianche, the Roma Maxima and the Tirreno-Adriatico that took place this month, we will now be present at the Milan-San Remo on 23 March,” explains Stéphane Allessandri, who is in charge of RF wireless solutions at AMPVISUAL TV.

RCS is the organiser of Italian cycling races including the renowned Giro, which is produced and broadcast by RAI. The Italian public broadcaster has chosen the Swiss company Exora for the executive production of the event. Exora, a member of the WorldLinx Alliance (created by Gilles Sallié, CEO of AMPVISUAL TV and Gilles Fehervari), selected the French service provider for its mobile and wireless specialism.

“For the Milan- San Remo race that is the final hurdle before the Giro, we will use five motorcycles (editor’s note: owned by AMPVISUAL TV) to capture footage plus one for sound as well as two helicopters (editor’s note: 50% owned by AMPVISUAL TV) equipped with a Cineflex system. The signals will then be relayed by a third helicopter and an aircraft from WorlLinx Alliance, the Beech 200,” continues Alessandri.

A satellite uplink truck at a receive site positioned on a hill about 5km from San Remo will beam the signals via relay antennas to the RAI production truck situated in the city centre next to the finish line.

The RF links are equipped with a modulator that can send the same video signals several times and thereby avoid signal loss caused by obstructions such as bridges, forests etc. (The gap between transmission and reception is on average 700 milliseconds but can go up to two and a half seconds if necessary.)

The signal is transmitted in HD, MPEG-4 AVC, H.264 format via Vislink encoders.

Four RF technicians from AMPVISUAL TV had worked on the previous races but taking into consideration the additional amount of technical means employed for the Milan – San Remo race there will be between six and eight RF technicians present.