As broadcasters and media organizations take on the challenge of meeting shifting consumer demands, the ability to deliver richer, more engaging content across all platforms is critical. EMG chose Grass Valley to deploy lightweight LDX 86^N4K HDR RF camera heads to optimize its existing RF wireless offering for 4K UHD. It is the industry’s only wireless, shoulder-mounted 4K RF head, offering EMG a single solution for transmitting HD, 4K and HiSpeed HD over the same link. LiveTools Technology, a subsidiary of EMG, has developed an integral transmitter module to be used with the new camera head. As one of Europe’s leading broadcast facilities and service providers, EMG is now able to deliver unmatched coverage of live events, such as international road cycling and marathons.

Ronald Meyvisch, chief technology officer, EMG commented: “We’ve developed unique wireless solutions to provide our clients with the best coverage of their projects, and we always aim to deliver the highest frame rate possible with the highest quality imagery. To complement our UHD wireless technology, we were looking for a lightweight, robust and native 4K HDR RF camera. The new LDX 86^N4K RF camera head was the perfect solution for what we needed. With no compromise on image quality, we have the agility we need to successfully operate in an RF broadcast environment.”

LDX 86^N RF

The LDX 86^N4K HDR RF camera is part of the LDX 86^Nfamily of cameras, and has been specially designed to offer a shoulder mount camera for 4K and for high-speed HD applications where a compact wireless camera is needed. Grass Valley has a compact camera, the LDX C86^N that is suited to Steadicam use with an external RF transmitter unit, but the LDX 86^N4K HDR RF provides an alternative shoulder-mount camera with integral RF facilities. 

As the regular LDX86 camera doesn't have quad SDI outputs from the camera head and internal solution has been developed for 4K. The camera body replaces the fiber/triax rear module with a casing for a third-party transmitter. The RF rear module includes a Grass Vally interface card that converts the RGB signals used for fiber and triax into quad 3G-SDI to feed the transmitter. The use of quad SDI means that the camera can output 4K or HD plus three-phase high-speed HD to the transmitter, allowing the same 3x HiSpeed at 1080i or 720P as the fiber/triax versions of the camera.

The LDX 86^N4K HDR RF is supplied in partnership with a number of third-party RF specialists. So far, three vendors have solutions based on the camera: LiveTools Technology, VideoSys Broadcast, and Wave Central.