F&F's GTX21, the Company's Largest Production Unit, Hits the Road for CBS College Football

F&F's GTX21, the Company's Largest Production Unit, Hits the Road for CBS College Football President Marc Orgera: The exciting part is, we can show that we can build these types of trucks' By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Thursday, August 28, 2025 - 3:12 pm

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This weekend marks a new era for F&F Productions. GTX21, the video-production-service supplier's first three-trailer production unit, will be at the center of CBS Sports' coverage of Big Ten Football when the Penn State Nittany Lions face off against the Nevada Wolf Pack in State College, PA.

The exciting part for us is that we can show that we can build these types of trucks, says F&F Productions President Marc Orgera. When my dad [Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer George Orgera] retired, he said we needed to build one of these trucks. Now we have GTX21 with a bigger production room, bigger graphics area, bigger audio room, and more space for EVS operators and video operators.

Despite burgeoning interest in remote production and the move to cloud-based workflows, truck construction by F&F and others in 2025 is proof positive that there is still plenty of demand for large trucks capable of doing large shows with large numbers of production staff onsite.

We're surprised by how much interest there is in bigger trucks, says Orgera. GTX20, which we built for CBS Sports, was the biggest truck we had built, and it was received very well. But GTX21 is 30%-40% bigger in terms of firepower compared with GTX20, and people are now thinking, What other big shows can we put this on?

The need for a unit became evident last year when GTX20 was bursting at the seams as client production needs expanded. For example, even though GTX20 is a very capable unit, a third trailer would be brought in on occasion. That led to a push by F&F to build a new unit with a third trailer and to make sure it wasn't just a larger version of GTX20.

Our engineering team didn't want to make this a clone of something we've done before, says Orgera. It was a great challenge for our team to do this.

Housing production and graphics, GTX21's A unit features a Grass Valley HD Kayenne XIP K-Frame switcher with 192 inputs and 9M/E, a Grass Valley IP routing core, and 24 32-in. 4K HDR monitors on the main monitor wall (all other monitors in GTX21, except for video shading, are 1080p HDR).

The GTX21 main production gallery houses 4K HDR monitors and a Grass Valley switcher.

The B unit has a redesigned audio area, with Calrec Argo console and audio monitoring for Dolby Atmos mixes, and a replay area wired for nine 12-channel EVS XT-VIA production servers, video shading, engineering, and transmission.

We have speakers in the ceiling of the audio room, notes Orgera, and it's not front to back like our usual audio rooms. It's built sideways so there is room to expand and have all the gadgets that engineers want to cram into the racks.

GTX21 has an expanded EVS replay area.

The C unit comprises the submix area and additional space for shows that need to bring in additional resources.

The feedback has been great, notes Orgera. When people walk through, they do think about how this can be used for bigger shows. This is a great addition for F&F, and it signals that we're here and we're staying here.

The Calrec Argo audio console in the main audio-mixing area of GTX21

To supply GTX21, F&F has purchased 16 Sony HDC-5500 variable-frame-rate cameras and Fujinon 10 UA125x8 box zoom lenses with Lens Effect installed. Lens Effect can be used in conjunction with a camera that has a Variable ND to provide a cinematic image, within traditional 2/3-in. imaging systems, to the production.

Fujinon developed the technology in response to F&F's needs, Orgera says. [We] have a 40-year relationship with Fujinon. They take us very seriously and delivered on the promise that they would get this done before football season. Now the lenses can be used either as a regular lens or shallow depth of field because it can be added or taken away just like an extender.

He applauds everyone at F&F involved with building GTX21 for delivering amidst long days and nights. I think everybody at F&F has some of their DNA in this truck. The C unit was built last fall to help out with GTX20, and we started building the B unit in March and the A unit in July. Our engineering team led by Don Adidan, John Figley, and Bruce Ohr was tremendous.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/08/28/ffs-gtx21-the-companys-largest-...
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