Turner Studios selects PESA Cheetah for second hybrid HD/SD OB unit

PESA has announced that Turner Studios has installed a Cheetah Flexi-Frame routing switcher in its newest HD/SD hybrid mobile production truck, 'HD2'.
The unit will enable flexible and reliable HD and SD signal routing during live production of events such as Atlanta Braves baseball, golf events including the Masters Tournament, and NBA regular- and post-season games.
"PESA's routing hardware has provided very reliable operation for us in our first HD/SD mobile truck, and we have found the same to be true for the Cheetah Flexi-Frame system installed in HD2," said Bob McGee, director of technical operations for Turner Studios Field Operations. "PESA worked closely with us to bring the system in line with our specifications and since then it has performed well to meet our requirements."
Like the system installed in Turner Studios' 'HD1,' the Cheetah Flexi-Frame is populated with 128 HD inputs, 112 HD outputs, 128 SD inputs, 256 SD outputs, 48 channels of internal HD-to-SD conversion, and 48 channels of internal SD-to-NTSC conversion. To manage the wide array of signal requirements, a PESA 3500PRO control system provides the maximum flexibility for ease of setup, control, and diagnostics.
The Cheetah Flexi-Frame routing switcher is based on a 64x64 matrix crosspoint card for both SD and HD signals, thus providing an economical solution for hybrid SD/HD production. For maximum flexibility, multiformat digital fiber inputs and piggyback fibre outputs are available. The Cheetah Flexi-Frame's 27-RU design is offered in three non-rectangular matrix sizes, 256x448, 320x384, and 512x256.
Analogue outputs are managed via an exclusive piggyback digital-to-analogue conversion card mounted to the SD output module, where 10-bit SDI signals are converted to analogue video for standard NTSC/PAL or general-purpose monitoring applications.
PESA's powerful 3500PRO control system controls the Cheetah Flexi-Frame system, supplying the Turner Studios engineers with all the tools necessary to build a flexible, intuitive, and scalable control system. Designed to accommodate the fast-paced world of mobile production trucks, the 3500PRO control system allows users to save multiple configurations and retrieve them on demand. Control panel configuration, format I/O assignments, and system diagnostics are managed through an easy-to-use Windows setup menu.
The Cheetah Flexi-Frame routing switcher installed in Turner Studios' second 53-foot-long MSI trailer is being used along with a Kalypso HD switcher, Sony DVRs, EVS servers, and Ikegami studio and portable cameras. The PESA system also drives every input to 12 Miranda Kaleido-K2 multi-image display processors, allowing operators to route any signal to any display.
PESA, www.pesa.com.
(SP)