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Token Creek Hits The Road For ESPN With Grass Valley HD Cameras And Switcher From Thomson
?Varsity? To Cover College Football This Fall
As one of the nation's fastest-growing mobile production television companies in the Midwest, Token Creek Mobile Television has commissioned a new high-definition (HD) production truck based around Grass Valley? LDK 8000 multiformat HD cameras and a fully loaded Kalypso? HD Video Production Center switcher from Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS).
The new 53-foot HD truck, named ?Varsity,? will satisfy the growing need for HD sports programming among Token Creek?s college football and professional baseball, basketball, and hockey clients including ABC Sports, ESPN, and Fox SportsNet. Varsity will be all-HD capable when it hits the road in August, just in time for the fall college football season. It will include eight LDK 8000 cameras, but is wired for 12, should the need arise.
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Token Creek Mobile Television produces live multicamera sporting events, in both standard-definition and HD (with full multichannel 5.1 audio mixing), throughout the upper Midwest.
?Our client base is asking for more and more HD production and specifically for Grass Valley equipment to help televise these events,? said John Salzwedel, president of Token Creek Mobile Television, and the versatility of the Grass Valley cameras was a major deciding factor. ?We like the fact that the LDK 8000 cameras are 1080p60 native, enabling us to extract a true 1080i or 720p signal out of the same camera. Plus, the LDK 8000 provides us with future protection when and if we decide to produce shows in full 1080p HDTV... with these cameras, we?ll be ready.?
?With Varsity, Token Creek is ready for the best HD coverage available today with the ability to produce even better pictures tomorrow,? said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President, Broadcast & Professional Video Solutions for the Grass Valley business within Thomson. ?The ability to give their clients the pictures that they and their viewers expect from HD is what makes Token Creek the choice for superb on-the-road productions.?
?As the owner of the company, when my clients tell me they want a certain switcher in the truck, I listen to them,? said Salzwedel, pointing out that his staff will do all of the equipment installation. ?We get requests for the Grass Valley Kalypso switcher all the time. It?s well known to the freelance community of operators and is very reliable. I haven?t had a single problem with the one we now have.?
With Salzwedel now purchasing his third Grass Valley switcher for Token Creek, it?s clear that his clients want the best and Token Creek is ready to deliver. The company?s ?Hiawatha? truck features a Kalypso SD switcher and its ?Millennium? vehicle is based around a Grass Valley Zodiak? SD switcher.
About the Grass Valley Products
The LDK 8000 shares the look, feel, and many of the most popular features of the LDK 6000 HD camera?the most popular multiformat HD camera in the world. It captures true progressive HD images, natively, in multiple formats and frame rates. With three 9.2 million-pixel HD-DPM+? CCDs, it also supports the highest quality picture available, including 1080p50/60 HD formats.
The Kalypso HD Video Production Center (in 2-4 M/E configurations) includes a number of sophisticated technology advancements, like the ability to split each M/E into two independent Mix/Effects systems and provide up to four program video outputs with unique keyer combinations for multiple branding from one switcher frame. The Kalypso HD system is switchable between HD (1080i, 720p, and several 1080pSF formats) and SD (525-line and 625-line) formats.
The Kalypso HD system offers 4 keyers per mix/effects, up to 90 inputs, and up to 48 fully mappable outputs, and provides up to 6 internal floating DPM effects engines, an 8-channel image store for still and animation playback, RGB color correction, machine control, a networked control system allowing multiple operators to share the assets of a single switcher frame and an intuitive user interface with an integrated touch-screen display for easy operation.
About Token Creek Mobile Television
Since 1992 Token Creek mobile production units have been at work in sports stadiums, arenas, golf courses and corporate venues from coast to coast. For more information, visit http://www.tokencreek.com/.
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Certain statements in this press release, including any discussion of management expectations for future periods, constitute ?forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements due to changes in global economic and business conditions, consumer electronics markets, and regulatory factors. More detailed information on the potential factors that could affect the financial results of Thomson is contained in Thomson's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Thomson--World leader in digital video technologies
Thomson (Euronext Paris: 18453; NYSE: TMS) provides technology, services, and systems to help its Media & Entertainment clients --content creators, content distributors and users of its technology--realize their business goals and optimize their performance in a rapidly changing technology environment. The Group is the preferred partner to the Media
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