February 22, 2015 - Hollywood, CA - Bexel recently supported popular Red Carpet coverage of the 2015 awards season for long-term clients E! Entertainment Television and Access Hollywood. For a lineup of prestigious and star-studded events, from the Grammy Awards® to the Oscars®, Bexel’s world-class production services and broadcast solutions team supplied specialty camera kits, communications packages and on the ground support.E! Entertainment had a prominent spot on the Red Carpet for the 2015 Golden Globe Awards®, Screen Actors Guild Awards®, People’s Choice Awards, Grammy Awards and Academy Awards®. Their popular Mani Cam, Clutch Cam and Stiletto Cam, where celebrities can “walk” their manicured hands down a miniature Red Carpet and showcase their designer handbags and high heels, were all driven by Bexel-provided Camera Corps HD Mini Zoom cameras. The Mini Zoom is a small form factor, broadcast quality HD camera system that incorporates a built-in 10x zoom lens with full remote control of zoom, focus and CCU functions, providing a creative solution for capturing different angles in restricted locations.

“When E! first came to us about the Mani Cam, they had very specific requirements,” says Michael Lai, Senior Technical Sales for Bexel. “They needed something small, but also high quality enough to offer shading capability. Finding a compact camera that gives you that level of control is challenging, but Camera Corps delivered for us.”

For this year’s Academy Awards, E! moved all of their production facilities as they expanded their infrastructure and required more space. “They moved about 1,000 feet west to a larger space at the Roosevelt parking lot,” notes Lai. “As Bexel oversees the entire fiber optic infrastructure for the Oscars, we needed to increase our fiber count and distance of cable to accommodate them. They depend on our fiber for their robotic cameras, limo arrival cameras, Red Carpet and Bridge locations, as well as their set-up on the Dolby staircase.”In addition, Bexel provided communications and monitoring for several of E! Entertainment’s Red Carpet broadcasts. “We’ve been working with E! for over 15 years, so we can really anticipate their requirements,” notes Lai. “Communications are vital on the Red Carpet. On various events we have at least one technician on-site to work comms, support programming, and oversee our systems and equipment. As needed, Bexel also interfaces with the truck company to ensure that the event crew can speak with whoever they need to at various positions on the Red Carpet.”Access Hollywood is well known for its Red Carpet coverage, and Bexel recently supported them at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the Grammys and the Oscars. Bexel provided a communications package enabling them to run their show effectively.

For the 2015 award season, Bexel introduced the Clear-Com HelixNet Partyline into Access Hollywood’s workflow, a flexible system providing features that other systems do not. “The HelixNet Partyline was a great addition to the Access Hollywood package,” says Rod Allen, Senior Project Manager for Bexel. “It’s reliable, durable and stands up to the demanding Red Carpet production environment.”For the broadcast of this year’s Oscar Red Carpet arrivals, Bexel supplied Access Hollywood with a more complex communications package. “We worked with their engineers to integrate a more advanced solution using the HelixNet Partyline system. The package we provided allowed them to communicate from their home studio to two different locations on the Red Carpet. Bexel has a very strong involvement at the Oscars. We deployed a team of more than 30 technicians on-site to support AMPAS and all of our clients at the event. It’s very challenging, yet gratifying, and we have the honor of working with the industry’s top professionals. Major televised events like this demonstrate that Bexel is focused on providing outstanding customer service and exceptional engineering solutions.”[sc name="news-footer"]