Red Bull Stratos: stratospheric audiovisual technology

Felix Baymgartner is already a legend when he jumped into the void at more than 40,000 meters above sea level, surpassing the sound barrier. The Red Bull Stratos has achieved several records, including taking the technology of companies in our industry such as Riedel, Panasonic, RED One or Canon to the top.

The Red Bull Stratos mission, starring Felix Baumgartner, allowed this Sunday, after several failed attempts, to achieve several records: being the first human being to break the speed of sound without mechanical help, performing the highest jump with a parachute, achieving the greatest ascent in a manned balloon to the furthest point on Earth and, without a doubt, having taken broadcast technology to the highest level.

The Austrian athlete reached almost 40,000 meters in height, which was the record for the highest altitude in a manned vehicle, and later made his long-awaited jump that made him the first human being in history to reach the speed of sound without mechanical help. Baumgartner achieved his speed record after the first 30-40 seconds of free fall when he reached the spectacular figure of 1,342 kilometers per hour.

To achieve this feat, Red Bull Stratos has brought together a large group of experts in aerospace medicine and engineering, who were in charge of supervising the development of the mission. Numerous audiovisual professionals have also played a key role, making it possible for millions of viewers around the world to follow the rise and fall of the Austrian athlete for 16 long minutes.

The latest in technology

The entire audiovisual technical display of the Red Bull Stratos has been designed and developed by the director of photography specializing in aerial shots, Jay Nemeth of FlightLine Films. Nemeth has captured zero gravity flights on several occasions for various projects, including an interesting experience with Apollo 11 astronaut Aldrin Buzz. Thanks to these productions, the FlightLine Films team is very familiar with working in low gravity conditions and even zero gravity, knowing perfectly what type of cameras present a good response in these extreme conditions.

This production company has been in charge of developing a novel tracking system that made it possible to follow Baumgartner's free fall at very high speed and to equip the equipment with special casings to incorporate them into the ascent capsule.

This capsule had nine high-definition cameras, including three RED One 4K (4,000×2,000 pixels) and three digital cameras Canon 5D.

These cameras were located in a special protective cylinder that contained more than 125 electronic components and more than three kilometers of wiring.

Baumgartner also had three high-definition mini-cameras, one on each thigh and another on the chest.

It is noteworthy that the main challenge in this test has been the modification of the chambers so that their electrical and thermal systems worked perfectly at those heights. Cameras often have problems working in extreme heat and cold, as well as in situations like this of almost total vacuum.

Por ello, todas las cámaras fueron previamente probadas en una cámara especial que simulaba las condiciones de altura y espacio. En la mayoría de los casos las cámaras han sido colocadas en cajas personalizadas diseñadas por FlightLine Films y Micar Fabrication & Design Company.

As for the capsule cameras, several units were placed on the outer base in special compartments and three inside the cabin.

All cameras collected the signal in solid-state memories and external recorders, sending three digital video signals to Earth via live microwave link.

As a curiosity, it should be noted that some of the cameras used in the capsule used special filters due to the intense brightness of the sun in the upper stratosphere.

As for the cameras placed in Baumgartner's suit, they had to work in extreme conditions for 16 minutes, at times descending at supersonic speed and in any orientation (face down, side...)

Optical tracking

To achieve a live broadcast from about 37 kilometers above the Earth, an optical tracking system was developed for this event with special infrared features and high-definition cameras. Two of these systems called Joint Long-range Aerospace Imaging and Relay (JLAIR) have been used in this project.

The JLAIR system included two high definition cameras Panasonic P2 (recording at 60 frames per second) and two RED 4K, as well as several Canon digital cameras and a shortwave infrared. In addition, it was equipped with powerful telephoto lenses connected to a 3,600-kilogram motorized pedestal, previously used to track space shuttle launches.

From the control room attached to each JLAIR, technicians selected the best available images and transmitted them in real time to mission control and the different broadcasters that issued the signal.
Each JLAIR also had several subsystems for the tracker and subsystems, encoding and satellite transmission of HD video.

To monitor the fall to Earth, a tracking helicopter equipped with a Cineflex camera stabilized with a gyroscopic system and high-precision optics at the sub-pixel level was used. The signal was sent from a 2 GHz microwave link, picking the signal from a mixer.

Communications

In this mission the German has played a fundamental role Riedel implementing an advanced Ground-based communications system that comprised two main applications: communications between the control center and the Austrian athlete and the transmission and distribution of video and data.

Riedel has been in charge of deploying the entire communications infrastructure at the test site, interconnecting Mission Control, production offices, the Media / Press Center and the mobile unit under a single communications infrastructure through the Riedel Artist Digital Matrix solution. Artist is a fiber-based solution that offers great flexibility and reliability under a single network that interconnects different locations with broadcast-quality audio communications.

Riedel integrated the MOTORTBO digital radio network with a hundred devices and ten channels into its intercom systems. In this way, the radios could directly talk to users (for example, in the mission control center or in the production office), and vice versa.

All video signals on the ground were distributed and sent with Riedel MediorNet technology. MediorNet is a fiber-based network for the distribution of HD video, audio, communications and data signals in real time, which also provides integrated processing, for extremely efficient installation and maintenance. The Red Bull Stratos mission used a total of 24 MediorNet nodes that were installed in a redundant ring topology to provide maximum reliability. Should a connection between two nodes be lost, signals could continue to be distributed due to this redundant topology.

The connection to the flight line, where the balloon and capsule were launched, was also carried out with the MediorNet system. In this case with two compact MediorNet frames, which were connected to the main system. All links in the MediorNet system are made with Riedel PURE, an extremely robust fiber cabling that is equipped with Neutrik Quad OpticalCon connectors.

MediorNet carried all the mission's video signals, as well as all signals from the mobile unit and those from the JLAIR tracking systems. He also distributed the broadcast audio to mission control and arranged for its recording. In addition, telemetry data used for other broadcast applications was also transported via MediorNet.

In addition to video transport, MediorNet also served as a network backbone for on-site Internet connectivity, providing Ethernet connectivity to all areas of the compound.

Similar to the configuration on the ground, Riedel deployed the communications system with the capsule, as well as video transmission solutions.

A specially developed system facilitated reliable communication between Félix Baumgartner and Mission Control throughout the entire ascent.

It is noteworthy that Riedel worked for three years to develop this mission. The communications equipment used for Red Bull Stratos occupied the space of two cargo containers, using a total of 5 km of fiber cabling for test communications. Eight members of the Riedel team traveled to Roswell, New Mexico, led by Matthias Leister, director of broadcast solutions, and Jacqueline Voss, systems engineer.