Up, Up and Away Down in Albuquerque

Thanks to clear blue skies and a climatic phenonomen, know as the 'Albuquerque Box', the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become the foremost event of its kind in the world. This years event was also the venue QVC's 'South Western Jewelry Show'.

As part of their live coverage of the Jewelry Show, an intrepid QVC cameraman,equipped with a Gigawave D-Cam wireless camera system, provided QVC viewers with spectacular views from a hot air balloon. The aerial shots were used each time live coverage switched between Albuquerque and the QVC studios. The D-Cam used by QVC was supplied by Total RF, Gigawave's distributor in the United States.

For the aerial coverage an 18dB helix was used to beam signals from the D-Cam to a MVL-D receiver, with dockable two foot (0.6m) dish and feed, in Baloon Fiesta Park. Thanks to the outstanding RF performance of the D-Cam, Total RF engineers were still getting a signal strength of -55dBm with the balloon at a height of 1500 feet and a distance of 5-% miles, using 16 QAM modulation!

Albuquerque, New Mexico, known among balloonists as the "ballooning capital of the world", attracts over attracts over 750 balloons (20% of the balloons in the world) each year to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. This event, in turn, draws huge crowd who come to see balloons of all shapes, sizes, and designs take to the skies in mass ascents.

As the evening approached, QVC decided to use the D-Cam back on terra firma, together with a Steadicam operator and conventional omni-directional antenna. Despite the Albuquerque Fiesta site being crowded with people,trucks, trailers and balloons the steadicam operator was able to roam almost anywhere within a three-quarters of a mile radius of the receive site. Even people standing directly infront to the receive antenna did not seem to affect the signal.

Total RF and their client QVC were delighted with the results which far exceeded their expectations.

Albuquerque, New Mexico - October 2003

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