From the start of the race, two gyro-stabliised cameras, mounted on a specially equipped tracking vehicle, were used to follow the winner Frankie Dettori as he led the field to an impressive victory. Two MTV-D digital transmitters were used to transmit SDI signals from the tracking vehicle to a central receive point equipped with 'locked-off' Fanbeam antennas and MVL-D receivers.

It was only as the leader turned into the Home Straight that conventional cameras were used to allow the director to 'cross the line'. before returning to the tracking vehicle to follow Dettori as Moon Ballad cooled down. Once the race was over the director once again used the two D-Cams to follow Dettori into the winners enclosure.

It was only a year ago that Dubai TV allowed Gigawave to test a pre-production D-Cam during last years Dubai World Cup as part of the companies extensive test programme. The impressive performance of the D-Cam and other Gigawave digital links at this years World Cup clearly demonstrates that those broadcasters who waited for the D-Cam and the MTV-D transmitter have indeed backed a winner.
Dubai UAE - March 03

Howzat!
Australia clinched their third Cricket World Cup with a thumping 125-run victory over India to became the only side to win all of their matches in a World Cup tournament.

For the opening ceremony the director used two Steadicams, each with a Gigawave D-Cam digital wireless camera system. So as not to be intrusive, the two cameramen were choreographed into the actual show, which meant that they were often obscured by other members of the cast and various props. Both Steadicam's were used extensively throughout the live coverage of the opening ceremony

Once the tournament got under way, D-Cams were used to film interviews in and around the stadium, freed from the constraints of normal trax cameras. Apart from interviews D-Cams were also used exclusively to film the 'Man of the Match' presentation, 'Pitch Reports', and the singing of the national anthem.

As his confidence in the D-Cams grew, directors started to experiment with using wireless cameras in new and exciting ways. By the final SABC were using Steadicam equipped D-Cams to follow players on and off the field, through the tunnel, and into the dressing room itself.

Nic Bonthuys, General Manager of Airtime, the production arm of SABC, was delighted with the way the D-Cam performed. "The most important thing for us was the fact that the director was able to use the D-Cams anywhere in the Newlands stadium, in the knowledge that he could cut live to them at any time. The pictures were so stable, it was hard to believe that they were not from triax cameras, especially as the D-Cam does not use 'diversity of reception', of any kind"

All Balls! - Chris Dingle's view of the 2003 Cricket World Cup
Airtime TV Outside Broadcasts
South Africa - February/March 03

"It is probably the first time microwave links have been used in Australia to give a fully digitised broadcast".

Original article that appeared in the press Down Under
Perth Australia - January 03

We first tested QPSK running MPEG compression. As expected, this was very robust. It allowed the camera to roam out of sight of the RX, into the players' tunnel at the Stadium and the dressing rooms at the Aquatic Centre with no RF signal disturbance.

We next tried 64 QAM running the wavelet compression. This is where the Gigawave design really excelled. At neither venue was there any RF breakup while the Tx/Rx were line of sight. The pictures were in real time & transmitting 26Mbits. All this with the Rx not being tracked. The results were very impressive.

At last, a digital system that lives up to the manufacturer's spiel!"

Barry Sutherland, Managing Director
BnC Television Services

Sydney Australia - January 03