Last month, KRNV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Reno, NV, broadcast the 2007 Great Reno Balloon Race in HD using four RF Central RFX-CMT-II camera-mounted transmitters and four RFX-RMR-II rack-mount receivers. Each set of four was deployed along with KRNV-TV’s HD field cameras to wirelessly transmit video and audio back to its central receive point, which was based within its satellite production van.
In the more than 17 years that KRNV-TV has televised the balloon race, 2007 marked the first year in which the station acquired HD images directly from the field for live broadcast. This year’s event drew an estimated 180,000 spectators throughout the three days in September, making it the largest in the history of the event.
David Feher, director of engineering for Sunbelt Communications, parent company of KRNV-TV, said the missing link in their HD broadcasts up to now had been how to get live field acquisition to the station for broadcast. Through RF Central’s new CMT-IIs and RMR-IIs, they were able to transmit a reliable live HD signal from the remote Canon HDV cameras.
For more information, visit www.rfcentral.com.
