Video Europe debuts latest OB and plans new £1.35m truck and flypack
New Mercedez Benz Axor carries Sony switcher plus EVS, Calrec, Miranda and Tektronix equipment
Video Europe’s newest outside broadcast vehicle – a 16-camera, double expanding truck built by C2S Systems, the broadcast integration arm of WTS Group – has carried out its first production at Chelsea FC’s Player of the Year awards in London. And following the vehicle’s debut outing, the two companies have agreed a £1.35m project for C2S to build a further vehicle – an eight-camera OB truck – and a flypack, Video Europe’s second, as part of an ongoing expansion.
Having covered Chelsea’s end-of-season awards ceremony at their Stamford Bridge ground on Monday 12 May, the new 16-camera truck next heads to Monaco for Marcor International’s production of the World Music Awards on 27 May. C2S engineers worked with Video Europe on both productions to offer technical support during the handover period – with six Sony HDC-2500 channels and one EVS XT3 being rigged for Chelsea, and 12 channels and two EVS for Monaco.
The Mercedes Benz Axor truck also houses a Sony MVS-7000X vision mixer and OLED monitors, a 3G Miranda NVISION 8500 Series hybrid router, Miranda 3G digital glue, a Calrec Omega digital audio console, a Kaleido modular multi-viewer, and Tektronix waveform vector-scopes. C2S delivered an 18-tonne support vehicle at the same time.
Steve Green, Managing Director of Video Europe, said that the truck was already paying dividends, having been built with the intention of helping clients to go after bigger jobs. “The new truck has enabled us to meet our clients’ needs and to win the jobs – before we didn’t have a big enough vehicle for these kinds of production,” he explained.
And revealing the new deal with C2S, he went on: “We are so pleased with what C2S have done with this truck that we are now ordering a new eight-camera vehicle, as well as another flypack.” Augmenting Video Europe’s existing fleet, the newly commissioned unit will offer a more compact solution, allowing clients to get into tighter spaces where larger vehicles cannot go, while maintaining the build quality of bigger trucks.
The flypack will help meet rising demand for Video Europe’s existing kit, built in late 2013. Both flypacks will be used at the Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in July and August.
The new OB unit is due to be on the road in late 2014 and will be an HD truck capable of offering up to 10 camera channels, two EVS and six VTs. C2S will fit the vehicle with Sony production monitoring, a Sony MVS-3000 vision mixer, Evertz timing equipment and Miranda multi-viewer and distribution equipment. It will also have Snell video routing, Telex communications and Tektronix measurement equipment.
The flypack, meanwhile, will be capable of handling 24 camera channels, with two EVS also incorporated into the 11-rack HD system, which features a Grass Valley Karrera vision mixer, monitors by JVC, Marshall and NEC, and a Miranda NV-8000 series router. Multi-viewers and distribution will also be provided by Miranda, with timing equipment by Trilogy and measurement from Imagine (Harris). Audio and communications kit will include Sennheiser radio microphones and in-ear monitoring, a Yamaha M7CL audio mixer and Telex’s Adam M communications system with Omneo IP. All equipment will be supplied by C2S Systems.