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Bexel Gets in the Ring with HBO Boxing
November 23, 2013 – Macau, China - When HBO set their pay-per-view (PPV) boxing event in Macau, China, they knew they needed reliable broadcast support. After working with Bexel on a previous bout in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they turned yet again to the company to design the best systems for this particular telecast, which was dubbed "The Clash in Cotai," one of the biggest professional boxing matches held in China to date.
HBO needed a complete solution in Macau. The answer: Bexel's Hercules Flypack. The Hercules Flypack is scalable, customizable, and brings first-class production facilities to remote and space-constrained venues around the world. The elite production system can be wired for cameras, servers, multiple consoles, multi-viewing capabilities, audio and video conversion and processing, power distribution, and more. Bexel utilized the Hercules Flypack's modular design to create a bespoke solution to meet HBO's specific needs for this event.
"HBO wanted to create a production environment with recognizable equipment so their staff could walk in and know exactly what to do, and how to use the systems," says Bexel's Business Development Manager John Mills. "Hercules provides unique flexibility for these types of broadcast situations, and HBO knew the components would be exactly what they required."
Bexel began prepping for the highly anticipated boxing match by taking over Cotai Arena in The Venetian Macao. The broadcast production environment designed by Bexel centered around the Evertz 160x288 modular router and Bexel's newly acquired Grass Valley 4 M/E K-Frame Kayenne switcher, a scalable video production software platform. Several brand new EVS XT3 video servers, a large Calrec 64 fader audio console/board with a full compliment of Hydra 2 I/O, and 10 Sony HDC-2500 cameras with Canon 86x & 95x lenses rounded out the package. A full technical team of five Bexel engineers was on site to set up, test and provide smooth operation of the facility. HBO's team consisted of about 27 technicians, both from the States and the local area. Bexel handed off multiple high-definition video and audio signals for worldwide viewing via Top Rank, the boxing promotions company tasked with the world feed.
The fact that everything had to get to China added a unique level of complexity to this project. "The key components to Hercules are highly popular," Mills notes. "We had to figure out how to time the shipping of some parts of the system via boat to Hong Kong, while other elements were sent via air. We collaborated with a logistical company to assist with organizing the paperwork, and analyzed the minutiae on our end so that all the moving parts came together seamlessly."
In addition to the logistics and technical expertise that went into bringing this fight to the screens, the Bexel team went above and beyond to oversee every detail of the scheduling to make it happen.
"I attribute our success to the incredible team at Bexel and the services we were able to provide," adds Mills. "HBO chose Bexel over the local competition because they knew our attention to their broadcast needs would exceed their expectations. We are proud to deliver on that promise every time."
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