Total RF had planned to purchase an analogue console for the RF6, the full-size, 53ft tractor-trailer built for NBC's golf coverage, before company owner Steve Gansky came across the InnovaSON desk online, and found it matched his requirements for superior sound quality, ultra-low noise floor, and switching and routing capabilities.
"My thought was that this could potentially be a way to get a new, reasonably-priced piece of equipment that would perform the functions that we needed," he says. "Unlike the normal production truck, all the RF comes into our truck, where we perform the QC, test and switching of ingoing or outgoing video or audio, P/Ls, and IFBs, then hand that over to the production truck. There's such a reliance on RF in golf coverage that we have a mobile unit just to do that."
Engineer Bob DeLong's principal function is to provide head-end distribution of the RF sources. "I take in all the wireless signals from the course, make sure they're good and pass them on," he says. "If I have to change routing - if one camera has to show up as another camera - I change routing. I'm a combination routing switcher and QC."
Consequently, the InnovaSON's Sy40-8 instant recall and reset of console-wide routing and control setups has been a huge timesaver. "It's time efficient," he says. "I've been able to set patterns for next year's shows. One pattern will probably do 80% of the shows, so instead of spending time developing a layout for a show, the InnovaSON has given me the flexibility and the luxury of having it already there, so I can get on with the fine-tuning."
One of the most recent jobs for Total RF's InnovaSON-equipped truck was the Ryder Cup, the historic golf tournament which pits US pro players against a European team.
(Lee Baldock)
