Grass Valley, NEP Broadcasting Behind ABC’s Academy Awards Telecast

The ABC Television Network produced this year’s star-studded 84th Academy Awards telecast live on Sunday, February 26, with high-definition live event production solutions from Grass Valley — reprising its role as a key technology provider to live telecasts. Grass Valley has supported the Oscar ceremonies for the past several years.

NEP Broadcasting, based in Pittsburgh, PA, supplied a total of four HD-capable mobile production trucks on site, at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles. Each was dedicated to a specific portion of the telecast, and each carries on board different configurations of Grass Valley HD cameras, servers, routing equipment, and Grass Valley production switchers.  All of the equipment is capable of handling multiple HD formats, should the need arise, including ABC Network’s 720p HD format.

NEP’s “Denali Summit” handled the main Oscar telecast, using a Grass Valley Kalypso HD Video Production Center switcher, several K2 Summit media servers playing clips and graphics elements, and a large Trinix NXT router.

The NEP “SS25” truck helped capture the festivities of the Oscars Red Carpet Live show, which aired just prior to the awards telecast. The truck carries a Kalypso switcher and more than a dozen LDK 8000 Elite HD cameras.

The NEP “ND4” production rig covered the Red Carpet ceremonies with a Kalypso 4 M/E switcher that provided a live HD feed for other media outlets, both for television and for streaming online.

The company’s newest HD-capable mobile vehicle, “Arizona,” was also on hand to provide a live HD feed of the main show and related festivities for a wide variety of international broadcasters. Arizona is also equipped with a Kalypso HD switcher, Trinix HD router, and Apex audio router.

The renowned Academy Awards ceremony, the largest live entertainment event in the US, is hosted each year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.