MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS GOES ON LOCATION FOR 'IRONMAN' COMPETITION
December 12, 2008

MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS GOES ON LOCATION FOR 'IRONMAN' COMPETITION

The Ironman event in Hawaii is considered one of the world's toughest endurance competitions and is the culmination of more than thirty global Ironman events. More than 1,800 athletes completed a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race and 26.2-mile run.

Media Distributors (www.mediadistributors.com) debuted its Remote Station on-location post-production network solution for the production, which included a remote post facility for the three-day event. Remote Station consists of a road-ready HD editing system secured in two road cases. Each Remote Station includes a Panasonic SD/HD-SDI video monitor; Genelec reference speakers; a Mackie audio mixer, and customized, Apple Mac Pros running Final Cut Studio 2. The detachable accessory-case lid doubles as a table, with legs folding out for on-location use.

Nathan Adams, senior account executive & manager of Media Distributors' rental station, set up the Remote Station for the Ironman event. Editing systems were paired with a high-speed Storage Area Network (SAN) on 4Gb fibre for immediate, shared access to all media by each editor.
 
"We delivered a fully customized mobile networked post production facility," notes Steve Klein, CEO of Media Distributors. "We packaged four editing stations, all plugged into a SAN-in-a-box. This was a fully networked fibre solution with a portable machine. The Ironman production was the ideal opportunity to showcase our rental fleet and show a really cool set-up in a remote location."

Nineteen cameras were used for acquisition, adds Brandon Yates of Yates & Parks Consulting, who was in charge of on-site editing equipment for the production.  "We shot a great deal of footage prior to the actual triathlon, and could organize our assets quickly, without stress before the real crunch time. As we were on the northeast side of the big island, we had no means of back-up or escape from our setting. The Media Distributors crew designed a solution that stood up to the most intense on-location conditions."