As it has for several years, Robovision, a company that specializes in building temporary system infrastructures to acquire unique camera POV shots, is helping FOX Sports produce this year’s tournament with fiber-optic transmission technology from MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems.

Working with a crew from Game Creek Video (Hudson, N.H.) and its “Encore” all-3Gbps HD truck, Richard Glandorf, Director of Field Operations at Robovision, Inc., said, they will use 32 camera systems that consist of a set of MultiDyne fiber-optic transmitters/receivers (MultiDyne HD3000 transmitters and HD4200 receiver cards, housed in a standard Open Gear frame) to send the HD signals over a single fiber-optic cable distances of several miles without experiencing any degradation of the picture or audio levels.

During the broadcast, a MultiDyne HD3000 transmitter, housed in a rugged field case that sits next to each camera, is used to convert the HD-SDI signals coming from the camera to an optical signal so that it can travel miles over a single fiber strand back to the onsite production truck for mixing into the main program feed. These camera locations will include some at the tee platforms, in studios, the press area, and other places around the Chambers Bay course.

Glandorf said all of the shows Robovision now produces for network television sporting events are distributed via fiber-optic cabling. It’s faster, signals travel further and it’s less work for crews to install and then take away after a long project.

MultiDyne’s HD–3000 Series of 5 to 2970 Mbps Serial Digital Video Fiber Optic Transport Links support all common video formats, including the 1080p (3 Gbps) HD format. The HD–3000 line offers an economical solution for the fiber optic transport and distribution of virtually any digital signal from 5 Mbps to 3 Gbps, reducing risk for incompatibility with new formats in the future. The systems will transparently pass any embedded audio and data.

RoboVision was founded in February 1990 while pioneering the use of robotic camera systems at Daytona International Speedway. Robovision also helps produce 40 weeks of NASCAR racing every year for Fox Sports.