VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA—The “Tour de Delta,” part of the “BC Super Week,” is a pro-cycling series in North America, that attracts hundreds of cyclists worldwide and takes place over the course of 10 days across British Columbia. The “Tour de Delta” leg entails three days of racing, including the MK Delta Criterium in the social heart of North Delta and the Brenco Criterium in the historic Ladner Village.
SW Event Technologies was enlisted to cover the race, which was streamed live to the “Tour de Delta” website. Covering such mobile sporting events, over long distances and varying terrains, is tricky. Among other challenges, it’s critical that no connections fail while the cameras are on the move.
The EnGo mobile transmitters were able to be mounted on cameras to transmit footage shot from motorcycle camera operators.
RUNNING THE COURSE
Our mobile reporting team for the event, which consisted of two motorcycle camera operators, was heavily dependent on the ability of Dejero’s mobile transmission technology to not only withstand difficult working conditions, but to also ensure total course coverage while delivering the video signals back to our Orca OB truck. This was especially important because the past provider only used a single cell network, which dropped video signals at regular intervals and did not provide 100 percent coverage on the course.
Ultimately, Dejero’s HD+ video encoding tested best for us in the context of fast-moving high-motion sports coverage. As a result, we paired three Dejero EnGo mobile transmitters with a Dejero server and a Dejero transceiver to cover the circuit. The units are part of Dejero’s transmission portfolio, which makes life simple when it comes to the remote acquisition, cloud management and multiscreen distribution of live video over IP. The events production team relied on two EnGo mobile transmitters to deliver live camera feeds back to the broadcast truck from the motorcycles that followed the 12km race route.
In our production truck, a Dejero server connected the camera signals to a video switcher over HD-SDI for use in mixing and live broadcasting. We used a third Dejero EnGo, attached to a vehicle-mounted camera, to transmit live video back to the truck. This was the perfect combination to ensure no content was lost during the high-speed chase. Leveraging multiple cellular networks, EnGo’s HD+ encoding delivered a smooth, clear video image from start to finish.
Dejero’s Control cloud management, monitoring and reporting tool enables geolocation, remote control, previewing feeds and routing of live and recorded content from a web browser. It’s also normal practice for us to use the cloud as additional recorded program back up, ready for distribution post event.
EASY CONNECTION
I enjoyed the fact that the EnGo deploys easily to the back of my cameras using a standard V-mount battery connection that allows one battery to power my camera and EnGo. In addition, we gained access to the Dejero rental inventory easily for single day use and found Dejero’s support to be second to none.
Dejero is the best choice when it comes to delivering exciting, on-the-go remote camera coverage of high-pressure sporting events.
Andrew Fountain is the technical director for FWD Distribution LLC a digital production firm based in Vancouver B.C., Canada. FWD regularly works with other production companies such as SW Event Technologies, supplementing services and providing hands on experience to high-end mission-critical productions. Andrew can be reached atandrew@fwd-distribution.com.
For more information, please visitwww.dejero.comor call 519-772-4824.
