In Broadcast - July 2013 - 42

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 21 - JULY 2013

N E W S

InSOUND

Eastlink Chooses Digico SD10B For
The Latest High Definition Mobile
W

hen Canadian television
c o m p a ny E a s t l i n k T V
contacted DiGiCo distributor Gerr
Audio to talk about an intercom
system for the company’s new HD
mobile unit, they ended up with
more than they bargained for. This
new, state-of-the-art facility not only
features the originally requested
intercom, but a DiGiCo SD10B
broadcast speciﬁc digital mixing
console, which has already more
than proved its worth.
“Historically, we’ve supplied
Eastlink with Clearcom intercoms,”
explains Gerr Audio’s Andrew
Hope. “So when they were kitting
out the new HD mobile, which is a
big step up for them as a regional
television provider, they came to talk
to us about it.
“Of course, I looked around and
said ‘so what else are you going
to put in this truck?’. We ended up
supplying a large part of the audio
system, with CEV in Montreal

42

Canadian television company
Eastlink TV’s new HD mobile unit

handling the integration. The
centrepiece is the SD10B.”
Eastlink had also done a
considerable amount of research into
console options in preparation for
the build, having explored different
products over three years of visits
to the NAB show in the US.
“We decided to go with the DiGiCo
console because of its reputation
and price point,” says Kaushal Hathi,
Operations Manager at Eastlink. “It
provides a big bang for the buck,
which meant we didn’t have to
sacriﬁce quality for price.
“I had always thought of DiGiCo
as producing live event consoles
until I was introduced to the SD10B.
Since this console is to be used for
different types of events, from sports
to music, we were impressed with
the versatility it offers.”
Other considerations for Eastlink
were ease of use, to accommodate
the many different people who will
operate it, and its off-line software,
which allows the preparation of
sessions prior to arriving at any event.
“Finally, the console size had
to be small enough for a mobile
environment, but large enough to
be able to operate properly,” Kaushal
adds. “The SD10B provided both.
The MADI interface is ideal for a
mobile environment, which not only

The DiGiCo SD10B broadcast speciﬁc digital mixing console

cuts down on cabling but provides
more ﬂexibility for audio routing.”
Eastlink’s operators have found
the console both user-friendly
and intuitive. “They are also very
impressed with its ﬂexibly,” continues
Kaushal. “The sound quality is superb
and the operators are very impressed
with the monitoring capabilities,
such as the user deﬁnable monitor
matrix with calibrated monitor levels.
They ﬁnd the compressors and the
pre-amps very powerful, with the
pre-amps hard to distort, and the
analogue conversion powerful and
clean. Ergonomically, they ﬁnd all
the controls are within easy reach.”

One of Eastlink’s ﬁrst outings with
the SD10B was at the East Coast
Music Awards Gala event at the
beginning of March, which included
12 live musical acts. The broadcast
mix was handled entirely by the
console, and Kaushal reports that
the entire mobile unit performed just
as it was designed to do.
“Andrew at Gerr Audio has handled
all our needs and we have always
found him extremely knowledgeable
and accessible,” Kaushal concludes.
“I‘m glad we went with the DiGiCo
console, so much so that I
wouldn’t look at other products on
future projects.”

Mediatec Equips Outside Broadcast Fleet With Riedel MediorNet
S

wedish broadcast production
provider Mediatec has based
its full mobile production ﬂeet on
a Riedel MediorNet infrastructure.
A total of 20 MediorNet Compact
PRO and eight MediorNet Modular
systems are installed across ten
Mediatec OB vans.
“We believe that the future of
mobile production lies within
ﬂexible setup scenarios that can be
adapted to speciﬁc applications as
needed,” said Paul Henriksen, CEO
at Mediatec. “Based on Riedel’s
MediorNet, this new approach not
only offers us more ﬂexibility, but
also helps us to cut unnecessary
costs in installation, production, and
maintenance.”
The cost of operating OB vans is
a crucial factor in the proﬁtability of
mobile production. Although large
broadcast vehicles sometimes are
necessary, they more often represent
major overhead in costs, especially
when only a fraction of the system
is used for a speciﬁc application or
event. Instead of operating a ﬂeet of
several large vans, Mediatec uses

a wide range of medium-sized OB
vans that can be linked together and
scaled up to form larger systems.
Central to this approach is Riedel
MediorNet, the ﬁbre-based real-time
signal transport solution for video,
audio, communications, and data.
When the individual MediorNet
systems installed on Mediatec OB
vans are connected, they form one
integrated infrastructure that feels
and functions as a single system,
thus significantly expanding
Mediatec’s conﬁguration options
and extending its flexibility.
Depending on their field of
application, the individual vans are
equipped with different MediorNet
setups. While three vehicles offer a
capacity of up to 12 HD-SDI video
inputs and outputs via MediorNet
MN-HD-6-IO cards, five trucks
provide eight HD-SDI-I/Os. The
two smallest OB vehicles feature
MediorNet Compact PRO systems
instead of MediorNet Modular
systems and offer four HD-SDI
inputs and outputs each. Mediatec
also uses the MediorNet backbone

Riedel MediorNet supports ﬂexible
mobile production

to distribute signals for its Riedel
Artist digital matrix intercom system.
The Mediatec ﬂeet is equipped with
Artist 128 mainframes and Artist
1000 Series control panels, which
interface seamlessly with MediorNet
in a single integrated infrastructure.
To enable video connectivity
between two remote locations,
Mediatec has equipped each
OB van with a stagebox system
consisting of one or two MediorNet
Compact PRO devices. Connected
via simple ﬁbre links, the Mediatec
stageboxes can transport up to 16

HD video signals to the OB vans.
One of the ﬁrst events in which
Mediatec extensively used this
new approach was the Eurovision
Song Contest 2013 in Malmö,
Sweden, where Mediatec was the
official technical event supplier.
With its open integration concept,
the Mediatec MediorNet system
was easily interfaced with other
Riedel systems, such as the 31
commentator booths that Riedel
equipped on behalf of host
broadcaster SVT. The commentator
booth setup consisted of 31 Artist
CCP control panels, more than
31 Connect Trio interfaces, seven
MediorNet frames, and eight Artist
digital matrix intercom mainframes.
“A live broadcast production
such as the Eurovision Song
Contest is always a great challenge,
especially in terms of setting up
and maintaining the infrastructure,”
Henriksen said. “Riedel’s MediorNet
system helped us tremendously by
keeping the effort in cabling and
setup requirements to a minimum.”
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