Megahertz Ltd, a systems integration partner with years of experience in delivering
cost effective, creative designs and solutions for fixed and mobile applications,
recently announced that it is celebrating a successful 12 months in truck build with
over 45 links vehicles on order from broadcasters in the UK and Ireland.
Megahertz has been overseeing the design and production of all 45 vehicles, some
of which are kitted out for UHD, at its facility in Ely since January 2015.
Included in these orders are 37 vehicles for the BBC made up of a mixture of
regional TV newsgathering VSAT trucks, as well as SNG trucks that will handle
network news coverage from across the 15 regional channels in the UK. The VSAT
vehicles are designed to provide simple, reliable, safe and cost effective
newsgathering facilities. A shoot edit operator will be able to gather live video, edit
the video in the vehicle and be able to work remotely from the vehicle for a live TV
contribution. Connectivity is via VSAT, bonded cellular or WiBE.
These vehicles are intended primarily for news and live outside broadcast events.
Some of the regional news vehicles require simultaneous HD contribution to
multiple destinations, while other feeds from the SNG trucks will go directly into
London and are distributed across the six platforms including the SD and HD
channels, mobile and online.
Megahertz has also received an order for five new fibre vehicles plus one hybrid
fibre UHD uplink vehicle from BT TV Outside Broadcast (TVOB), the service provider
arm of BT Media and Broadcast (M&B). This will refresh over 20% of BT M&Bs fleet
of trucks. Additionally Megahertz has upgraded two existing BT TVOB vehicles to
UHD.
These trucks, which are already in use daily by BT’s wide customer base of
international broadcasters, are part of a fleet, which is designed and operated as
fibre only. Hybrid fibre and satellite vans support the main production OB and send
pictures back via fibre to the BT Tower. They are used to cover numerous HD and UHD sports productions including the Premier League football, rugby and cricket.
