Dutch Winter Olympics Coverage Delivered by Universal Videohub

Manchester, UK - Blackmagic Design today announced that Dutch broadcaster NOS deployed the Blackmagic Universal Videohub 288 for signal routing and distribution during its coverage of the Olympic Winter Games. Built by live production specialist Broadcast Rental, the Sochi facility will handle more than 60 live signals from across the Games.

As well as live feeds from commentary positions in more than 40 sports venues, the master control room, based in the International Broadcast Center at Sochi, will also receive inputs from ‘Holland House’, where Dutch athletes, coaching teams and supporters congregate, to take viewers behind the scenes of the team’s Olympic experience.

The Universal Videohub is controlled via a touchscreen monitor and software, and will distribute HD-SDI video signals into the unit’s ingest system for editing, where two broadcast feeds for transmission in the Netherlands will be produced. The router will also manage distribution of signals to multiviewers and monitors within the control hub to assist with signal selection. A tally system is also connected to the Videohub to monitor the status of the router. Information from the tally, such as time codes or feed titles, can be viewed in the under monitor displays in the multiviewers, giving production staff all the information they need about each feed in a glance.

Broadcast Rental will also have engineers working in partnership with the NOS production team throughout the Games, providing dedicated technical support and allowing production staff to focus on delivering the most relevant and exciting action from across the Olympic venues.

“Blackmagic Design’s Universal Videohub really is the heart of our Olympic operation, as it gives us a secure level of integration within a temporary unit and has enabled us to build a highly reliable, customized control suite that matches NOS’ requirements exactly,” explained Martijn Swart, Broadcast Rental. “Its SD and HD-SDI connections mean that we can quickly and easily link to the editing systems to provide seamless transitions between events.

“The unit was initially conceived to deliver NOS’ broadcast coverage of the London Olympics in HD,” he continued. “We’ve expanded and refined the unit even further, retaining the Universal Videohub as our central element of a control hub that facilitates exciting, engaging coverage for Dutch viewers across the fortnight’s action.”

Product photos of the Universal Videohub 288 are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.