Montreal, April 1, 2014 – Miranda Technologies, a Belden Brand, a global provider of integrated solutions for production, playout and delivery systems for television broadcasters and multi-system operators,announces the completion of a full HD upgrade for the multi-venue sports complex at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va.
Components of the upgrade included a Miranda NVISION 8280 router, a Kaleido-X multiviewer, Densité signal processing modules and multiple Telecast Cobra 2DT HD camera interfaces.
Liberty University is the largest university in Virginia, the largest private, nonprofit university in the U.S., and the largest Christian university in the world. Home to more than 100,000 residential and online students, the university also boasts a 20-team NCAA Division I athletics program and relevant venues to match, until recently all covered using standard definition.
Liberty turned to Digital Video Group (DVG) in Mechanicsville, Va., to design, build and complete a full HD upgrade to its existing analog-only Sports Broadcast switching center housed in the university’s Vines Center, home of the university’s basketball team and other campus events. The university wanted a system that would provide high capacity HD services, establish fiber optic connectivity, and centralize broadcast production and control for all of the university’s multiple on-campus sports facilities.
DVG’s CEO Alex Martin said, “This was the perfect opportunity to establish Liberty’s HD production capabilities and vastly extend their on-campus reach while simultaneously decreasing operational complexity. Liberty University wanted a system that was robust, reliable, and, most of all, flexible. Miranda provided the best solution for all of those requirements.”
Using the new Miranda NVISON 8280 router with a 288 x 576 matrix populated with 167 x 210 HD-SDI interfaces, 64 x 96 analog audio AES embedders/de-embedders, plus MADI signal transport and audio concentrators, the Sports Broadcast Center also utilizes a fully-equipped Miranda Kaleido-X multiviewer for total system visibility. A Miranda NVISION 9000 router control system provides control and matrix management via software and hardware control panels. For signal processing, DVG specified an extensive array of Miranda conversion, control and distribution modules, housed in a Miranda Densité 3 frame.
A very important aspect of the project was to establish fiber optic connectivity between each venue and the Sports Broadcast Center in the Vines Center. DVG used Miranda’s Telecast brand Cobra 2DT fiber optic camera interface to link a range of high-end, dual-format Sony HD cameras across the campus to the Vines Center. The Cobra 2DT converts triaxial camera signals to fiber optics and provides all two-way camera/control signals.
According to Larry Haley, director of Technical Operations for the Liberty University’s School of Communication & Creative Arts and the Liberty Flames Sports Network (LFSN), “The Cobra units have given us the ability to leverage our HD production investment to multiple sports venues more than a mile apart on campus, including the Williams Football Stadium and our brand new baseball stadium in addition to the basketball arena. One set of production equipment for multiple venues is an accountant’s dream. This helped the budget justification by eliminating the need to rent outside production trucks since all home games are carried on our own LFSN as well as several on ESPN3, MASN and CSS.”
DVG’s Martin added, “The ability of the router, multiviewer, camera interfaces and all Miranda components to communicate so effortlessly, with no concerns about loss of signal or fidelity, made the project so much easier. The ability to feed camera shading, audio, replay and production control areas from the Kaleido-X multiviewer alone delivered a substantial new level of flexibility that was previously unattainable.
“The broadcast system now in place at Liberty is of a much higher standard than at any university in Virginia, and Miranda is at the heart of it.”
