Company Collaborates with Televisa on Major Reality Television Installation

December 3, 2015 - Burbank, CA - Big Brother Mexico has returned to Televisa after 10 years, and Bexel Global Broadcast Solutions played an important role in getting the popular reality series back on the air. Bexel Global, a leading worldwide provider of broadcast services and solutions, worked closely with Televisa in Mexico City's vibrant Santa Fe district to get the "Big Brother house" and master control room operational for the show's broadcast premier.15 participants will spend three months in the house being used for Big Brother Mexico, which Bexel Global outfitted with a custom infrastructure, including 43 cameras and more than 42 Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun microphones. The company also worked with Televisa to build-out the show's master control room. As the house is located approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the control room, Bexel created a tightly integrated fiber infrastructure to link the two, comprised of SMPTE fiber cable to support the large studio camera feeds and 48 strands of tactical fiber cables to move all of the video, audio and data signals.

"We provided virtually all of the equipment for the Big Brother Mexico house, but the show's main control room was a true collaboration between Bexel Global and Televisa," said Johnny Pastor, director of technical services for Bexel Global. "We really created a hybrid solution with them, which was quite unusual, but there was an existing television facility there, where they had actually done the show in its past incarnation. We worked very closely with their talented team to integrate our equipment with theirs, and everything was actually quite seamless."

Bexel Global provided an all Panasonic camera solution for Big Brother Mexico, including 35 robotic cameras and eight point of view cameras. "The Panasonic AW-HE130W/K pan-tilt cameras were perfect for this show," noted Pastor. "They are PoE+ powered, so we are able to power them through just a switch and a Cat 5 cable, which also carried the data.Œæ We provided Panasonic AW-HE2 point of view cameras because it allowed us to use one control system. The robotic operator can actually control the pan-tilt, plus the parameters and telemetry of the color on the cameras, all to one control panel. And that flows through both the point of view cameras and the HE130s, so it's very seamless."Bexel Global has served as a resource to production companies from the initial days of reality television, providing them with the equipment, state-of-the-art systems, and engineering support needed to meet the highest broadcast standards. "Big Brother Mexico is using our custom designed touchscreen interface as well," Pastor commented. "We created it to alleviate the robotic operator from having to press multiple buttons to get to a certain camera, allowing production to move quickly and not miss a shot. ŒæWith the touch of just one button, it will switch the video, it controls our router, and it controls the button on the camera control. So when you press the button for a certain camera, the router switches the feed on the monitor to that camera, and then it's ready to be operated through the controller. It's amazingly beneficial on some of these larger shows where you have 35-plus cameras running."Several engineers from Bexel Global were onsite in Mexico to support the build-out from the earliest stages. A specialist in both robotic camera and fiber installations arrived on the scene early on, followed by three engineers specializing in systems, audio and maintenance. "Our team, most of whom are fluent in Spanish, worked very closely with the Televisa engineers to get all the gear installed, programmed and integrated," Pastor said.

Sergio Castillo, strategic account manager for Latin America, and Ernesto de la Torre, business development manager, managed the project for Bexel Global. Castillo concluded, "Televisa has a well-earned reputation for being very forward thinking and the first to utilize new technology in the Latin American market. Working on a major project like Big Brother Mexico with them has been a very exciting undertaking. When we launched Bexel Global, we did it because we were looking to support projects of this scope, with broadcasters like Televisa. Our high standards for quality and the unique span of our services made us the perfect fit for this show, and we look forward to working with Televisa again on future projects."

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