Oct. 20, 2014 – U.S.A. - March Madness was full of upsets and surprises this year, culminating in a championship game between the UConn Huskies and Kentucky Wildcats. Bexel had a courtside view of the excitement as it provided the broadcast equipment rental needs for CBS Sports and Turner Sports (via TBS, TNT and truTV) through the first, second and third rounds, the regional semi-finals and finals, and the Final Four of the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship.

"This was our 15th year as the primary equipment provider for the tournament,"notes Lee Estroff, Bexel's vice president of account development. "We have long-standing relationships with both networks; CBS and Turner are two of our leading clients as we also support their coverage of the NBA, NFL, golf, NASCAR, and the NBA's All Star Game and playoffs."

Bexel supplied numerous super slo-mo and EVS systems, fiber connectivity, ENG packages, and LED lighting packages in the run up to this year's Final Four. "Then, with the Final Four, our involvement became even more extensive with the addition of our 53-foot BBS1 mobile edit truck as the turnkey editing facility for both networks," adds Estroff.Although CBS Sports edits on Avid and Turner Sports uses Apple Final Cut Pro, they shared 48TB of central storage.

"There were no issues with the different editing platforms," notes Estroff. "BBS1 is fully customizable, and we supplied both clients with multiple edit stations in the truck. Each had their own editing space plus central ingest and storage, and they were able to easily share files and media with their colleagues."

Bexel managed the fiber optic infrastructure for both networks at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Final Four. The company was tasked with cable runs for multiple studio locations within the stadium where pre-game, post-game and half-time shows were produced. Bexel also handled fiber connectivity for player interviews in and around the stadium, and for activities outside the venue, including some concerts leading up to the title game. Fiber linked all the remote sites to the TV compound at AT&T Stadium.

Bexel also furnished the broadcasters with an on-site IPTV system. It allowed audio and video feeds to be shared via some 30 drops around the compound, which fed 16 channels of Internet Protocol Television. "IPTV is becoming more common," says Estroff of the system that Bexel previously deployed for The Super Bowl and NBA All Star Game. "Thanks to the ease of running CAT5 cable, it's quick and easy to accommodate a lot of drops and feeds in the compound."Six Sony HDC-3300R Super Motion Camera units were on hand for the Final Four, and two of them were utilized in an innovative application guaranteed to please fans. "They were mounted behind the backboards for a unique perspective on above-the-rim, slow-motion replays," says Estroff. "That was a first for the Final Four; TNT occasionally uses backboard slow-motion replays for the NBA."Bexel supplied a plethora of monitoring, graphics and audio terminal gear for Final Four coverage, too.

"Every year this project gets bigger and bigger, and now we're serving two networks," Estroff says. "With pre-game programming, the actual game itself, half-time and post-game coverage, production requirements for tournaments have increased across the board. It's always an exciting and challenging job, and Bexel has the expertise and solutions to support whatever the broadcast needs entail."

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