
BigVoice Media Leverages BirdDog PTZ Cameras to Overcome the Elements at Australian Swimming Championships Despite heavy rain, the weatherproof PTZs allowed the production to proceed By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - 12:41 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Last month, BigVoice Media Group was contracted by Swimming Australia as the host production for the 2021 Australian Swimming Championships & 2021 Australian Age Swimming Championships streamed live to Amazon Prime Video. Held at Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, in Queensland, Australia, the entire event was held outside - forcing BigVoice Media Group to confront challenging weather conditions throughout.
Swimming is one of those interesting sports where rain doesn't come into it the athletes are going to get wet regardless, says BigVoice Media Group co-founder Kristian Shepherd. So as a production we needed to have cameras that could work no matter the conditions rain or no rain.
The event ran for 13 days - both day and night sessions - and there was there was constant rain day and night across the opening three days of the Australian Age event. The event would only be suspended if there was severe lighting or dangerous weather in the vicinity of the pool. With that in mind, Shepherd and company enlisted BirdDog A200 weatherproof PTZ and P200 PTZ cameras, which allowed the production to go on without any stoppages.
With the Image quality plus the rain wiper, anti-fog and water resistance, the A200's ticked all the boxes we were looking for when approaching this type of outdoor production, says Shepherd.
Shepherd and co-founder Daniel Kumnick primarily deploy SDI-based productions but have begun a migration to a hybrid NDI/SDI environment over the next few years. As part of this evolution, BigVoice started to incorporate BirdDog cameras into its production complement last year.
As a production company this was our first interaction with Amazon Prime Video, says Shepherd. So there was an expectation that the product that was delivered would meet a certain level of quality, across sound, graphics and picture quality.
The 1080p50 show in Queensland was an NDI/SDI hybrid production featuring 10 cameras. Six of these were BirdDog systems - three A200's used in fixed place positions over the main competition pool and three P200's used as beauty shots, results backgrounds and additional coverage. The A200's were rigged to temporary truss uprights placed at either end of the pool, while the p200's were rigged on tripods and magic arms for additional coverage.
PTZ cameras, which were deployed for the entire event despite the weather, were controlled via a combination of the BirdDog PTZ controller & VISCA IP commands sent by bit focus companion.
Two of the A200's and one of the P200's were SDI direct via single mode fiber back to the switcher, while the Remaining three cameras were NDI signals back to ops and then converted to SDI.
Shepherd adds: The Advantage of having so many feeds as NDI sources on our network allowed us to easily route and create multivews and destinations rather than traditionally using Baseband SDI routers to achieve the same result.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
11/03/2026
Utah Scientific today announced the expansion of its Technology Partner Program with the addition of Audinate, Bitfocus, and Skaarhoj, three industry leaders wh...
11/03/2026
DigitalGlue, creator of the creative.space on-premise managed storage platform, today revealed plans to launch creative.space Intelligence (CSI) at NAB 2026 (Bo...
11/03/2026
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, has annou...
11/03/2026
Composer and Re-recording Mixer Michael Phillips Keeley has built his career around immersive storytelling. Working from his Dolby Atmos-equipped studio, Sound ...
11/03/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that YES, the pay-TV subsidiary of the telco Bezeq (TASE: BEZQ), has selected Synamedia Iris to delive...
11/03/2026
As media companies face increasing cost pressures and operational complexity, at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in OTT / TV...
11/03/2026
Digital Alert Systems, a global leader in emergency communications solutions for media providers, today announced the release of Version 6 software for its DASD...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Foundry releases Nuke 17.0
Brie Clayton March 1, 2026
0 Comments
Native Gaussian Splat support, new 3D system based on USD, expanded machine learning ca...
11/03/2026
Preserving UNESCO World Heritage with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton March 1, 2026
0 Comments
The Explorers turned to France's cultural landmark...
11/03/2026
I Clicked This By Accident And It Made After Effects SO Much Faster
Graham Quince March 1, 2026
0 Comments
Discover how Region of Interest in Adobe A...
11/03/2026
Cine Gear Connect Brings a Focused All-Day Experience to Industry City, NY
Brie Clayton March 4, 2026
0 Comments
Registration is now open for Cine Gea...
11/03/2026
La Vor gine Edited and Finished with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 4, 2026
0 Comments
One of Colombia's most ambitious projects goes g...
11/03/2026
SoundMarket Launches 18,000 Tracks of Real Music by Award-Winning Composers for...
11/03/2026
Capta Center Supports NOVO19 Remote Production with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton March 5, 2026
0 Comments
The facility provides production and playo...
11/03/2026
DigitalGlue Ends the Post-Production Tax: creative.space Intelligence (CSI) Unif...
11/03/2026
Kochi Sun Sun Uses Blackmagic Replay for High School Volleyball Finals
Brie Clayton March 9, 2026
0 Comments
Versatile Blackmagic Replay system proves...
11/03/2026
Richard Bona Joins Berklee for Signature Series Concert The Grammy-winning Cameroonian bassist and vocalist collaborates with students and faculty in a progra...
11/03/2026
Launched today, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is a 120 billion parameter open model with 12 billion active parameters designed to run complex agentic AI systems at sc...
11/03/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded nearly $5 million by NIH to investigate cancer growth Researchers will investigate how a common dietary nutrient may control...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/03/2026
Game developers and artists are building cinematic worlds and iconic characters ...
10/03/2026
Game development teams are working across larger worlds, more complex pipelines and more distributed teams than ever. At the same time, many studios still rely ...
10/03/2026
The Cat 306 CR mini-excavator weighs just under eight tons and fits inside a standard shipping container. It's the machine a contractor rents when the job s...
10/03/2026
NVIDIA and Thinking Machines Lab announced today a multiyear strategic partnersh...
09/03/2026
Foos Gone Wild and Combate Global have teamed up to create a twist on combat sports competition, announcing the launch of a special amateur Mixed Martial Arts (...
09/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Harmonic will introduce significant enhancements to its video appliances and SaaS solutions, highlighted by a next-generation media server...
09/03/2026
ESPN's March 3 spring training matchup between Team USA and the San Francisc...
09/03/2026
Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) announces the launch of MVPW, a new global platfo...
09/03/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
09/03/2026
From Super Bowl compounds to Final Four setups, the Hofstra graduate helps coord...
09/03/2026
Stamford plays a key role, but a small team in Cortina and Milan powers local presence and mixed-zone coverage...
09/03/2026
The event brings together SVG's previous Cloud Production and Content Management Forums into a single, comprehensive day of programming...