Broadcast RF managed the complex wireless camera coverage of the Singapore Marathon for Asian OB company Broadcast Solutions using Vislink's wireless camera systems, enhanced with deep interleaving and long-period diversity, to provide continuous, live coverage of the event despite obstacles along the route.
The marathon, run Dec. 6, passed through two different environments: the city and coastal sections of the circuit. In 2008, wireless cameras were used only in the city stretch of the race along with a single receive point on top of a 44-story building. The more difficult coastal area could only be covered by a separate OB facility and fixed cabled cameras along the route.
For 2009, the challenge was to achieve continuous coverage of the more difficult coastal area, which has trees, low-rise buildings and few reflective surfaces, using cameras carried on motorcycles.
Every 16ft to 32ft along the route, the cameras would be out of line-of-sight as the bikes passed trees and traveled behind chalets and buildings causing glitches and RF breakup in traditional COFDM systems.
Vislink's deep interleaving software had been used successfully for the tree-lined sections of the London Marathon earlier this year, so Broadcast RF introduced the same technology for the 2009 Singapore Marathon.
To cover the coastal section, a second receive site was required. This caused a problem because it was impossible to run cables to link the two sites together. However, with Vislink's long-period diversity technology, it was possible to link the sites via a simple COFDM link.
