Norway’s TV 2 used Norwia’s miniHUB platform to enable remote coverage of the world’s oldest and longest cross-country ski race, which also attracts the most competitors, at Vasaloppet in Sweden. The site survey identified three different locations with distances of 15km and 45km between broadcast transmission sites. One options was to use localized production trucks at each location, and provide sufficient staff to run each site with transmission back to a local point via satellite. The other option was to provide fibre connectivity between the sites and use remote production from two of the sites back to the master site. To enable this more cost-efficient option, TV 2 chose the miniHUB optical distribution, as it could meet their needs with its configuration flexibility and extremely good optical budget. Using the miniHUB meant that no remote truck facility had to be used with only minimal associated camera equipment and minimal personnel needed for the event. This was a considerable saving for TV 2 and looks likely to pave the way for more remote productions in the future. “Once we weighed up the options between remote broadcasting and production truck installation, it was quite obvious that the Norwia miniHUB optical distribution system was an easy choice,” explained Bård Egil Torgersen from TV2 – Norway. “The miniHUB system is like no other on the market today, with its AutoSFP technology. This makes life easy out in the field, and shows the flexibility and smartness of the Norwia miniHUB system.” TV 2 used the latest eight-channel system with an ultra low loss CWDM filter set, which gave only 2.6dB loss over the multiplexer pair for the entire CWDM link. Thanks to some smart optical design the third location was fed an optically passive signal from the 45km CWDM link. This saved the need for a second CWDM system to be installed. Two CWDM channels were fed a further 15km with no electrical refresh. This meant that the total distance for the optical network was 60km. With the available optical budget, this link could have supported up to 90km of HD-SDI uncompressed video. According to Norwia, “CWDM is an effective solution to deliver multiple uncompressed channels on one fibre over a distance. The distance varies in typical applications from 100 metres up to 90 kilometres.” All of its CWDM filters are delivered in a ruggedized metal casing that can fit internally into the miniHUB sub-rack or stand alone if necessary. The CWDM filters use the commonly available LC/UPC optical connector that is recommended by SMPTE. The filter provides from eight to 16 channels “at an affordable price point,” which should enable this type of technology to be used in new applications. “The Norwia and TV 2 solution at Vasaloppet shows the ultimate flexibility and ruggedized reliability of the miniHUB optical distribution system for events. This solution, compared to traditional broadcast methods, gives lower cost, easy setup and simplified maintenance,” said Norwia’s Chief Technology Officer, Lars Erik Eriksen. David Fox www.norwia.no
