Gearhouse strengthens UHD proposition with major 4K kit investment

System Upgrades
Global

To meet the growing demand for capturing productions in higher quality, whether it be UHD, 1080p or HDR, Gearhouse Broadcast has made a series of significant investments to upgrade its rental inventory around the world. This has included major purchases of 4K and HD studio/field and ENG lenses from both Canon and Fujinon, resulting in over half of Gearhouse’s global stock of large box lenses now being 4K.

The new stock is split between its rental businesses that cover the UK, US and Northern Europe, following last year’s acquisition of German rental house Genesis Broadcast Services, which has since been rebranded as Gearhouse Broadcast Germany.

In terms of Canon glass, Gearhouse has bought multiple UHD DIGISUPER 86 2/3” 4K field zoom lenses, as well as CJ20ex7.8B 4K, CJ12ex4.3B and CJ45EX9.7B 4K broadcast ENG/EFP lenses. It also added to its extensive HD stock, with the purchase of Canon HJ24ex7.5B, HJ15ex8.5B and HJ14ex4.3B HDTV ENG lenses. From Fujinon, Gearhouse has taken delivery of a range of UA107x8 and UA80x9 4K box lenses and 4K ENG lenses including the UA22x8, UA13x4.5 and the new UA46x9.5.

Some of these 4K lenses have already been deployed at major events including the 2018 World Cup in Russia, while others are servicing major European OB and studio providers and the West Coast of America’s entertainment industry.

As well as lenses, Gearhouse has enhanced its 4K camera offering, with the purchase of 36 new Sony HDC-4300 4K/HD and a large quantity of Grass Valley LDX 86N series native 4K/3G/HD camera channels.

The Gravity Media Group, which owns Gearhouse Broadcast, Hyperactive Broadcast and Input Media, has also upgraded its entire fleet of EVS XT servers to run the latest Multicam 16.00 operating system. This deal includes the update of multiple units to XT-VIA live production servers, adding to one of the largest arsenals of EVS servers in the world. It provides Gravity Media’s specialist global businesses with several significant improvements to workflows, letting them better meet the demands of today’s production environments, whether producing 1.5G, 3G or UHD-4K live programming. Multicam 16.00 boosts the capacity of Gravity Media’s servers and allows them to run on the same XNet-VIA network for the quick and easy sharing of high-resolution content.

EVS’ XT-VIA next-generation live production server offers enhanced channel density with up to six channels of UHD-4K and 12 channels in 1080p HDR. As part of the upgrade, Gearhouse Broadcast, Hyperactive Broadcast and Input Media can now deploy the latest versions of the IPDirector and XTAccess live tools, giving production teams the best overview of content, allowing faster and more effective production asset management workflows.

These investments are giving rights owners, broadcasters, facilities providers and studios around the world greater choice and access to the industry’s most used 4K rental equipment, making the acquisition of high-resolution content easier than ever.