Special report: The 2012 numbers
Formula 1 2012 São Paulo - Brazil Grand Prix for EBU, Special report
The Dutch satellite uplink company Multi-Link Holland is responsible for all Formula 1 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) transmissions.. This company travels the world since 2004 for the Formula 1. You can regonice them easily by their green uplink dishes. Since 2004 they produce satellite uplinks at the Formula 1 for many broadcasters, RTL Netherlands, RTL+ Germany, ORF Austria, Sky Italia, Ferrari TV, ViaSat Sweden and more. They will give us an inside look through the whole season in what they must achieve on every location they land with their equipment, starting this weekend in Melbourne Australia and ending 25 november in Brazil. At this last race in Brazil we will do a special report about this company on the Interlagos circuit
One year almost, one season Formula 1 and traveling the whole globe for the Multi-Link Holland Uplink team. That means we have some statistics for you in this last Formula 1 article of this year.
Gerben Vissers "Past season was a very long season. Every race we were on the spot with a least four people of Multi-Link Holland. it means we did travel, work, drink, eat, sit, run solve , talk, joke and laugh a lot. The thing we did most i will put it into some statistics".
Team Statistics:
• 34 Plane flights for each team member
• 40 Train travels for each team member
• Thousands of kilometers truck drives thru Europe
• 75 Rental cars (in which all are brought back in a... working condition)
• 134 Different Hotels
• 140 Hotels Breakfasts
• 8378,4 Jokes and laughs
• 1440 hours of work (at least) on location for each team member
• 181 Visits to different restaurants, snackbar's, grill houses
• 750 Hours of transmitting for each dish and HPA
• 321,5 Hamburgers (but we think it is more than that even)
.................... and about 20.160 Can's of cold Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke)
"It was a very nice season. Everything has gone very well this year. Also it was very challenging because in addition to the connections for the EBU we also produced the video / audio production for TV Globo Brazil and the editset + uplink for the German Broadcaster ZDF We are most of the time far from home and work long hours. But it's a nice group of people we work with and we visit very special locations. Besides we have to entertain ourselfs on the job to keep the team spirit" Gerben explained.
Gerben"I would like to say thanks to anyone I have worked together over the past year. Such as my colleagues of Multi-Link Holland, the staff of SKY, the employees of the EBU, the employees of the FOM, the staff of TV Globo Brazil , the guys from D.O.T. and many, many others. I also want the readers and creators of this blog thank you for the interest. I hope to see everyone back next season".
This was the last Formula 1 blog entry for this year, we hope we will do this next year again with the guys from this Dutch company. We can learn from them a lot, to se what they do to acchieve the result at the end of the season. We can also see that the english language is the basic used language on this event, so of you want to work there, start to study your english. Thanks Gerben Vissers, Bob Snieder, Marco Mohr , René van Hooff and Marco van Uffelen for their support on this blog last years. Hope to see you all next season for some nice tech stories again. Happy Holidays guys !!!
Listen every friday night Live to Grand Prix radio stream by Olav Mol .
Every Grand Prix a new Mix on, this time a Brazil Special at 19:00 tonight !!!!!!!
More photo's available on our Broadcast Brazil Facebook page, you can find them here.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
EBU
Sky Sports
Globo TV Brazil
D.O.T.
Gigasat
Coco Cola Light
Olav Mol
Grand Prix Radio
Special report: WIF & NIF, day 4
Formula 1 2012 São Paulo - Brazil Grand Prix for EBU, Special report
The Dutch satellite uplink company Multi-Link Holland is responsible for all Formula 1 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) transmissions.. This company travels the world since 2004 for the Formula 1. You can regonice them easily by their green uplink dishes. Since 2004 they produce satellite uplinks at the Formula 1 for many broadcasters, RTL Netherlands, RTL+ Germany, ORF Austria, Sky Italia, Ferrari TV, ViaSat Sweden and more. They will give us an inside look through the whole season in what they must achieve on every location they land with their equipment, starting this weekend in Melbourne Australia and ending 25 november in Brazil. At this last race in Brazil we will do a special report about this company on the Interlagos circuit
Friday is always a long day for us. It starts at 8:00 in the morning with the first transmission. We arranged satellite capacity from 7:45 so we ensure that we are present at 6:45. This means we must leave very early from our hotel to prevent we are late. At 10:00 the first free practice.
We allow you to send to the WIF (Wide international feed), NIF (Narrow international feed) and Sky UK. Everything in HD1080i50. The difference between the WIF and NIF is that the graphics in the NIF fall within a 4:3 frame so that even the edges off him in 4:3 can be broadcast. This because in some countries they still transmit in 4 by 3... and also need to see the Graphics, timing info, standings etc etc
In addition to these channels, we ensure also that 2 muxed signals go by fiber to Europe. These both are put on satellite in Germany by another uplink.
In the afternoon we transmit the second free practice. We also do the tape feeds for different broadcasters at the Play Out Desk. In this configuration we WIF a 2 channel muxed mpeg 4 so we simultaneously help more customers ate the same time. We got a lot of happy clients this way.
At 20:00 we are finished and it is than time to cool down our HPA's and search a good restaurant in which is easy in São paulo. On Saturday morning the alarm wakes us up again at 6:15.... saturday is 1 free practice and qualifying... loooong day again.
Listen Tonight Live to Grand Prix radio stream by Olav Mol with a Brazil Special at 19:00 Brazil time.
Every Grand Prix a new Mix on, this time a Brazil Special at 19:00 tonight !!!!!!!
More photo's available on our Broadcast Brazil Facebook page, you can find them here.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
Sky Sports
WIF
NIF
Olav Mol
Grand Prix Radio
Special report: Tweeking setup, day 3
Formula 1 2012 São Paulo - Brazil Grand Prix for EBU, Special report
The Dutch satellite uplink company Multi-Link Holland is responsible for all Formula 1 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) transmissions. This company travels the world since 2004 for the Formula 1. You can regonice them easily by their green uplink dishes. Since 2004 they produce satellite uplinks at the Formula 1 for many broadcasters, RTL Netherlands, RTL+ Germany, ORF Austria, Sky Italia, Ferrari TV, ViaSat Sweden and more. They will give us an inside look through the whole season in what they must achieve on every location they land with their equipment, starting this weekend in Melbourne Australia and ending 25 november in Brazil. At this last race in Brazil we will do a special report about this company on the Interlagos circuit.
Thursday is always the day of the fine-tuning and tweaking, testing systems and the doing first Uplinks for EBU.
In Brazil we do besides the uplinks for EBU also the so called Play Outs. In the same cabin where we do the uplinks are also the play-out machines connected. The broadcasters that only have a camera ENG crew on location, enter our cabin with their footage to send it to their homeland. Normally this will be covered by the host broadcaster and we only transmit the signals but in Brazil we also coordinate all these Play Outs. We use 2x a HD XDCam deck and 1x P2 HD player. Customers with other formats run their own player or camera and give us the HD-SDI output. We put this signal this through fibers to our HD-SDI router and switch it to the correct encoders in our rack.
On Thursday we also test the uplinks. Almost every race in every country we have being we do this on Thursday 14:00 local time, a full test. Here do almost all broadcasters participate. It is a live as race test (like it would be on sunday) in which all systems tested. The tests went smoothly today.
Other broadcasters had some problems in the morning problems because something went wrong with the local voltage. We were happy here not bother because we work with an automatic switch where both local voltage and a generator. Behind this is a 80kVA UPS. This system, we only use in Brazil and in recent years also proved very necessary, every year there are problems in this. Last year the man in control of the power decided to stop the generators just after the race. The man thought the race is over so I can shut down and go home. He really did not realize that the pre and so called 'aftershows' often are the major programs related to advertising revenue.
Friday first Free Practice Transmissions, we are ready for it.
Every Grand Prix a new Mix on, this time a Brazil Special:
More photo's available on our Broadcast Brazil Facebook page, you can find them here.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
Sony professional XDCAM
EBU
Sky Sports
Special report: Finalizing EBU setup, day 2
Formula 1 2012 São Paulo - Brazil Grand Prix for EBU, Special report
The Dutch satellite uplink company Multi-Link Holland is responsible for all Formula 1 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) transmissions. This company travels the world since 2004 for the Formula 1. You can regonice them easily by their green uplink dishes. Since 2004 they produce satellite uplinks at the Formula 1 for many broadcasters, RTL Netherlands, RTL+ Germany, ORF Austria, Sky Italia, Ferrari TV, ViaSat Sweden and more. They will give us an inside look through the whole season in what they must achieve on every location they land with their equipment, starting this weekend in Melbourne Australia and ending 25 november in Brazil. At this last race in Brazil we will do a special report about this company on the Interlagos circuit.
Again a very very nice sunny day in São Paulo. This makes working more easy and more pleasant. It is still needed to prepare the 3 Gigasat dishes for Rain. Knowing from past years the weather can change suddenly over here. Protection against water of the Amplifiers is very important, they do not like it too much.
Meanwhile still waiting for the promised tables so the Play Out's can be installed. They will be there at 11:00 ... they said. Then concentrate first on the other cabling towards FOM and TV Globo Brazil. FOM needs cables for audio, communications and WIF + NIF signals what need to be transmitted. These last 2 go by a fibre. Globo just needs WIF + NIF, these go by copper.
Also the work on the dishes themselves continues. They are pointed precisely to the satellites, and there will be some testing with all 3. Following the instructions and info delivered by EBU and the satellite operator are crucial. Communications between them is only in the english language, does not matter where the satellites are from Japan, Brazil or Germany.
At 15:00 the so hard needed tables arrived, or better said....... EBU bought those themselfves at a shop in São Paulo. No time to waste! The Play Out's , XDCAM HD were installed rapidly and professionaly by a Brazilian rental company. All signals from the Play Out's go by fibre to the Rack where they will be encoded and transmitted.
All setup now, just some minor things to arrange on thursday. The last parts of the work on the dishes is done, the finalization with the black fabric around the frame underneath the dishes are performed, just to let make everything looking great and protect some more against rain water. This fabric solution is invented by Multi-Link Holland themselves.
At 22:00 all was done for today. Time for some food (did not have lunch even yet).
Every Grand Prix a new Mix on, this time a Brazil Special:
More photo's available on our Broadcast Brazil Facebook page, you can find them here.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
EBU
Sky Sports
Globo TV Brazil
Gigasat
D.O.T.
FOM (Formula 1 management)
Special report: Setting Up Dishes, day 1
Formula 1 2012 São Paulo - Brazil Grand Prix for EBU, Special report
The Dutch satellite uplink company Multi-Link Holland is responsible for all Formula 1 EBU (European Broadcasting Union) transmissions.. This company travels the world since 2004 for the Formula 1. You can regonice them easily by their green uplink dishes. Since 2004 they produce satellite uplinks at the Formula 1 for many broadcasters, RTL Netherlands, RTL+ Germany, ORF Austria, Sky Italia, Ferrari TV, ViaSat Sweden and more. They will give us an inside look through the whole season in what they must achieve on every location they land with their equipment, starting this weekend in Melbourne Australia and ending 25 november in Brazil. At this last race in Brazil we will do a special report about this company on the Interlagos circuit.
We arrived last tuesday at lunchtime in the impressive circuit at Interlagos, São Paulo. Here we meetup with the crew of Multi-Link Holland to follow them next coming days in transmitting this Grand Prix Live for the whole world from Brazil.
On the São Paulo TV-Compound Multi-Link Holland is situated in a nice box. The rack's with equipment already arrived, ready for building up and connecting the needed cables. In the same box also the 'play-outs' will be made for the diverse ENG teams. Problem number 1, there are not tables enough to give everything a place. Instead we start with building the racks, monitors and routing. Those tables will hopefully arrive tomorrow.
Another problem.... the satellite dishes are still not declared by the Brazilian customs yet. Because it is equipment to transmit they have to check them twice. The D.O.T. expect them to arrive at night from the Airport of Campinas. So..... let's than do also some cabling already to some other boxes and the place where the dishes will be placed. Problem 3, the guy with the drill seams to be very busy... we have to wait for that. Meanwhile we are finalizing the racks and cabling for it. Besides that.... the coffee machine is installed.
At about 19:00 we receive the message that the drill is broken, it seams there is only one on the circuit... so that will be tomorrow before they come back with a new one. We almost left the TV-Compound when the D.O.T. informed us that the dishes arrived. We stayed to build them up. Setting up these dishes is a very precise job. Step by step they are place and pointed in the right direction. It is obvious these guys are very experienced in this, take a look at the following photo's
Unpacking the 3 x Gigasat FA370 dishes that will be used for the EBU transmissions in Brazil
Getting the 3 x Gigasat FA370 dishes on their spot
Step 1: Prepare cabling and put needed equipment on it's place
Step 2: Parts of teh dishes are installed
Step 3: Heads on, and dishes installed on their frame and height.
At 23:00 all was setup, it is called a day by the crew. Wednesday will be cabling and pointing the dishes to the satellites.
Every Grand Prix a new Mix on:
More photo's available on our Broadcast Brazil Facebook page, you can find them here.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
EBU
Sky Sports
Globo TV Brazil
Gigasat
D.O.T.