Riedel celebrates Red Bull Emmy Award at Koba 2013

KOREA: Riedel Communications is celebrating its recent Sports Emmy Award for its participation in the Red Bull Stratos project by bringing Jacqueline Voss, the technical project manager for the world-breaking event, to Asia on a special seminar tour. Ms Voss made her first Asian appearance at Koba 2013, speaking to a large audience about the technical challenges she overcame to help Felix Baumgartner skydive from the edge of space.

The Red Bull Stratos project was one of the most viewed television events of 2012, as the world tuned in to see Mr Baumgartner leap from the edge of space to return safely to Earth. The project also saw Riedel Communications face one of its toughest ever challenges in a technical feat that saw the manufacturer deliver the entire communications solution, including fibre-based video and signal distribution, both wired and wireless digital comms, and the crucial wireless video links to television cameras on board Mr Baumgartner’s capsule. Ms Voss led the project for two years.

‘It was probably the most thrilling project I’ve done for Riedel or even in my entire career,’ said Ms Voss, speaking to Pro Audio Asia shortly before the Koba seminar. ‘We basically put a TV studio in that capsule. We had 15 HD cameras in there and everything was remotely controllable from ground control. We developed a custom-made control system to match colours, start and stop recordings, adjust the aperture on the 4K cameras – I could even change frequencies on my three live video downlinks.’

Ms Voss added that her role evolved as the project became more famous. ‘It was originally planned to be scientific – the plan was to have cameras to show how well Felix was and whether he was in a stressful situation. Then all of a sudden it became bigger and bigger, so my role changed and I was somewhere between the broadcast team and the science team in mission control. It was a lot of fun.’

Regarding the prestige of the project and Ms Voss’ own celebrity within the industry, the technical project manager says she did not expect the attention, nor the Emmy Award that she picked up with her colleagues on May 7th.

‘It was just me for two years climbing through that capsule, soldering wires, and preparing the cameras,’ she explained. ‘I realise that it was going to attract so much attention so it totally surprised me. I was lucky that the project was handed to me – I’m really thankful for that, it was a great experience.’

Following her appearance at Koba 2013 Ms Voss is scheduled to speak in China to representatives from the ITCC and national broadcaster CCTV, after which she will speak at Broadcast Asia.

For Joe Tan, Riedel general manager for South-East Asia, the Koba seminar was a worthy beginning to Ms Voss’ tour. ‘It’s a very big thing because we want to promote Riedel as a solutions provider, not just an intercom provider. That’s why Jacqueline is here. She is very important.’

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