Promar TV Broadcasts Sou America s Largest Baseball League with Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design today announced that Venezuela based Promar TV is using ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, Universal Videohub and Teranex 2D Processors, as well as a number of other Blackmagic Design products, as the backbone of its new OB truck. Promar TV is using the truck to broadcast every single game of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional , South America's largest professional baseball league.

Promar TV is Venezuela's largest production company and television station. It recently became the official production company for the LVBP, managing the production of all games for national and foreign networks and channels, including Fox Sports, ESPN and every major television station in Venezuela. Each game is captured in HD, and stations are offered up to four format options for their individual broadcasts. Promar TV also works with each station and network to customize broadcasts to match each individual on air brand.

To support this, Promar TV built a 23 foot tactical OB truck equipped with a Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher, Universal Videohub 72x144 router, four Teranex 2D Processors, seven HyperDeck Studios to record games, several UltraStudio 3D I/O devices to help with editing and monitoring and numerous UltraScopes and Mini Converters.

Jorge Santiago Kossowski, engineering manager at Promar TV, explained: We need to manage up to four TV stations and networks broadcasting the same game, and of course, each of them wants their own commercial inserts and branding. They also want to have their own commentators report on the game from the stadium press boxes as well as from the field. Each commentator setup requires its own camera feed on game day.

In addition to taking care of the individual station and network needs, Promar TV provides in game support with individual feeds to press boxes and game umpires. This year we had a new rule in baseball: a manager can challenge the umpire's decision. For this, the umpire needs to review the play from multiple angles, and it's Promar's responsibility to capture and provide the instant replay just for the umpires.

In order to manage the multitude of deliverables, Promar TV relies on the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, which sits at the heart of the OB truck.

The ATEM was the first choice for us. Its versatility provides exactly what we require. The aux busses allow us to easily separate the broadcasts for different stations, and the ease of changes between different transitions, like stingers, DVE wipes and so on, give each station control over the look they want for their broadcast, explained Jorge. This season, we expect to work with eight directors, all with their own style and all who like to arrange the cameras, VTRs, Multiviewer and such, to fit that style. The ATEM gives us the flexibility to do this without compromising the workflow or the quality of the broadcast.

To accommodate the number of feeds coming in and out of the new truck, Promar TV uses the Universal Videohub. It's very compact, which makes it ergonomically ideal for our new OB truck. But the main reason for purchasing the Videohub was that we were able to put all 216 cables through one piece of equipment, making cabling a lot easier. Before, we had cables running everywhere. When there was a hiccup and we didn't know what caused it, we'd have to troubleshoot 144 cables. That's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. With the Universal Videohub, everything is centralized, and if we need to find something, we know it's going to be there, said Jorge.

Promar captures the games in HD, offering each station and network up to four format options for their broadcasts thanks to the powerful conversion capabilities of the Teranex. In Venezuela not all broadcasts are in high definition (HD). We still have 4:3 broadcasts, which is standard definition, and 16:9, which is the wide angle screen. To manage all of the conversions, we use Teranex. It's so simple. One push of a button and you have the change. And in live event production where time is money, this type of fast transaction is critical.

To ensure content meets various broadcast standards, Promar TV uses Blackmagic's UltraScope. It's a very simple video output controlled by a computer, so we can easily send it through a dedicated satellite feed for the stations and networks to monitor directly. Each station can see the levels for video, audio and more, so they're confident that what we are outputting is top notch. Since we implemented this, I've had a 100 percent success rate. UltraScope has saved me a lot of hassle and a lot of phone calls with technicians, concluded Jorge.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company's Emmy award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

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