Case Studies
 Mexico City, Mexico |
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| TV Azteca is the second largest Mexican television network after Televisa, operating two primary stations located in an enormous studio enclave in Mexico City : XHDF Azteca 13 and XHIMT (Azteca ). Both enjoy near national coverage, mostly via over the air TV, cable TV, DBS, and FTA. .The network also operates Azteca 13 Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central and South America. Their news-crews are constantly on the move covering stories in major cities to the jungles of Central and South America. They approached us at NAB to develop an ultra-portable modular live production system which could be taken with their small production crews on airlines as checked baggage. The system needed to replace up to 15 large flypacks that they routinely tried to ship on airlines as checked baggage with their crews, but were not always successful getting the airlines to accept them at the last minute. | |
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| TV Azteca producers trying out their new PortaCast modular system for the first time. | Station executives came from all over the building to take a look at the PortaCast system. |
| Given this daunting task by TV Azteca, it was up to Mobile Studios to create a solution. Out of this need the PortaCast modular system was born. The solution included a new design for several mini- flypacks for switching/communications, engineering/sound and recording. The system could be transported by only one person if necessary, easily loaded onto smaller vehicles and travel with crew as checked baggage. | |
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| PortaCast Director Pak, Audio Pak, Recording Paks and cable paks ready to be loaded in a Hummer. | Loaded and ready to go to the field test site. |
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| The entire studio up and running inside the Hummer. The Director Pak along the tailgate and the Audio and Recording Paks in each door. |
The on-location producer operating the Director Pak while another TV Azteca executive looks on. |
| With this modular PortaCast system, TV Azteca now has a truly rapid-response production team that can go anywhere on a moments notice. In the pictures above, the back of an SUV (Hummer H2) can be converted into a full production studio quickly and easily. It took a three man crew less than fifteen minutes to unload all the gear, open and connect the three PortaCast units, set up the cameras and other equipment, and go "on air" during the field test. | |
| The Mobile Studios PortaCast modular system for TV Azteca was delivered with the following integrated components: | |
PortaCast Director Pak
PortaCast Audio Pak
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PortaCast Recording Pak
Other Components
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