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Wimbledon 2016: BroaMan Serves Up An Ace

Centre Court. Henman Hill. Murray Mound. Strawberries and Cream. Pimms O'Clock. These are the more common terms associated with Wimbledon, the ultimate tennis championship, held annually at the fabulous All-England club in South West London.

However, what we might not all be so aware of is the behind the scenes, mind-blowing broadcast statistics: during Wimbledon Tennis Fortnight, no fewer than 2,500 broadcasters provided an HD experience from all nine courts to viewers in more than 100 countries. Wow.

One of these vans belonged to CLS Audiovisuais, which in itself received 14 signal feeds from host broadcaster, the BBC, over a distance of 250 metres from the transmission centre.

The company started using Optocore devices soon after setting out in 2004, and have now embraced the firm's technical partner, BroaMan, and its versatile Mux22 series, which is ideal for OB truck applications. Essentially, in one rack space, it provides every type of signal which is required between the truck and the remote stagebox.

The company purchased the BroaMan system from its territorial dealer, Garrett Audiovisuais, installing the 1RU multi-format transmission device in one of their full HD camera and control OBs in the nick of time for the two-week tournament that sees us Brits go crazy for a sport that, ultimately, we care little for during the rest of the year!

So what does the Mux22 do? Well, for one, it offers every signal needed in just one rack unit - and it combines 3G/HD/SD-SDI I/O with Optocore and SANE digital audio networks. It can transport video, as well as audio and data, on a single duplex fibre; and in this instance, CLS constructed a point-to-point system with 12-in/4-out at one end, and 4-in/12-out at the other.

Configured with a master control room and two galleries for beIN Sports (MENA) in France, CLS’ OB truck includes a studio, two commentary positions for each, plus reporters and ENG crews.

For the past two years, Wimbledon has formed an essential part of their busy international sports schedule, and the Mux22 enables them to uplink the signal elegantly and economically, to the studios in Paris.

"We have been working with Optocore since 2006, so we know their products very well,” said CLS owner, André Senos. "We had been seeking for an easy solution, and once we had seen the product at IBC in Amsterdam, and Garrett had arranged a demo, we knew this was the right move. Mux22 enabled us to take a lot of HD signals and transmit down a single fibre; and everything worked extremely well.”

It did indeed. Murray took his second title, and we hear the transmission was seamless..!

For more on BroaMan, click HERE