(2007)

|
Some people refer to these vehicles as »The world’s biggest
Outside Broadcast Unit«. One could also call them an OB-truck village. These
new TV trucks, commissioned by the Commercial TV-production company Euroscena,
based in Milan and Rome, can create a mobile production centre with unprecedented
capabilities, especially when used in combination. Euroscena contracted Thomson/Grass
Valley to construct a set of two large OB trucks plus another vehicle as tender and
power-supply. The ensemble named »‘Mobile Production Centre 34 High Defi
nition« or MPC 34 HD for short, hit the road early in 2007.
Space in OB trucks is usually at a premium. Not so with this fleet.
When parked up, the main vehicle, 34A, can be enormously enlarged along its overall
length using extensions on both sides. It then comprises two production control rooms,
an AURUS audio control room, VTR and slomo workspaces, a camera control room and
even a comfortable 25 m2 VIP zone. The second vehicle, 34B, offers an extra facility.
This is a Chromakey equipped 30 m2 TV-production studio with a retractable side wall.
It also offers a secondary production control room, a small AURUS audio-control room,
and even toilets, which may well be another first in mobile production!
When parked alongside each other a roofed passageway can connect the two trucks.
Thanks to its diesel generators the tender can feed this mobile production island
with suffi cient power to operate completely independent of the mains.
The choice of AURUS and NEXUS benefi ts the sound in many ways. Regardless of its
power and the 1,272 sources and 1,024 destinations, this ultra-compact system requires
just seven Base Devices occupying only 39 rack units in height. Another key factor
was the AURUS’ direct access user interface and handy multichannel mixing capabilities.
Euroscena uses this set-up for producing material in formats up to 7.1, which then
can be Dolby E encoded and routed via NEXUS.
Euroscena has owned a big digital OB vehicle for TV productions with onboard STAGETEC
technology since May 2004. This has been used at countless major events during recent
years. The NEXUS optical network as well as the totally reliable CANTUS main and
slave consoles blazed a trail for AURUS and NEXUS in this unparalleled new OB set-up.
|