NAB 2011: Bexel To Roll Out Full Arsenal of Gear, Lead Panel Discussions

Bexel will be onsite at this year’s 2011 NAB Show (Booth C6833), highlighting its expertise and diverse solutions for live broadcast events. Bexel offers effective packages for the industry — from large sporting and entertainment events to higher-end reality television productions. In addition, the company will be participating in two panels in the Vitec Live Event Area (Booth C6428), focusing on the impact of IT technology on a large sports event workflow and producing live broadcast content for multiple platforms from the field.

“Our focus is on large-scale, live and recorded events and content production. Our strategy is built on having the best maintained equipment backed by our unparalleled sales support, engineering and technical team. In short—the best people,” says Scott Nardelli, chief business development officer, Bexel. “We have the ability to create onsite portable systems that provide efficient workflow solutions for our clients, with premium gear and advanced technology. We not only look forward to sharing our expertise in these areas with the show attendees who come by our booth, but with those who will be attending the panels we are hosting as well.”

Bexel offers specialty rentals — including 3D systems, EVS workflow systems, Q-Ball robotics, large and small fly-packs, specialty and wireless audio, fiber systems, Eagle announce booth packages, and Litepanels LED lighting systems. To help execute large-scale events, Bexel designs comprehensive solutions that pull from all its specialties and production tools in order to create a true best-of-breed solution for each customer.

Bexel was called on to provide solutions ranging from designing, installing and managing a fiber distribution system in a high-traffic production compound to around-the-clock editing facilities for Turner Sports during its production of the 2011 NBA All-Star Game. Bexel also provided Litepanels’ LED flat-panel lighting packages on the field and in the announce booths throughout the NFL season for many of the broadcast rights holders. Use of the Litepanels’ technology provided a more comfortable working environment for talent while at the same time reducing energy needs for the broadcaster.

When it comes to OB-based support, Bexel employs three mobile facilities—BBS One, ESU One, and ESU Two. Recognizing the industry’s growing focus on 3D, BBS One is a configurable 53’ facility that is designed to enable 3D production, digital editing, EVS operations or online production applications. It was used recently to produce the first 3D hockey game for the CBC. ESU One and ESU Two are configurable facilities with a smaller footprint but designed with the same flexibility in mind. These units can support fiber ESU, editing, online production or EVS and replay applications.

Rounding out Bexel’s service offerings is its specialty product sales and used equipment sales. Bexel is a dealer and distributor of top products in the world of fiber optics, professional audio, and RF Over Fiber. Specialty brands represented include Calrec audio consoles and Camera Corps robotic camera systems. Calrec consoles are widely accepted as the premier mixers for live and recorded television production, and the Camera Corps Q-Ball system has rapidly become the preferred unit for miniature remote controlled cameras and is now an essential tool for many major sports leagues and network broadcasters. Bexel’s custom audio, RF solutions and managed antennae systems have also been integrated in many television studios and networks throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Bexel RF Over Fiber system is a wireless antenna infrastructure that utilizes fiber to expand traditional coverage areas, giving production teams coverage that can be exponentially greater than a single site RF rack.

BVG (Booth C3951), the unit of Bexel that sells used broadcast hardware, provides an alternative to new equipment purchases and handles the entire range of audio and video products. Based in Burbank, BVG is the only major used equipment broker/dealer to provide certified bench engineering support and warranty coverage for its products.

In addition, Bexel will host two broadcast panels as part of the Vitec Live Event Area. The Vitec Live Event Area will feature eight daily sessions covering timely topics and sharing Vitec’s knowledge and expertise on the latest products, technology and techniques in the broadcast and film industry.

“We’ve gathered some of the industry’s leading professionals to address what we feel are extremely relevant topics surrounding broadcast today,” says Nardelli. “Whether it’s during these two sessions or at our booth, we look forward to sharing our expertise in sports and live broadcast events with NAB show attendees.”

Moderated by Scott Nardelli, Bexel’s chief business development officer, each of the two sessions will be 30 minutes long and free of charge. Following is a list of Bexel’s presentations, along with the panelists, dates and times:

Tuesday, April 12, 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., “Producing Live Broadcast Content for Multiple Platforms from the Field”
Joe Einstein, vice president, operations and production services for AEG Digital Media LLC; Don Colantonio, senior director, production enhancements and interactive TV for ESPN; and Peter Scott, vice president of emerging media, Turner Sports Interactive will engage in an exploration of the various new ways that producers are looking to leverage field production capabilities to provide live content for both Web and broadcast. This panel will feature a discussion about real-world practices, successes and failures.

Wednesday, April 13, 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., “The Impact of IT Technology on Large Sports Event Workflow”
Chip Adams, vice president, venue engineering, NBC Olympics; Mike Rokosa, vice president, engineering, NBA; and Michael Davies, vice president of technical operations, Fox Sports will take the stage for a broad discussion about the tools, techniques, benefits and liabilities of incorporating IT-based workflow solutions for large-scale entertainment and sports broadcasts. During this panel, participants will explore the good, bad and ugly of using an IT-based infrastructure to acquire, move, edit and distribute live content in the field.