MONTREAL— Miranda Technologies has completed a full HD upgrade for the multivenue sports complex at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va. The school fields 20-team NCAA Division I athletics program and relevant venues to match, until recently all covered using standard definition.
The upgrade features a Miranda Nvision 8280 router, a Kaleido-X multiviewer, Densité signal processing modules and multiple Telecast Cobra 2DT HD camera interfaces.
Liberty turned to Digital Video Group in Mechanicsville, Va., to design, build a full HD upgrade to its existing analog-only Sports Broadcast switching center housed in the university’s Vines Center. The university wanted a system that would provide high capacity HD services, establish fiber optic connectivity and centralize broadcast production and control for all of the university’s multiple on-campus sports facilities.
Using the new Miranda Nvision 8280 router with a 288 x 576 matrix populated with 167 x 210 HD-SDI interfaces, 64 x 96 analog audio AES embedders/de-embedders, plus MADI signal transport and audio concentrators, the Sports Broadcast Center also utilizes a fully-equipped Miranda Kaleido-X multiviewer for total system visibility. A Miranda NVISION 9000 router control system provides control and matrix management via software and hardware control panels. For signal processing, DVG specified an extensive array of Miranda conversion, control and distribution modules, housed in a Miranda Densité 3 frame.
An important aspect of the project was to establish fiber optic connectivity between each venue and the Sports Broadcast Center in the Vines Center. DVG used Miranda’s Telecast brand Cobra 2DT fiber optic camera interface to link a range of high-end, dual-format Sony HD cameras across the campus to the Vines Center. The Cobra 2DT converts triaxial camera signals to fiber optics and provides all two-way camera/control signals.
“The Cobra units have given us the ability to leverage our HD production investment to multiple sports venues more than a mile apart on campus, including the Williams Football Stadium and our brand new baseball stadium in addition to the basketball arena,” said Larry Haley, director of technical operations for the Liberty University’s School of Communication and Creative Arts and the Liberty Flames Sports Network.
