LONDON--The SMPTE ST 2110 suite of IP standards for professional media production made its mark last month on Wimbledon when NEP UK put to use an IP infrastructure centered on Grass Valley technology for the first UHD HDR live production of the tennis championship.
NEP UK deployed two SMPTE ST 2110 trucks, Venus and Ceres, for production of the 2018 Wimbledon Tennis Championship for host broadcaster Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS).
The setup included multicamera production of all 18 courts, a first for Wimbledon coverage. The camera complement included a net-cam on both Center Court and No. 1 Court as well as other production enhancements.
NEP UK’s Venus and Ceres OB trucks were responsible for HD, HDR and UHD content, delivering world feeds to 20 onsite broadcasters as well as 21 of its own production galleries. A portable IP flyaway system was used to connect the two trucks, forming one of the world’s largest SMPTE ST 2110 OB installations to date. Together they were able to handle more than 118 camera signals. The Grass Valley IP infrastructure handled movement of streams with far less cabling than the miles that would have been needed for a similar baseband setup, Grass Valley said.
The IP infrastructure was built around Grass Valley IQ UCP 25GbE gateway cards. The modular, reprogrammable cards provide bi-directional interfacing between IP and baseband equipment. Each truck is equipped with 70 of the cards, and flyaways have 200. This flexibility makes it easy for NEP to adapt to the specific requirements of any particular event or venue, Grass Valley said.
The trucks, which also were deployed to cover the royal wedding in May, include Grass Valley’s IPEDGE-SVR turnkey IP routing control system with Orbit control and monitoring software, Grass Valley Kayenne and Kahuna video switchers and IP multiviewers. These seamlessly integrate with Arista COTS network switches, AXON Digital Design master control systems, Calrec audio mixing capability and comms facilities from Telex Communications.
“As the Wimbledon 2018 project illustrates, we came together with Grass Valley to create a highly customizable live production capability that delivered high-quality action with unmatched images,” said Rob Newton, CTO of NEP UK and Ireland.
More information is available on the Grass Valley website.
