Gearhouse has launched its new lightweight, expandable OBPod portable production solution. Building on the concept of the flyaway pod that Gearhouse Broadcast has supplied to Sky Sports for the past three F1 seasons, the new OBPod has been designed with weight and expandability in mind.
Working closely with UK coachbuilding partner, A Smith Great Bentley, and using the standard air freight AMP rectangular container footprint, Gearhouse has replaced the previous honeycomb casing with lighter aluminium.
The new facility makes extensive use of the fibre infrastructure, removing the need for traditional heavy copper cables. A compact Grass Valley NVISION 8500 Hybrid router has been installed, with HD and SDI I/O on both copper and fibre.
“This is the first time anyone’s ever made an expanding pod with a very small footprint; everything that has gone into OBPod has got to be able to cope with the demands of it being transported around the world multiple times, so we had to be mindful with the infrastructure and workflow that we’ve designed,” said Kevin Moorhouse, COO at Gearhouse Broadcast.”
