In Broadcast - October 2014 - 54

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

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 36 - OCTOBER 2014

N E W S

InGEAR

Videogum: Broadcasting A Papal Visit
With Blackmagic Design Technology
V

54

ideogum is an established
name in Sardinia's broadcast
community. For more than 25
years, the company has been
providing outside broadcast and
transmission services to Italy's
national broadcasters, including the
Mediaset Group and RAI, as well as
local Sardinian broadcasters, such
as Videolina.
The Videogum team also services
the corporate market, providing high
quality video production services for
conventions and events taking place
on the island.
Sardinia's most advanced OB van
is equipped with a live production
workﬂow designed around the ATEM
2 M/E Production Switcher and
Blackmagic's Compact Videohub
router with Videohub Master Control,
allowing engineers to route incoming
signals according to a pre-deﬁned
workﬂow. For quality control over the
incoming audio and video signals,
the van relies on the Blackmagic
Audio Monitor and a series of
SmartView HD and SmartScope
Duo monitors.

Baptism Of Fire
"Speed is crucial for outside
broadcast but we cannot afford to
sacriﬁce quality. We were already
very familiar with Blackmagic's
video acquisition cards when we
started designing our new OB
workﬂow. We carried out testing
and were sold on the fact that
Blackmagic's broadcast hardware
could give us with the quality and
reliability we needed for a robust,
broadcast quality live production,"
said Roberto De Martis, General
Manager of Videogum.

Videogum's advanced OB van is equipped with Blackmagic equipment

(CTV), who managed and oversaw
all of the acquisition related activity,
Videogum covered the Pope's arrival
and departure at Cagliari Elmas
Military Airport, and his visit to the
Faculty of Theology in the city.
Signals from three HD camera
channels were routed through the
40 x 40 SDI video router and mixed
live on the ATEM 2 M/E Production
Switcher, ready for transmission (TX)
in 1080i via satellite uplink. A clean
programme feed was recorded using
Blackmagic's HyperDeck Studio Pro
broadcast deck. Since the Papal

Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio Pro broadcast deck

The OB van received a baptism
of fire almost as soon as the
build was done. Videogum was
commissioned to work on a major
event that would have an impact
on Sardinia's entire broadcasting
ecosystem; a visit to the island by
Pope Francis. Working on behalf of
Videolina alongside a production
team from Vatican Television Centre

Blackmagic Audio Monitor

visit, the OB van has been deployed
successfully on a variety of different
events, including newsgathering
(ENG) and to support corporate
events, providing live production
and transmission services.
One of the key strengths of
Blackmagic's products according
to the Videogum team is their high
degree of ﬂexibility. The ATEM 2

M/E Production Switcher is able
to handle SD, HD, and 3G-SDI
sources, automatically recognising
the incoming video signal using the
frame synchroniser on each input,
right down to the aspect ratio
(4:3 or 16:9).

Exacting Standards

of a button," he added.
When a more accurate analysis of
a video source is needed, Videogum
uses the scopes on Blackmagic's
SmartScope Duo for broadcast
accurate waveform monitoring.
Engineers can view two independent
sources simultaneously and switch
between monitoring or scope views,
including RGB and YUV parade,
histogram and vectorscope display.
"The Blackmagic ATEM 2 M/E
Production Switcher gives us a
lot of scope to expand and grow,
and this opens up a number of
exciting opportunities for us in
the future. That includes offering
new production

The ability to quality control
any outside broadcast or live
production on location is critical to
ensuring that viewers at home are
getting broadcast quality pictures,
delivered by effective signal
output. Members of the production
team use a series of Blackmagic
Audio Monitors, SmartView HD
and SmartScope Duo preview
monitors to QC all of the video
and audio feeds.
"Using the
Blackmagic
A u d i o
M o n i t o r,
production
teams can
i s o l a t e
and check
all of the
embedded
a u d i o Blackmagic SmartScope Duo monitoring
channels,
regardless of whether it's an SDI,
options, including split signal and
AES/EBU or analogue source.
live graphics, which still aren't
For instance, we can listen to
mainstream in our market, using
the programme mix on channels
the hardware that we already have
1 and 2, or isolate the effects on
in place," concludes De Martis.
channels 3 and 4, all at the touch

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