PSSI has begun to establish a serious reputation in custom-built satellite-uplink trucks, and the company highlighted the latest chapter in these efforts at the NAB Show last week. The 43-ft. CK-30 multidish mobile-teleport truck was built specifically for the transmission needs of WWE telecasts.
It comes on the heels of another dual-dish trailer built previously for WWE and the C-27 C-band dual-antenna remote-teleport facility custom-built to cover nearly 40 races per year for NASCAR Media Group.
“We started several years ago with the dual-dish trailer we built for WWE,” says Brian Nelles, SVP, PSSI Global Services. “Then, when we built the NASCAR trailer and now again with WWE, we are building vehicles specifically catering to clients’ needs. That has been very successful for us. We see that continuing and will continue to build large dual-dish trucks specifically for our sports clients.”
The 43-ft. CK-30 trailer is equipped with C-band and Ku-band antennas capable of supporting transmissions on four discrete C-band and Ku-band transponders simultaneously. PSSI has teamed with sister production company Strategic TV to provide all transmission and production needs for WWE’s Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, and monthly pay-per-view offerings.
The unit was designed with a spacious interior to allow for installing additional digital encoding/decoding and production gear later. With the WWE set to launch a dedicated network in the near future, CK-30 could take on an even more substantial role with the organization.
“If you’re going to get a network off the ground, you need to have plenty of content,” says Nelles. “So we built this unit with room for plenty of expansion. The fact is that you could make this into a production vehicle very easily by adding a switcher and a few other production elements. This could very well become a hybrid [production/satellite] truck in the future.”