Snell multiformat Kahuna switcher enables gradual, cost-effective transition to mobile HD production.

This spring, Studio A of rbb's broadcast centre on Berlin's Masurenallee went OnAir after a refurbishment break of only seven months. From the lighting piont of view, it is considered to be one of the most modern studios of its type in Europe.

Located in Luxembourg, Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) is a major European player providing technical services in the fields of TV, Radio, Telecommunications and IT. BCE was founded in January 2000 as a result of the merge of different technical entities of RTL Group. With a high qualified and motivated staff of 210 people, BCE serves about 400 clients in various sectors, such as TV channels, Radio stations, film distributors, producers, advertising companies, telecommunications operators and public services. With its know-how at the crossroads of the media technologies, BCE is well positioned to support clients in all their projects concerning multi-media content production and distribution – including the complete High Definition workflow from acquisition to transmission.

Since years the ORF is famous for its live broadcasts of classical concerts, operas and operettas from various worldwide known open-air stages (Salzburg, Bregenz, Mörbisch) or concert halls (Salzburg, Vienna). Due to the popularity of these events througout Europe, the demand for DVDs and in the future also for high definition Blu-Rays and HD DVDs is obvious. Because of the cooperation of the ORF with DVD production companies an intensive post-production work has to be carried out before the DVD is released. This was one of the reasons why the ORF has decided to buid a High Definition linear edit suite in its facilities in Vienna.

The Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama. It is held each summer (for 5 weeks starting in late July) within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

After over a year of preparation the London Air Race took off on 28th and 29th July. The course is framed by the Thames Barrier, the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and the Greenwich Peninsula which is dominated by London’s newest entertainment destination, The O2.

Night of the Proms is a series of concerts held yearly in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. Regularly there are also shows in France, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Scandinavian countries. The concerts consist of a combination of pop music and popular classical music (often combined) and various well-known musicians and groups usually participate. Night of the Proms is the biggest annually organized indoor event in Europe. The annual production of the DVD (in future also on Blu-ray available) was carried out at the concert in Cologne by the Belgium High Definition Production company “Outside Broadcast”.

For the production of the 50th transmission of the New Years Concert of the “Wiener Philharmoniker” from the “Goldener Saal des Wiener Musikvereins”, ORF commissioned TopVision with its HD Ü5 OBVan to generate the live signal of the event. 89 television stations delivered the signal to about one billion viewers around the world. And for the first time the Swiss Broadcaster “HD Suisse” broadcasted the signal in High Definition.

The Four Hills Tournament (Vierschanzentournee) is composed of four Ski Jumping World Cup events and has taken place in Germany and Austria each year since 1952. The tournament is third only to the World Cup and the Winter Olympics as the most sought-after title on the ski jumping world circuit. The Four Hills Tournament comprises four individual World Cup events and points gained in the Four Hills Tournament are added to points gained in other World Cup events throughout the season.

At the end of the 1980’s, the Eureka initiative of manufacturers and broadcasters in Europe triggered the development of analogue HDTV equipment and production facilities, key suppliers being Thomson and BTS.

The 2008 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match that took place on Wednesday, 21 May 2008. The match was played at the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, Russia, to determine the winner of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. This was the first European Cup final staged in Russia, and hence the easternmost final in the tournament's history. The final was contested by Manchester United and Chelsea, making it an all-English club final for the first time in the history of the competition. The game was won by Manchester United 6–5 on penalties, after a 1–1 draw following extra time.

China Central Television (CCTV), China’s national television service, was named the sole provider of the 2008 Olympicsin Beijing to mainland China. With a network of 18 channels broadcasting different programming, CCTV reaches more than a billion viewers on the Chinese mainland.

Currently there are four different ultra-motion camera systems for live productions available in Europe: The Hi-Motion from ARRI Media, the Superloupe from DVS, the SprintCam from i-movix and the Antelope from LMC. We asked all four companies to answer 14 questions and to explain the advantages of their respective camera system. Finally three companies responded. Please find following their answers. This should help you to rent in the right system for your live production. As the recording and playback device (in addition to on-board RAM recorders) all three systems interface to the LSM XT[2] hard disk recorder from EVS.

Beijing was the third Summer Games for Polecam. Conceived during a windsurfing shoot off Hawaii in 1996, the Polecam go-anywhere transportable camera rig was developed from the combination of a carbon-fibre windsurfing mast and a miniature SD camera. Two Polecam systems were fully up and running by the time of the Sydney Games in 2000, increasing to six at the Athens Games in 2004 and to ten at the Beijing Games.

After the detailed presentation of 88 HD OBVans to the European live production community in our HD OBVan directories in 2007 and 2008, we had a closer look to the infrastructure around the HD OBVans that is necessary to carry out national and international sports and music live productions which are televised to a wider audience. In early May 2009 152 HDTV programs were on air via the various satellite platforms in Europe including 35 dedicated sports broadcasters. In 2009 Eurosport transmits 3.000 hours of live sports and Infront partners with 130 rights holders of 20 top sports resulting in an involvement of the production of about five sports events every day. And we are happy to confirm that every production application that is available in standard definition, now also has become available in high definition, supporting the more than 200 HD OBVans from more than 100 production companies which are delivering high quality sports events to the more than 60 Mio high definition flat screens across Europe.