Arena Television goes for Leader kit in new HD OB17 truck
Arena Television deputy director of operations Daf Rees in the OB17 camera control gallery
Arena Television, the independent outside broadcast facilities firm, has purchased four Leader LV5350 waveform monitors for use within its new OB17 vehicle.
One of Europe’s largest HD trucks, OB17 is a 16.5 metre-long 32 tonne articulated vehicle with twin full length expanding sides. It operates from Arena’s Redhill Aerodrome headquarters in Surrey, UK.
Primarily operating in HD-SDI SDR and HDR, with Quad HD as an option, OB17 incorporates an IP layer in key areas to add extra flexibility.
Onboard features include a 240 square foot production gallery, 16 camera channels, an 80 input Sony vision mixer, a Grass Valley hybrid router with 365 video inputs and 798 video outputs, a monitor wall with up to 180 configurable video preview windows, and a Calrec Artemis Beam audio console.
“OB17 is a powerful HD-HDR/SDR truck built for assignments such as light entertainment,” said Dafydd (Daf) Rees, deputy director of operations at Arena Television. “Its first job was for ITV’s coverage of the Royal Variety Performance last November. HD-SDR is still the dominant production format but we are seeing a steady increase in demand for HD-HDR.
“We chose Leader LV5350 waveform monitors for the shading suite because the support both standards. Their half rack width 3U form factor was also important to us. Having the Leader display directly below the main shading monitor it is an ergonomically efficient way of shading rather than having to look away to a rasterized display on a separate screen. Our production crews find the LV5350 very to use as it provides all the information they need clearly and quickly which is vital when racking a live event. OB17 is also equipped with a PHABRIX Qx rasterizer which is used to analyze outgoing signal flow. The Leader and PHABRIX products complement each other rather than overlap,” he continued.
“The OB17 project was managed from conception to delivery by Arena’s in house project team who were tasked with sourcing all the equipment for the truck. The LV5350s were supplied by Paul Froom at Sentinel Broadcast, sourced from Leader’s UK distribution partner Thameside TV,” said Rees.
Added Leader Europe managing director, Koichi Fukagawa: “HD-HDR looks set to become the preferred production format for many broadcasters as they plan their forward development strategies. It offers much higher image quality than traditional HD, extending into dark-area detail which would otherwise be obscured. HDR also handles brightly lit subjects with much more convincing realism stand SDR. These advantages greatly enhance TV coverage of live sports and stage events where the range of lighting levels can vary enormously.”
Noted Leader’s European regional development manager, Kevin Salvidge: “The LV5350 incorporates all the SDI measurement facilities required for HDR both in HD and 4K UHD. These include engineering related features such as test pattern generation, closed-caption monitoring, CIE colour chart, high dynamic range measurement, focus assist, customisable screen layout, tally interface, 4K UHD operation and 12G-SDI interfaces. It also features our intuitive Cinezone and Cinelite, which are especially popular with camera crews, editors and colourists. A focus detection algorithm enables the LV5350 and its equivalent LV7300 rasterizer to sense edges across a very wide range of image contrast levels. Additionally supported by the LV5350 is Sony’s ‘SR Live for HDR’ which allows simultaneous 4K HDR and HD SDR video production.”