Green Broadcasting: Italy’s First Ever Electric OB van
Italian based broadcast specialist IcarusNet recently unveiled the countries first entirely electric powered mini OB van. The initiative is the result of cooperation between six Italian based companies. With IcarusNet, other companies included Eutelsat Italia and Skylogic, who were involved for satellite technology and capacity, Feedback Italia for their video communication services and Diem Technologies and Onda Teleelectronic supplied multimedia equipment
The innovative mobile OB van, named the IcarusNet Smart, is fully equipped with multiple Blackmagic Design products and was built in order to give field reporters a flexible broadcast solution, whether for live work or pre recorded situations. Fitted with an automatic self pointing antenna, the electric Smart car is capable of providing news organizations up to four hours of continuous operation and can travel up to distances of 120KM, all on a single charge.
A new broadcast division
Looking to create a low cost mobile OB solution for Television Stations, the broadcast division of IcarusNet was born, managed by Gianni Sgarbi.
“Our first foray into the Ka-Sat market is the electric Smart, Italy’s first entirely electric powered vehicle for ENG and DSNG and the on board Eutelsat provides a low cost IP satellite link, which is far less expensive than microwave solutions. For shooting we have a Panasonic AW-HE50H camera on board and this can be operated on site or remotely from any production facility. The on board control room is based on Blackmagic Design infrastructure, including the ATEM Television Studio, Intensity Shuttle for USB 3.0 and Smartview Duo.”
“An additional benefit of being powered entirely by electricity is the fact our van doesn’t require a permit to access historical sites unlike those running on petrol or diesel. It can also be used to supply WiFi services and operate as a radio link hub for diffused TV camera packs based on several mobile phone simcards.”
Broadcast electronics
One of the main pieces of gear in IcarusNet Smart is the Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio. The live production switcher with real time H.264 encoding includes six video inputs with both SDI and HDMI inputs for cameras and computers, and includes AES embedded audio. You also get software control panel, chroma keyer, two media player frame-stores, downstream keyers, transitions and more.
We asked Technical Director Giovanni Benassi to walk us through the on board equipment: “We chose the ATEM Television Studio in order to save on space and to avoid the need for installing a separate hardware control panel. The dedicated software panel and full keyboard shortcuts mean we have a compact professional M/E workflow without having to compromise on quality.”
“The four HDMI and four SDI inputs provide a flexible multi cam setup capable of working with both broadcast and consumer standard cameras. Coupled with the built in H264 encoder and ethernet port, we can produce and encode video packages ready for streaming on the fly.”
“At present we are using a Panasonic AW-HE50H with an HDMI output and that is either operated locally by the on board notebook PC, an ACER Travelmate, or remotely from ta central TV production centre, via IP. The same on board notebook can be used for editing, operating Sony Vegas Pro, and streaming of video packages.”
Blackmagic Workflow
Onboard the IcarusNet Smart is a Panasonic AW-HE50H and a HDMI output is fed straight into the ATEM Television Studio. Alternatively news organizations can use their own cameras providing it has an HDMI or SDI output.
From here the program’s video signal is output in SDI and recorded using Blackmagic Design’s HyperDeck Studio SSD recorder. The same HyperDeck can also be used to broadcast previously recorded inserts.
Audio is fed into the ATEM Television Studio via SDI using the Blackmagic Design Mini Converter Audio to SDI, which is connected to a Sennheiser EM-100 G3 radio microphone.
The signal can then be sent directly from the ATEM Television Studio for live broadcast via the onboard satellite, or fed into the HyperDeck Studio. Alternatively, the same signal can be routed from the vision mixer and ingested via a Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle USB 3.0 into the onboard PC for editing via Sony Vegas Pro 11.
While for monitoring, the OB van has two Blackmagic Design Smartview Duo monitors. One is dedicated to monitoring the ATEM Television Studios live switching output via the multi viewer while the other is used for monitoring program signals being aired or recorded.
Shooting on location
The electric OB van was first put through its paces following the earthquake in Emilia Romagna, Italy. Driven in to Cavezzo, near Modena, a journalist from San Marino RTV was able gain access to the region immediately after the quake, which would have been inaccessible to larger OB vans, and report live.
For this particular report San Marino RTV used a Sony PMW350K XDCAM for shooting and was subsequently ingested via Blackmagic’s Intensity Shuttle and then relayed via IP satellite to the studio in San Marino for editing.
