Malaysia Grand Prix by Multi-Link Holland
Multiview monitoring at the mobile EBU F1 MCR from Multi-Link Holland in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
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.
2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix:
The race in Malaysia is just one week after the Melbourne Grand Prix, so all equipment and people had to be transported the day after the Melbourne event. It means that Multi-Link Holland had to dis-assemble all their dishes and their MCR just after this 'Down Under' race. Kuala Lumpur is a hot, very hot. " It is a heavy job here" Gerben told us. "Because of this hot temperatures we need to build our dishes at night, it is much cooler than. This year it is better than last year, we did not have to be on that metal construction underneath the dishes anymore because we made our own special construction for the dishes for this season. Also the air humidity is very high if you compare it to Melbourne... or any other Grand Prix location. So it is here where the air conditioning units has to do their job properly. We added some extra units at each dish, because all the cabins around our dishes blow hot air from their airco units towards our dishes. With these extra support our HPA's will stay cool "And about the strange dish position " We are almost under the equator, that's why our dishes have to 'look' straight up in to the sky"
3 Gigasat FA370 dishes for the EBU transmissions in Kuala Lumpur
There is another thing in Malaysia what can be a problem, the rain. When it rains here it's like they open a huge shower in full force above the circuit. "That's why we also transmit in C band, even when it rains extremely we stay up. The low frequencies easy pass through the rain, we only have to power up a little bit" Gerben explains. "Protection of equipment and cables against water is very important here. Because this type of dish is build-up by 18 panels, water from heavy rain will not stay in the dish, even in this position. Our HPA's are located in the new special construction underneath the dish, but all is made waterproof".
The local mobile EBU F1 MCR from Multi-Link Holland in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
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Next time China, in which we are getting more nice stories by Multi-Link Holland, new location.... new surprices.
mentioned:
Multi-Link Holland
EBU
Gigasat