[quote="Bill D"]Mike cool pics and video, thanks for sharing 48 crosspoint... nice[/quote] How did I know you would like that!!! :)

[quote="Mike Cumbo"][quote="jwillis"]The only trouble might be getting tape machines which run that way.[/quote] John, American rental places have PAL format VTRs that use US power. Do you know if any of the European rental places have NTSC gear set for your power specs? At least one sync generator I looked at can run on 50 or 60HZ, 100-240V AC, autoranging and generates almost any flavor of signals needed. Mike, OB 4 doesn't look like a real big truck. Am I right? The monitor wall looks smallish.[/quote] Mike Most modern SPGs will give out anything from 24p up to 59.94. As John mentioned the switchers and monitors would also be able to cope with multiple frame rates. Regarding VTRs in the old SD days VTRs were built to perform only in one standard i.e. PAL or NTSC but they were able to handle 100 - 240 volts. Today in the HD world a VTR can cope with most formats ranging from 25p or I up to 59.94I and a growing number of Sony VTRs now have the CineAlta feature which means it records and playbacks at 24p. Phil

It's not a huge truck, OB 10 is much bigger. The monitor wall is horrible. They could fit more monitors in here, but they installed the rack UMDs instead of having the UMDs cover the bottom portion of the monitor. We only have 81 monitors. 3 of them have a quad split and 5 of them are build ups stacked in front of me. Some of the monitors are fed by routers that we can switch.

[quote="jwillis"]The only trouble might be getting tape machines which run that way.[/quote] John, American rental places have PAL format VTRs that use US power. Do you know if any of the European rental places have NTSC gear set for your power specs? At least one sync generator I looked at can run on 50 or 60HZ, 100-240V AC, autoranging and generates almost any flavor of signals needed. Mike, OB 4 doesn't look like a real big truck. Am I right? The monitor wall looks smallish.

mike, looks interesting, thanks for sharing

Ohhhh, I wasn't thinking about feeds, that makes sense.

Not sure how it would work if we produced in NTSC. I have 108 sources, about half of which come from the BBC so converting a bunch of stuff would be crazy. Easier to convert once.

Rick, things are well here. Hope the same in your part of the world. I do believe SECAM was the issue in Monaco. From what I have read it is near impossible to produce a show in that format. Most are done in either PAL or NTSC and then converted at transmission. I know that in years past the F1 Grand Prix in Brazil was produced in NTSC, because the version of PAL that Brazil used was tough to cross convert to regular PAL or NTSC. Stephan, you are correct with your thinking. It used to be called "line lock", referencing video gear to the AC cycle. One problem for broadcast, not all AC is indeed 60Hz here, put a meter on your power lines and see. It can roam between 58 and 62Hz.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]Rick, could it be that Monaco uses SECAM? Who was the end client on that show? If it was a US client, keeping everything NTSC would have been easier then converting from PAL.[/quote] Hi Mike, How are you? The end client was a USA Client, but the one live show we did was broadcast all over the world which has multiple feeds for several markets and was distributed by FSN. The finale was a 4 hour live show from Salle Medecin, one of the private casinos in Les Casinos de Monte-Carlo.

[quote="mtiffee"]Every show I've done in Europe was produced in PAL. I don't think you can produce in NTSC since everything here is 50Hz (power, etc.).[/quote] I know that historically NTSC and PAL used power line frequency for genlock which was the reason they operated at those frame rates, but isn't genlock in modern video equipment independent from that now?

Rick, could it be that Monaco uses SECAM? Who was the end client on that show? If it was a US client, keeping everything NTSC would have been easier then converting from PAL.

I have worked in Europe many times. For some reason I seem to remember we produced NTSC in Monaco on HD1 which was a Multi Format Visions truck. I don't know why sticks in my mind, but for the most part we usually we just stay in the PAL format as Mike mentioned and transmission does the rest.

Mike cool pics and video, thanks for sharing 48 crosspoint... nice

Every show I've done in Europe was produced in PAL. I don't think you can produce in NTSC since everything here is 50Hz (power, etc.). We're sending out 16x9 SD to TNT and ESPN and they're standards and up converting in the US to 1080i and 720p. Other than the slight flickering on the monitor wall, not really any different. Except when building effects/timelines, etc.... a 30 frame duration keyframe is not 1 second.

How does it usually work when you're in a PAL country but broadcasting in NTSC? I don't imagine they keep too many NTSC trucks handy in England any more than we keep PAL trucks around in the US...