Sky Selects Calrec Audio Apollo to Help Equip World's First 3-D Truck

February 16, 2010

Source: Calrec

Calrec Audio's Apollo digital console has been chosen to outfit the world's first custom-designed 3-D production truck. Commissioned by BSkyB (Sky) and operated by the leading U.K. outside broadcast outfit Telegenic, the Sky 3-D truck will hit the roads later this spring, as Sky rolls out Europe's first 3-D TV channel.

Built by A Smith Great Bentley Ltd., Sky's 3-D truck is a triple expanding HD truck with more than 180 square feet of interior space, to accommodate up to 24 cameras or 12 stereo camera rigs for full 3-D programming. The 48 fader Apollo console has over 1,000 freely assignable channel processing paths, which will give Sky the opportunity to enhance its 5.1 coverage alongside the 3-D image capabilities.

"We specified the Apollo not only because we needed cutting edge technology, but operationally it is a natural progression from the Alpha console," said Sky Sports' Operations Manager Keith Lane. "This is important as it is an easy transition for operators to move from the Alpha platform to the Apollo. In addition, the configurable nature of the control surface gives us scope to develop our techniques as our operations grow."

The Apollo has up to 78 minutes of assignable delay, which will be of value to Sky during its live 3-D broadcasts. Processing 3-D video adds a significant amount of delay into the chain. Each stereo camera rig is either a side by side or beam splitter/mirror rig, and the production team will use a Stereo Image Processer (SIP) controller to set the depth of image.

Sky is also looking at using more discrete embedded audio, using all 16 of the SDI channels. This enables the broadcaster to utilize multichannel audio more effectively.

With a commitment to launching Sky 3-D to its commercial customers in April, and then to all residential Sky+HD customers later in the year, the Sky 3-D truck will be used weekly on Sky Sports outside broadcasts as well as on other genres of Sky programming. It has been designed to work on all genres across Sky's output producing both 3-D and 2-D programming, and Sky has already been trial testing using Telegenic's T5 unit, which houses a Calrec S2 console.


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