The Krickhahn TV team has come up with the idea of deploy Bolero system as a standalone solution in specially adapted motorcycles to maintain communications between the camera operator, driver, and production team during live coverage of cycling road races. Thanks to that system, the crew is able to use a variety of headsets, and even helmets with a built-in Bluetooth headset, and they have eliminated the need to invest in a dedicated communication solution for camera operators and motorcycle drivers.

“When I was presented the idea of using Bolero for this application, I was immediately hooked — we had a proof of concept planned in just a few days where we made the configuration file and ran a test to make sure the whole system was stable over a whole day. We were very happy to verify the setup with success and can now deploy a system in a few minutes by loading the configuration,” said Christian Krickhahn, Owner at Krickhahn TV. “Having used Bolero on many productions, I know how well it works and appreciate its features and excellent audio quality. I was very happy to use Bolero for live coverage of a road race here in Denmark, and it’s very convenient that we have the flexibility to use the hardware in other ways across different productions, as well.”

For the Tour De Aars held last year, Krickhahn TV equipped the camera motorcycles with a custom sidebox holding the video encoder and a Bolero antenna, both connected to regulated 12 V from the motorcycle and camera batteries to ensure supply. The Bolero antenna was used in standalone mode along with three beltpacks, one of which was dedicated to enabling the built-in Bluetooth interface and “public” call feature.

“Krickhahn TV’s use of Bolero demonstrates how its flexibility and ease of use can truly revolutionize workflows for challenging productions like these,” said Jakob Refer, Sales Manager at Riedel Communications. “Under very challenging circumstances, Bolero delivers the performance critical to the overall success of the live broadcast production.”