UK’s 021 rolls out new HD truck

By Kevin Hilton

SVG Europe correspondent

UK outside broadcast company 021 Television has unveiled the first of two high definition trucks scheduled to go on the road this year. Unit 8 houses a three-tier production gallery, with a big 84 source TFT monitor area, and is expected to work on major coverage of football, boxing and other sports.

The double expanding 13.6 metre trailer houses 24 Sony HDC 1500 cameras, 16 VT machines, including four EVS hard disk units, a 512×512 HD router and a 256×256 AES router, both by Pro-Bel, a Sony MVS 8000 4ME 80-input, 48-output vision mixer and a Calrec Audio Alpha digital mixing console.

The audio desk features the recently introduced Blue Fin processing technology for greater flexibility with 5.1 mixing. Also included are four Dolby E encoders, ten Dolby E decoders and a 104×104 Riedel talkback matrix. The truck’s infrastructure is fully HD but can accommodate all current broadcast formats, including SDI.

Unit 8 begins its first major project on 20th January with the second series of ITV’s celebrity challenge contest Dancing on Ice, which features former Olympic ice dance champions Torvill and Dean. More mainstream sporting events are expected to follow as the year progresses.

Commenting on the new truck Rob Hollier, managing director of 021, said, “Unit 8 is the flagship production truck of our fleet and we believe it is one of the best in Europe. The attention to detail, the design of the truck and the selection of the latest technology will deliver a facility to rival anything in the industry.”

Last year 021 invested in new equipment, refurbished its Unit 1 vehicle and added two new tenders for Units 7 and 8. The second HD truck is due to go into operation by the summer.