“We need a production solution in four months. Can you help us?”
That was the problem presented to TV Pro Gear early in 2007 by Jeff Burke, director of the highly acclaimed ESPN show “Jim Rome is Burning”.
When TV Pro Gear was approached with this dilemma in early 2007 it seems like an impossible task. However, careful consideration and planning made the project entirely doable.
Jeff introduced the show’s producers, Michael and Neil Mandt, to TV Pro Gear and discussions immediately began with possible solutions to their upcoming problem – they were losing their production facility in June. The contract on their current production facility – a 31-foot video production truck on monthly rental from KCET – was about to end. They needed a solution and they needed it fast.
Initial conversations turned to building a traditional studio/master control room adjacent to the Mandt’s sound stage in Westminster, California. While this might have been the appropriate route under normal circumstances, a sports production truck quickly became the choice for a number of reasons, among them being the ability to rent it out during the show’s hiatus to generate some revenue thereby offsetting some of the acquisition costs, and the great flexibility to make design changes as new technology became available.
Once the initial platform was chosen TV Pro Gear kicked into high gear. They assembled their team of engineers, project managers and wiring technicians. They contracted with the premier mobile video truck producer – Gerling & Associates of Sunbury, Ohio – to produce a rack-ready 31.5-foot production truck on a brand new Freightliner chassis.
“Gerling’s design team is second to none,” states Chandos Mahon Sr., TV Pro Gear’s president and the driving force behind this project. “We brought them our customer’s requirements and 60 days later we were at Gerling’s factory taking delivery of a gleaming white truck with a full length bump-out and tons of interior space and rack space.”
One of the truck’s primary design goals was to be easily upgradeable. Since the current “Jim Rome is Burning” show is produced in standard definition (SD) with the house standard being SD-SDI, economics dictated that everything in the truck stay SD. However the entire truck was designed to be upgraded to HD in as little as a single weekend.
TV Pro Gear accomplished this by incorporating several key components that were either HD-upgradeable or HD/SD capable right out of the box. Those key components were:
-
A Grass Valley Kalypso Duo 4-M/E switcher which can be upgraded to HD with a software license
-
A Miranda Kaleido KX 64x48 router which can accept HD-SDI, SD-SDI or composite video right out of the box (more on this later)
-
Miranda Densité distribution amplifiers and format converters
-
JVC DT-V20D1U flat panel monitors
-
Bittree video patch bays rated for HD-SDI
-
All digital video wiring rated for HD-SDI
One way that TV Pro Gear continues to provide exceptional value to its customers is by incorporating refurbished equipment, when appropriate. For example, all the test and measurement gear is refurbished SD-SDI Tektronix equipment, which include dual SPG-422 sync generators and multiple WFM-601A waveform monitor/vectorscopes. By incorporating equipment like this Mandt saved tens of thousands of dollars.
Other SD equipment that can easily be swapped for HD when appropriate are:
One of the most exciting components of the truck is the Miranda Kaleido KX router. Not only is it capable of expanding to 96x48, but it provides full screen splitter functionality on up to eight high-resolution displays, each with the capability of being operated independently or in groups, in the same room or different rooms.
“When we were designing this truck we wanted to give it maximum flexibility and a contemporary feel,” says Mahon. “We felt that by using a traditional wall filled with little monitors would be counter to this goal.”
With the selection of the Miranda KX, Burke and his crew now have the flexibility to arrange their monitor walls with any source they want in any size and position they want with the click of a mouse. Furthermore, they can each have countless individual layouts tailored to special needs. For example if the truck rolls to produce the production of a sporting event on one day, a concert on the next, and a talk show on the third day, each monitor in the truck can be configured with a preset layout that can be changed instantly at the touch of a button.
Another key feature of the Miranda KX was the fact that it was able to combine three major systems – routing switcher, tally system and monitor wall - into a single component thereby simplifying installation and wiring. This, among other things, contributed to TV Pro Gear being able to save the Mandt Brothers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the end through the creative selection of materials, careful selection of the technical staff, and a dedicated group of people who truly love to bring these types of projects to fruition, TV Pro Gear was able to give it’s customer a stunning production truck that provided them with better tools, better workflow, and a more pleasing working environment – all on time and under budget!