3G-12G SDI Over Fiber Extenders

Stadium Multi-Camera Upgrade

A 22,000-seat regional sports venue was planning to upgrade its on-site video production system to broadcast quality. It hosted sports such as basketball and hockey along with concerts, and was seeing more demand for live HD streaming and improved playback options. Its existing system relied exclusively on coaxial cables run from each camera location back to the control room, and that system was reaching its capacity.

There were also a number of physical limitations. The two cameras mounted high in the baselines on the upper deck of the stadium were already at 180 meters from the control room, exceeding the limit of reliable HD-SDI transmission over coax. Signals degraded as they were received, requiring active equalizers on each line to ensure adequate signal quality - which added expense and a failure point to the transmission. The existing conduits were at capacity, so rerunning cable required significant structural work (tear-downs) and rental of lifts and scaffolding to access the catwalks. The production staff estimated a minimum of 4-6 weeks of physical work was needed to replace each existing copper cable.

The solution had to provide signal to six locations: the two robotic PTZ cameras at the baselines, two hand-held cameras that followed the action on the floor and sideline, a camera at a fixed receive station just behind the press box (also wired wirelessly), and a stationary camera positioned overhead to view the entire stadium floor (this signal was also used by security in the operations center).

QuestTel supplied and installed its SDI over fiber equipment for each camera based on the location's requirements. For the two cameras located high on the baselines, the L-XSDI-CWDM-3G-GE-TX/RX kit - an 8-channel CWDM unit with integrated gigabit ethernet - was used to transmit both cameras' signals through one strand of fiber using CWDM wavelength multiplexing. This also allowed for the transmission of camera-operator intercom and IP-based PTZ commands through the integrated gigabit ethernet; two cables per camera were reduced to one fiber. The floor-level hand-held cameras were transmitted using the L-1SDI-FE-3G-MN-TX/RX miniature extenders, which are small enough to clip onto a belt pack without additional weight or encumbrance. The wired-wireless cameras transmit using the L-1SDI-FE-3G-TX/RX along with a reverse RS485 for controlling antenna position. The ceiling overhead cameras transmit signals from both production as well as security's operations center using the L-1SDI/2IP-FE-TX/RX.