CTV unveils Europe’s largest OB truck

Having carved out a market leading position in sports, CTV Outside Broadcasts (OB) have used their momentum to target the entertainment market.
For some of the UK's most prestigious non-sport contracts it was clear that a new bespoke purpose-built vehicle was required. The result was OB4, a brand new digital supertruck built to handle the largest entertainment and sports outside broadcasts. Like its predecessors, OB4 provides clients with a state of the art hugely powerful production environment, unsurpassed by any other vehicle in Europe.
CTVs Managing Director, Barry Johnstone, Technical Director, Hamish Greig and Former Visions Deputy Managing Director, Bill Morris form the core of this experienced outside broadcast team. Their combined experience covers the entire facilities spectrum from outside broadcasts and fly packs to huge scale permanent installations.
Bill Morris believes that the addition of the new truck again puts CTV OB’s ahead of the game.
“It’s the largest and most powerful OB unit in Europe and the only one which has been specifically built for the needs of both Entertainment and Sports," he said.
From Johnstone’s perspective, the beauty of the new vehicle is that it was designed with the needs of the entertainment market in mind but is capable of doing any sport. It will for example provide the main coverage of the rescheduled Ryder Cup.
Flexibility and size are two major keys to CTV’s success, according to Johnstone: “We did the Disney Kids Awards with two units, CART IndyCar Racing and a four-day golf tournament in France all on the same weekend. We’re one of the very few outfits that has the capacity to do that and then switch seamlessly to the next set of events.
With its cavernous interior, the unit is capable of accommodating over 30 production personnel the arrival of OB4 on the outside broadcast scene has caused quite a stir among producers of entertainment events.
At a cost of over £4 million, the truck is the biggest-ever investment in state-of-the-art OB equipment in the UK.
CTV, www.ctvob.com
(GB)