SoonerVision, the in-house production arm of the University of Oklahoma (OU) athletics department, was looking to facilitate the smooth and seamless transport of HD signals between its sports venue and new master control facilities when it purchased a suite of fiber-optic transmission equipment from Telecast Fiber Systems (www.telecast-fiber.com).
Using just a few fibers of the campuswide dark fiber network, Telecast Fiber Systems' equipment provides error-free transmission of HD cameras and video, audio, control and communication signals between each location.
With the recent completion of its new centrally located master control facility, SoonerVision is now a fully digital, 100 percent HD operation. This single control room is used to produce live game-day entertainment at six of OU's athletic venues spread across its 3500-acre campus. At each venue, Telecast Fiber Systems' SMPTE Hybrid Elimination Devices (SHED) enable SoonerVision's Sony HDC-1400 cameras to be linked to their CCUs in the control room across campus while being powered locally. Three Sony PDW-F800 XDCAMs, used primarily for ENG applications, can be added to a multicamera production via Telecast Fiber Systems' CopperHead 3200 camera-mounted transceivers, giving full studio capability to the camcorders.
In addition, three Sony HD-CP1 robotic cameras are equipped with Telecast Fiber Systems' T-POV fiber-optic video/data transceiver links housed in rugged Mini-Mussel Shell field enclosures, enabling SoonerVision personnel to operate and power the cameras remotely to get unique points of view and camera angles. An important new feature of the T-POV units is Ethernet support, which provides full camera control via Ethernet connections.
Maximizing the capacity of OU's campus fiber infrastructure, the Telecast Fiber Systems TelePort CWDM multichannel management system multiplexes eight camera chains onto just two fiber strands. SoonerVision has also deployed two Telecast Fiber Systems Python multichannel fiber-optic HD/SDI transport systems. One handles 16 camera feeds for broadcast support and the other transports four feeds to and from the big screens in each venue, each on two strands of fiber.
SoonerVision produces more than 100 television programs each year as the department's in-house production studio. SoonerVision produces coaches' TV shows for OU football, men's basketball and women's basketball. SoonerVision staff also produces and operates the video displays that appear in several stadiums and arenas on campus.
