HD Broadcast UHD 2 begins working life with DFB Pokal and Bundesliga coverage By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe
Monday, September 21, 2020 - 17:55
Print This Story
German outside broadcast provider HD Broadcast's new flagship UHD 2 truck has taken to the road this month, covering first-round matches in the DFB Pokal German knockout cup and the start of the new Bundesliga season.
HD Broadcast chief executive and chief technology officer Constantin Novotny told SVG Europe the truck was originally commissioned last September with a view to being on the road earlier this year in time to cover UEFA Euro 2020 matches in Dublin, working alongside fellow German OB provider TVN.
However, when Euro 2020 was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis, HD Broadcast decided to delay the launch of the truck so that it would be ready for the start of the 2020-2021 football season in Germany.
The new truck, designed by HD Broadcast and built by Broadcast Solutions, is one of the largest units available in Germany. It can work with a maximum of 30 UHD/HDR cameras, and with an interior space of around 60 m2 the OB offers up to 28 staff members a spacious working environment.
Wide-angle view showing the spacious design inside UHD 2
The vehicle uses a multi-format production system based on 4K/3G-SDI Quad Link/HD/HDR formats. It is designed as a trailer with three extensions covering the complete trailer length, providing two control rooms, numerous engineering and slomo workstations and VIP spaces. A third control room is available with the support van.
Last weekend we covered Stuttgart versus Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday, and then Heidenheim versus Braunschweig in Bundesliga 2 on Sunday, said Novotny. The first production for the OB van was not in the Bundesliga, it was the previous weekend for the DFB Pokal German soccer cup. We covered three matches on our first weekend: Augsburg versus Eintracht Celle on Saturday 12 September; Kaiserslautern versus SSV Jahn Regensburg on the Sunday and W rzburg versus Hannover on the Monday.
It all went very well. The set-up for the DFB Pokal was not as big as for the Bundesliga. But it was very nice to see how the new truck works, and that all of the equipment and programming is working well.
Are there any differences in the coverage plan for the new Bundesliga season?
We covered the Bundesliga matches like the re-start last season - there are no differences. We still have the pandemic plan from Sportcast from the last nine match days of last season.
Of course now we have to learn to set up with fans in stadiums. The number of fans depends on the [federal] state; in Stuttgart, we had almost 8,000 fans and the next day between 2,000 and 3,000 fans. The second division is obviously smaller.
It turns out the new truck lends itself well to production during COVID-19 restrictions. But it was designed to be a very spacious working environment long before any of us had heard of coronavirus?
The design of UHD 2 is based on our first truck, HD 1. We wanted to set up different rooms - production rooms, technical and audio rooms. In the new truck we have a lot more space with new dimensions, but we have seen over the last couple of years [with HD 1] that this is the way we want to work with our customers.
We decided last September to build the truck. We would have had until April to make the design, build the chassis and make all the equipment installation. That was the original timeframe.
Audio production area with Lawo mc 56 mixer, Riedel Artist comms and Genelec 6.1 surround sound speakers
When the Euros were postponed we slowed down the building of the truck. Because of our contract with Sportcast for HD 1 we have another big OB van in HD, so now there was no need to finish the new truck quickly. We delayed it in all for three months, so that the new truck could be finished during the summer and be ready for the start of the new season.
We wanted to build a truck that was very comfortable, where all customer operators would have more space than in the older truck. We wanted to make comfortable workspaces, and we also have a tender truck with two separate rooms which can be set up as an edit room or highlight room, or as a third production room. So we have enough space together in both trucks to make each place very comfortable.
We all know there is a big trend now towards remote production, accelerated certainly by the COVID-19 crisis. Do you wonder if this will be the last big truck you build?
That's a very interesting question. Maybe this is the last decade for big trucks? Maybe.
But on-site, on big daily sporting events like Bundesliga, Champions League or Europa League, you have to set it up in a big truck. I think for concerts or other productions where you have much more time in one place - maybe days or even weeks - in the future these will be covered by remote production.
The next step for HD Broadcast is to cover everything in UHD. Maybe UHD and HDR. These are the two next big steps, and now we have prepared our company to be very comfortable for the future. Each investment we have made in the last couple of years has been based on UHD.
It was great to get the truck on the road. With this size of truck there are small things you have to fix from week to week. This is quite normal, to adjust and refine the programming from production to production in order to get a better set-up for the future, said Novotny.
View from back row of production gallery in action for Bundesliga
HD Broadcast's UHD 2 houses 10 EVS VIA servers, located under the desk of control room 1 - fully air-conditioned and soundproofed. It's equipped with a UPS unit, which ensures 15 minutes of autonomous operation of the complete OB in case of a power failure.
The truck carries Sony HDC-4300 cameras with Canon lenses, Sony XVS-9
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
HD Broadcast UHD 2 begins working life with DFB Pokal and Bundesliga coverage By Fergal Ringrose, SVG Europe 
