Aerial Video Systems (AVS), a Burbank, Calif.-based firm specializing in aerial camera platforms, continued its tradition of providing wireless camera coverage of the annual Los Angeles Marathon. This year marks the 25th running of the event and the first time that it has been televised in native HD.
AVS used the latest RF technology from Link Research and MRC to help make this coverage possible. The Link and MRC gear was used for transmitting video and audio from specially equipped Honda pickup trucks to repeater-equipped helicopters overhead. Signals were retransmitted from these aerial platforms on to a receive site in the Hollywood Hills for transmission on to Los Angeles television station KTLA.
AVS also employed a 3D GPS-driven map plot of the race course, showing the exact locations of the lead runners.
KTLA transmitted the event live and it was later rebroadcast on Universal Sports to an audience of some 45 million homes across the United States.
