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from around the world:

November
Rugby World Cup Final 2003
World Rally Championship
MotoGP - A Brilliant Season for Rossi

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Gigawave Salutes England's Victory
Rugby World Cup - 2003
The sensational final was a credit to the grit and determination of two great teams. It was also a credit to the Seven Network who used two Gigawave D-Cam wireless camera systems for much of their coverage of this year's final, at Sydney's Telstra Stadium.

Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson secured the game for England with a drop goal in the last minute of the game. In doing so sealed the nation's greatest sporting triumph since they defeated Germany in the 1966 (football) World Cup.

Will Carling, who captained the England team that lost to Australia during the 1991 World Cup final summed up the feelings of England fans as follows, "These are just incredible scenes and it's a great day for English rugby,". Whilst the defending champions Australia fought valiantly right to the end, they were ultimately undone by the unerring accuracy of England's vice-captain, who scored 15 of England's 20 points.

As captain Martin Johnson held the 'Webb Ellis Cup' above his head after the game millions of England fans around the world joined him on the pitch, thanks to live images from one of the two D-Cams. The second D-Cam was in amongst the England supporters at Sydney's Telstra Stadium getting close ups of the fans in their red and white outfits.

The two D-Cams were supplied to the Seven Network by Bnc Television Services, a specialised Sydney based rental compnay that is no stranger to the Telstra Stadium, BnC provided SOBO with 13 of the 22 Gigawave G-Cam wireless camera systems used for the 2000 Olympics.


Sydney, Australia - November 2003

World Rally Championship Goes Live!
A special 90 minute programme 'World Rally Live' on Channel 4 (UK) included live coverage of 'Margam Park 2', the final stage this years Wales Rally GB. The programme was designed to showcase the sort of television coverage that viewers can expect in the future.
This ambitious project, which uses the latest digital RF technology, represents a major milestone in sports broadcasting. The man behind it is David Richards, Chairman of ISC - the organisation which holds the commercial rights to WRC. Earlier this year, ISC signed a new contract with Chrysalis Sports Productions to provide broadcasters with recorded coverage all 14 WRC events, with a provision to cover certain stages live.

For the past two years, BBC Outside Broadcasts has provided Chrysalis with a production villiage at each WRC event where a world feed and various unilateral feeds, including that for Channel 4, are post produced. In the circumstances, it was natural for Chrysalis to entrust the live coverage of WRC stages to BBC Outside Broadcasts, including the on-board camera systems.

Unlike other kinds of motor sport, the live coverage of World Rally Championship events presents broadcasters with an unique challenge. For instance a stage can be many kilometres long and pass through difficult, heavily wooded terrain. Live coverage entails getting simultaneous feeds from fixed cameras, wireless cameras, aerial cameras, and on-board POV cameras, with cars spead out at one minute intervals.

Whilst various experiments have taken place in the past, it is only recently that developments in digital RF technology have made live coverage of WRC events a reality. For the Wales Rally GB, BBC Outside Broadcasts used two SNG trucks each with a 'clusters' of four fixed cameras at strategic locations, two AS355 helicopters with gyro-stabilised cameras, and thirteen on-board camera systems.

Each on-board camera system consists of two remotely switched POV cameras, the output of which is fed directly into a digital transmitter. In turn, the RF signal is fed into a specially designed digital power amplifier with integral patch antenna. The antenna is mounted flush with the roof of the car to avoid effecting the aerodynamics of the car. Using QPSK modulation, the signal is transmitted up to a pressurised aircraft, which orbited the stage at circa 15,000 feet (5,000 metres)

Up in the specially equipped aircraft, signals from up to four cars are received simultaneously using a highly sophisticated low-profile energy seaking phased array antenna. The effective gain of this software controlled antenna is equivalent to four independently steered 18dB antennas. To avoid introducing further delay, the aircraft is equipped with four Gigawave 'Rebro' systems to relay the signals back to the ground receive site.

For the WalesRally GB, images from the two helicopters, were transmitted direct to the ground receive site at Margam Park,using Gigawave MTV-D transmitter. Signals from both helicopters as well as the four downlinks from the mid-point aircraft were received at the ground receive site using MVL-D receivers, the output of which was fed directly into the BBC Outside Broadcasts OB Truck.

Finally, in addition to 13 digital uplinks and six digital downlinks, a Gigawave D-Cam wireless camera system was used at Margam Park to interview drivers at the end of the stage. A total of 20 Gigawave digital microwave links!

Commenting on the project , David Kerr, Channel 4's Head of Sport, said in a recent interview:

"Given the unprecedented challenge that rally presents, this live WRC broadcast will be a genuine landmark in sports broadcasting. We're committed to imagination and innovation in sports coverage and you simply can't get more ambitious than this."


Swansea, Wales - November 2003

Moto GP - A Brilliant Year for Rossi
Valentino Rossi ended a brilliant MotoGP season with yet another victory in Valencia, his ninth of the season! Since the season started in Japan, Rossi has taken the chequered flag nine times to end the season with a record breaking 357 Championship points.
Throughout the season MotoGP fans around the world have been able to enjoy live on-board images from Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi, Sete Giberna, and other riders thanks to on-board data recivers and transmitters supplied by Gigawave to Dorna, who hold the television rights to MotosGP.

Earlier this year Gigawave supplied Dorna with 30 'Mini' transmitters together with 30 specially designed data receivers, which 'piggyback' onto the Mini TX. The data receivers are used to provide Dorna engineers and production personnel with full remote control of the on-board cameras.

In addition to Gigawave on-board camera systems, Dorna have been using two MTV-D digital transmitters, with camcorders, for live pitlane and paddock coverage, since the start of this season.These have transformed the way that Dorna have coverered pitlane action and live interviews with riders like Rossi.

Dorna have been using backpack mounted MTV-D transmitters with pitlane poles because of their need to record all the footage that is shot by their cameramen. However, with the advent of the D-Cam 'Clip-on', this is no loinger necessary and for the last three events of the season Dorna have been evaluating the D-Cam 'Clip-on' wireless camera system. The cameramen love the 'Clip-on' as it gives them greater freedom and is so light and easy to use.

With MotoGP, like other motorsport events, performance and reliability are the winning combination!
Valencia, Spain - November 2003

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