[27 January 2014]
Broadcast production company Hedgehog has built the first high definition outside broadcast truck in the Lebanon. The Beirut based company turned to leading international distributor Argosy for most of the cables, racks, patch panels and other infrastructure.
The new truck is designed to cover the complete range of sporting and cultural events, and is equipped with 14 Grass Valley cameras and a sophisticated 240-channel Calrec digital audio console. It needs to carry reels of ruggedised triax camera cables, and multi-core and digital audio cables to be rigged as required.
Argosy also provided most of the cables and connectors for the internal wiring, along with patch panels and cords, and the power distribution units for each rack. As with any outside broadcast design, the engineers needed to balance minimising the weight of the installation with absolute reliability.
“Argosy not only distribute some of the best quality products on the market, they also have one of the broadest portfolio of the ‘right’ products — many of which have been used in our latest HD OB production vehicle,” said George Moufarrej, CEO of Hedgehog. “The team at Argosy also understand our business and deliver the highest quality products in the shortest possible time to meet our time-critical roll out requirements.”
Argosy engineers were able to provide expert advice on the optimum choices of matched cables and connectors, as well as delivering the location cable reels ready to go. All the material that was supplied by Argosy came direct from the company’s Middle East distribution centre in Dubai.
“Our customers look on us as a one-stop shop for projects like this,” said Mike Purnell, director of Argosy. “We can work with the systems engineers to ensure all the requirements are covered, with the right materials and the right quantities. This is a great new outside broadcast unit: we are proud to have played our part in it and we wish the team at Hedgehog great success.”
