About TVOB

OB Technology (TV Outside Broadcasts) is a business unit in the Technology Division of the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation).  The unit provides services internally to the SABC and also has a mandate to contract work outside the SABC. We work hand in hand with TV Media and Radio Media. 

OB Technology’s head office is situated in Johannesburg and the unit also has satellite offices in Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.  This infrastructure gives the unit the ability to provide support to events country wide.

More than 45 years of experience in the production of major productions all over the world enables OB Technology to tackle any size project with success. Areas of specialization are sports (soccer, cricket, rugby, golf, boxing, etc), news (elections, funerals, etc), large music concerts and variety shows (Miss World and Miss SA). Internationally, OB Technology has successfully covered some major events: Sydney 2000 Olympics (seven outside broadcast units were shipped to Australia), cricket coverage in Sri Lanka, and Miss World in India and Seychelles, to name a few. 

In South Africa we were involved in most of the major events over the years:

• Many of the golfing majors (Million Dollar, Presidents Cup, Women’s World Cup, Sunshine Circuit, etc)
• Rugby World Cup : 1995 ( Host Broadcaster)
• Cricket World Cup : 2003
• Confederations Cup : 2009; and
• SABC coverage of Soccer World Cup : 2010 (Official Broadcaster)
• AFCON 2013 (Host Broadcaster)

The unit has initiated many world class innovations - the Third Umpire System was started in SABC OB Technology, we used the first virtual playback systems on a major event during the Rugby World Cup 1995, and built our own wicket camera systems. We also produced the first ever live Television coverage from the top of Kilimanjaro.

One of the biggest events we have had to facilitate a broadcast coverage of, is the world's icon, President Nelson Mandela's Funeral in December 2013.

OB’s boasts a fleet of 8 Outside Broadcast Units and many OB ancillary resources. Four of the units have dual pull out sides and are designed to be highly adaptable to meet the ever changing requirements of modern outside broadcasting. The layout ensures comfort and maximum production efficiencies. Fully integrated and robust technology platforms ensure maximum reliability and at the same time offer the utmost in user friendly control. The EVS’s on the unit are equipped with Clean Edit, IP Direct and XStore. The design was based on our own requirements and FIFA’s specifications for SWC 2010.

A comprehensive assortment of add-on facilities such as satellite uplinks (DSNG), microwave links, fly-away units, tracking motorbikes, jibs, mini cameras, TV lighting, and helicopter links are available in our stock.

Our staff has experience of working with top directors from all over the world and is highly sought after. We also make use of a large number of freelancers to ensure that the client is able to work with operators of their choice.

It is safe to say that SABC TVOB’s is the largest facility provider in Africa, with experience that is unmatched.

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Tendai Mushapaidze compiled our promotional video.