Raymundo Barros
SAO PAUL, BRAZIL
As the largest television network in Brazil, TV Globo (TVG) provides more than 4,000 hours a year of entertainment programming, including mini-series, novellas, music festivals, documentaries, news and live soccer and many other sports. We have five O&O stations and 117 affiliates that serve 98 percent of Brazil's territory, reaching 5,564 municipalities and 99.5 percent of the population,
One of our largest and most complex events each year is coverage of the Carnival events in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Although Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other countries around the world, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival capitol. The Rio Carnival is not only the biggest Carnival, it is also the benchmark against which every other Carnival is compared and is one of the most interesting artistic events that TVG covers.
TV Globo has televised Carnival in SD for more than 30 years, and in 2008, TVG Sao Paulo became the only station in the TVG family to broadcast Carnival's action in high definition.
As director of engineering for TVG S„o Paulo, one of my responsibilities is to make sure that we have digital microwave gear that will provide solid, interference-free coverage of Carnival and our other live events.
UNIQUE RF COVERAGE PROBLEMS
One of the biggest challenges we face in gearing up for Carnival each year is determining how to provide reception for six wireless HD cameras and an HD-equipped helicopter that operates in a difficult and demanding RF environment. Another factor in providing Carnival coverage is the huge size of the allegoric cars used in the event. They can easily block the line-of-sight path from the camera to the receiving antennas.
With the acquisition of RF Central's X6-II 6-way diversity receivers, we've found that we don't really have to worry about such blockage anymore. With the high performance maximum ratio combining technology that the RF Central gear provides, we're now able to establish really solid links and deliver a robust RF signal that provides our audience extraordinary HD picture quality throughout the 32 hours of live Carnival coverage.
USES WIDE VARIETY OF MICROWAVE GEAR
Capturing Carnival's events, which include spectacular floats surrounded by thousands of dancers, singers and drummers parading through the Sambudromo Stadium, is a large task.
TVG accomplishes this through an array of RF Central equipment. We use seven X6-II 6-way diversity receivers for wireless high-definition camera reception and also use this technology at TVG's HD helicopter receiver site.
Our five wireless cameras are outfitted with RF Central's CMT-II HD camera-mounted transmitters, and we also have a PHT-II HD portable digital transmitter installed in the station's helicopter for our aerial shots. An extra PHT-II is used in conjunction with a fixed HD camera for ground coverage.
RF Central has proved the ideal solution for TVG's Carnival broadcast. Their products are designed by people who have actually worked in broadcasting and have a full understanding of the challenges that broadcasters face daily in the field. This is why the company's equipment is exactly what we needed in terms of ease of use, flexibility, portability and cost efficiency.
Raymundo Barros is the engineering director for TV Globo in Sao Paulo and is also the technology director of the Brazilian Society of Television Engineering. He has served as chief engineer and director of engineering in several TV Globo stations. He may be contacted atraymundo.barros@tvglobo.com.
For additional information, contact RF Central at 717-249-4900 or visitwww.rfcentral.com.
