CRYSTAL VISION’S LARGEST ORDER OF 2004 EQUIPS AUSTRIAN OUTSIDE BROADCAST TRUCK (September 2005)

ORF, Austria’s public service broadcaster and the largest media enterprise in Austria, chose Crystal Vision to equip its new Outside Broadcast truck with an order for a total of 208 interface boards.

ORF-Centerstation is based in Vienna and broadcasts two 24-hour, German speaking channels - ORF 1 and ORF 2, over an extensive terrestrial and cable network across Austria as well as by digital satellite. ORF also owns a 50 percent share of TW1, a tourism and weather channel, broadcast throughout Europe by digital satellite and by cable networks throughout the German speaking world. The order from ORF was received in October 2004 and the truck completed and put into action for the first time in June this year. The new OB truck replaces an older, analogue version and is being used mainly in Austria and neighbouring countries for broadcasting a whole range of programme types, from its renowned sports broadcasts to cultural features. In particular on the 7th August this year, the new ORF truck was used for the live broadcast of the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera - La Traviata from the Salzburg Festival. An annual event since 1920, the festival is famous for showing performances of operas, plays and concerts of exceptional artistic standards.

Crystal Vision’s highest value order of 2004 - placed through Gelantec, Crystal Vision’s Austrian distributor - was for 18 different types of interface board housed in 23 Indigo 2U frames. Of the 208 Crystal Vision boards purchased, 130 are being controlled by Statesman software. Synchronisation of the external analogue or digital signals received by the ORF OB truck is performed either by the DEC105S broadcast decoder and synchroniser or for digital signals by SYN102 synchronisers connected to the routing switcher. TANDEM-200s are used to de-embed audio from external signals and subsequently embed the audio into the output signal. In addition, they are connected to the inputs and outputs of the routing switcher to be used wherever necessary within the system. CoCo104s also connected to the routing switcher are used to edit and colour correct the signal and ARC102s to alter the aspect ratio. Other boards included on the order were distribution amplifiers, tracking audio delay, broadcast and monitoring encoders and decoders and linear keyers. A small proportion of the equipment purchased has been fitted into the OB truck’s accompanying van or “Rüstwagen”. The main purpose of this support van is to carry all the necessary additional equipment for example, camera heads, tripods and cables, but it also has a small workbench used for servicing and completing repairs.

When choosing their supplier for the equipment to be used in the new OB truck, ORF was impressed by the fact that Crystal Vision products have scalable outputs and are compact and therefore space-saving, a very important issue when working in the enclosed OB van. Furthermore, ORF’s previous good experience with Crystal Vision products was an influencing factor.

Gelantec is located in Gablitz, a small town situated just outside Vienna. Established in 1994 as a systems integration company, Gelantec supplies complete video and audio systems to television and radio stations for use in studios and outside broadcast vehicles.

Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK, Crystal Vision provides digital keyers and a full range of digital and analogue interface equipment including converters, decoders, encoders, distribution amplifiers and audio embedders to the professional broadcasting industry worldwide.