Studio Berlin unveils U10, an “innovative” mobile unit with its racks on a support vehicle

Production services company Studio Berlin details its new UHD U10 mobile UHD unit, planned and integrated with Broadcast Solutions。

Studio Berlin claims to have followed “innovative paths” when tackling this new vehicle. The most groundbreaking decision, something Studio Berlin says “has never before been implemented with this consistency,” is the separation of the control room and the technology room. The technical components are not installed in the mobile unit, as usual, but are housed in a central equipment room in the support truck, connected to the U10 via a fiber link.

Installing much of the technology in the support truck presents several advantages for the OB truck’s productions and equipment, Studio Berlin says. The production services company believes that outsourcing provides production teams with additional workstations and expands work areas. In this way, minimum distances between workstations can be maintained, allowing acrylic glass shields to be extended; and the two control rooms can be transformed into a single control space by moving doors and monitor walls.

The air-conditioning technology has also been simplified, reducing the noise level in the vehicle, and ventilation has been improved to promote air renewal.

U10 equipment

The U10 mobile unit offers 26 workstations and can run productions with up to 24 UHD cameras (グラスバレー LDX 86N) and additional wireless cameras. The mobile unit is equipped with a Grass Valley 12G K-Frame XP Compact mixer with Xtreme option, a Karrera K-Frame 3 M/E in the main control room and a Korona 2 M/E in the second control room.

In terms of routing, Studio Berlin has opted for Riedel’s MediorNet decentralized router solution, which manages video, audio and multiviewer signals, as well as 38 UHD MicroN units. The audio section is managed with Lawo’s mc256 MK III console (64 faders), with fully redundant UHD cores operating in audio control 1; and an mc236 console (16 faders) in audio control 2. Finally, for slow motion management (an issue widely demanded in sports productions), the U10 can host up to eight EVS or Grass Valley LiveTouch servers.

Working in UHD

Studio Berlin has considerable experience in UHD/HDR productions. To accommodate these workflows, the U10 has four 31″ UHD/HDR Class 1 monitors, which allow HDR signals to be evaluated. Engineers and designers have another 55″ monitor for testing UHD signals, arranged at a suitable viewing angle.

Furthermore, to increase production reliability, U10 takes advantage of a powerful UPS buffer. In case of power failure, U10 can maintain the entire production for 15 minutes on battery power. The UPS buffer gives time to react and switch the power supply in case of emergency, making the use of a parallel diesel generator unnecessary.