Keun-Wan Park (left and Pedro Luna
NEW YORK
All Mobile Video (AMV) got its start back in 1976 by renting high quality video gear. A lot has changed in the video industry since then, but our philosophy in providing high quality and reliable equipment remains the same.
One of the items that has come to the forefront in recent years is the flypack. We now do a lot of business in this area. And when using flypacks for live event recording, two of the greatest factors in the field are setup speed and potential miswiring. A flypack can take many hours to set up, sometimes requiring a large crew to run cable and interconnect racks. The more time and personnel that are involved in setup, the higher the cost will run. So with our latest system, the "HD Tapeless Carrypack," one of our goals was to dramatically reduce installation time and labor requirements, thus lowering costs while improving reliability for our clients. We were able to do this with BTX's cost-effective ProBlox mult-connector system.
QUICK INTERCONNECTS ARE BIG PLUS
What ProBlox has meant for us is that we can prepare for a shoot in half the time it would normally take. The savings in setup and strike time significantly reduces hard costs. The system also reduces the number of separate connection points for cable runs by decreasing the number of individual connectors used, thus improving reliability, saving space and eliminating clutter.
One goal in building this particular flypack was to provide a high-quality, high-definition production system that could be priced very competitively. Additionally, we wanted a cutting edge system with solid-state media recording. The methodology that we used for accomplishing this goal was to use cameras that were not typically associated with multicamera production applications. In order to use these particular models in a multicamera production system, more cable and connections were required—even more than it would be necessary with the use of more expensive camera systems.
This resulted in AMV's HD tapeless "Carrypack," which can be used with as many as eight 1920x1080 Sony PMW-EX3/350 cameras with full SMPTE fiber CCU control. The system is designed with its rack-to-rack connections being made with the BTX ProBlox system. This provides fast and repeatable inter-connects reducing mis-wiring errors. Our ProBlox configuration combines 16 coax and 26 audio/data/control circuits in a single connector. In addition, the system provides true 75 ohm video contacts for the HD signals.
HIGH RELIABILITY
The ProBlox system has performed exceedingly well for us, especially when you consider how much use it's gotten. We've really put this flypack through hoops in a wide variety of applications. It's been deployed on a cruise ship, shooting musical performances against the Alaskan skyline. It's also seen use on various studio and remote shows that have aired on CBS, MTV and PBS. The HD Tapeless Carrypack was even called into action to capture Barbara Streisand's monumental return in-concert Village Vanguard performance.
Our new flypack system has proven its reliability, and a lot of credit for that has to be given to ProBlox.
Keun-Wan Park and Pedro Luna have more than 40 years of combined experience in television production and broadcasting and serve as engineers in the rental division of All Mobile Video. They may be contacted respectively atkwpark@amvchelsea.com and pluna@amvchelsea.com.
For additional information, contact BTX Technologies at 800-666-0996 or visitwww.btx.com.
