Arena TV strikes OB gold with Pro-Bel

Pro-Bel, the premier manufacturer of routing switchers, signal processing, master control, automation and control and monitoring technologies, has announced that highly regarded UK-based outside broadcast company Arena TV has purchased a wide range of equipment from the company.
Arena TV has been operational since 1990 and early last year decided to push firmly into the high end HD OB market. Consequently, two identical OB units were specified by the company – units 7 and 8. These brand new HD trucks are the largest of their type in Europe, each has over 200 monitors onboard and 24 cameras internally, giving them the ability to handle demanding events such as the British Grand Prix with their need to cut 40 cameras.
Because of the size of each truck, the choice of router technology was a vital decision. Arena TV turned to Pro-Bel as the core solutions provider. Each unit uses a Sirius Gold 512 x 512 router, with Unit 7 currently operational, running it 232 x 424. Unit 8 is due for completion this summer.
Richard Yeowart, Managing Director, Arena TV, explained: “There is a limited choice at this high end of the market for obvious technical reasons. The product is complex and very large in scale. Pro-Bel is well known in this sector and a combination of functionality, reputation and support were key factors in making this decision.”
The company has also purchased additional Sirius and Freeway router technology from Pro-Bel and is using its Aurora router control solution. Peter Love, Technical Director, adds, “Pro-Bel has specifically modified some software for us and they have proved to be responsive to our requests and flexible in their approach to our demands.”
Graham Pitman, Pro-Bel’s CEO, said: “Our aim always is to help our customers achieve their business objective, whether to integrate a third party product or to achieve an operational efficiency goal. Our new Solutions Group headed by Karl Mehring is specifically aimed at working with clients to satisfy their most specific and demanding requirements.”
(GB)