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TV Skyline upgrades to UHD

Germany’s TV Skyline has bought 21 LDX series cameras from Grass Valley, including 12 of the new LDX 86N Ultra HD cameras with HDR capabilities.

These will mainly be used with its newest truck, OB8, which was designed and integrated in house, and went into use last September, but “what we did not do this time last year was buy cameras. I’ve not been satisfied with the options in the market,” said Wolfgang Reeh, CEO and owner, TV Skyline.

He likes that the 86N can not only do UHD but also native HD output at the same time, going to separate M/Es on OB8’s SAM Kahuna 9600 switcher, which can upconvert any HD signals in the switcher and handle both HD and UHD as separate signal paths.

The other cameras it is buying include seven compact LDX 80c HD models, and two LDX 80 Premiere units for HD wireless use. “It does not make sense to go UHD for wireless at the moment, because we do not have a good 4K wireless solution.” It is using 3G-SDI cameras and upconverting, which looks OK depending on the conditions, focal length and other variables.

HDR is becoming important. TV Skyline will start covering Champions League football in HDR UHD early next year and will also output HD 1080i SDR from the same truck. “It is pretty complex, but we’ve already done it without HDR with no problem. However, adding the HDR makes it much more difficult,” he said.