New partnership with dbV Rentals results in media and entertainment industry’s first ARRI camera truck

TNDV Television, a leading entertainment-based mobile and REMI production company, is redefining mobile production with the launch of Aspiration 35, a new version of their 40-foot Aspiration truck reimagined for cinematic multi-camera productions. Developed in collaboration with dbV Rentals, Aspiration 35 represents the media and entertainment industry’s first ARRI camera-equipped truck on the market and is among the first to deliver a complete cinematic workflow natively from a TV truck, offering a revolutionary blend of film-quality imaging and traditional live production infrastructure.

TNDV debuted Aspiration 35 yesterday at a special block party in Nashville. The event featured hands-on demos of the truck’s cinematic workflow and brought together production professionals, vendors, and industry groups among other friends and peers. The party also featured new products from local vendors like Elite Script (debuting its new Jumbo Bright Teleprompter system) as well as interactive experiences from media outlets such as the Cams Channel podcast.

“Our refreshed Aspiration 35 truck is more than just another upgrade,” said TNDV Founder Nic Dugger. “It’s a leap into the future of what live production can look like when it embraces the art of cinema. The ARRI Alexa 35 has long been a top pick of DPs on many films. There are only one or two other trucks like this in the country, but Aspiration 35 is the first to have ARRI Alexa 35 Live systems.”

As the first company to integrate the live multicam system on a mobile production unit, TNDV sees Aspiration 35 as the industry’s answer to filmmakers and high-end corporate clients who want the look of cinema in a scalable, broadcast-capable truck environment. While traditional broadcast trucks are engineered for 1080i and 60p sports or news content, Aspiration 35 is built to handle today’s demand for cinematic aesthetics across sectors that include entertainment, corporate, and even sports productions through technologies that bring true 35mm sensors, 4K and 24p acquisition, shallow depth of field and much more together.

dbV Rentals, a Nashville-based video production rental house, provided the ARRI Alexa 35 Live cameras and worked closely with the TNDV to develop the single-wire architecture to new base stations installed on Aspiration 35. The truck’s camera packages are also fully scalable and can support up to twelve Alexa 35 Lives with each deployment and are also integrated with essential live production systems, including return video, tally, intercom, and remote camera shading. dbV Rentals is the first rental house in the United States to offer Alexa 35 Live camera systems, which are immediately available.

The partnership also provides TNDV and its clients with access to a very large inventory of specialty cinematic lenses from ARRI, Canon and Fujinon. “The industry has made significant advances in offering lenses that can provide both cinematic image quality and broadcast integration capabilities, especially with extremely long-range zoom lenses,” said Doug Bates, Owner, dbV Rentals. “They have quickly reached the level where they are familiar to the seasoned broadcast teams with their boots on the ground, while also providing DPs from the cinematic world with the images they’ve come to expect from years of extremely high-quality optical designs. We have truly reached the point where cinematic multi-camera shoots can offer clients the very best of both worlds from top to bottom.”

Bates adds that as the industry transitions more to cinema cameras, he is fielding requests from a wider group of broadcast organizations including news departments. “We’re providing our customers with camera systems that produce cinematic quality while simplifying the infrastructure, with just one fiber cable and a much cleaner look front to end.”

“For years, producers have been rigging together handheld cinema-style cameras and running them into trucks that were never really designed for that type of workflow,” Dugger added. “There is now a native, professional solution where everything is built up clean and transmitted to the truck over traditional SMPTE cable without additional hardware or cabling. These cameras are powered from the truck, they’re tethered with full shading and tally, and they give us that beautiful film-like imagery without sacrificing any aspects of production control.”

The unveiling of Aspiration 35 comes on the heels of TNDV’s newly-announced Exclamation truck, which has been revamped with a holistic 12G video/audio ecosystem, a refreshed hybrid fiber/copper backbone, and a modernized 10GbE networking infrastructure.“With Aspiration 35, TNDV adds a powerful new chapter to its mobile fleet, which now spans 11 trucks designed for everything from 4K sports broadcasting to multi-camera theatrical recording,” added Rob Devlin, President, TNDV.

ABOUT TNDV

Formed in 2004, TNDV: Television represents the culmination of over 26 years of broadcast and live production for the Nashville-based staff of full-time engineers. TNDV produces events from small single-camera productions all the way up to multi-million-dollar international TV events and takes pride in building custom solutions for challenging productions of any size, in any situation. Part of Live Media Group Holdings, which also includes Live Media and GameTime Productions, TNDV has access to a fleet of 29 remote production trucks of all sizes. Please call 877-959-TNDV or visit www.tndv.com for more information.