Kenobi

NO HD

Kenobi is our award-winning OB-in-a-box Solution (tm), designed to replace the largely unused tom trolleys. Originally envisioned by Robert Walker, it was first built in Spring 2014, and comprised mostly of the analogue equipment that had been replaced the previous term in the HD upgrade.

Mark I (February 2014 - August 2014)

• OB1
• Magic DaVE
• The Mux
• Multi-view
• Distribution Amplifiers (DA's)

Everything should be wired up for the majority of OB's. The Mux outputs run into DA channels, and from there into the Multi-view and DaVE. Program out then runs into a DA channel and then onto the capture cards in OB1. Audio goes into the final DA, then to the capture cards.

Mark II (September 2014 - Present)

Kenobi received it's first major overhaul during Summer Camp 2014 after acquisition of better equipment. The Mux and the BAL DAs were replaced by a VikinX V1616 16x16 matrix, donated to the society by Michael Chislett. The removal of these resulted in a much improved image quality.

A HP TFT5600 RKM console was bought on eBay, so that computing peripherals did not have to be carried and connected desperately in order to use OB1. However, the rails it was supplied with were designed for full-depth racks. After much sawing and hammering, the console was finally intalled in the trolley. Whether it can be removed again is yet to be seen.

Late in the Autumn term, two rack-mount multiview boxes were won on an online BBC Television Center auction. In an experiment, the multiview boxes were combined with the pre-existing one to emulate the multiview layout outputted by the ATEM 1 M/E. Despite the resolution, this was a surprisingly usable arrangement, and was left installed.

In preparation for a future-planned digital upgrade of Kenobi, various Analogue-SDI (and vice versa) converters were also bought, with the aim to continue to be able to use the analogue SD cameras with a newer digital mixer. In addition, a spare Blackmagic Intensity capture card replaced one of the analogue cards in OB1. While waiting for enough funds to buy an new mixer, the converters were used at either end of the umbilicals to further improve the picture quality. In early-Summer 2015, ahead of Roses 2015, the SDI-Analogue converters were properly installed into Kenobi.

Mark III (Future Planned)

Following an unexpected windfall of funding from Greg Dyke, a HD/digital upgrade of Kenobi is currently being planned. The ATEM 1 M/E mixer bought in 2013 will be reassigned for use in Kenobi, and will be replaced in the Studio by a newer 4K model. A second server will be installed to handle CasparCG graphics output.