Van improvisation cuts costs

Press, 27 July 1989, Page 11

Van improvisation cuts costs

Television New Zealand is turning old transport containers into outside broadcast units for next year’s Commonwealth Games. The idea surfaced when TVNZ found it needed 13 of the units for the games, but had only eight. It decided to lease one from an Auckland video-produc-tion house — and make the rest.

Staff in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin have been charged with putting together the four others needed for the event. They have carved a hole in the

side of each portacoin and fitted a personnel door, put in a floor and given the whole lot a paint job. Now they are looking at installing the technical equipment that will turn them into fully fledged, self-con-tained television control rooms.

When completed, each refurbished container will have camera control units, a vision-mixing unit, sound console, video monitors and numerous audio gadgets borrowed from facilities around the country. Just before the games begin, the units will be

loaded on to trucks and delivered to their destinations. They will go to Mount Smart, to cover some field events, to the New Zealand Expo Centre for the boxing, and to cover two greens during the bowls.

Auckland staff will have their unit finished and tested first, so it will be pressed into service for a judo event on October 29.

The TVNZ project manager operations and engineering for the games, Mr Bill Pearson, said the use of containers together with resources already

available within the organisation, provided enormous savings. TVNZ paid about $4.5 million for its last outside broadcast van, but it is having to find less than 10 per cent of this amount for the four “homemade” units.

What will happen to the units after the games has yet to be decided.

“They would make good playrooms once all the equipment is removed,” said Mr Pearson. “Then again, there is always another major sporting event coming up.”