Game Creek Video is a technical production services company responsible for broadcasting some of the largest sports and entertainment events through their state-of-the-art fleet of mobile production trucks and mobile units. As the demand for high-quality remote productions using the latest technology continues to grow, Game Creek Video recently built a new truck for the fall sports and entertainment season. Called Centennial, this powerful SMPTE 2110 IP-based broadcast truck is designed to be flexible, handling formats from HD to 4K with full support for HDR signals to ensure superior contrast and color reproduction.
Centennial is the latest in a line of IP trucks built by the company. In early 2019, Game Creek built Video Bravo, which was built with a Lawo and Arista 2110 infrastructure. After Bravo came Columbia, Gridiron, Celtic and then Gotham. These were the company’s first attempts to completely make 2110 trucks. Centennial is essentially copy number six of this highly successful system, and while there have been some minor changes, it shares a lot of DNA with Bravo.
“Centennial is designed as a Swiss army knife that can offer all the possibilities that the customer needs,” said Jason Taubman, Senior Vice President, Game Creek Video. “Our goal is always to be as flexible and agile as possible. Centennial is also designed to expand and easily interface with other trucks, something we are proud of.”
Ensuring the highest quality
Since quality is paramount to any production, it is important to measure signals coming in from all cameras to ensure that each source image matches the other (camera shadow). It’s also important to ensure that the high-quality output maximizes the wide color gamut and contrast range that the HDR format offers. Driven by customer demand, Game Creek Video installed six Telestream PRISM IP/SDI waveform monitors in multiple positions. These include Camera Shading positions, Engineering and the Replay area which, directly or through KVM, the TD, Tech Manager and Replay operators can access. There’s even one monitor on the outside of the truck, as Game Creek Video is focused on ensuring signal quality and integrity at every step of the manufacturing process.
As formats and signals have evolved, the waveform monitor has had to keep up. With IP-based signals also containing audio and additional metadata, PRISM should also be able to monitor embedded audio signals such as Dolby and other supporting metadata.
“The market is evolving and the user base is getting smarter. They want the latest features to monitor IP signals and take objective measurements of HDR, but at the same time appreciate a traditional waveform monitor and vectorscope layout,” says Keith Martin, Director of Technology, Game Creek Video. “Telestream PRISM has responded to the market by allowing two full screens of a single scope rather than squeezing everything together into a single screen, a unique feature our video shader positions rely on. Not having to buy two complete units certainly saves costs and installation.”
Flexibility is the name of the game
While Centennial is an IP-based truck at its core, part of its flexible design is the ability to operate in a mixed IP and SDI environment. The ability of PRISM waveform monitors to also work in both SDI and IP is a key feature that helps ensure this flexibility. Because the PRISM platform is app-based, users can customize and add tools based on the unique
demands of the task.
“For customers who spend most of the year in a truck, they want the ability to customize everything to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness,” says Martin. “It’s an important advantage for these users that the PRISM system can be adapted to the work they have to do.”
The PRISM MPS and MPD series waveform monitors have the largest touchscreen display on the market for maximum visibility, yet only extend two inches deep into the rack, making it a perfect footprint for truck installations where every inch counts. This allows PRISM to be installed at any working position. Two PRISM MPD200 models are installed in camera shadow positions and provide two screens for both waveform and vectorcope displays from a single unit. Three PRISM MPX2-25 are deployed with two racks in Engineering and one in Replay and a single PRISM MPI2-25 is racked in engineering for 2110 and 3G/12G analytics. The software-defined platform makes it easy to stay up-to-date with updates and any upgrades can be easily implemented in the field.
The timeline for building Centennial was short, and with a worldwide parts shortage, the Game Creek Video team was understandably concerned about delivering the truck on time.
“When one of our key customers made the initial request for the PRISM scopes, we were concerned that potential supply chain issues could affect our short runway, Taubman said. “Luckily, Telestream pulled out all the stops and got us on time. we were able to deliver the necessary units, for which we were very grateful.”
In addition to the six PRISM waveform monitors, Centennial also has a WFM 2300 portable waveform monitor for field use.
“We were happy to install PRISM waveform monitors in Centennial based on customer demand,” said Martin.
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