Bexel Broadcast Services, in conjunction with NABET, BURST and Chyron, hosted a two day seminar on the operation of Chyron’s popular graphics generator the Duet Hyper X. The event was hosted at Bexel’s Chicago location. The Bexel Chicago staff welcomed the training attendees to the on Tuesday and Wednesday May 6 and 7.

Bexel provided two Chyron Hyper X units for the training class. Mark Pinkel and Robert Brown of Chyron donated a Hyper X unit. Robert Brown took the nine participants through a wide range of functions, short cuts and features of the Duet HyperX system and its OS, Lyric Pro 6.13, while Bexel’s Dario Pena was on hand to field technical, set up and troubleshooting questions. From the beginner to the frequent user, every participant was able to take away useful tips and time saving tricks that could come in handy on any project. This truncated version of Chyron’s five day basic course is the first of a series of nationwide events co-hosted by Bexel and BURST.

Everyone found something useful to take away and Bexel received many thanks and kudos from the participants. Ray Taylor from the Chicago Local 41 chapter will be putting together a article for an upcoming NABET newsletter that will highlight the two-day training event.

On Sunday April 20, 2008, a large scale, special event Papal Mass was held at New York’s Yankee Stadium. It was to become one of the great broadcast challenges of 2008 because it was scheduled to be covered by an extraordinary number of broadcasters. This made set up time and the cable path to and from camera locations and the many broadcast vans the real issue of the day. That’s where Bexel Broadcast Services came in. Only the live world event specialists could pull off something so complicated and time sensitive.

There were 20 anchor positions with multiple cameras, microphones, video monitors and IFB’s as well as 72 unilateral broadcasters. The media department of the Archdiocese of New York, with Larry Estrin as the coordinating technical director for media, determined that in order to allow all of these broadcasters to set up quickly and efficiently (since most of them were coming late on Saturday evening from another Papal Event in Yonkers), a vendor/client partnership was needed to provide a coordinated plan. That plan included the construction of steel scaffold platforms, power and a means of getting their signals to and from the media area in the stadium, in the center field bleachers, and to the parking lot on the opposite end of the stadium, where they could all have access to outgoing fiber. The distance was approximately 1200 feet.

The time constraints imposed by the stadium and, the Secret Service requirement to have the stadium cleared of people by 1:00AM for their security sweep, dictated that the broadcasters could not run their own cables. Bexel was contracted to provide a backbone that consisted of 18 TAC-12 fiber cables and the associated electronics and support technicians that allowed all the broadcasters to efficiently set up their positions and connect to their associated broadcast vans. Bexel also provided audio and video signal distribution at St. Joseph’s Seminary as well as various other fiber services.

Estrin commented, “Bexel provided excellent support to me and to the Archdiocese of New York. All of the facilities installed at both St. Joseph’s Seminary and Yankee Stadium more than satisfied the requirements of the media, allowing a very significant number of broadcasters to efficiently carry both events. Thank you!”

As a result of size, space and economic constraints, flypacks will have a larger presence at this summer’s Olympic Games, but that does not mean that the production will be scaled down. Bexel Broadcast Services will be one of the prime vendors with their trail blazing “Hercules” HD Flypack – the first and only of its kind. Bexel will break new ground for Olympic broadcasts.

“We cannot afford the time that it is going to take to put OB trucks onto ships,” says Martin Anderson of NEP Visions, Ltd. “That’s a reflection of the mix of contracts that we’ve got and when our various different sporting seasons start and end.”

“It’s great when you can’t get another 53-footer on top of a mountain,” says Craig Schiller, vice president of broadcast services for Bexel, “but it’s not perfect.”

Hercules is not perfect either but, “it’s very close to perfection for this application”, notes Schiller. It is a lightweight and modular system designed for easy set-up and, according to Schiller, “it is ideal for production where it may not be practical to utilize a full-size mobile unit. The rugged design of the flypack also makes it suitable to all shipping conditions”.

Hercules has many key components including the Sony MVS-8000G HD Switcher, the Pesa 256x256 router, Evertz MVP multi-viewers and terminal support. For audio demands, it features a Calrec Alpha Mixer at its core, providing ease in 5.1 Surround Sound mixing and routing. Space and convenience are of the utmost importance for an event of Olympic scale and Bexel will not skimp on technology in favor of convenience.

Bexel Broadcast Services brought a brand new, custom designed product to NAB 2008. The Ri-1000 radio system/intercom interface, is the brainchild of Andrew McHaddad, BexelASG’s chief audio engineer. The Ri-1000 interface is a radio-independent solution for use with a variety of commercial band two-way radio systems.

With all the interfacing circuitry and user controls in a separate chassis rather than integrated into the radio equipment, the Ri-1000 is portable across greater latitude of radio system types. And by separating the RF and audio circuitry, the radio equipment can now be placed for optimum RF performance, while allowing full control and monitoring of the audio signals in a central machine area.

Traditionally, producers needed a broadcast truck, or even multiple trucks, to shoot any major event that was held outside of a studio. As live televised sports, and eventually reality shows, grew in popularity, that requirement became a real problem at out of the way and space-constrained venues.

Through the years and through countless "impossible" remote situations, Bexel Broadcast Services has completely re-engineered the remote production process. Bexel's Director of Engineering, Edd Bonner, has recently unveiled the very latest Bexel Flypack innovation - The "Bexel Mini". Bonner and team have devised a way to configure every component of small, high-end control rooms into rugged shipping cases that can be transported anywhere in the USA.

“It was time" says Bonner, "to take the best of our modular flypack technology and package it up into smaller, simple units that can be customized to specific regional needs. We can do a super fast turn around, re-configure it and turn it around again...and again - and drop ship it with no hassle. The key is to always be adaptable – flypacks that can be configured and reconfigured per job, per office – as needed”.

These tightly packaged rack mounts can be quickly assembled / configured / re-configured to produce a customized complete system that will function in the most isolated venues and tightest quarters in any US city - under the most difficult broadcast condtions.

Bexel flypacks have set the standard of the industry and the new "Mini" will certainly make its mark. Contact any Bexel Account Executive or engineer for more information and specs.