Sydney Teleport Services will deploy the new Ericsson Voyager II Digital Satellite News Gathering system to bring live HD coverage of the Rugby World Cup 2011 from New Zealand, where teams will compete for the Web Ellis Cup (pictured), writes David Fox.
Voyager II is Ericsson’s fifth generation DSNG and is claimed to be “the most flexible and scalable news gathering product on the market”.
Sydney Teleport Services will use it for the live contribution of matches during the tournament, which begins on September 9 in Auckland, from the stadia to broadcasters in New Zealand and Australia, and to international audiences.
“This is the very highest level for rugby fans and the most highly anticipated event within the sport, and with such a huge following around the world, it is imperative that we can reliably provide coverage of each match in the very highest quality possible,” said Scott Jenkins, Managing Director, Sydney Teleport Services.
“A critically important event requires critically selected solutions, and having worked with the Ericsson team in the past, we were confident that it could provide us with the reliability we required for this important project. We have been impressed by the sheer quality and flexibility that the new Voyager II solution provides, and as a result are pleased to be able to provide broadcasters with the excellent standard of coverage that rugby fans will demand,” he added.
Ericsson’s Voyager II is claimed to be the first DSNG system to harness the power of 10-bit MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2 encoding.
The 1RU unit has a fully functional front panel and introduces a bottom-up re-engineered hardware and menu structure (in response to customer demands), allowing fast access to the most common SNG operations, easy monitoring of incoming audio and video signals and operator customization.
It has a modular chassis, with up to six hot swappable option slots, and supports a comprehensive range of processing options, including the multi-codec, multi-format CE-x Series range of encoders. An integrated satellite modulator offers high order DVB-S/S2 modulation on both IF and L-Band outputs.
“Live news and sports gathering is constantly becoming a more important part of broadcasters’ offering, as viewers continue to demand high quality live event coverage to match the standard they are used to from other content,” said Staffan Pehrson, VP and Head of Solution Area TV, Ericsson (pictured).
“With live events, reliability is paramount – it is all about bringing viewers closer to the action. Having pioneered DSNG technology, we at Ericsson are proud to be taking this to the next level with Voyager II and are pleased to enable coverage of the Rugby World Cup for broadcasters across the globe.”
www.ericsson.com
www.sydneyteleport.com.au
www.rugbyworldcup.com