MATRAVILLE, NSW Australia—I launched Innovative Production Services (Innovative) with my colleague Brendan Sadgrove in 1997 to focus on live events. Over our 25-year history, Innovative has gained experience in all aspects of live production including live music, theater, TV and art and performance, but large corporate events had become our focus heading into 2020 when the Covid pandemic quickly changed everything.
Realizing that there were not going to be any large events for the time being, we knew we had to adapt. We set up a trial studio in our factory that quickly moved into a 750 square-meter professional sound stage. We loved this new studio world and our gear had to step up in certain areas to match the standards that not only our customers expected, but what our staff and contractors were used to. So, we purchased a Ross Carbonite Black SOLO (split system) for our studio, The HUB. This little powerhouse was amazing, especially for its size. This only led to more interest in Ross Video products.
Tech for our Truck
After a very successful 18 months in the studio environment, we had the game-changing opportunity to purchase an impeccable broadcast truck with no gear in it—something Brendan and I had only dreamed about for years.
Whatever we selected needed to work with our current workflows and accommodate upgrades and changes as required. Ross Video products and solutions give us the flexibility we need—we wanted gear that could easily talk to each other and have control systems and solutions that are all part of an integrated unit.
After careful evaluation and assessment, we decided on a Ross Ultrix Carbonite FR5 Frame, and several other Ross products and solutions for our new truck.
We wanted something that would work for us now and into the future. The truck needed to offer ultimate simplicity, flexibility, and compatibility—not only in the physical domain, We also wanted it to be easy to understand, use and troubleshoot for our staff and contractors. Starting with 12G-SDI now means that everything works instantly for us and it’s a known signal format for all of our team, offering immediate benefits especially when it comes to supporting 4K workflows. Also, with the Ultrix system, if and when we need to include ST 2110, we can do that by simply swapping out an IO blade.
Flexible Panels
This flexibility is not just in the Ultrix solution—the Ultritouch Panels and TouchDrive panel also get updates to allow new functionality. We have been actively suggesting and requesting new features for many of the Ross Video products we now own. It’s so good to see Ross actively developing and working on their products and pushing those updates to their customers.
The success and validation of the truck’s design concepts were proven in two key jobs: IBM Think 2022 and TEDx Sydney. At IBM the truck was in “full event mode” where it was the technical hub for the entire main stage. All cameras came back to the truck as they would in a typical broadcast and the show was streamed from the truck. But that’s where the similarities ended.
We also ran all playback for the show from the truck and all outputs for the live event were also fed from the truck. This includes projector 3G-SDI feeds for the main screens, foldback monitor feeds, side of stage monitor feeds and lighting monitor feeds. For this event, besides handling the main switch of all cameras and content for the screens in the room and the live stream, Ross Ultritouch panels with Dashboard switched all the KVM stations. The two graphics positions relied heavily on these touch panels, contributing to a successful event.
For more information on Ross Video, visit www.rossvideo.com.
