BeckTV Teams Up With RPS To Build A New OB Truck

BeckTV is working with Ross Production Services (RPS) on building a new flagship OB truck — the eighth and largest in the RPS fleet.

RPS is a full-service, turnkey production company delivering high-quality video and audio content of sports and other live events. Its unique partnership with Ross Video means all RPS trucks and flypacks feature the most current and innovative Ross Video products, and RPS can scale up or down for each individual production.

BeckTV, who is managing the project, is responsible for conceptual and final design and documentation of all major broadcast systems, including every individual wire to be installed in the truck. BeckTV will prewire and label an estimated 4,500 cables at the BeckTV facility for delivery to the project site. After receiving the empty truck from manufacturer Gerling and Associates, a BeckTV installation crew will completely integrate all the Ross equipment, running the wires, racking the gear, doing all the power and cabling, and performing comprehensive testing to ensure the final system operates as planned. Finally, a BeckTV project engineer and a technician will be on hand to provide event support during the launch of the truck's first show.

"This truck will represent Ross Video's best, especially Ross's innovative Hyperconverged platform. It will give us flexibility to deliver more and better productions for our clients. In the past, we've built every truck in our fleet from top to bottom. This is the first time that we are outsourcing any of our builds, so we need somebody we can trust," said Stephen Repass, Vice President at Ross Production Services. "Of all the vendors we looked at, we felt most comfortable with BeckTV, especially because of their long-term relationship with Ross Video. For many of the questions we didn't know the answers to, BeckTV had been there, done that, and had picture examples of it. It's very comforting to know that we can just go to them with anything, and they'll tell us how they would do it."

The new OB truck is a 40-foot box truck with dual expanding sides. It will showcase all the newest and best Ross Video gear on the market. Making its debut within the truck is the Ultrix FR12, representing the core of Ross' Hyperconverged solution and standing as the most powerful and flexible hybrid media platform. Within the Ultrix family, you'll find Ultrix Acuity, a unified solution seamlessly integrating with Acuity, Ross' flagship production switcher. Other major systems include XPression, a Mira+ replay system; the Piero sports graphics and analysis tool; and the Voyager Unreal Engine-based render platform for broadcast and live events. BeckTV and RPS are building the truck to be 4K-capable, with more camera control units than any other RPS truck — enough to cover the largest major sports, esports, and entertainment events.

"BeckTV has a long history of building trucks throughout its 40 years as a system integrator. We also have a strong, longstanding partnership with Ross Video in building television stations and large sports venue control rooms," said Paul Nijak, Senior System Engineer at BeckTV. "We are thrilled that Ross Production Services asked us to support this new mobile unit to continue that partnership, and we hope to collaborate on many more truck builds in the future."

The truck rolled out of the BeckTV shop on December 30, 2023, for its first event at Baylor University to broadcast Men's basketball on January 2, 2024, on ESPN+.

www.becktv.com