NBA Portable Interview Workstation
This case was designed as a portable interview station used court side by the National Basketball Association. The case was designed for The Systems Group who handled the final system integration, the LM Cases Custom Integration department provided the rack mounted IO panel in addition to all of the power input and rough wiring. A case was built for each NBA team to have in their arena for pre and post game interviews, the case is simply rolled out, plugged into power and Ethernet and powered on. The player sits in front of the Panasonic camera and looks at the preview screen mounted in the case lid, lighting is provided by 2 LED wash panels mounted in the case lids.
The top hinged lid holds a preview monitor mounted on a Chief tilt mount. A "barn door" is mounted to the top of the case lid to reduce the glare from the arena lights on the monitor, the barn door is mounted to the case via position control hinges. These hinges allows the barn door to be placed at any angle and remain fixed at that position working in the same manner as a laptop screen. The lid holding the monitor is supported with gas springs which keep the lid open during use in addition to assisting in opening and closing. Below the monitor is the Panasonic PTZ camera, the camera is mounted on a black Formica laminated work surface; power and signal cables are neatly routed to a cable port at the back of the work surface. Below the work surface is a 16RU rack section which holds all of the communication and processing equipment and 4 drawers. Each of the 4 drawers are mounted on HD Accuride glides and are finished with black texture coating. The rack section features a 3RU IO panel built by the LM Cases Custom Integration department. The panel features a Edison duplex outlet and Cat5 Ethercon jack accessible via a exterior trap door. The back of the panel features a fully enclosed back box and a 10awg power cable allowing the panel to be powered by an internal UPS. Power to the case is handled by a retractable 30' power reel which eliminates the need for an extension cord. The dual front lids hold the LED wash lights used for lighting the on camera talent. Custom brackets were fabricated to mount the lights. The doors can be locked in the fully opened position via tethered pins. Each pin is tethered via a coated aluminum airline cable and features a push button locking ball spring to keep the pin in place during use.
The case exterior is built out of 3/8" plywood laminated with black ABS plastic and features deep recessed hardware and 6 Colson casters.
Special thanks to The Systems Group for a great project.
