Continental satellite pay-TV broadcaster SuperSport Africa recently took delivery of two
new outside broadcast (OB) vans – OB 4 which is full high definition (HD) and OB 5, a
standard definition (SD) van scheduled for a partial HD upgrade in the future.
Says head of SuperSport Africa Andre Venter: “Both new vans were delivered in Kenya
but OB 5 has since been relocated to Zimbabwe to cover the Pakistan versus Zimbabwe
cricket tour. Once the tour is complete OB 5 will go to Kenya and OB 4 relocates to
Zimbabwe. The soccer leagues that the new vans will cover are ZPSL in Zimbabwe and
KPL in Kenya. They will also cover Zimbabwe Cricket, Kenya Cricket and Kenya
Basketball.’
In a first, system integrator C2S Systems, which has done the integration on six of
SuperSport’s vans, also did the coach work on the two new trucks.
Venter continues: “Smiths in the UK did the coach work on our previous two vans. We
switched to C2S because we preferred to have a one-stop-shop and we were extremely
happy with all the work C2S had ever done for us.
“Furthermore, we were also not satisfied with Smiths’ after sales service and in fact had
to ask C2S to go to Nigeria to fix OB 1 and 3 when we experienced problems with those
trucks. C2S also did the coach work for our new mobile production unit (MPU) in
Kenya.’
Venter notes that the two new vans were a complex project for C2S in that OB 5 was
fitted with equipment from SuperSport’s old OB 4 and 5 and OB 4 was upgraded to HD.
The timeframe was 12 weeks from order to commissioning.
“It is now possible to fault check the facility remotely, however this will only be in
extreme cases when our engineers cannot resolve the issue, which we believe will be few
and far between as we have our own highly skilled engineers,’ he says.
Jonathan Lyth, systems manager at C2S Systems comments: “We were keen to show
off our mechanical engineering and coachwork ability on this project, as it was the first
bodywork project we’ve done for SuperSport and we obviously wanted to impress. The
seamless mechanics and smooth operation of the mechanical rigging, with the power of
the hydraulics, gives the truck an extra wow-factor – these elements allowed us to
prove the team’s ingenuity and attention to detail.
“Using equipment from other systems posed its own challenges in the system design.
We knew the truck needed to be ready for an upgrade in only a few months’ time, so we
built a system that would allow that to happen with minimal disruption, and also fitted
the truck with an HD-ready system so that all additional equipment could simply slot
into place. Making things seem easy can be surprisingly complex.’
Outside of South Africa, SuperSport Africa now has seven OB vans and one mobile
production unit (MPU). Other than OB 4 and OB 5 they are as follows: OB1 HD –
Nigeria; OB2 SD – Nigeria (soon to be relocated to Ghana); OB3 HD – Nigeria; OB6 SD –
Zambia; OB7 HD – Kenya; and MPU1 HD – Kenya.
