2nd May, 2012. Parma, most important town after Bologna in well known Emilia-Romagna region, Italy, has seen its inhabitants number increase in the last two years.
Among the most important production facilities here, Videob Television S.r.l was founded in 1985, matured in their long history a very rich portfolio of mostly television productions dealing with news, sport, videoclip, concerts, corporate videos and tv specials for renowned Italian organizations like Videomusic, Telelombardia, Telepiù, Telemontecarlo, Halva, Media Partners, EBU.
At the moment they operate mainly in a form of continuous collaboration with Italian broadcasters like Rai, Mediaset and satellite operator Sky. They operate an interesting fleet of 4 ob-vans, which are equipped and configured differently according to their tasks.
“Esterna 1” is a bi-camera working in SD, equipped with on board Avid editing systems. Along with this unit another support vehicle is usually sent on location, a single 30 kVa tender “monogrouppo” ( a single electrical generator).
“Esterna 2” is generally supported by a double electrical generator tender supplying 80 kVa. This vehicle may support up to 12 cameras operating in HD/SD and is equipped with two EVS slow motion units in High Definition.
“Esterna 3” may work with up to 8 cameras in SD; on board we may find an EVS XT and it is generally sent on location along with a double electrical generator of 60 kVa;
“Esterna 4” usually works with 4 HD cameras, one EVS HD, an editing station with Avid an double tenders each equipped with 30 kVa.
All tv cameras chosen and working with such OB-Vans are Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite for HD images and LDK 300 for SD shooting. On board video mixers of Esterna 2 and 4 are both Snell & Willcox Kahuna. These mixers have been chosen for their ability to operate both in SD and HD even in mixed formats.
All projects, cabling and customizations of such vehicles were completely created by Videob technical staff.
Despite all this technological precious equipments the owner, Ettore Cortesi, is witnessing a serious crisis of this industry. Actually the world economic crisis is shortening tv production budgets and stretching payments. He says: “We are obliged to follow every new technological advancement, we can never stand still. Several times we find ourselves involved in 12 camera HD shooting events, in need for supermotion images, EVS super slow motion, a huge number of technical professionals involved; and Italian broadcast organizations often pay you less than half what happens with foreign similar events. Besides, Italian broadcasters tend to pay you with very long delays, even six or seven months after the event. The situation may evidently seem critical. The main events organizers nowadays for the same event propose you payments which are 30, 40% less than the average in the past , only four years ago. Besides it is common practice here, even in the small events just like volleyball, basket, rugby and others to entrust tv production on field to small “sometimes unofficial” companies using underpaid personnel, freelancers, and sometimes the Leagues and Sorts federations themselves take care of the tv productions involved, at very low budgets. In such cases we cannot accept these jobs even if they could be interesting we simply can't take them otherwise we would not even be able to cover the costs...”
Italian OB provider Videob succeeds amidst tough economy
The Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, with large towns like Parma and
Bologna, continues to see its population grow in recent years. But the
populations aren’t the only ones growing. Ettore Cortesi, owner of OB
unit provider Videob Television S.R.L., founded in 1985, says his
company is keeping up with technology needs despite a challenging
economic environment.
“We are obliged to follow every new technological advancement, we can
never stand still,” he says. “Several times we find ourselves involved
in 12 camera HD shooting events, in need of Super-motion cameras, EVS
replay devices, and a huge number of technical professionals are
involved.”
At the moment Videob Television has four OB units that are
constantly in use by Italian broadcast clients like Rai, Mediaset and
satellite operator Sky Italia. And each of the vans can be
reconfigured to best meet specific needs. Camera choice includes Grass
Valley LDK 8000 Elite units for HD needs and LDK 300 for SD shooting.
Two of the units (Esterna 1 and 3) are SD, with the former capable of
handling two cameras and the latter up to eight cameras. Esterna 1
also has Avid editing capabilities while Esterna 3 as an EVS XT replay
server.
For those looking for HD mixing capabilities, Esterna 2 and 4 have a
Snell Kahuna vision mixer and are wired to handle 12 and 4 HD cameras
respectively and 2 has two EVS replay servers while 4 only has one.
Esterna 4 also has an Avid editing system and both, if needed, can
operate in SD mode.
While Cortesi and Videob have made the investment to future-proof the
fleet the current economic crisis is lowering TV production budgets,
especially in Italy.
“Italian broadcast organizations often pay less than half of what we
would get from foreign broadcasters for similar events,” he explains.
“And there is also a common practice to entrust TV production on the
field to small and ‘unofficial’ companies with freelancers at very low
budgets. In those cases we simply cannot accept those jobs because we
would not even be able to cover the costs.”
Despite those issues, Videob Television remains an important
production company. And a long history of experience handling a rich
portfolio of news, sports, concerts, and other productions for the
nation’s biggest broadcasters will make it always so, whether or not
the economy cooperates.
