Mediaset Italia modernizes its fleet of cameras with the LDX 135 from Grass Valley

The largest Italian private broadcaster, Mediaset, replaces its fleet of cameras with the LDX 135 from Grass Valley in order to respond to new workflows such as IP, UHD, HDR, virtual and XR production, and remote production.

Mediaset, which has three main television production centers (two in Milan and one in Rome) was looking to replace its existing cameras with a new fleet of native 4K cameras that they comply with the SMPTE ST 2110 standard. The broadcaster chose the LDX 135 camera for its unique technical features, such as NativeIP, which allows ST 2110 to stream output directly from the camera, and the Creative Grading camera shading control panel and tablet app.

After the signing of the framework agreement, which has already involved the installation of 30 cameras in a single month, Marco Di Concetto, Director of Broadcast Production Systems at the Mediaset Group, says that “one of the biggest challenges we faced was installing so many cameras in such a short time, but Grass Valley guaranteed incredibly fast delivery from its Breda factory to make this possible.”

"We wanted to replace our existing camera fleet with a high-quality camera natively equipped for modern workflows such as IP, UHD, HDR, virtual and XR production, and remote production. The LDX 135 meets all these requirements and more, representing a significant upgrade," he adds.

Native IP cameras

Part of the LDX 100 series of native IP cameras, the LDX 135 offers Faster response and setup times, daily a la carte options and UHD with HDR. The high sensitivity of the camera, with its three new Xenios imagers, allows for a wider dynamic range in HDR mode, a better signal-to-noise ratio, a greater depth of field, and comes with a high-quality, low-latency JPEG XS video compression option.

“The framework agreement expands our collaboration with Mediaset, and we are delighted to work together to bring the LDX 135 to the Italian market for the first time,” highlights Tim Banks, C.R.O. of Grass Valley. "The new cameras, together with the creative grading camera control solution, will instantly improve Mediaset's image quality in its current HD SDR production format. In addition, global shutter and NativeIP technology will streamline the transition to UHD HDR, while facilitating the use of IP infrastructures and supporting future adoption of XR."

The installation is being carried out by Mediaset engineers in collaboration with Video Projects, while the radio frequency solutions provider Domo Broadcast Systems supplies a wireless solution to be used with the LDX 135 RF.