It’s a work in progress but we recently acquired our first 360 Designs vehicle, which we’re excitedly converting for Live VR / 360 use.
It’s believed to be the world’s first satellite VR truck, and will be ready for client use this summer.
The truck has an interesting history. It was custom built by Frontline, the Rolls Royce of broadcast trucks – and was originally made for a TV news station in San Antonio.
With our growing reputation for ‘tentpole’ live VR production work, we wanted to offer clients a more turnkey, professional, broadcast-friendly option for live 360 event broadcasting. With the extensive capabilities offered by this truck, we’ll be able to easily broadcast live in 360/VR from any major sports, music or other event, and be completely autonomous in doing so – a first for the industry. We’ll also be able to do this at lower cost, since a large part of our costs have been the extensive preparation time in getting our specialized equipment ready for a Live VR production.
Here’s a sneak peak at some of the features which will be offered by our forthcoming Live VR truck:
- Fully autonomous, turnkey operation (go live from anywhere)
- Satellite, Microwave, Cellular bonding and Gigabit Ethernet backhaul options
- 10 x Live 360 cameras (Mini EYE 3, other 360 cameras supported)
- 10 x 4K broadcast 2D cameras, for picture-in-picture 360, or traditional 4k use
- Mast cam (2D and 360), 50 ft pneumatic mast
- 2.4m satellite with dual 4k transponders and 8k by satellite
- 3000 ft hardwired range for cameras (all fiber)
- Built in drone launch pad (with ‘flight deck / desk’ operation) – 7 mile range – 2D, 360 plus tethered options
- Fiber (ST, OpticalCon Quad), SDI, and NDI for I/O panel and all internal busses
- Resolution agnostic design (4k, 6k, 8k, 10k and higher supported)
- Dedicated production booth, sound booth, editing station, social media desk and engineering sections
- 10 Gigabit internal and external network
- Fully routable internal infrastructure, flexible in/out options for connection to other (2D) broadcast trucks
- 30KW internal generator, four AC units, turbo diesel Caterpillar engine
We are sharing ongoing build photos of the VR truck over on our Instagram. Here’s a few more pics (the… ‘before’ photos).
See you at NAB!
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- Testing the truck in Texas
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- On the road through Arizona
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- Gas station en route from Texas
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- Back at home base LA
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- Original interior (pre-conversion)
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- Original schematics
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- Checking the AC units
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- Inspecting the original I/O Panel
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- Having fun with the original equipment
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- Literally all the original equipment works perfectly
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- First job – isolate the DC power
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- Original gear starts to come out
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- First piece of new gear to go in (One of several 10G switches)
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- Original I/O Panel removed
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- Designing the new I/O Panel
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- Cutting new I/O Panel
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- Original Utility Area
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- New Sound Booth
