BroaMan’s Danish distributor Danmon has been providing broadcast solutions to the
country’s public service broadcaster TV2 for nearly two decades. Last year, when
the company decided to upgrade its SNG OB truck (DNK-47) from SD to HD, the
Odense based facility moved its commentator intercom onto a Clear-Com platform
and added a BroaMan Mux22 transmission device for signal routing.
This has enabled them to transport multiple data and video signals down a single
fibre in the SNG truck, including 6/2 HD-SDI, RS422 and sync network, using Dante
as their audio platform.
TV2 workflow specialist and project manager Kim Hansen explained, “For years, the
trucks have been a key component in our technical setup for major sporting events
such as Tour de France, Handball World Cup etc. where it acted not simply as an
SNG, but a small OB truck.’
This latest upgrade involved stripping the truck of cables and equipment, leaving
only the HF installation intact. “We then had to identify and purchase all components
— very little could be re-used as it was SD equipment,’ Hansen added.
The truck had originally been equipped with a fibre stage box but this could only
handle SD. “So in the upgrade we had to find a new solution,’ admits Hansen. “We
were recommended BroaMan by some of our colleagues, and then saw the units for
the first time at IBC 2014.
“We investigated further, and based on the positive demo, we quickly saw that this
would not only fulfil our need, but also provide great flexibility and functionality.
The decision to adopt this platform was quickly endorsed by the technical engineers
during the project.’
The four Mux22 boxes are configured as two independent chains, where each has
one box in the SNG truck, and the other at the location end. “This provides an
advanced stagebox solution. The end-to-end connection is made using camera fibre
cables with SMPTE connectors. This means that we can use the same type of cable
for BroaMan as for our cameras, making rigging easy and avoiding the necessity of
carrying dedicated spares. “
The new set-up was designed around 1Gb Ethernet, to allow Dante signals to be
carried on the Broaman network — the first time that TV2 has adopted Dante.
The advantages of the new studio design are evident. “In previous times, we would
have pulled a large number of single or multi par cables from the SNG truck to the
venue positions. This has been greatly simplified, and much of the required cabling
is now done via the single fibre to the BroaMan device. In addition, moving the
signals to fibre means that we can run them signals over greater distance — giving
us even greater flexibility.’
