Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand prix By Multi-Link

22/09/12 18:00

Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grandprix TV compound.

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.

Gigasat FA370 dish pointing towards Europe for the EBU transmissions in Singapore

Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix
Location technician Gerben Vissers of Multi-Link Holland: "The Formula 1 circus is back in Singapore and Multi-Link landed there also with dishes, HPA's, encoders up-convertors and modulators. After lasts race at Monza - Italy, we went back rapidly to our homebase in The Netherlands and have all our needed equipment packed. Wednesday after that race all of that was picked up and transported by D.O.T. to Singapore".

A little part of the Encoder & Modulator rack for the EBU/SKY transmission in Singapore

Gerben:"Last tuesday we arrived ourselfs In Singapore. We have to build our 3x 1x 3.7M and 2.4M Gigasat's dishes on the TV Compound. As the Singapore race being a night race we remain in a more European rhythm. This is also the best option for us because of the very hot humid weather over here. These are really extreme weather conditions for us".

3 x Gigasat FA370 dishes for the EBU & SKY transmissions in Singapore

"We are present here for the EBU, TV Globo and the German broadcaster ZDF. For TV Globo Brazil we do the production and also the satellite uplink this time. The 4 different clients with their different setups and wishes makes us always busy with communicating in several languages, adding, solving and chancing things for them to have a smooth live transmission for all". Gerben of Multi-Link explains.

Trackside, all ready for the nightrace in Singapore .. lights on !!!

Gerben: "For the ZDF we bring an editing-set with us. The editing set is based on Apple Final Cut Pro connected to a Telestream 4 channel Pipeline. This means we can ingest 4 seperate SDI channels and edit at the same time. All done on one Apple Macbook pro. The connection with Germany goes over fiber to europe in this case where we pick-up this signal and uplink it from there directly to broadcaster ZDF".