Blackmagic Builds Smallest OB Vehicle

30/05/2012
TOKYO, JPN: Blackmagic Design's ATEM Television Studio, HyperDeck Studio Pro and SmartView Duo has formed the backbone of one of the world's smallest HD broadcasting cars, named the Panda Bird.

The vehicle, commissioned by KiBAN International, a global e-learning company, carries a full array of switching, monitoring and SSD recording. It was shown to the public for the first time at the recent Educational IT Solution Expo (EDIX) in Tokyo.

KiBAN International provides custom built e learning technology to connect organisations around the world. As part of KiBAN International's work to connect different communities, the company uses video and Internet streaming from often hard to reach locations. KiBAN saw the need for a mobile car based broadcasting system built around a trike design that could go anywhere, especially to places inaccessible to larger OB vans.

The Panda Bird, built around a HONDA Gyro Canopy trike, provides HD production and Internet streaming through Blackmagic Design's ATEM Television Studio Production Switcher, HyperDeck Studio SSD recorder and broadcast deck and SmartView Duo
dual monitor. Through the ATEM Television Studio's built in H.264 encoder and broadcast quality switching capabilities, the trike can offer multi camera production and broadcast encoding for Internet streaming in a single rack unit. Cameras are connected wirelessly to the ATEM Television Studio, with H.264 files encoded using ATEM Television streamed live using Ustream.

KiBAN added HyperDeck Studio to the trike for a rack mount SSD based deck with dual slots for infinite recording of uncompressed, DNxHD or ProRes. With the SmartView Duo, the trike can include two large independent eight inch LCD screens in a compact rack mount design, and view SD, HD and 3Gb/s SDI video standards, allowing trike operators to be able to use any signals available to them in the field.

The system is removable from the trike for inside use, and works with a 12V power supply so that it can also run using external batteries.

Masahiro Nishimura, CEO of KiBAN International said: "With Blackmagic Design's equipment, we were able to build a 6RU mobile broadcast trike that gave us the highest level of broadcast production and streaming. It also gives us the flexibility to use any of the formats and tools available, a must have when working in the field. We could not have done this without Blackmagic Design."