Gigawave - Analogue RF Products

News Stories and Events
from around the world:

August 2005
Hungarian Engineers Attend Course
Low-delay Aids Fuji TV in Istanbul
D-Cam Demo Attracts the Crowds at BIRTV
Low-delay D-Cam Captures Pit Lane Action
Pope Celebrates Mass for One Million
IAAF World Championships - Helsinki
Gigawave on Parade in Singapore

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Hungarian Engineers Attend Course
Each year dozens of engineers from around the world visit the Gigawave Technical Centre to attend in-house training courses given by Gigawave's specialist customer support engineers.

Recently, four hungarian engineers attended an in-house training course at the new Gigawave training facility. Two of the engineers were from Studiotech Hungary. The other two were from HIR TV.

The training course was part of a recent tender won by Gigawave Agent, Studiotech to supply a News Van for HIR TV, a private news channel in Hungary. In Hungarian, 'HIR' means 'news'. So, literaly translated, HIR TV means 'NEWS TV'.

The in-house courses included the theory of digital compression, modulation and transmission, as well as in-depth product training. The course also included practical operational training in and around the Gigawave Technical Centre, set in the heart of the English countryside.

The truck was prepared by Megahertz in England then shipped to Studiotech for the final equipment to be installed. This included a D-Cam 'Clip-on', which was the first wireless camera system. to be supplied by any company to Hungary.

Gigawave Technical Centre - August 2005

Low-delay Aids Fuji TV in Istanbul
Total World Sports engineers, who carried out operational testing of the new low delay D-Cam wireless camera system at the recent Turkish Grand Prix, have found that the new system overcomes problems associated with the presenter's IFB foldback.

Any delay to the IFB foldback can lead to the presenter having problems communicating with the director. However, after using the new system in Istanbul for the first time, Fuji TV presenters were delighted with the new low-delay D-Cam 'Clip-on' system, which has a latency of around 40ms.

Good communications were particularly important in Istanbul, especially as Fuji TV’s coverage of the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix from the Istanbul Park Otodrom was produced without the usual presentation studio in their Tokyo studios.

The use of a diversity receiver, with strategically located RF Heads, has also made a good impression with Fuji TV's director who can now direct his cameraman to move between the starting grid, pit-lane and paddock areas with no interruptions of the signal.

In addition to a D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera system, TWS supply the following specialised facilities used by Fuji TV for their live unilateral coverage of the Turkish Grand Prix:

Radio Camera for live reports and interviews from the starting grid, pit-lane and paddock areas.
Radio Microphones for Pit-lane and Paddock reports
2nd ENG camera for recorded interviews.
Commentary Facilities for 6 persons (program announcer, expert commentators and guests).
Production van with VTR recording/playout facilities and live video/audio mixing systems.

Total World Sports will continue their operational testing of the low-delay D-Cam Clip-on system at Monza, for the next round of the F1 World Championship.

Istanbul, Turkey - August 2005

D-Cam Demo Attracts the Crowds at BIRTV
A live demonstration of the D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera system attracted a lot of attention at this year's Beijing International Radio, TV, and Film Equipment Exhibition.

Gigawave was exhibiting at the Beijing International Radio, TV, and Film Equipment Exhibition for the first time, the stand being manned by Sunny Yeung, from Gigawave's Far East Sales Office, and Ji Zhiping, Gigawave's customer Support engineer in China.

Gigawave set up an office in Hong Kong two years ago to provide sales and customer support for the growing Chinese market. Now, by exhibiting at BIRTV, and Broadcast Asia earlier this year, the Company has clearly demonstrated its long term commitment to the region.

In addition to the D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera system visitors to the Gigawave stand at BIRTV were able to see the MVL-D2 and the new Digital 'Mini' transmitter.

Beijing, China - August 2005

Low-delay D-Cam Captures Pit Lane Action
On a day of pit-lane incidents, a fuel rig failure cost Fisichella 20 seconds and any chance of a podium placing. Montoya also had problems, nearly taking the McLaren fuel rig with him after being told to pull away prematurely on lap 20.

The reigning world champion, Michael Schumacher, also suffered from a messy 40-second pit-stop. Finally, a collision with Mark Webber of Williams on lap 15, and power-steering problems, put him out of the race on lap 51.

During an eventful race, BBC Outside Broadcasts' low-delay D-Cam wireless camera systems were kept busy providing ITV 'World of Sport' viewers with live action form the pit lane, as well as covering pit lane interviews.

After Kimi Raikkonen took the lead at the end of lap one, there was little doubt that he would take the chequered flag at the end of the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix. Alonso took second in his Renault after a late error by McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya, who was third. Fisichella held off BAR's Jenson Button for fourth.

Istanbul, Turkey - August 2005

Pope Celebrates Mass for One Million
German TV network WDR estimated that 250 million round the globe watched its live coverage of Pope Benedict celebrating the final mass of 'World Youth Day Festival'. This year the week long event was held in Koln.

During his four-day trip to the Catholic church's 'World Youth Day Festival' in Koln, the 78-year-old pope established his own style, reaching out for dialogue with Jews and Muslims and focusing his message to Catholics on the need to remain "one great family".

Over 500,000 young people from nearly 200 countries attended the 'World Youth Day Festival'. However, this number swelled to one million on Sunday 21 when Pope Benedict celebrated an open air Mass at Mariensfield, a few kilometres north of Koln.

Specialist rental company, IFP Services, supplied RTL with D-Cam wireless camera systems for their live coverage of Pope Benedict's visit to Germany.

So far, Pope Benedict has been in no rush to sketch out the personal imprint he wishes to make upon the institution which he now leads. However, the twelve speeches he made, during his first foreign trip as Pope, have now given a clear lead as to where his priorities lie.

Koln, Germany - August 2005

IAAF World Championships - Helsinki
Paula Radcliffe finally realised her dream of winning a global title when she took gold in the women's marathon at the World Championships in Helsinki. She covered the 26.2 Miles in a record time of Two hours 20 minutes 57 seconds

Host broadcaster, YLE used a total of nine D-Cam wireless camera systems for their extensive live coverage of this years IAAF World Championships from the Olympic Stadium, in Helsinki. All nine D-Cam systems were fully 'racked' by YLE vision engineers.

YLE own five of the D-Cam wireless camera systems that they used in Helsinki. The other systems were supplied by specialist rental company, Broadcast RF, and Swedish facilities company, Prisma.

In addition to the nine systems used by the host broadcaster, ZDF also used a D-Cam wireless camera system for their unilateral feed. Despite torrential rain earlier in the week, the ten D-Cam wireless camera systems performed faultlessly throughout the World Championships

Live coverage of the marathons and walks was sub-contracted to DutchView MBS who were using the new MTV-D2 digital 'Mini' Transmitter for the first time in a world class event.

The Marathon course followed competitors around a 10km loop which took TV viewers on a tour that showed off the most attractive parts of the city of Helsinki. All marathons started next to Market Square. From there, competitors had to complete three and a half circuits of the city centre before crossing the finish line at the Eläintarha sports field, close to the Olympic Stadium.

Helsinki, Finland - August 2005

Gigawave on Parade in Singapore
This year’s National Day Parade celebrated the 40th anniversary of Singapore becoming a sovereign state. Gigawave wireless camera systems were used to provide live coverage of the four-hour parade.

The National Day Parade was held on 09 August. The show was held at the historic City Hall Padang site in the city centre. It featured dancing, singing, military marching bands, and other popular forms of entertainment. There will also be an aerial fly-by and the event will culminate in a ‘Mobile Column’ of 200 decorated floats and military vehicles.

Rental specialists TWS-Asia are supplying two D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera systems to StreamCast-Asia, who in turn are contracted to the Singaporean Government. In addition to the live broadcast, the show will be shown on giant screens. There will also be a live webcast.

Singapore broadcaster ‘Mediacorp’, who already own one D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera, have rented a second system for their own coverage of the event.

During the recent 1st rehearsal the production team found out just how versatile the D-Cam wireless camera system can be. One minute the cameras could be ‘on-stage’ with the artists and singers, the next they would be in the surrounding areas among 100’s of dancers. On the day, the D-Cam’s were used extensively to film close-ups of the guests and VIPs as they take up their positions for the big parade.

With three weeks of rehearsals to go before the big day the production team will, no doubt, discover other ways to use their D-Cam wireless cameras.

Singapore - August 2005

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