News
17–07–07 – Second Wave of Hires hits Mi Broadcast
June and early July is typically the festival season with the odd horse trial and even a Major Tennis tournament thrown in, plus the annual preparation for the Open Golf Championships. This year however there were several high profile events with multiple OB companies requiring the services of Mi Broadcast during this period. The Princess Diana and Live Earth concerts called for a large demand of fibre optic Kit & Cable, and with Mi Broadcast having one of the largest cable and Telecast hire stocks in Europe, the challenge was accepted and completed without jeopardising the rest of our hire requirements.
June Week 1June Week 2June Week 3June Week 4July Week 1July Week 2July Week 3 |
16–07–07 – May Madness @ MiB!
With May the traditional busiest month of the year for the Mi Broadcast Hire department, May 2007 didn't let us down. The majority of MiB's 30+ km of fibre cable and multiple video and audio Telecast systems were hired out to some of the most prestigious events of the year. From a single HD link at the FA Cup final to 20 HD Links at the Champions League Final, MiB appeared to have a hand in most major televised sporting and non-sporting events at some point in May. The following diary is a basic outline of all the jobs covered.
Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4 |
01–04–07 – MiB Turns Teacher of MX in Barcelona
Mi Broadcast was given the task of teaching the maintenance team of TV Catalunya how to terminate the new Telecast MX expanded beam fibre optic connector. Apart from the obvious language barriers MiB’s Michael Griggs had to teach the TV3 team from scratch as they had no previous fibre optic knowledge, and in the space of a week give them the confidence to repair and re-terminate all of their 2 core fibre optic stock.
The first few days of the week in Barcelona were used to get the principles of fibre optic termination across, the most obvious choice was using ST connectors on 900mn cable to keep the cost down and to keep it simple.
A few days of ferocious gluing, polishing and inspecting went by and they were ready to start on the chassis mounts. By the end of day 3 the more confident were starting to get their polishing success rate up and by day 4 they were ready to start on the pile of cable reels that had been put aside and labelled as ‘to be done by the time Michael goes home!’
By the end of the week it was obvious who the main terminators were going to be and the cable reels had been finished, tested and now labelled as ‘ready to go!’
In what was assumed to be a difficult task by the end of the week TV Catalunya were left confident and eager to crack on with the rest of their stock using their new skill.
TV Catalunya have 4 trucks each using 2 Telecast CopperHead systems on TAC2 Military spec fibre optic cable. On each truck they carry approximately 4 cable drums with either 50 or 100m’s of cable plus 2 Telecast MX chassis mounts at the back of the truck going to the CopperHead base stations.
For more information on the CopperHead go to the Telecast Products/Outside Broadcast section of this site. For more information on the MX contact Michael on the details above.
16–03–07 – XL Video purchase HD Viper System
Mi Broadcast Ltd, UK distributor for Telecast Fiber Systems, has recently supplied a Telecast Viper HD fibre optic transmission system to XL Video Ltd. The system can transport 4x HDSDI video, 4 audio, 2 intercom and 4 data circuits over a single 6mm tactical fibre optic cable, TAC4. Designed for field use the system has two portable “Mussel Shell” housings and is fitted with the new Telecast MX expanded beam fibre optic connectors.
Coax cables can only send HD video a few tens of metres beyond which fibre optics must be used. Telecast’s Viper System converts video, audio and data signals into light enabling them to be sent many kilometres without loss or interference. The new MX connector is easier to clean and with less physical contact offers greater reliability.
XL Video are international market leaders in the field of video production for trade shows, outdoor events, indoor events, concert touring and television shows. They are a leading rental supplier of video display systems with indoor and outdoor LED screens as well as having one of the largest fleets of high-brightness projectors. Malcolm Whittall, XL Videos Broadcast Director, said “XL is investing heavily in HD projection and video/data systems with the latest addition of an HD flyaway broadcast camera system. Projectors or host broadcasters can often be more than 100m from the screens control area which is asking a lot for cable to pass HD without problems. Telecast offered a very flexible and reliable solution to XL’s requirements. I have used Telecast products in the broadcast environment for many years and have been very satisfied with the results. The Viper was the obvious choice to use for handling multiple signals between broadcasters and XL with communications and audio feeds managed at the same time.”
Details of the Telecast & Riedel range of equipment for purchase or hire can be viewed on the product pages.