By Brian Galante
When TNDV hit the road with its Aspiration production truck in 2011, the 40-foot vehicle was celebrated as the first truck in the Southeast U.S. to support live multicamera 3D productions. How times have changed.
While 3D has faded from view, Aspiration has not, with TNDV updating its core infrastructure over the years.
As TNDV grew beyond the Southeast and its fleet multiplied over time, Aspiration found new life as the main truck for small to mid-sized corporate and entertainment events, and as the secondary truck for large broadcast and in-venue productions.
Thirteen years into its life, TNDV announces a complete refresh of the Aspiration video, audio and IT infrastructure that brings the truck directly into the 4K world from 720p/1080i HD. With its 12G ecosystem, HDR processing capabilities, and modern systems from Evertz, Studer and Sony and other vendors, Aspiration is now positioned for success over a wider set of production scenarios. That includes sports production, with Aspiration serving as the main production truck for a 12-camera Tennis Championship match broadcast on the SEC Network in late April.
Its first post-refresh event? The March Madness Music Fest in April, where Aspiration joined forces with TNDV’s Vibration audio truck at Hance Park in Phoenix to produce live performances for the three-day music festival, which coincided with the NCAA Final Four. Aspiration’s updated technology infrastructure, which includes Sony HDC-4300L 4K cameras, an Evertz NEXX router, and a Studer Vista 5 audio console, helped TNDV elevate the in-house AV experience for attendees. TNDV also switched and fed live video and audio to a third-party broadcast truck that brought select performances to air on CBS affiliates nationwide.
Bringing Aspiration into the modern broadcast and production world for larger events brought a sense of pride to TNDV President Rob Devlin, who joined the company in the months after Aspiration’s wheels first met the gravel. “Aspiration had the best gear we could afford as a small company with limited resources,” said Devlin. “We spent years overcoming Aspiration’s technical imitations to create memorable productions for clients and audiences. The lessons we learned fueled us with the insight to reimagine Aspiration as one of the industry’s most flexible trucks of its size for corporate, entertainment and sports productions.”
Specifically, Devlin wanted to increase audio capacity for multitracking – at 128 inputs, the Studer Vista V doubles the previous amount – and ensure that Aspiration could accommodate 12G throughput from the camera to the truck output. Transitioning to 12G would also slim down the infrastructure on board.
“We wanted to keep the video and audio as pure as possible,” he said. “The NEXX router was an essential part of this strategy. We historically had five or six purpose-built components to handle specific processing tasks. The NEXX brings responsibilities such as multiviewing, frame sync and audio embedding and de-embedding into a compact 5RU frame that fits easily on our truck, and it manages signal traffic without employing any compression to maintain purity. The fact that all embedding and de-embedding is achieved on the router inputs and outputs allows us to deliver the best possible audio quality from our Studer Vista 5 for live music and television.”
Like TNDV’s flagship Exclamation truck, the Studer console connects to ProTools and Sound Devices Pix multitracking systems and provides support for more discrete audio feeds to the truck than the original Aspiration supported. TNDV has also added DirectOut’s Prodigy units across its fleet (including Aspiration) to support varied audio workflow needs, including MADI transport, audio conversions, monitoring and sample rate processing.
TNDV Founder Nic Dugger said Aspiration was the first truck the built for the company and the second he brought into service. “Aspiration has remained relevant because it can navigate tight streets and comfortably fit into small spaces, and remained affordable thanks to its modest technical infrastructure,” said Dugger, who served as March Madness Fest’s director this year. “Acting as the director for the new and improved Aspiration’s first event reinforced how much TNDV has grown over 13 years. Our refresh balances the costs of premium core systems with a streamlined infrastructure that can operated by a small crew. We are seeing strong interest from clients seeking affordable, high-end 1080p and 4K shoots requiring eight or more cameras.”
