Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) has installed HD multiviewers from Apantac in its newly refurbished HD mobile television production truck.
The 40ft mobile production truck serves as a state-of-the-art mobile production lab and is now being used to produce live sports events that are telecast to high-profile outlets such as ESPN. The truck is also used as a lab for MTSU mass communication students. Recently, MTSU students produced a 1-hour documentary for PBS Nashville on the ARES-1 rocket launch.
The production truck is equipped with Apantac's Tahoma-LE Series multiviewers and is used to train students. At events, the student crew handles all production aspects of the event coverage. The new multiviewers provide the multi-image display processing tools necessary to visually monitor all feeds from cameras out in the field and content being fed from tape decks and digital disk recorders. The feeds are displayed on a monitor wall, which includes two 46in LCD screens. One Tahoma-LE-16 HD (16 input) multiviewer module is used for the preview monitoring, another module is used for program monitoring, and a third module is used for monitoring eight inputs of video for the engineering monitor and eight inputs of video for the audio booth monitor. Two Tahoma-LE-4 (4 input) HD Multiviewers are used for monitoring the playback sources.
Each multiviewer displays four to 16 SD, HD-SDI or composite inputs, and the production crew can configure each display using configuration layout software. The multiviewers incorporate a built-in CATx extender, which allows the output of the multiviewer to be extended up to 115ft. The multiviewers support DVI, HDMI and VGA outputs up to 2048x1080 (incl. 1080p), and include built-in video and audio alarm detection, borders, the ability to insert graphics (e.g. logos) and display window labels.