Italy’s SBP revamps OB4 for HD

By Kevin Hilton
SVG Europe correspondent

Italian facilities company SBP is continuing its program of
expanding its outside broadcast fleet by adding another HD vehicle. An
existing 16-camera truck, OB4, is being upgraded to full HD and
increases the number of vehicles SBP is able to offer for broadcast
coverage of sports events.

OB4 has been on the road for some time working on coverage of sport
and other live location programs. It is being stripped back to its
chassis to allow new wiring to be installed, followed by new equipment
and furniture.

The work is being carried out by British integration company
Broadcast Networks, which has already managed the building of a new
24-camera HD vehicle, OB20, built by Sony PSE, and refurbished OB6, a
20-camera truck that was given a full HD spec.

Equipment for the re-build of OB4 includes 20 Grass Valley 6000 HD
cameras, a Snell and Willcox Kahuna HD vision mixer, two Sony HDCAM
VTs, three HD LSM EVSs, a Grass Valley HD router and a Studer Vista 5
audio console.

SBP is a privately owned production and post-production company that
has been working in the Italian broadcast market since 1976. It
expanded on an international level 10 years ago, working on major
productions including the Moto GP, Champions League football, the
Olympic Games and F1 Powerboat.

The president and CEO of SBP, Antonio Balsamo, commented, “SBP is
currently expanding its HD OB van fleet and has three brand new vans.
We are now in a position to offer services to both national and
international clients.”

Broadcast Networks is in charge of the entire OB4 project, which is due for completion by June.