The last set of vehicles, delivered this year by Broadcast Solutions, is conducted completely in UHD. Polimeks is the general contractor for the Ashgabat Olympic Complex in Turkmenistan and coordinates all broadcast facilities on-site. All production resources were used at the 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games that took place from 17 to 27 September 2017 at Ashgabat Olympic Complex, Turkmenistan. Besides delivering the OB Vans to Turkmenistan TV, Broadcast Solutions was on-site during the competitions to support the production and the teams.

In 2015 Broadcast Solutions delivered the first two sets of eight production vehicles to Polimeks Turkmenistan. Each set consisted of an HD-OB Van for 11-15 camera productions, support van, generator van and an SNG. The large-scale contract was completed in 2017 with the delivery of the last two sets of vehicles. In readiness for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in September 2017 the last two sets were delivered to the customer. In order to protect the vehicles all trucks were put on a flatbed truck to be transported to the customer. Part of the last set was an UHD/4K OB Van with 15 cameras – the first ever 4K OB Van to be working in the Central-Asian country. All OB Vans offer two production areas, of which the 4K vehicles’ 2nd production is integrated into the support truck.

Production equipment for one of the larger 4K UHD capable, expandable trucks includes a Sony XVS-8000 video switcher, 12 Sony HDC-4300 cameras and one Sony HDC-4800 slomo camera. There’s also an Evertz Microsystems EQX router (414x414 I/O in a hybrid IP/Baseband configuration); Evertz DreamCatcher replay systems, Lawo VSM, Studer Vista audio mixer, and a Riedel Comms system.

Wladislaw Grabowski, COO at Broadcast Solutions and project manager on this large project, said they completed eight vehicles in only seven months. Some of the new OB Vans will be used to cover an international golf tournament in Ashgabat at the end of this year.

All vehicles were tailor-built to the customers’ requirements and take into account the environmental conditions of Turkmenistan (where temperatures can range form -20°C in winter to +50°C in summer). This was addressed by installing special insulation and powerful air condition systems. Due to their design with redundant power supply and efficient UPS units, both OB Vans can be switched to generator mode interruption-free, in case an electricity failure occurs. The two SNG units (Volkswagen T6) transmit over dual band feed (extended-Ku / Ku) and thus can utilize conventional as well as Turkmenistan’s own satellite.