Grass Valley Takes Studio Berlin’s Live Production Capabilities to New Level

Grass Valley has supplied Studio Berlin, a German full-service provider for live television production solutions, with a suite of equipment for its outside broadcast (OB) trucks and TV production studio facilities, including 41 LDX 80/82/86/86^N Series Cameras and LDX C80 Compact Series Cameras plus six K-Frame Video Production Center switchers capable of producing in 4K UHD. The camera purchase is part of a three-year contract with Grass Valley. Studio Berlin is planning to substitute a significant total of 70 LDK Cameras with the new LDX models within that period.

The recent camera acquisition includes 12 LDX 86N WorldCam native 3G/HD single-speed upgradeable cameras with XF Fiber Transmission and 4K UHD GV-eLicenses; 11 LDX 86 WorldCam 3G/HD single-speed upgradeable cameras, also with XF Fiber transmission and HiSpeed/XtremeSpeed GV-eLicenses; two LDX 82 Première HDR-capable advanced imaging cameras with wireless transmission by Vislink; 14 LDX 80 Première cameras with 3G Triax Transmission; and two LDX C80 Compact Première cameras.

Studio Berlin subsequently enhanced its video switchers by replacing XtenDD and Kayak-HD systems with six new production switchers comprising a 5 M/E 3G and 4K UHD Karrera K-Frame production switcher; a 4 M/E HD Kayenne K-Frame; two 4 M/E HD Karrera K-Frame S-series switchers and two 2 M/E HD Karrera K-Frame S-series switchers.

“When Studio Berlin searched for a solution to leverage its live productions, we knew we had the proven end-to-end solution they were looking for,” says Jan-Pieter van Welsem, VP of sales and marketing, EMEA, Grass Valley. “The German market is very important to us and with a longstanding and trusted partnership with Studio Berlin for more than two decades, we look forward to providing our future services to continue their success.”

In addition, German system integrator Broadcast Solutions GmbH is currently building a new 19-camera 4K UHD OB truck that is based on Broadcast Solutions’ successful S16 Streamline series, and has therefore ordered the large Grass Valley 4K UHD K-Frame switcher, whose resources are shared between a 3-stripe Karrera main panel and a 2-stripe GV Korona subpanel. The OB truck will be on display at the upcoming IBC 2017 at Broadcast Solutions’ outside booth O.E02.

“We chose the Grass Valley live production solution to enhance the quality in our productions. The new cameras provide state of the art picture quality and production flexibility,” says Matthias Alexandru, Technical Director, Studio Berlin. “We can now provide a native 1080p or 4K HDR acquisition in both SMPTE 2084 (PQ) and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) formats. And thanks to Grass Valley’s GV-eLicensing model, we are now able to provide up to 23 XtremeSpeed (6X super slow motion) cameras if needed. In addition, we wanted a large-scale production switcher with the highest 4K I/O count available, and which provides the greatest flexibility with less limitations, when working in 4K UHD. We appreciate Grass Valley’s customer-oriented approach and look forward to expanding our mutual cooperation with its talented technical team as well as our system integrator Broadcast Solutions.”

Only the combination of the LDX 86N cameras with their native 4K UHD CMOS imagers and the LDX 86 cameras with their native HD CMOS imagers, deriving 4K UHD images from an internal processing, allows selecting the camera type with the best results for all the different applications in live broadcast acquisition. The images they deliver are sharp with vivid colors as well as low noise, presenting high sensitivity and dynamic range performance of all 4K UHD cameras currently available. The unique cradle concept for the camera base stations and the GV-eLicensing system for 4K UHD and high-speed formats, in combination with a large-scale switcher, offer up to 48/24 4K UHD I/Os providing Studio Berlin with a level of production flexibility. Studio Berlin will be using the new equipment for the productions of talk shows, events, sports and entertainment such as, “The Voice of Germany” and “Voice Kids.”