3D Tricks and Treats: Technology

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december 1, 2010 edition
www.tvtechnology.com
Broadcast Production Broadband Satellite Mobile
Advances in IP,
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Storage
Technology
Accelerating storage
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Equipment
Guide
Station Automation/
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3D Tricks and Treats

The Rachel Ray Show hosts a
3D bash for Halloween
by Robin Berger
NEW YORKDaytime TVs The
Rachael Ray Show celebrated Halloween with a 3D extravaganza
available to viewers with 3D glasses distributed by TV Guide magazine.
The entire production was shot
in the 8,000 square foot studio on
Sony BVP-900 and BVP-950 standard definition cameras, supplemented by outdoor shots and
animation. 3-D Vision, a Westbury,
NY-based provider of 3D production and conversion technology.
converted the footage in the weeks
leading up to the Oct. 29 broadcast.
When the idea came up, we
started to look at all the different
options to doing itbringing in
specialized 3D cameras or conversion, said the shows director, Gene
Bernard. His team decided on con-
version, due to cost, time, flexibility,

and space constraints.We decided
early on that we didnt want to do
the entire show in 3D because we
Watch the episode

online
Pee Wee Herman and Rachel Ray ham it up for 3D
TVTechnology.com/12-01-10
didnt want to alienate viewers

who might not have the glasses.
Rays signature cooking segments ran in their standard format.
3D elements included sight gags
supplied by Ray, her husband and
guests Pee-Wee Herman and magicians Penn & Teller, plus props and
an entirely new Halloweenthemed set.
MTV Keeps It Real

Series is reality TVs millennial
version of bucket list
by John Merli
Photo by Eric Johnson
Todays ENG
NEW TO 3D
None of us worked in 3D
before, said Bernard. And
when we were shooting it we
werent going to be able to
Ray, PAGE 12
MTVs The Buried Life stars (L-R), Ben

Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn
and Jonnie Penn
UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF.The

Buried Life, a reality TV series now
in its second season on MTV, is a
sort of bucket list for the millennial generation. First introduced
solely online four years ago as an
independently produced documentary featuring four Canadian
university students, the weekly
series has set out to accomplish
100 things to do in life before said
bucket is kicked.
MTV, PAGE 10
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www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10 TV Technology December, 2010
in thIS ISSUE
TUNE IN TO TVTechnology.com
Go online for more user
reports from our Automation/
Digital Content Management
Equipment Guide
DECEMBER 1, 2010 tvtechnology.com/12-01-10 VOLUME 28, ISSUE 25
INSIGHT
18
19
24
NEWS
Mr. First Nighter:

Theater to Video Translation
LightingTechnology, Bill Klages
Mobile DTV at IEEE BTS
RF Technology, Doug Lung

The Rachel Ray Show hosts a 3D
bash for Halloween
MTV Keeps it Real

Engineering Todays
Master Control
Centralizing resources and
managing myriad formats are key
14
Options Expand for ENG

Advances in IP, satellite lower
costs
16
GTX-16 Built for the Real

World
F&Fs new OB does 3D if you
need it
Accelerating Performance
Storage Technology, Karl Paulsen
EQUIPMENT GUIDE
26

User ReportsStation Automation/Digital Content

Management
Grass Valley, Masstech, Avid, Harris, Ross, ProConsultant,
Florical, Rushworks, Dalet
41
Reference Guide
Newsroom Automation/Traffic & Billing
36
Product Showcase
38-39 Classifieds
TVTechnology
TVTechnology
4 December 1, 2010 TV Technology www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10
From The Editor
december 1, 2010 Vol 28, No 25

www.tvtechnology.com
tvtech@nbmedia.com
A New Look
Y
ou might not
have noticed that
TV Technology
now has a new look.
But looks are only
the beginning.
This marks the
fourth
redesign of
4 Tom Butts
Editor-in-Chief
TV
Technology
in
tbutts@nbmedia.com
its 27 years of existence, and in many ways, this redesign is the boldest yet.This magazine,
of course is more than just a physical
object youre holding in your hands.
The TV Technology brand encompasses the Web, including online
news and opinion, a wide range of
e-mail newsletters, webinars, virtual
tradeshows, and conferences. And
thats because you, our loyal readers,
get your news and information in so
many more ways today.
First of all, the look. As television
people, were visually oriented and
this new redesign offers a bolder,
sharper look with more and larger
graphics, news briefs and variety of
content.
And then theres the Web. Ten years
after the last redesign of the magazine,
the Web has become an increasingly important resource for all of us and weve
designed the new look to bring the print
T: (703) 852-4600 n F: (703) 852-4585

The staff can be contacted via e-mail using first
initial, last name @nbmedia.com
EDITORIAL
publication and online closer together. Every issue from now on will have its own
online index (with an easy to remember
URL) to provide readers with a source of
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TVTechnology
DECEMBER 1, 2010 EDITION
WWW.TVTECHNOLOGY.COM
BROADCAST PRODUCTION BROADBAND SATELLITE MOBILE
Todays ENG
Advances in IP,
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Storage
Technology
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Equipment
Guide
Station Automation/
Digital Content
Management
pages 26-42

The Rachel Ray Show hosts a
3D bash for Halloween
BY ROBIN BERGER
NEW YORKDaytime TVs The
Rachael Ray Show celebrated Halloween with a 3D extravaganza
available to viewers with 3D glasses distributed by TV Guide magazine.
The entire production was shot
in the 8,000 square foot studio on
Sony BVP-900 and BVP-950 standard definition cameras, supplemented by outdoor shots and
animation. 3-D Vision, a Westbury,
NY-based provider of 3D production and conversion technology.
converted the footage in the weeks
leading up to the Oct. 29 broadcast.
When the idea came up, we
started to look at all the different
options to doing itbringing in
specialized 3D cameras or conversion, said the shows director, Gene
Bernard. His team decided on con-
version, due to cost, time, flexibility,

and space constraints.We decided
early on that we didnt want to do
the entire show in 3D because we
Watch the episode

online
Pee Wee Herman and Rachel Ray ham it up for 3D
TVTECHNOLOGY.COM/12-01-10
MTV Keeps It Real
didnt want to alienate viewers

who might not have the glasses.
Rays signature cooking segments ran in their standard format.
3D elements included sight gags
supplied by Ray, her husband and
guests Pee-Wee Herman and magicians Penn & Teller, plus props and
an entirely new Halloweenthemed set.

BY JOHN MERLI
NEW TO 3D
None of us worked in 3D
before, said Bernard. And
when we were shooting it we
werent going to be able to
RAY, PAGE 12
MTVs The Buried Life stars (L-R), Ben

Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn
and Jonnie Penn
UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF.The

Buried Life, a reality TV series now
in its second season on MTV, is a
sort of bucket list for the millennial generation. First introduced
solely online four years ago as an
independently produced documentary featuring four Canadian
university students, the weekly
series has set out to accomplish
100 things to do in life before said
bucket is kicked.
MTV, PAGE 10
Want to see video clips of a program profiled in this issue?

All of the elements mentioned above
are offered in this issue in an online index
(at www.tvtechnology.com/12-0110)all designed to make it easier to
bring you the valuable content you
need to help keep you informed, and
to foster a closer relationship with
our readers. Want even faster updates
and more variety of content? Join
our growing community on Twitter
(@TVTechnology) and on Facebook.
And although weve redesigned the
look, our mission is the same. Broadcast and video production technology
has rapidly advanced over the almost
three decades of our existence.These
pages have chronicled the transition
to HD, digital, online, mobile (next up,
3D?) and were ready to bring the best
our industry has to offer in the coming decades, whether in person, print,
or online.
Were eager to know what you
think of our new look! Drop me an email at tbutts@nbmedia.com or share
your thoughts online in our forum
and blogs.
11/17/10 3:07 PM
01-16 News.indd 1
additional news and information. Want to

check out a white paper about a product
you read about in these pages? Want a list
of all that advanced gear installed in the
latest expando that you read about here?
Editor-in-Chief: Tom Butts

Executive Editor: Deborah D. McAdams
Managing Editor: Terry Hanley
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Taste of NAB Founder

Larry Bloomfield Dies at 72
On Nov. 8, Larry Bloomfield, a long time veteran of the broadcast
engineering community, died of a heart attack at the age of 72. Larry
was a well known figure in our industry, and his dedication was perhaps
best illustrated by his annual Taste of NAB traveling roadshows that
started in 2002. The show ran from May through September, offering a
review of notable products introduced at the spring broadcast show for
those who could not attend the annual Las Vegas event, (the revue was
not affiliated with The NAB Show).
Although Larry was dedicated to the concept of the Taste of NAB,
he always emphasized that the traveling roadshow was no substitution
for being there. There are very few opportunities for engineers to see,
first-hand, whats new and to have the chance to keep up with the latest
whatevers, Larry wrote on his Web site. Not sending at least one
engineer to NAB is tantamount to stifling your engineering departments
technical education and preventing the facility from keep abreast of
whats going in the wonderful world of television and broadcasting in
general. How utterly stupid!
Group Publisher: Eric Trabb
Larry and his staff traveled more than 143,000 miles to communities
as large as Philadelphia and as small as Bozeman, Montana. Larry and
his volunteer crew made presentations to more than 11,000 attendees
over the past 8 years.
Several of our online readers shared their memories of Larry:
My former company was a sponsor of Larrys show and I had the

pleasure of working a few stops with Larry during two summers in the
Southeast. I brought my son on a road trip to help and Larry spent a
great deal of time teaching him the ropes. Larry enjoyed teaching and he
will be missed. We had some good times.
Sorry to hear of Larrys passing. His effort to create and continue
Taste of NAB were both a service to broadcasters and a testament to
keep on going in spite of various health issues. Seeing Larry scooting
around the show and at stops on Taste through the years always made
me smile, and be pleased that he was not letting unanticipated situations
get in the way of living life to the fullest extent possible. I hope that the
folks who helped make Taste of NABhis colleagues and sponsors
will keep the show going on.
Editorial Director: T. Carter Ross

Production Director: Davis White
Publication Coordinator: Carolina Schierholz
TV Technology Founded by Stevan B. Dana
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in the news
For more insight and innovation visit tvtechnology.com/12-01-10
McAdams
On:
Follow Deborah via her blog at

TVTechnology.com/blogs
Mobile500 Alliance
Names John Lawson
Executive Director
WASHINGTON - John Lawson has become the new executive director of the
Mobile500, the TV station consortium
promoting MobileDTV. Lawsons duties
will include nationwide promotion as
well securing content deals and getting
the receiver chips into consumer devices.
He was most recently executive
vice president
of ION Media
Networks, and
the head of the
Association for
Public Television
Stations
before that.
The Mobile John Lawson
500
Alliance
stepped out in September with a coalition of 30 companies comprising 340
full-power TV stations in 167 markets.
Lawson was a founding board member of the Open Mobile Video Coalition
and was elected to its first executive
committee.
Most Content Viewed

On HDTV Sets Still SD
NEW YORK: Nielsen says 56 percent of
U.S. households now have HDTV sets,
but HD viewing continues to lag. Just
13 percent of total-day viewing on cable TV is in HD, the
media measurement company reports. The ratios a
bit higher on broadcast networks19 percent.
In other words, despite
the billions of dollars that
Americans have spent buying highdefinition TVs, more than 80 percent of
television viewing is still a standarddefinition experience, Nielsen said.

About one-fifth of viewing on HDTV sets
is via non-HD feeds. And although HD is
available to everyone free over-the-air,
the majority of U.S. households subscribe to cable or satellite and dont switch to
other sources. HD content
is typically restricted to
more costly premium programming tiers.
More people watch cable sports in HD than any
other type of programming21 percent
of all equipped households.
NAB Seeks Engineering Award Nominees

WASHINGTON: The National Association
of Broadcasters is now accepting nominations for the 52nd annual Engineering
Achievement Awards. The award recognizes contributions that have significantly advanced the state of the art of
broadcast engineering.
Qualifications are sought in the categories of invention, development of
new techniques, dissemination of tech-
nical knowledge and literature or an

outstanding contribution that, in the
opinion of the NAB Executive Committee, warrants consideration. Nomination form is available at www.nab.org.
Recipients will be recognized at the
2011 NAB Technology Luncheon in Las
Vegas. The show runs from April 9-14.
The Artful
Spectrum
Dodge
by Deborah
McAdams
Nationwide wireless broadband is a
worthwhile endeavor.
Few would disagree,
unless you count the 53 percent of folks in
the August Pew study who dont believe the
spread of affordable broadband should be
a major government priority. Or the 21 percent of Americans who dont use the Internet
and dont care totwice that of households
that rely on over-the-air television. Forget
about the 51 percent who dont see lack of
broadband access as a major disadvantage
with regard to job opportunities.
Lets put those folks aside for a moment
and assume theyre just backward inbreds
who dont comprehend that wireless
broadband is an ARPU bonanza for privateequity investors. Nothing wrong with that
per se, except perhaps for the bothersome
notion that the airwaves belong to the
people. Therein lay the obsolescence of
Americas current spectrum modelnot
that broadcasters occupy a portion of it,
as is proffered by the chief investor at the
Federal Communications Commission,
Julius Genachowski.
Less than 10 percent of us... still get
our television programming from over-theair broadcast transmissions, the CI said
recently at a podium in Atlanta. The world
has changed, but our spectrum allocations
still reflect the previous era. This presents a
real obstacle as we try to ensure a spectrum
infrastructure for the new world of mobile
broadband.
In that same speech, Genachowski cited
a study from the National Science Foundation that ranked 40 nations on a small
number of metrics relating to competitiveness and innovative capacity, metrics that
included broadband.
The United States ranked 40th in terms
of improving.
Beyond unacceptable, the chief said.
Never mind those metrics also included
K-12 science and math education, engineering research, economic policy and available
funding for higher education, among others.
Such facts dont serve to obfuscate the
Administrations attempt to appease Wall
Street by handing over the public airwaves
for incremental revenue opportunities.
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2010 JVC. All trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective proprietors.
in the news
Engineering Todays Master Control

Centralizing resources and managing myriad formats are key
by Susan Ashworth
SAN FRANCISCOThe slew of dips experienced by the broadcast market over the
last several years revealed some ugly disadvantagesfrom job loses to equipment
purchase stagnationbut those lulls have
in turn led to the development of more
streamlined, refined broadcast facilities.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in
master control. The technical brain center
of a broadcast facility, master control continues to incorporate a complicated mix
of transmission equipment, monitors, automation and playback gear.
Todays master control

designs are all about
finding efficiencies
in operations by
consolidating
resources.
Marc Siegel, ABS
But todays modern master control facilities are designed to do even more: handle an ever-larger cadre of responsibilities,
execute tasks seamlessly, coordinate an
expanding roster of channels, and do it all
with fewer trained operators.
Todays master control designs are all
about finding efficiencies in operations by
consolidating resources, said Mark Siegel,
president of Advanced Broadcast Solutions
(ABS), a Seattle-based systems integrator
involved in master control design and development.
Today everything is about the economy of scale, said Paul Roston, president of
A year ago, Roscor revamped Kentucky Educational Televisions four-channel master control.
Mount Prospect, Ill.-based Roscor. Stations

are asking if I can automate five stations
into a hub-and-spoke operation, [can I only
employ] one or two operators to monitor
events?
CENTRALIZATION
For a number of systems integrators, the
answer to the cost-cutting query has come
in the form of centralization: by centralizing master control operations and controlling numerous stations from one location,
broadcasters can slash costs in the area
of technology acquisition, personnel and
training.
Stations are seeing the advantage of
controlling five stations over a broadband
network and sending assets out to stations
ahead of time, while controlling the broadcast itself from a central location, Roston
said.It all depends on the costs.
About a year ago, Roscor revamped Kentucky Educational Television, retooling the
NBC network affiliates in Spokane, Yakima

and Pasco, Wash.
But like any technological innovation,
the centralcasting setup has its own difficulties. A majority of broadcast stations
have migrated from the simple reception
of content via satellite to a complicated
mish-mash of digital media formats. As a
result, master control environments are required to evolve to handle the difficulties
associated with downloading and transcoding these different formats.
Thus, the challenges inherent in setting up a hub-and-spoke master control
environment often surround the ingest of
content. Sources come in various formats,
from tape to IP media, and they all need to
be converted to a common production format, said Jim Conley, senior vice president
of engineering for Communications Engineering Inc. (CEI), a Newington, Va.-based
systems integrator that worked on master
control facilities at the 62,000-square-foot
technical facility owned by Rainbow Network Communications. To get [everything] to 16:9 full screen for all the branding and mixing necessary, thats a real
challenge [during] input.
To bring it all to fruition, Rainbow Network Communications has installed Grass
Valley master control switchers, Grass Valley
servers, Evertz signal processing gear, Chyron DUET graphic solutions and Tektronix
measurement equipment.
networks four-channel master control operation into a fully file-based facility with
integrated archive and asset management.
The firm installed a mix of Utah Scientific
master control switchers, Avid Interplay
asset management, Masstech content management, Myers Pro Track traffic equipment and Miranda multiviewers. Roscor
replaced the networks
existing master control, production rooms,
graphics and editing infrastructure.
Centralcasting was
the right solution for
ABS during its redesign
of several Cowles Publishing Company stations in California in
2009. The firm is now
in the midst of building
a push and edge master CEI recently helped build Studio 43 production control room at NASCARs
control model for three new Charlotte, N.C headquarters.
JVCs new GY-HM790U camera.

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shaped and perfectly balanced. To ensure incredible image quality, our new flagship camera
provides HD broadcast standard 1080i, 1080p, 720p or 480i live output in uncompressed 4:2:2.
It also offers all the benefits of ProHD: XDCAM EXTM codec and Native QuickTime .mov file in-camera recording
at 35Mbps, 25Mbps or 19Mbps for super-fast, seamless workflow editing in Final Cut Pro or virtually any other NLE system, SD
compability for legacy workflows, plus solid-state recording on two hot-swappable SDHC cards. Other features include genlock,
timecode and pool feed, as well as a 1.22 megapixel viewfinder, 3 progressive CCDs to capture high-motion shots without compromise, multiple lens options, and more. To deliver added flexibility for Sports, ENG and EFP, the GY-HM790U offers interchangeable
multicore, fiber and ASI modules, making HD quality on remote broadcasts an affordable reality.
Talk to the Pros at JVC and check out the new ProHD GY-HM790 camera.
Call 1-800-582-5825 or visit www.jvc.com/pro
www.jvc.com/pro
2010 JVC. All trademarks and brand names are the property of their respective proprietors.
in the news
reality
Continued from PAGE 1
Mike Powers, the shows executive-incharge at MTV, said new, compact types of
HD cams with acceptable quality such as
consumer-grade Flip devices allow access
to places not easily penetrated by bulkier
equipment.The guys can remain as stealth
as possible, he said. Much of the show is
completely unplanned, so its great that
they can get decent coverage just by pulling out a tiny camera these days and start
to shoot instantaneously.
We get away with a

variety of camera looks
because were okay
with footage feeling
user-generated.
Adam Paul,
Reveille Studios
The series transition in 2009 from online to cable on MTV was not difficult,
said Powers.Buried Life was born on the
Internet, so if anything, the guys had to

somewhat adjust their way of working to
start creating full half-hour episodes and, of
course, begin tell longer stories. The series
title is taken from a 19th century poem of
the same name by Matthew Arnold.
The amusing bucket-list goals thus far
achieved in the series (i.e., shooting hoops
with Barack Obama, stealing a lock of hair
from a certain vampire actor) are coupled
with the gravitas of genuine good deeds
such as helping estranged family members
reunite and providing mostly online forums of support for young viewers dealing with such issues as school bullying and
thoughts of suicide.
MULTIPLE FORMATS
Post Production Supervisor David Tomlin of Reveille Studios in Universal City,
Calif., said one of the more challenging aspects of post-producing The Buried Life
is dealing with its many required formats.
Due to the docu-drama nature of the series, we try to shoot as discretely as possible, and we use many different types of
cameras to achieve this goal. Our primary
HDV cameras are the Sony HVR-Z7Us,
which Tomlin said were tapped for their
Jonnie Penn in the editing suite
handheld portability and image quality.

We can mic it, capture great color, be
discreet when needed, and make quick adjustments on the fly. However, were also
using digital Flip Mino HD cameras, various hidden mini-file based camerasand
even some 16mm film which we shoot using a wind-up Krasnagorsk-3, Tomlin said.
(The Krasnagorsk was made in the former
Soviet Union.)
Tomlin said bringing all these formats
to post has been streamlined into a single
workflow, now that the series is into its second season on MTV. We shot both seasons
in 1080i [although] this is our first year
broadcasting in HD domestically. For a reality show, we put a lot of care into how we
compose shots and this show was always
meant to air in HD, so were very happy the

audience now gets to see what weve been
seeing [on MTV HD],Tomlin said.
The show is edited on Avid Nitris I/O.
We lay all file-based footage to HDV using a Sony HVR1500-A, and then digitize it
at a 10:1m resolution, Tomlin said. Once
our edit is complete, we up-res in-house,
then send out a textless VAM for DaVinci
color correction. From there we add titles,
effects, and blurs using a Symphony Nitris,
and finally, we lay to HD camwhich we
use as a dub master for final delivery.
Adam Paul, Reveilles executive producer on the series, said each episode
presents different technical questions.
The bottom line is we try to tell a great
story and give the viewer an up-close and
personal feel without it feeling like the
viewer is intruding on the moment, Paul
said.When the boys once tried to escape
from a deserted island, we gave them
a night-vision camera they could shoot
themselves, and another camera with an
underwater case. [Regular] HD Flip cameras are heavily used, too. We get away
with a variety of camera looks because
were okay with footage feeling user-generated. It basically keeps it real.
in the news
Ray
make a judgment about the 3D quality of

the image because we would be seeing it
in 2D.
The shows production team worked
with 3-D Vision from mid-August onward
to fine tune the production; additional
notes and tweaks were made during the
conversion process.
The show itself was shot in one take
(versus the usual two or three takes). The
opening sequence (a dance number shot
outside) and bumper shots were done
later.
For Bernard and co-executive producer
Joseph Freed, 3D was all about designing
the shot to emphasize depth, using markers (props) and dynamic camera work
that delineated foreground, middle and

background layers.
We used the jib and the Steadicam to
move around the foreground object to the
next object, said Freed. For example, Rachel Rays entrance onto the set became
a longer point of view shot, with the host
walking past a tombstone and statue, then
through cemetery gates and past a tree.
Other props included bubbles shot
by a bubble gun, cards tossed toward the

camera, and Pee-Wee swinging on a vine.
POST PRODUCTION
3-D Vision used its patented Auto 3D

process to convert the footage. According
to CEO Gene Dolgoff, the process uses
cues in the 2-dimensional images to create
stereo pairs. Cues include factors such as,
for example, how much one object covers
(occludes) another. Equally important
are the size, sharpness, color saturation,
contrast and brightness that objects have
relative to their depth from one another.
As things get deeper, all those things
decrease in a predictable wayyou look
at those factors as a guide to generate
stereo pairs of pixels, said Dolgoff. The
software, guided by an operator, automatically generates the second image and puts
it at the right spacing through an editing
program.
The files generated by Auto 3D software
can be formatted for 3D-ready TV sets as
well as standard sets that require glasses
provided by another source. In this case,
the format supported 3-D Visions FullColor 3D glasses, which have a green left
lens and a purple right lens. Dolgoff favors
these colors over the traditional cyan and
red because they optimize the brightness
and color mix for the viewer.
Full-Color 3D glasses were distributed via TV

Guide in the weeks leading up to the broadcast.
Only one set of colors will give you

the color balance you need to have nearly
equal brightness in the two eyesimbalance creates eye strain, he said.The green
and purple lenses, he noted, also minimize
overlap of televisions three basic colors
(blue, green and red), which, in turn, minimizes ghosting.We made narrower filters
so that the glasses dont transmit those
overlapped wavelength areas.
TIME, COST & PAYBACK
Taping a show in studio takes roughly

an hour to 90 minutes, according to Bernard, who adds that this show took at
least six weeks of planning, plus three and
a half for post production. Including the
set dressing, conversion, and eye glasses,
Bernard estimated that it was easily one
of their more costly shows (Sara Lee sponsored the episode).
That said, both Bernard and Freed said
the procedure they chose costs less in
terms of time, money and manpower than
the alternatives for 3D. Dolgoff also noted
the increased flexibility afforded by conversion.
in the news
Options Expand for ENG
a camera over whatever Internet connectivity is available. These signals are

sent to decoders back at a station and
then decoded into baseband video. The
greatest benefit of these devices is the
ability to physically take the live shot almost anywhere, un-tethered from tradisystem offers a significant enough ROI or
tional cabling or microwave links.
competitive edge.
Many local stations are now using
IP video, where before it was the worst
IPS COMPETITIVE EDGE
case scenario option, said Larson. HavWhether as a briefcase, backpack, or
ing been in the IP streaming business IMTS microLite HD transmitter in use at Pocono Raceway.
even a camera bolt-on device, news organitions. Broadcasters considering this techfor many years, Streambox has taknology need to look closely at the deployen its fixed networks technology and
ment application. Some products offer
adapted it for use in the companys
higher resolutions, up to full HD, where
new Avenir system, which can take adothers have more than just air cards and
vantage of integrated cellular modems
can take advantage of other multiple conas well as attach to other sources of IP
nectivity options. Some manufacturers also
connectivity including BGAN termioffer a store and forward option where a
nals. Like many of the other new prodstreamed version can be sent on available
ucts out this year it can use multiple
bandwidth, and a higher resolution can be
cellular or satellite modems from mulsent back later as a file for editing.
tiple carriers to provide greater bandPhysical packaging is also important.
width with more dependability.
For one-man-band crews, the backpack
Nucomm and RF Central, part of the
and camera bolt- on options make the most
Integrated Microwave Technologies
sense, whereas an overseas crew might like
line of products, have evolved their use
DSI RF Systems recently introduced the NewsShark
a more rugged case-based platform. The
of
IP
for
ENG
for
several
years,
accordCamera bolt-on.
costs vary as drastically as do the options.
ing to Keith Blaisdell, vice president
There is a product for every budget, and
of product development for the Mount
zations around the world can now go live
in some cases this may be the overriding
Olive, NJ-based company. In addition to its
with good quality video from almost anyfactor.Whatever the considerations, having
where they can get Internet connectivity. Messenger IP products, the company rethese tools available can open up totally
cently launched the microLite Transmitter
This connectivity is made available from
new options for live ENG coverage. Just
that allows users of next-gen compact full
3G/4G cell systems, WiFi hotspots and of
as the Gyro stabilized helicopter camera
HD (SDI) cameras to transmit and receive
course, Broadband Global Area Network
revolutionized aerial coverage for news,
while outputting CVBS, SDI HD (SDI while
(BGAN) satellite terminals.
these products will create a sea change in
streaming directly to IP simultaneously).
In the past, wireless video from the field
ground coverage.
Another lightweight option now availconsisted of portable microwave links
able is the NewsShark camera bolt-on
from a camera-based transmitter back to
option from Somerset, N.J.-based DSI RF
a truck which then retransmitted the sigFor more information on ENG, visit
Systems. Designed with news in mind, and
nal to the station. These setups provided
with IFB feeds for talent and camera oproaming ability for the camera, but were
erator, this unit can be a great addition to
restricted by the typical line of sight and
an ENG vans tool kit and can even turn a
distance constraints of small microwave
reporters car into an ENG option.
radio transmitters.
Each of the new portable IP products
The trend today is to develop small porTVTechnology.com/12-01-10
offers differing ROI and competitive optable devices that can stream IP video from
Advances in IP, satellite lower costs

by Ian MacSpadden
ALEXANDRIA,VA.Whether for an IP back
haul or getting a live shot from a moving
vehicle, the use of IP video transmission systems is changing the game for everything
from live remotes to station infrastructure.
Broadcasters who are really successful
using IP have been those with a good understanding of IP technology and who have
been innovative with its implementations,
said Ben Larson, a technical project manager
for Seattle-based Streambox. Larson works
with clients to better educate them on the
options IP video can bring to the table.
There is no shortage of ENG video acquisition options available today, including
IP. However, traditional satellite and microwave systems are still advancing with new
efficiencies in signal transmissions that improve every year.
SATELLITE EVOLVES
Even older technologies are still evolving, with satellite and microwave systems
not standing still by any means, said Jack
Vickers, senior product manager for decoder vendor Sencore in Sioux Falls, SD.Vickers
explained that the efficiencies are developing on two fronts; compression technology
keeps pushing down bandwidth requirements and modulation schemes keep getting more efficient. This means that every
year more channels can be transported
within the same spectrum space at higher
resolutions.With spectrum becoming scarcer, this development is of major importance
to broadcasters.
Advances in both IP video and microwave/satellite gear make it even more important when determining which new
Make the Most of Your Media

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in the news
GTX-16: Built for the Real World

F&Fs new OB does 3D if you need it
by James Careless
CLEARWATER, FLA.Ask F&F Productions Sales and Marketing vice president
Marc Orgera if the companys new GTX-16
production truck can shoot in 3D, and hell
say yes. You just have to replace the 37inch monitors inside with 3D-compatible
monitors and attach 3D cameras, and you
are good to go.
However, 3D is not what GTX-16 was
built for. The fact is that there just isnt
that much 3D work out there, Orgera tells
TV Technology. F&F Productions is focusing on what the real world wantswhich
is HDTV in 2D.
In taking this position, F&F Productions
is not pinching pennies. In fact, the reason
GTX-16 can ramp up to 3D production so
easily is due to the fact that it is built to be
3D-ready. This is because the truck is built
with 3 gig (3Gbps) networking and routing capabilities. 3 gig has real world applications today for HDTV, which is why it
makes sense to add this

capability to GTX-16 and
other trucks in our fleet,
Orgera says.
Worth noting: The
GTX-16 is a complete
HDTV audio/video production unit. It does not
require a B unit to work
with it on site.
FIFTH IN LINE
GTX-16 is the fifth in
a line of 53-foot HDTV GTX-16 master control
double expando production trailers operated by F&F Productions. just under a month (July-August 2010).
In fact, our common production design
(The other trailers in the series are GTX-11,
goes right back to our first truck, Orgera
GTX-12, GTX-14, and GTX-15; no GTX-13.)
says. This is why we know what were
Although the production technology in
doing when it comes to outfitting a new
each truck has changed as newer models
trailer, and why we can do it so quickly yet
become available, the fundamental layout
accurately. This speed allowed the newlyand wiring design is the same. This is why
built GTX-16 to shoot the US Open TenF&F Productions was able to convert the
shell it received from Spevco of Pfafftown, nis Championships; as a bonus, the truck
worked first for CBS Sports and then ESPN
N.C. into a full-fledged production unit in
at the event; making GTX-16s first job a

double-header.

FEATURES
Befitting its status as a cutting-edge
production unit, GTX-16 is equipped with
the latest technology. (It also has lots of
interior flexibility, thanks to the movable
benches located in its three-tiered production space.)
If GTX-16s 3G network can be described as its nerves, then the Evertz
288x576 HD router is the trucks central
nervous system. As for a heart? GTX-16
has two. The first covers video; thats the
Grass Valley Kayenne switcher (96 inputs,
48 outputs) with K2 Summit video server
(10 hours of HD clip storage). The second
heart pumps audio; namely the Calrec
Apollo audio console with Bluefin2 that
provides up to 1020 channel processing
paths. An Evertz VIPX Routing and MultiImage Display System computer-configures
the trucks virtual monitor wall. Made up of
18 37-inch HDTV displays, the screen space
on these monitors can be divided and combined as desired.
Read an expanded version online
JUSTIN FORNAL
Filmmaker
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Bronx Flavor is the exclusive property of BronxNet Media and Fornal Films LLC. Photo Kim M. Fornal.
Insight Lighting Technology

Mr. First Nighter
Theater to Video Translation
great test of a lighting

mans skill comes with
a seemingly simple
task: the video recording of a
live theatrical stage presentation. This common task usually comes without warning,
4 Bill Klages but has one redeeming benefitthe success of the translation between the two very contrary mediums
will depend greatly upon your understanding
of the differences between the two.
It is quite common today to record live performances, anything from a rock band to a symphony orchestra, a single stand-up comic to a multiscene drama.The recording can be done in every
possible venuefrom a Broadway type theater to
an aircraft hanger.
THE BASIC IDEA
In most elementary terms, the successful transfer from a live performance to video (or film, for
that matter) should accomplish one very important goal: The viewer of the final recorded prod-
uct should have the same emotional experience

as if he were viewing the event live.
Of course, this is not completely attainable; although, in terms of the lighting, the basic intent
and mood can be maintained. This may take some
doing, but can be very rewarding in that the alterations to the lighting still retain the integrity of the
original theatrical lighting design.
LIGHTING RANGE AND INTENSITY
The range of brightness of a theatrical production is the most immediate consideration. It is
meant to be viewed by the eye. In order to establish the areas of importance to the theater viewer,
the lighting designer will use very high contrast
in the lighting, which is in complete opposition
to what the camera desires.This is the always first
problemattaining a narrower range of brightness.
It is not uncommon to find that the principals
in a musical are in a follow spot at about 500foot candles with nothing but ambient light on
the scenery. When exposed for the spotlight, the
camera will not see the scenery at all. Not only
Angela Lansbury and George Hearn in Sweeney Todd
that, but the next scene may be in fixed

lighting only, no follow spots, but at 20foot candles.
So we have added a second consideration to the mix, the variation of exposure
settings for the camera. Common practice
on multiple-camera television production is to basically use a fixed exposure
throughout the entire production. Because of this it is necessary to inspect each
theatrical lighting cue and alter it to not
only maintain the narrow dynamic range
the camera desires, but also to provide a
consistent light level. It can get awkward
if you attempt to expose for each scene
where the range of light levels is extreme.
On many productions, numerous theatrical lighting adjustments made to subtly
direct the viewers attention should be removed as the cameras will do this function more directly. What happens is that
many times these subtle adjustments take
place exactly on camera changes, when
the change of viewpoint is desired for the
same reason that the lighting change was
included. This results in a not-so-subtle
change in light level that, unfortunately,
may look like a mistake.
translation, PAGE 20
19
www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10 TV Technology December 1, 2010
Insight RF TECHNOLOGY
Mobile DTV at IEEE BTS

A
TSC single frequency

networks and Mobile DTV were the focus
of several sessions at
the 60th Annual IEEE
Broadcast Symposium
in Alexandria, Va., in
4 Doug Lung
October.
The tutorial session was packed with
useful information for engineers building
ATSC Mobile DTV facilities. Rich Chernocks ATSC Mobile DTV 201: A Technical/
Practical Tutorial covered the ATSC A/153
mobile DTV standard in great detail, even
explaining the fine points of the HE AAC v2
audio system.
There is no simple way to summarize
all the data in the 165-slide presentation.
In addition to covering all eight parts of
the A/153 standard in detail, Dr. Chernock
showed how the different layers fit together.
I hope Triveni will post the paper on their
website (www.trivenidigital.com). It is
an excellent complement to the Rohde &
Schwarz white paper on Mobile DTV transmission I mentioned last month.
One point Rich made in his presentation
was that Mobile DTV does not use MPEG-2
except in the STL path. During the Q&A afterward, Merrill Weiss disagreed, noting that
all of the MH data structures eventually get
Dr. Richard Chernock
mapped into MPEG-2 packets.

This led to a discussion about the STL
path, which appears to be causing problems
for some stations rolling out Mobile DTV. Every packet applied to the exciter must be in
exactly the same position and order it was
coming out of the mobile multiplexer at the
studio. Dropping or adding null packets will
cause the Mobile DTV-enabled exciter to
lose lock and introduce errors in both the
mobile and main (legacy) ATSC streams.
There are many components in STL sys-
tems designed in the early days of DTV that

can drop or add null packets. SMPTE-310
to ASI conversion (and vice-versa) often
causes problems, but any component that
has separate, unsynchronized clocks at the
studio and the transmitter site wont work.
Except for one test (more on that later)
all of the ATSC Mobile DTV stations Ive
observed are using 48 Reed-Solomon par-
ity bytes either with quarter-rate coding or,

more likely, with mix-rated coding.
ALTERNATIVE MOBILE DTV MODES
In his paper Performance of Various
Modes Defined by ATSC A/153 MDTV Standard Zenith Electronics engineer Tim Laud
presented the results of measurements Zenith made in the Chicago area comparing
Audio for Mobile DTV
In his presentation Audio Processing

not simply plumb existing audio into moConsiderations for Mobile and Hand Held
bile systems because the loudness range
Digital Television, at the IEEE BTS, Linear
is too wide for small devices, there are too
Acoustic President Tim Carroll noted that
many channelsthe number is variable
many stations currently broadcasting moeven within a program stream, and typical
bile DTV signals are simulcasting their main
mobile environments can be noisy.
channel, which is likely transmitting 5.1
While AGC may sound like the obviDolby audio with a dynamic
ous solution, Carroll says
range suitable for home thesimple
AGC
techniques
aters or living rooms. Simply
could make problems worse.
down-mixing this audio into
He recommends downmixthe HE AAC v2 ATSC Mobile
ing the 5.1 audio into what
DTV audio stream will cause
he termed LoRo90, deproblems, since the Mobile
scribed by the formulas Lo =
DTV programs are likely to
L+C(0.707)+Ls'(0.707) and Ro
be listened to on small por= R+C(0.707)+Rs'(0.707).
table devices, perhaps with
Additional processing is
a 1-inch speaker, or on inneeded. He recommends preexpensive ear buds, in highconditioning (high-pass and
noise environments.
low-pass filtering to minimize
Linear Acoustic President
Carroll said stations can- Tim Carroll
bit rates and width control
the efficiency and robustness of these two

configurations with some alternative coding and parity bit options. The results were
quite interesting.
Before I reveal Lauds findings its worth
reviewing the options available in A/153 for
the inner turbo code forward error correction (FEC).
IEEE, PAGE 22
and centering); isolation of dialog elements

for level control and frequency shaping for
clarity; and reduction of noncoherent background sounds such as crowd noise.
Carrolls presentation
showed traditional
audio processing is
not sufficient for the
wide range of devices
consumers will use to
listen to Mobile DTV.
Carrolls presentation showed traditional
audio processing is not sufficient for the
wide range of devices consumers will use
to listen to Mobile DTVfrom high power
in-car audio systems to portable devices
with tiny speakers or ear buds.
Insight LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY

Translation
COLOR OR ILLUMINATION
Standard operating practice for video
as well as film camera is to maintain the
illuminant that the camera sees as white
throughout the sequence. In most theatrical
presentations, this illuminant would be provided by tungsten lamps.
Usually, it is impossible to determine
what the white or basic illuminant is in
a theatrical production. It varies all over
the map. Most commonly it is a low-color
temperature as a result of amber-based gels
placed on the stage lighting instruments,
coupled with the lamp voltage dimmed to
a very low reading.
The eye, of course, adapts to this illuminant and attempts to restore color (in
this case blue) to retain the colors of the
subjects. The camera, with no ability to
adapt, must be readjusted (white balance)
to reproduce the colors. Many times, under
the stage lighting, it is impossible to attain
white balance because the sensitivity of the
camera has reached its limits in the ability
to add the missing spectrum.
Under these conditions, bite the bullet,
remove the color from the theatrical instruments or actually replace the instruments
with ones with no gel.The reader should be
aware that we are not necessarily referring
to the use of color as a theatrical effect (fire
is red), but in acquiring a realistic rendering of the color of the human face under
situations where the lighting is considered
normal.
The viewer of the final

recorded product
should have the same
emotional experience
as if he were viewing
the event live.
THE CAMERAS EYE
I mentioned in the beginning that a theatrical scene is usually quite contrary and,
when seen by a camera, will appear even
more so. In fact, the detail may disappear entirely at either end of the brightness scale
at the white end and the black.
Fig. 1 is a simple graphic representation
of this phenomenon. But this exaggeration
can be extended into other elements that
make up our scene. For example, colors will
appear more saturated. Dont be surprised if
your favorite primary blue becomes Congo.
A rouge applied sparingly on the cheeks of
your star may become clown-like under the
camera. What looks medium gray to your
eye may become white when you properly

expose the actor.
As implied in the follow-spot example I
used at the beginning, we will have to add
instruments to light the scenery to properly
balance the background to the foreground
acting area.
Fig.1: Contrast Range
THE REALITY
Now, here is the big issue. The reality of
the situation is that you cannot satisfy both
media at the same time. Either the live performance or the recorded result must take
precedence. One will suffer diminished
results. If our goal is to obtain broadcast
quality (for want of a better term), great
compromises will have to be made to the
lighting of any event designed for a live audience.
A perfect illustration of this is that in
most theater productions, a drop of light
on the proscenium is considered extremely
bad form and lighting designers take great
care in insuring this never occurs. If we are
recording the same production, we would
welcome spill on the proscenium as it
would immediately establish the real estate
of the locale to the viewer.
Of great importance is that a properly
balanced scene for the camera will appear
quite flat to an observer in the theater. Not
a very pleasing result for Mr. First Nighter.
And what if we desire audience reaction
shots during our performance? The rush to
the box office by angry patrons demanding
their money back will be a stampede!
CURTAIN TIME
But, as I stated at the start, if you have
done a good job and solved all the obstacles
head-on due to your understanding of the
basic principles, the result will give you
great satisfaction as well as a permanent
record of the theatrical productionin
broadcast quality.
Bill Klages would like to invite all the
lighting people out there to give him your
thoughts at billklages@roadrunner.com.
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Insight RF TECHNOLOGY
IEEE
The Mobile DTV data, along with the

main (legacy) data is placed into a defined
series of continuous transmitted VSB data
segments called M/H Blocks. The M/H
Blocks are mapped into M/H Group Regions
designated as A, B, C and D. As described in
last months column, A/153 allows either

half-rate (two data bits out for every data bit
in) or quarter-rate (four data bits out for every data bit in) serial concatenated convolutional coding (SCCC) in each region.
The robustness of regions A, B, C and D
are not equal because all of the M/H training sequences are located in regions A and B.
One of the six sequences is in region B and
the other five are in region A.

Thats the reason transmitting Region A
with half-rate SCCC and the other regions
with quarter-rate SCCC (mixed rate coding) works almost as well as using quarterrate coding in all regions (quarter-rate coding). Regions C and D have no M/H training
sequences.
The other variable is the number of Reed-
Solomon parity bytes.A/153 allows use of 24,

36 or 48 parity bytes. Increasing the number
of parity bytes increases the number of M/H
bytes that can be recovered if the original
bytes are corrupt and erased.
Laud and the engineers at Zenith Electronics tested several different coding and
Reed-Solomon parity byte combinations
during field tests in and around Chicago.The
tests included areas with a large amount of
multipath and traffic (heavy, changing, ghosting) as well as areas with weak signals near
or below ATSC thresholds.
Two of the combinations that yielded
interesting results were quarter-rate coding
with only 24 parity bytes (4444/24) and the
use of the primary Reed-Solomon (RS) block
only (regions A and B) with half-rate SCCC
(22XX/48). The field tests showed that recovery of 4444/24 was 0.94 (0.06 from perfect) while 4444/48 was 0.97 (0.03 from
perfect). The small reduction in robustness
going from 48 byte parity to 24 byte parity
yields 12 percent more data capacity and,
in Lauds tests, still performed better than
mixed-mode (2444/48).
Using the primary region alone with full
half-rate code (22xx/48) provides more
data bandwidth than mixed rate (2444/48)
with a slight increase in robustness as well,
although neither was as robust as the all
quarter-rate code at either 48 or 24 bytes of
parity.
Laud encouraged broadcasters to experiment with different coding/parity combinations to optimize bandwidth and robustness
for their markets. I had a chance to compare
all quarter-rate code with 36 parity bytes
(4444/36) in New York City soon after the
IEEE symposium.
Based on Lauds study, I expected this
combination to perform better than mixedrate coding with 48 parity bytes (2444/48),
but reports from multiple mobile DTV viewers in New York showed reception quality
dropped significantly. What works in one
market may not work as well in another.
In New York, signals were generally
strong, but with multipath. If I had a chance
to check reception in suburban areas outside New York I might have gotten different results. Id hoped to test the 22XX/48
coding but couldnt find a way to configure
it in the equipment available. If you have a
chance to test this, please let me know how
it compares with the two standard modes.
Got a comment? E-mail me at dlung@
transmitter.com.
For the extended version, visit
Insight Storage technology
Accelerating Performance
W
hile
todays
media is created and stored
digitally, content production and distribution
processes must now leverage high-bandwidth
4 Karl
distribution at a level of
Paulsen
quality equal to or better
than high definition.
As a consequence, a migration is taking
place across the industry that includes TV
stations, film studios, production houses,
and digital intermediate (DI) facilities.
High-performance intelligent storage
platforms are now helping media organizations and service providers optimize
workflows and improve performance.
An integral component in the workflow
process, these storage systems provide
the scalability, performance, density, and
power efficiency necessary to store and
manage enormous amounts of unstructured data, which power the all-digital entertainment world.
QUANTUM SHIFT
Weve witnessed extremely rapid growth
in very large media files. Digital images, video, and audio now account for 85 percent
of the global storage capacity. Most consist
of unstructured data as opposed to the
transaction-based data, which previously
dominated many organizations. This quantum shift in the types and volumes of data
has changed storage in a dramatic way.
Traditional storage architectures, once
optimized for transactional data, are not
well suited for digital media. Media storage
platforms now handle very large files in real
time. They must be able to expedite workflows and provide paths to staying ahead of
the exponential growth in files and media.
Systems are called upon to support hundreds of users, store millions of images, videos, and music files; and then deliver them
with sub-millisecond response times.
These systems must also stream massive
amounts of high -definition content without
ever missing a single frame.
Storage platforms need to deliver write
performance that equals read performance.

They must provide a guaranteed qualityof-service (QoS) with predictable performance on large files, while simultaneously
ingesting multiple sets of data streams in
real and faster-than-real time.
Motion picture and digital media content
creation is made possible by the collaboration of teams that make up a massive mix
of production activities. Their activities include visual effects, 2D and 3D animation,
full titles, trailer clips, and sound

mixing.
The releases consist of feature
films, television, advertising, interactive visual media and video
games. In order to meet the often
stringent deadlines, real-time collaborative workflow is essential.
No longer can operations tolerate
system downtime, inaccessible
data, or reduced throughput because of data transfer bottlenecks.
Todays workflows create content of increasing complexity that
feed a distributed environment in
a mix of resolutions ranging from mobile/
Web resolutions through HD.
Some systems must support the 2K, 4K
and 8K (UHDTV) formats of digital cinema.
As a result, organizations are finding they
are technically challenged when it comes
to supporting a mixture of real-time workflows; concurrent multi-user editing or
colorists; and growing file sizes that begin
at ingest and expand throughout the post-
25
Insight Storage technology

production process.
Conventional storage systems are found
to be inadequate for this level of post production, with users turning to intelligent,
high-performance storage solution platforms for their answers.
Post-production environments have
moved to a central storage system that supports edit-in-place functionality for dozens
of uncompressed HD workstations; all the
while delivering multiple streams for transmission and distribution to other services.
In extreme environments, system performance can require as much as 240 GBps of
scalable storage capacity while supporting
open systems with multiple CPUs, operating
systems, and file systemsall in a collaborative file-sharing environment.
Broadcast entities also find themselves
preparing content for multiple formats, and
High-performance
intelligent storage
platforms are now
helping media
organizations and
service providers to
optimize workflows
and improve
performance.
then distributing those multiple streams in
support of consumer demands for on-air services, video on demand, streaming to mobile
phones and media players, and for delivery
to Web portals for Internet distribution.
These expanding activities are growing
at an alarming rate, requiring another breed
of high-throughput scalable storage systems
that can support real-time collaborative
workflows, and the storage of myriad files of
unstructured images, videos, and music.
This caliber of storage system handles
very large files at a very high rate of throughput. In some operations the volume of newly created content easily exceeds multiple
terabytes a day, which is fed by concurrent
digitization on multiple ingest stations.
These next-gen storage platforms concurrently deliver multiple terabytes of data to
editing stations, playout servers, transcode
and render farms, and content distribution
networks. And since video playout depends
on the flawless streaming of video, these
storage platforms must deliver real-time performance with uncompromising reliability.
STORAGE ACCELERATORS
Heretofore, graphics and effects production had operated in a parallel job-task-related fashion using silos of individual stores
attached locally to the workstation or a small
NAS, or on a SAN.
By contrast, news editing has traditionally
operated on a sequential basis with storage

on a central SAN or NAS in support of multiple edit stations. New-era intelligent storage systems now provide for parallel storage
solutions, which are changing the news and
graphics/effects models through a tightly
coupled centralized repository of managed
files with performance equaling and usually
exceeding their archaic functionality.
Storage platforms now employ storage

accelerators to handle parallel paths of data
between hosts and storage arrays. These accelerators utilize solid-state caches and coherency algorithms to optimize read and
write operations.
By coupling scalable high-performance
storage platforms to storage accelerators,
the throughput and performance require-
ments can be better met; and can further

provide for redundancy and failover paths
that allow operations to continue should a
host bus adaptor or switch fail.
Karl Paulsen is a technologist and consultant to the digital media and entertainment industry. Contact him at kpaulsen@
divsystems.com.
Equipment Guide
Station automation/
digital content
management
KMOV Automates News

With Grass Valley Ignite HD
by Walt Nichol
Director of Technology
KMOV Television
ST. LOUIS For the past two years Belo
Corp., our parent company, has experimented with new technologies that decrease operating costs and streamline production. Like all stations, we have to stay
User Report
competitive while operating under new
economic realities.
Were always trying to improve and upgrade to the latest technology and still live
within our budgets. These issues were in
mind when we decided to automate our
control room operations with a Grass Valley Ignite HD system.
We went on-air with Ignite on Sept. 25
and immediately saw a marked improvement in our technical capabilities. We can
do everything that we did manually before
we installed Ignite and the newscasts still
have the same on-air appearance to our
viewers. Our news blocks are quite complex, so we push the system to its limits
and it responds well.
Untitled-2.indd 1
STREAMLINING OPERATIONS
Now, two people can run newscastsa
director and an Ignite operator; however,
we anticipate that well eventually be able
to scale this to a single operator. Weve purchased an additional control panel to use
the Ignite manually if needed.
Training on the Ignite went very smoothly, thanks to the Grass Valley training personnel who worked with us on site. The
instructors didnt just teach us what to do;
they taught us why we were doing things
and that really made a big difference to us.
The Ignite software works seamlessly
with our Grass Valley Kayak HD production
switcher, and this made installation even
easier.
Among the new Ignite software features,
we especially like the CG List Preview Support, which allows us to load an animated
graphic from our c.g. system in preview
mode and then take the effect to air in separate commands, either manually or automatically. Theres also new GPI/GPO pulse
support and Ignites serial driver to facilitate
more stable communications between the
system and serially controlled devices.
When implementing a new workflow,
Don Lucy, senior Ignite operator at KMOV, uses the new news system.
the staff has to be on board or it will not

succeed. Our staff has been great about
learning how to set up news segments and
transitions as events on a timeline with Ignites Transition Macro Element technology.
Any segment of our newscasts can be preprogrammed and previewed prior to going
on-air and can also be executed in real time
to meet the demands of breaking news or
other non-scripted events.
Were the first Belo station to try control
room automation, and are serving as a test
bed for the 17 group stations. Based on our

success, Im sure we wont be the last. The
Ignite system is a technology that makes a
lot of sense in todays competitive environment.
Walt Nichol has served as director of
technology at KMOV for 20 years. He may
be contacted at wnichol@kmov.com.
For additional information, contact
Grass Valley at 503-526-8100 or visit
www.grassvalley.com
11/17/10 1:42 PM
27
Equipment Guide
Masstechs CableBlue Speeds Hearsts Operations

by Joe Addalia
Director of Technology Projects
Hearst Television
ORLANDO, FLA.Im always looking for
ways to improve the efficiency of our operations, not only from the perspective of
an individual station, but also as to how
we work collectively as station group.
User Report
The launch of the industrys new Pitch
Blue program distribution service this
year occurred while we were beginning
to upgrade and expand the systems we
use to process and manage file-based content delivered to our stations.
For several years weve used MassMedia Box (MMB) Masstech Group to
automate the detection, processing, and
delivery of file-based content. Its the
foundation for our file-based content
delivery, and we decided to upgrade
our MMBs to Masstechs new CatchBlue
product, as we wanted to benefit from
the latest product developments.

Its configurable and flexible workflows, the embedded high performance
transcoding and the import
and formatting of distributor supplied metadata were
all of great value to us.
The CatchBlue workflow allows us to highly
automate ingestion of filebased content, and this is Joe Addalia
critically important, as it is
necessary to implement a unified process for all file-based content ingestion.
CatchBlue is essentially the aggregator
of all of the content and eliminates the
labor-intensive, repetitive, manual processes associated with content being delivered from multiple sources.
We have deployed CatchBlue at the local station and at our Content Distribution
Center (CDC) operation in Orlando. The
CDC performs content ingest and meta-
data preparation for material thats used by many or

all of our stations. We then
distribute the content and
metadata to stations where
its received and processed
by CatchBlue.This allows us
to benefit from the economies of scale in a processonce, distribute-to-many
workflow.
We also knew that transcoding was key to any potential efficiency gains, and
this consideration was amplified by the
HD H.264 payload delivered by PitchBlue. In transcoding, it only makes sense
if its done faster than real-time.
core IBM or Dell server. Equally important is the fact that we werent forced to
choose between the quality and speed of
the transcoding. Were getting the best of
both worldsquality and fast transcoding.
This transcoding performance and the
highly adaptable workflows really made
our CatchBlue implementation successful. And because it includes the entire
Masstech transcoding portfolio, CatchBlue enables us to address a wide range
of content submitted by local advertisers.
This extends and completes the aggregation of the many disparate sources and
content types that we deal with every day.
The positive impact of CatchBlue on
our operations is significant and we know
that we have only scratched its surface.
SPEED AND QUALITY
Joe Addalia is Director of Technology

Projects at Hearst Television. He may be
contacted at jaddalia@hearst.com.
Masstech at 905-707-2982 or visit www.
masstech.com.
We were very impressed when CatchBlue clocked in with transcode times

(for high definition H.264 to Long GOP
MPEG-2) approaching 1/3 real time. This
is achieved with an off-the-shelf dual quad
Equipment Guide
Nexstar Stations Rebuild With Avid

by Brad Hampton
Regional Director of Engineering
Nexstar Broadcasting
CHAMPAIGN, ILL. When a tower collapsed onto our KSNF television studio in
Joplin in May last year, it caused significant
damage to the building. However, some
good came of that difficult situation, as it
User Report
created an opportunity for us to rebuild in
some very smart ways.
Our parent company, Nexstar, owns,
operates, or provides services to 62 midmarket stations in the United States, most
in a duopoly or triopoly. Our own situation
encompasses stations KSNF, KODE-TV and
KQTV in the Joplin market. Prior to the
tower collapse, each of these stations had
limited physical space. Even though the
disaster was not what anyone might have
anticipated or wished for, it did allow us to
build a new facility that allowed us to maximize efficiencies by operating all three stations from one location.
As an increasing volume of programming

AUTOMATED ENVIRONMENT
is now delivered via satellite with direct file
One of the elements we needed for this
transfers to cache servers, we wanted to be
new facility was an automation system, and
able handle these transfers more efficiently,
fortunately, we didnt have to look far. Avid
making it easier to receive content from toAutomation had been extremely successful
days digital media sources. The FastBreak
in other Nexstar stations, so we felt little
need to research and evaluate competitive systems.We knew Avids FastBreak 8000 automation would provide us not only with the flexibility
and reliability to run our three channels simultaneously, but also scale
seasily up for adding more channels.
None of the stations had used any
automation, relying instead on a fulltime operator. Avids FastBreak automation now enables one operator to
manage the on-air lists for all three
stations, eliminating human error and
freeing team members for handling
other duties. An assistant operator
makes sure content is available for the The new Nexstar Joplin, Mo. Market television facility
stations by setting up the Avid Digital
8000 systems DDME works with Pathfire
Media Manager Engine (DDME) transfers or
or new Pitch Blue cache servers to facilitate
dubbing in commercials received either on
direct file transfers of the video and metavideotape or from an FTP site.
data to our video playback server. With the

program essentially ready to air when we
receive it, this is a great time saver for us.
The FastBreak 8000 system runs 24/7,
with Avid providing fulltime support. Earlier
this year, we encountered a critical situation
at our Little Rock facility due to a computer
virus basically taking operations down. Avid
quickly had a field engineer on the plane
and shipped new computers, allowing us to
speedily get back on air.
This kind of response and customer service is one of the reasons
we chose Avid.We use Avid iNEWS
systems for newsroom management and automation, Media Composer for editing, Avid AirSpeed
servers for playback,Avid Unity for
shared-media networking and Avid
Deko systems for graphics.
Avid is simply a great partner.
We couldnt ask for better.
Brad Hampton is regional director of engineering for Nexstar
Broadcasting. He may be contacted at bhampton@nexstar.tv.
Avid at 978-640-6789 or visit www.avid.
com.
29
BUYERS BRIEFS
Snell
Morpheus System
Morpheus automation and media management
system was designed to address the challenges
faced in implementing content-delivery workflows at broadcast facilities. The Morpheus
system is fully scalable, and can be expanded
from a single channel to a multichannel, multicustomer playout system.
Morpheus is based on format- and deviceindependent platforms, and provides users with
a robust and resilient content distribution mechanism thats able to seamlessly integrate with new
devices in meeting the demands of future services and delivery platforms.
Morpheus automation features inherent resilience and sufficient redundancy to ensure that
the right content and its accompanying metadata will always be in the right place at the right
time.
For more information, contact Snell at 818556-2616 or visit www.snellgroup.com.
OmniBus
iTX Enterprise Suite
iTX Enterprise Suite is a fully integrated software-based multiformat content delivery platform for television, radio, mobile and Internet
applications
The application is based on the powerful

automated playout capability of iTX and combines it with a range of asset management and
workflow modules to provide a fully integrated
and efficient file-based workflow for users.
The iTX Enterprise Suite embraces the entire
content production process, beginning with ingest, and continuing through media management, automated workflow and asset management, and on to automation and playout. It is
based on open-standards architecture and provides multiformat operations with a consistent
and unified environment for handling all stages
of a television stations production and delivery
process.
For more information contact Omnibus Systems at 303-237-4868 or visit www.omnibus.tv.
Leightronix
UltraNexus-SDI
Server
The UltraNexus-SDI video server system is designed to provide fully automated digital tele-
vision playout operations. It has dual MPEG

recording and playout channels and can provide simultaneous recording and playback of
content.
The system has a built-in Web server to provide an on-line program guide with a real-time
listing of upcoming programs available through
a users Web site.
The Ultra-Nexus server system can overlay
graphics or text and delivers graphics, text and
also provide overlays needed for emergency

messages.
The server system provides high quality recording capability for up to 24 hours of video
and audio, and has a video-on-demand function for creating an Internet-optimized digital
media stream.
For more information, contact Leightronix
at 800-243-5589 or visit www.leightronix.
com.
buyers briefs
Newsroom Solutions
intelliCommander
IntelliCommander is a control device/sequencer
for controlling news tickers, character generators
and other equipment used in producing on-air
ancillary information streams.
IntelliCommander provides easy access for
master control room operators in starting, stop-
Solutions at 704-665-5300 or visit www.

newsroomsolutions.com.
ping and pausing crawls, and eliminates the
need for an additional computer and special application for such purposes.
The device occupies only 1RU and provides
hard-switch selection of various functions. It uses
a two-line LCD readout for display purposes and
has four GPI trigger outputs for controlling external devices.

Operation is as simple as turning a dial until
the desired equipment name appears in the display and then pushing a button to start it.
For more information, contact Newsroom
Pebble Beach
Marina Automation
Marina, an enterprise-level automation system
for broadcasters, was specifically designed for
large-scale multichannel operations and provides
full exploitation of native API device control.
The system features dynamic allocation and
sharing of devices across multiple playlists, dynamic audio track control for multilingual users,
and full Unicode compliance for foreign alphabets and foreign languages.
Marina provides a very high density of channels per station operator and has an intuitive interface that provides information on event status
and even includes a confidence preview. The
package also features real-time device control,
a single centralized full SQL database and more.
For more information contact Pebble Beach at
917-832-4372 or visit www.pebble.tv.
Video Technics
NewsFlow Complete
NewsFlow Complete is a fully-integrated, alldigital tapeless newsroom system that coordinates the ingest, scripting, editing, organizing
and presentation of television news. The system
is a combination of hardware and software that
handles real-time collaboration of on-air news. It
manages wire service news feeds, and presents
news and alerting bulletins to newsroom staff at
their workstations instantaneously.
NewsFlow Completes non-proprietary architecture works with a variety of editing tools for
PC or Mac, and even allows reporters to record
a voice track while screening proxy video at their
workstations. Playout automation runs from a
single show order, with all changes in rundown,
scripts, or events reflected within three seconds.
For more information, contact Video Technics
at 404-327-8300 or visit www.videotechnics.
com.
31
Equipment Guide
Harris Drives Cox Centralcasting

by Lee MacPherson
Director of Engineering
KTVU-TV and KICU-TV
OAKLAND, CALIF. The centralcasting of
four TV stations from one master control
requires broadcast automation and traffic
systems with considerable firepower. We
chose the Harris combination of ADC and
User Report
OSi-Traffic for centralized broadcast automation and traffic and billing because of
their feature set, integration and efficient
operation.
Were part of the Cox Media Group
(CMG), which owns KTVU and KICU-TV as
a duopoly and operates them from a common facility. CMG also owns KRXI-TV in
Reno, Nev., and we also manage on-air operations for both it and KAME-TV, a MyNetworkTV affiliate in Reno.
CENTRALCASTING WITH A TWIST
This arrangement isnt your typical centralcasting scenario with a central hub and
tomated Ingest pulls syndicated content deseveral spokes. While the system can be
livered to our Pathfire and Pitch Blue cache
managed centrally from Oakland, the Reno
servers. OSi-Traffic tells Automated Ingest
stations can also break away and manage
their own on-air operations.
A single operator sits at a Harris
IconMaster master control switcher
here in Oakland and takes care of
on-air operations for both KTVU and
KICU-TV and their ancillary channels, as well as the main channels for
KRXI-TV and KAME-TV. The Oakland
facility fulfills playlists through ADC
automation and remotely monitors
transmitters via an IP network.
All 15 Cox stations use ADC and a
centralized OSi-Traffic system located
in Atlanta. And all of the stations can
share traffic data and copy, and have
Lee MacPherson
easy access to playlists. The CMG IT
team is also based in Atlanta and havwhat to grab and when it will run, ensuring
ing OSi in a central location makes it easier
for them to monitor and maintain the system. content is prepped and ready for air.
We recently began practicing offline
There are many benefits in having an intewith Harriss Live-Update, which uses the
grated OSi and ADC system.We regularly use
BXF standard to connect our traffic and auseveral ADC modules, including Automated
tomation systems. It also enables our traffic
Ingest, which helps prep materials for air. Au-
people to add a commercial or change the

log, and this instantly updates the playout
system. We have set our cut-off for automated changes at one hour, and the system
manages the exchange.
We recently beta-tested the ADC Anybase
module which allows our operators to prep
incoming programs for air. It also provides
storage for input/output points, EDLs, and
other metadata within a shared Anybase database. Operators at our stations runing the
same shows can pull the same metadata and
timings from the Anybase server, allowing us
to share work across stations.Were also testing the ADC PSIP Manager application.
The Harris ADC and OSi-Traffic systems
let us manage the complex, time-critical
tasks related to all our different stations with
their different formats and operations, reliably and efficiently. With ADC automation
and OSi traffic, we feel that we have made
the best use of our peoples talents and creativity to further enhance our on-air product.
Lee MacPherson is director of engineering for KTVU/KICU-TV. He may be contacted at lee.macpherson@ktvu.com.
Harris at 800-231-9673 or visit www.
broadcast.harris.com.
Equipment Guide
Ross Readies Vegas PBS for Future

by George J. Molnar
Director of Engineering
Vegas PBS Educational Technology
Campus
Clark County School District
The ability to control multiple live

production devices from one central
location is another one of OverDrives
strengths. Rolling clips and inserting
graphics from a single GUI helps keep
MAKES EVERYTHING LOOK GOOD
the productions clean. And if necessary,
additional operators can jump right in
LAS VEGASVegas PBS opened its new
One of the technologies implemented
and direct control of the Vision switcher
facility in 2009 and began broadcasting in
was Ross Videos OverDrive Automated
and other devices at any time. This powMay 2010. We transmit 12 unique streams
Production Control (APC) system. It
erful feature allows us to scale our crew
of programming within the Clark County
provides us with the best effects, transisize to meet production demands.
School District, provide emergency datations and techniques for every show in
Installation went smoothly and witha reproducible and understandable way.
Report
out major incident. It did require a little
Any TD/director can look like a pro and
time to develop software for connection
cast support to first responders, produce
concentrate on the art of production
to our SSL C-10 audio conoriginal programming, and
sole, (as we were the first
serve as a broadband meOverDrive user to connect
dia distribution facility for
with a C-10), but when it
more than 300,000 stuwas delivered everything
dents and staff.
worked beautifully right
No two days are the
out of the box.
same for me at the facility,
Id wanted more time for
as I often bounce between
training, but the demands
broadcasting, emergency
of getting a new facility
response, facilities, publaunched left us with very
lic relations, and working
tight windows and Ross
closely with the co-located
was very helpful in getting
Virtual High School staff
us up and running smoothand its students.
ly.
Id been under the imWe currently do a daily
pression that it normally
hour-long show using Overtakes six months from introduction of a major new Joe Cordova, senior telecommunications technician at Vegas PBS, operates the new
Drive, with other programs
technology until the time Ross OverDrive system.
being switched conventionthat people reach individually. However, plans call for
al comfort zones with it, and based on my
more of the daily productions to move
more than the mechanics of setting up
own experience here at the new facility, I
to OverDrive.
and executing video effects. OverDrive
think its true. Its design took into considOur biggest challenge in the transition to
makes our shows look clean and profeseration enhanced workflow and producAPC was in taking a team that had never
sional.
User
tion efficiencies, and while this did require

extra attention at the beginning, once the
tools were in place, we havent looked
back.
used automation, servers or routers in

daily production work, and transforming
their understanding and habits to the
new technology. It was a bumpy road at
times, but one worth taking.
Our adoption of OverDrive technology will assist us in our future production
needs. As we grow and new employees
enter our workforce they will operate
within an environment thats increasingly automated and fast-paced. OverDrive
is a great way to get ready for the future,
and to stay a step ahead of today.
George J. Molnar is director of engineering at Vegas PBS. He may be contacted at gmolnar@vegaspbs.org.
For further information, contact Ross
Video at 613-652-4886 or visit www.rossvideo.com.
Go online for...
Netias CMS Aids Frances
Orange Network
Outdoor Channel Automates
With Telestream
Bitcentral a Winner at
KION-TV
DAS Eases Centralcasting
EAS Compliance Issues
33
Equipment Guide
ProConsultants Louise is TFO Brain

by Eric Minoli
Chief of Information and Broadcast
Technologies
TFO
TORONTO TFO, the Toronto-based Canadian public television network serving
the French-speaking community, offers entertainment, childrens programming and
current affairs magazines. We also provide
User Report
educational material for Ontario provinces
professional teaching community.
When TFO became independent a few
years ago, we started with little more than
staff, some tapes and programming rights.
The prospect of constructing and equipping a new facility was daunting, but the
more difficult challenge was how x reorganize our operational infrastructure to support our traditional business and new media platforms without incurring huge costs.
Before issuing an RFP, we consulted stations that had transitioned to file-based
operations and found that we would need
a unified workflow solution that would reduce complexity and produce efficiencies.
We ultimately selected ProConsultant Informatiques Louise, an end-to-end workflow
and content and metadata management system thats designed for
multi-platform distribution.
I describe Louise as the brain
of our operation, as it possesses
knowledge about contracts, rights,
schedules, versioning, metadata
and other critical information.
Other systems amount to the
arms and legs in carrying out
different tasks such as play-out,
media movement, transcoding or
publishing. Louise provides a unified management layer, integrating with our other broadcast and
production subsystems, including
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Xserve, Eric Minoli
Sun StorageTek, Front Porch Digital DivArchive, Sienna Virtual VTR and more.
The Louise workflow engine improves
collaboration among the 125-person production staff, with automated assignments,
notifications and background processes.

Our staff uses its task-specific interfaces and
built-in tools to speed their work.All content
goes through Louise before being placed in
the DivA repository, giving us tight controls

and an audit trail. When a producer wants
to publish an asset, Louise directs DivA media movement, and will block publication,
unless the asset is qualified based on contract rights and other requirements stored
as metadata. If authorization is granted, it directs the release of content and the creation
of a proxy, and tracks the entire process.
INHERENT FLEXIBILITY
TFO is a fluid organization, always expanding programs and platforms, and Louise has proven itself robust, flexible and
cost-effective in our environment. Its modular design allows ProConsultant to quickly
add functionality as needed.We currently
support more than 80 Web sites, as well as
mobile services, in addition to our on-air
product, in-house production, educational
efforts and DVD production. Each platform
has unique requirements, and some clips
are packaged in 40 different formats. Louise
has given us a unified platform, ensuring delivery of the right content, at the right time,
in the right format with the right metadata..
Eric Minoli is chief of information and
broadcast technologies at TFO. He may be
contacted at eminoli@tfo.org.
ProConsultant Informatique at 011-33387-377-878 or visit www.proconsultant.
net.
buyers briefs
Building4Media
Fork Platform
Fork is a modular suite of software products
that form a complete production platform, including acquisition of file-based content, media
asset management, editing, archiving, streaming and pushing of content to multiple screens
and viewing devices.
Fork includes a robust client/server archi-
tecture that provides customized access to centralized media storage, providing editors with
a toolset for quickly producing and outputting
content. It generates proxies in realtime during
ingest and features dual platform compatibility
and Quick Time support.
For additional information, contact Building4Media Solutions at 888-377-4634 or visit either www.b4m.com or www.primestreamcom.
Digital Broadcast
MediaFire IP Playout
MediaFire IP playout provides multichannel splicing of both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 content for
feeds to cable systems or over-the-air broadcast
transmitters. It lets user insert logos, crawls and
snipes without the necessity for downstream keying insertion gear.
MediaFire IP also provides ASI and Ethernet
ingestion directly from satellite receivers with no
decoding to baseband necessary.
The system upconverts or downconverts content for HD/SD as necessary, and provides simultaneous playlists for multiple standard- and highdefinition video channels.
For more information, contact Digital Broadcast at 352-377-8344 or visit www.digitalbcast.
com.
Crispin
Digital Transfer Agent
Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) has been updated to

include support for a fully automated interface to
the PitchBlue programming content service.
The new DTA performs continuous polling of
the PitchBlue server and other spot delivery servers, and transcodes and moves delivered material
to an air server.
The application currently supports Rhozet Carbon Coder and will soon be available to support
other transcoding systems, allowing owners to use
their existing transcoding licenses, or to select a
transcoder that will function best in their individual
environment.
For additional information, contact Crispin
Corp. at 919-845-7744 or visit www.crispincorp.
com.
Volicon
Observer Enterprise
Observer Enterprise is a next-generation media

monitoring and logging system that allows correlation of several months of video and audio content
within a Web browser client application.
Observer Enterprise is especially useful for

compliance monitoring by television operations,
and also provides high value to other sectors, including marketing, sales and traffic,
Add-on modules are available to add to the
functionality and value of the system. These include quality-of-service alarms, content matching
of audio cues for ad verification, automatic importation of an as-run log, as well as viewer ratings
data to provide an in-depth competitive analysis.
For additional information, contact Volicon at
781-221-7400 or visit www.volicon.com.
35
Equipment Guide
Golf Channel Scores a

Hole-In-One With Florical
by Ken Botelho
SeniorDirector of Engineering
Golf Channel
ORLANDO, FLA. Flash back with me to
the early 1990s for a moment. While Nick
Faldo was setting the links on fire, the seed
of an idea was being planted for a 24-hour
golf network. Finally, on Jan. 17, 1995, that
User Report
seed sprouted as the Golf Channel, and was
a very early adopter of digital television
production technology.
The Golf Channel recruited an experienced management team, an expert
lineup of broadcasters, and developed a
unique programming schedule. In its first
year, it televised 23 domestic tournaments
and 41 European and Australian events.
Now were running HD and SD domestic
networks, as well as an HD and SD international network.
IN SEARCH OF NEW AUTOMATION

The Golf Channel now provides programming to more than 90
million homes. With this
much content, we needed
to consider an overhaul of
our automated operations.
Wed installed automation
gear early on, but the system
lacked the ability to perform tasks we faced in connection with the dozens of
hours per week of live material and tournament coverage we had grown into. Our
operators were being constantly occupied with manual steps, and it was clear
that the automation system Ken Botelho
in use then was costing us
time and money. We needed a system that
allowed more work to be done in a shorter
period of time.
Initially, the challenges in locating the

perfect automation system for our particular applications seemed daunting, as we
needed to deal not only with master control operations, but also asset management
and content acquisitionall within a wellthought out workflow.
After much investigation, we decided
on Florical Systems as our on-air automation provider. Their AirBoss
met our multi-pronged approach to broadcasting as
it uses distributed machine
control architecture with
multiple device servers that
can be located anywhere on
the network. A feature paramount to the Golf Channel is AirBosss ability to
accurately compensate for
video path delays between
device-servers located thousands of miles apart. Our
coverage size demands this
high-level technology.
Along with the automation revamping, we also
made significant investments in new broadcast equipment as well. We added a new
plant routing system, HD video servers,
branding equipment and closed captioning

gear. These additional devices also had to
be tightly integrated. In addition, we were
exploring new opportunities for revenue
generation, such as sponsored scoreboard,
tickers, and graphic elements. Floricals team
was well versed and experienced in helping
us achieve our goals. And their on-site engineers were incredibly talented and knowledgeable throughout the installation.
Once everything was up and running, the
next step was to provide a disaster recovery
system at our remote facility in Denver. The
ability to mirror our playlist and push or
pull content from Orlando directly to our
play-out servers in Denver was no real challenge to Florical. Our remote AirBoss System,
coupled with their Smart Central, effectively
duplicates everything and remains ready
for instant access to protect the integrity of
Golf Channel programming and commercial
content. In the event of a system failure our
viewers wouldnt notice the difference.
Ken Botelho is an Emmy Award winning producer/director. He may be contacted at Kbotelho@golfchannel.com.
Florical Systems at 352-372-8326 or visit
www.florical.com.
buyers brief
ScheduAll
ScheduLINK
Delivery Management
ScheduLINK provides users with a complete
toolset for managing satellite and terrestrial delivery networks.
It offers a wide range of resource availability and bandwidth configuration tools that offers users transmission path scheduling in an
easy-to-read graphical presentation.
ScheduLINK provides information on anten-
nas, spacecraft, fiber circuits,

IRDs, as well as truck and operating personnel availability.
The application also manages complex resource inventories to help avoid such things
as double bookings and other
scheduling conflicts.
In addressing the technical
side of operations, ScheduLINK alerts users to such problems as antenna look-angle
conflicts, inadequate satellite
products & services showcase
transponder bandwidth, polarity conflicts,

and insufficient time for movement and setup of antenna systems. It also flags potential
problems when setting up multiple hop connectivity.
ScheduLINK assists users in making
transmission path, transponder, and equipment selections, as well as in providing
invoicing and accounts receivable information.
For additional information contact
ScheduAll at 954-334-5400 or visit www.
scheduall.com.
38 December 1, 2010 TV Technology www.tvtechnology.com/dec-01-2010
eQUIPMenT eXchAnge
C a m e r a s C a m e r a A c c e s s o r i e s R e c e i v e r s Tr a n s m i t t e r s Ta p e s C a r t s R e e l s V C R s V T R s Tu b e s V i d e o P r o d u c t i o n E q u i p m e n t H e l p W a n t e d
TV Technologys Equipment Exchange provides a FREE listing service for all broadcast and pro-video end users. Brokers, dealers, manufacturers and other organizations who sell used equipment on an
occasional basis can participate in the Equipment Exchange on a PAID basis. All free listings run at the discretion of the publisher. Call 1-703-852-4610 for details. Submit your free listings on your letterhead
and state the make, model number, a brief description, sale price and complete contact information and mail it to: TV Technology, 5285 Shawnee Rd, Suite 100, Alexandria VA 22312
AUDIO PRODUCTION
WANT TO SELL
SSL 6000E audio console parts,
modules & total recall, call for price; ADC
DAL3-14MKIINS digital audio patchbay,
BO; GVG AMX-170, BO; NVision NV4002
w/8-DA4055 4-chnl mix-minus/router,
6-NV9055 remote cntrl panels, call for
price; Sony MXP-700 audio mixer, BO;
Vistek V1606 w/4 audio DACs, BO; Sony
AC-P700 pwr sply for MXP 700 mixers, BO;
Yamaha SU400 PS switcher, BO; Neve Logic
1, call for price; Neve Libra Live parts, call
for price. 908-879-9590 or www.mccom.tv.
(2) Graham-Patten D/ESAM 8000,
$7900; Mackie SR40.8, $3000; Midas
xl-200, $9000; Sony MXP-2916, $1100;
Wohler AMP-1A, $250; Wohler ATSC/
DVB-3, $2900. 818-998-9100 or www.
broadcaststore.com.
CAMERAS
WANT TO SELL
Sony BVP-E10 broadcast studio
camera pkg incl: camera, camera adapter,
studio viewfinder, tripod plate, CCU, RCP,
Canon 21x lens w/2X extender, 16x9 and HD
capable, ENG options, tripods, switchers,
monitors, etc also available. 888-463-9805
or www.videoequipment.com.
(4) Ikegami HK-388W/triax/chain,
contact us; (2) Ikegami HL-45, $7900;
Panasonic AG-HMC40, $2399; (2) Sony
DXC-D35WS, $5600; Sony HDC-F950,
contact us; (8) BTS LDK-9/triax/SDI
chain, $12995; Hitachi Z-2010A, contact
us; Hitachi Z-3000W, contact us; Hitachi
Z-ONE-B U, $1200; Ikegami HC-210, BO;
(3) Ikegami HK-355A/studio/triax chain,
$12000; (6) Ikegami HK-355PA/triax chain,
$7500; (4) Ikegami HK-377/chain, contact
us; (4) Ikegami HK-388/triax chain, contact
us; (2) Ikegami HL-45/triax chain, $7900;
Sony DXC-327, $1570; Sony HDWF900H,
contact us. 818-998-9100 or www.
broadcaststore.com.
CAMERA ACCESSORIES
WANT TO SELL
Fujinon XA87 x 9.3BESM-S18 HD box
lens, Canon KJ16e x 7.7BIRSD PS12 HD
lens w/2X demo, call for price; (2) Fuji
A22x7.8BDERM-M48 16:9 w/2X B Stock,
call for price; Fujinon A8.5 x 5.5BDEVM-28
16:9 w/2X, call for price; Angenieux T26x7.8
B1ESM 2/3 IF lens w/2X & remote, zoom,
call for price; Sony CCU-355, call for price;
Sony CA-55A, BO; Vinten HD-1 elavation
unit, call for price; Sachtler Video 18P w/
pedestal CII, dolly, 2 handles, call for price;
Fuji A14x8.5BEVM w/2X, call for price; QTV
VPS-15/@L 15 teleprompters, BO; Vinten
Merlin Arm, call for price; Sony DXF-701,
call for price; Hitachi VF-157 viewfinder, call
TVTechnology
for price; Hitachi CA-Z32 camera adapter,
call for price; Sony MSU-350, BO; Ikegami
RCU-240 remote panel, BO; Sony AC-500
AC adapter, call for price; Sony CA-3A
adapter, BO; Sony VA-5 adapter, BO; Tiffen
190C circular ultra polar filter, BO; Philips
FDL-90 Quadra PAL film to tape, call for
price; BTS/Thomson FDL-60 film to tape
16mm & 35mm, call for price; Lipnser
Smith CF3000 film clearer, rebuilt, call for
price; Sony FVS-1000 Vialta HD film to tape
telecine. 908-879-9590 or www.mccom.tv
Canon HJ11EX4.7BIRSE, $15000;
Canon
J14x8.5B4IRS,
$3180;
Canon J18x8.5B3IRS, $1400; Canon
PH15x7BKRS, $1000; (4) Canon PJ21x7B
IE, $7900; Fujinon A14x8.5BERM, $650;
Fujinon A14x9BERM-28, $550; Fujinon
A20x8.6BRM, $1960; Fujinon S18x6BESM26, $1900; (4) Hitachi SA-77, $6900;
(4) Hitachi VF-712, contact us; Q-TV VPS15/SL, $800; (8) RTS 848A, $95; Sachtler
Video 18 II, $3995; Schneider 14x9, $325;
Sony CCU-355, $1295; Sony VCS-700,
$1750; Vinten FULMAR 3702, contact us;
(4) Vinten MK-3, contact us; Vinten MK-5,
$1600; Vinten MK7, contact us; (8) Vinten
Quattro Studio/pedestal, $28600; (4) Vinten
Vector 70, $7600; Vinten Vector 700,
$16000; Vinten Vision 5, $2000. 818-9989100 or www.broadcaststore.com.
DIGITAL EFFECTS
WANT TO SELL
Abekas Dveous Dual Twin, call for
price; GVG Gveous Single Twin, call for
price; GVG Kyrstal parts & pwr splys,
Abekas A51 & Abekas A57 parts. 908-8799590 or www.mccom.tv.
Abekas DVEOUS, BO; Ampex ADO100, $1500. 818-998-9100 or www.

broadcaststore.com.
ADM
(audio
designs
and
manufacturing) 70s era consoles and
parts. abgrun@gmail.com.
EDITING EQUIPMENT
TV shows from the 1950s 1970s

audio or video. Variety shows, talk
shows, sports programs, newscast, etc.
Leave a message, Ron, 925-284-5428 or
ronwtamm@yahoo.com.
WANT TO SELL
Sony BVE-2000, BO; Sony RM-450, call
for price; GVG VPE-241 editor, BO; GVG
VPE-141, BO; Panasonic AU-A950 editor,
BO; JVC RM-820U, BO; Sony BVE-9100,
BO; Accom Axial 2000 & 3000. 908-8799590 or www.mccom.tv.
(3) Chyron CODI CG, $800; (3)
Chyron MAXINE CG, $2500; (4) Chyron
MAXINE-601 CG, $3400; Sony BVE-2000
controller, $5500; Sony BVE-900 controller,
$1250; ADGIL Director 9800 controller,
$1750; Leitch UCP-3600 controller, $1340;
818-998-9100 or www.broadcaststore.com.
LIGHTING
WANT TO SELL
Litepanels LP1-BCF LP1 1x1, $2785;
Litepanels LP1-F 1x1, $1855. 818-9989100 or www.broadcaststore.com.
MISCELLANEOUS
WANT TO SELL
Selling 1949-1952 original 16mm of
news footage of a New York TV station,
BO. If interested, please call Ron at 925284-5428 or ronwtamm@yahoo.com.
Selling TV audio soundtracks from the
60s, and 70s. Variety shows, talk shows,
etc. Call 925-284-5428 for details.
Ultech EDS400 closed caption encoder,
call for price; Howman Controls TALLY4
Bdct Tally System, BO; Zaxcom HUB2000
TBC remote, BO; ADC video patchbays, call
for price; Keywest E422SX DVE/rise/zoom,
BO; Leitch CSD-5300, BO; Hannay C1150
reel w/cable, BO; For-A CCS-4360 color
corrector, BO; 10-ADC PPI-2224RS video
patchbays, BO; Pinnacle Stream Factory
X2, BO; Panasonic AJ-YBX200G AVC Intra
Boards, call for price; Sico 1800 folding
stage, call for price. 908-879-9590 or www.
mccom.tv.
(3) Pandora POGLE color corrector,
$27900; Discreet Stone+Wire 4000, $1200;
ARRI ARRISCAN film scanner, contact us;
Sony BVBP12, contact us; Satellite KU band
uplink truck, $95000. 818-998-9100 or
www.broadcaststore.com.
WANT TO BUY
2 plastic spot reels 6.5 or 8
diameter, as used for quad video. Wayne,
Audio Village, 760-320-0728 or audiovlg@
gte.net.
MONITORS
WANT TO SELL
Panasonic BT-LH2550, call for price;
Panasonic BT-LH1710, call for price; Sony
BVM-D9H5U 9 multi format monitor, call
for price; (3) Sony BVM-D14H5U 14 multi
format monitor w/SDI, call for price; Sony
PVM-20L5 20 multi format monitor w/
120D SDI module, call for price; Sony PVM20M4U w/SDI, call for price; Panasonic
BT-LH900A, call for price; (2) Sony BVM20F1U w/SDI & BKM-10R, call for price; (2)
Sony BVM-20E1U w/SDI & BKM-10R, call
for price; Ikegami TM20-20R w/SDI option,
BO; Sony PVM-14M4U w/SDI, call for price;
(5) Sony PVM-14M4U, call for price; Sony
BVM-14F1U w/SDI & BKM-10R, call for
price; Sony BVM-14F5U w/SDI, call for
price; Sony PVM-20M2U, call for price;
Sony PVM-411, call for price; (4) Panasonic
WV-BM503 triple B/W, call for price; Sony
PVM-1945Q, call for price. 908-879-9590
or www.mccom.tv.
(8) Ikegami PM9-5 monitors, $125;
Ikegami TM20-20RH, contact us;
Panasonic AT-H1905D, $750; Panasonic
WV-BM503, $300; Sony BKM-20D, $650;
Sony BKM-21D, $1200; Sony BVM-20E1U,
$1699; Sony BVM-D24E1WU, $12995; (2)
Sony BVM-D32E1WU, $12500; Sony PVM20M4U, $1100; Sony PVM-96, $150; Sony
SSM20N5U, $500. 818-998-9100 or www.
broadcaststore.com.
MOVIE PRODUCTION
EQUIPMENT
WANT TO SELL
Rank-Cintel URSA-GOLD/Pogle/DVNR
system, contact us. 818-998-9100 or www.
broadcaststore.com.
SERVERS
WANT TO SELL
Leitch VR440, $8600; Tektronix PDF204D, $2800. 818-998-9100 or www.
broadcaststore.com.
SIGNAL PROCESSING
WANT TO SELL
Miranda Playstore SDI still store, (3),
call for price; Miranda Easy Key A/B SDI
keyer, call for price; Chyron Aprisa 100, BO;
(5) DPS-465 SDI frame sync w/AES-2400,
call for price; Chyron Maxine 601, call for

price; Chyron Infinit 060 SDI, BO; Videotek
SDC-101 SDI color corrector, Leitch Still
File 3-chnl SDI Still Store parts, call for
price; Abekas A42 Still Store, BO; GVG 8500
w/8-8503 video DAs, BO;GVG 3240 Proc
amp, BO; Prime Image D1 Pipeline AV delay,
call for price; Miranda Symphonie Tray w/8
modules, call for price; Sony MPU-F100A
frame syncs, call for price; Prime Image
Time Machine, call for price. 908-879-9590
or www.mccom.tv.
SWITCHERS
WANT TO SELL
Stream Breeze NEW: affordable,
portable, easy-to-use SEG multicamera streaming & Digital Recording
Custom Systems Available, dv, HD, SDI
starting at $3990, rent from $495 weekly.
888-463-9805. www.streambreeze.net.
Panasonic AV-HS400 multi-format
switcher, call for price; GVG M2100 digital
master cntrl switcher, call for price; GVG
3000-2 12 SDI & 20 analog in, call for
price; GVG 4000 switcher boards, call
for price; GVG 200-2 loaded, call for
price; Pesa 24x16 Lynx VA router, BO;
GVG 20 Ten video only router, BO; GVG
4000/3000/100CV/200/Master 21 boards
& ps, Panasonic MX20, call for price; GVG
Performer SD, GVG Performer 10x1, BO;
GVG Ten XLs, BO; Utah 200 32x32 SDI/
AES router, call for price; Iris Tech 32x32
VAA router, call for price; Philips Venus
audio & video router parts, call for price;
Ross RVS-424, call for price. Philips
Venus 160x128 SDI video router, BO. 908879-9590 or www.mccom.tv.
Abekas 8150, $6995; BTS DD-5
Diamond Digital, $5000; GV 100, $2000;
GV 250N, $3900; Philips GS-400 Venus,
$5995; Sierra Video 44C Manzanita Series,
$375; Videotek VIS-1201, $400. 818-9989100 or www.broadcaststore.com.
TAPES, CARTS, REELS

WANT TO SELL
500-1000 one-pass BetaSP tapes, 5-10
minutes each, $100 + shpg or BO. San
Francisco Media Archive, 415-558-8117 or
archive@sfm.org.
TAX DEDUCTIBLE EQUIPMENT

The San Francisco Media Archive,
a California non-profit 5013 is
accepting tax deductible donations of
post production equipment including
videotape players and recorders, particularly
BetaSP as well as waveform monitors & time
base correctors. We also accept newsfilm &
video tape outtakes and collections. Stephen
Parr, 415-558-8117 or archive@sfm.org.
TVTechnology
39
www.tvtechnology.com/dec-01-2010 TV TECHNoloGy December 1, 2010
EQUIPMENT EXCHANGE
TEST EQUIPMENT
WANT TO SELL
Tektronix TG-2000, call for price;
Tektronix WFM-1125 HD scope, call for
price; Tektronix WFM601A, call for price;
Leader LV-5100D digital waveform, call
for price; Tektronix 1760, call for price;
Tektronix 1750A combo wfm/vec, call for
price; Tektronix 1750 combo wfm/vec, BO;
Leader 5870 combo wfm/vec, BO; Tektronix
1730/1720 wfm/fec, BO; Tektronix 1910
digital signal generator, Tektronix 1740A
combo wfm/vec, BO; Tektronix 1740 combo
wfm/vec, BO; Videotek VTM-190, call for
price. 908-879-9590 or www.mccom.tv.
Leader 5100, $975; Leader 5850C,
$500; (2) Leader LV-5150D, $2750; (2)
Leader LV-5150D, $4200; Leader LVS5850, $500; Leader LVS-5850B, $500;
(8) Tektronix 1720, $800; (8) Tektronix
1730, $800; (4) Tektronix 1735, $750; (4)
Tektronix 1740, $995; (4) Tektronix 1750,
TVTechnology
TRANSMITTERS/EXCITERS
WANT TO SELL
USED TRANSMITTERS From Harris,
Acrodyne, Axcera, TTC, Emcee,
etc. 954-792-7207 or visit www.
transmitterwarehouse.com.
WANT TO BUY
I am looking for a used Analog Superior
Cavity for my 1000kW transmitter, if
you have one let me know or where can I get
one? Cindy Ellsworth, 662-728-6492.
TVTechnology
WANT TO BUY VTRs
Hi-Tech
TVTechnology
$1275; Tektronix 1710B, $450; Tektronix

1780-R, $1900; Tektronix 1781-R, $1900;
Tektronix WFM-300, $595; Tektronix WFM601, $1250; Tektronix WFM-601E, $3000;
Vieotek TSM51, $375. 818-998-9100 or
www.broadcaststore.com.
CA$H For Your Gear 888-463-9806
KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, a Tribune Broadcasting

station, is a commercial,
CW-affiliated television station located in Hollywood, California serving the
Los Angeles area market. We are looking for an
experienced Technical Director
And Maintenance Engineer.
TD-AUTOMATIONGREAT WEATHER! LA
MARKET seeks news TD with production automation experience. Ross Overdrive preferred.
Vinten robotics. Ross Vision 4 and Sony 8000
HD production switchers. Audio mixing, Viz-RT,
and Final Cut Pro editing a plus. Harris/Nvision
master control operations.
MAINTENANCE ENGINEERINGGREAT
WEATHER! LA MARKET seeks maintenance
engineer. Min 5 years broadcast experience.
Support master control and news operations.
Automation, computer networking, RF, TX, ENG,
NLE networks. Software programming a plus.
From one piece to an entire warehouse

Sell, consign, trade, appraisals, asset removal and more
Candidates must have ability to work alone and

without supervision as well as the ability to work
under tight deadlines. Must be available to work
various hours including nights and weekends.
Dealers in new and used equipment since 1982
Please submit your resume by applying on-line

to: www.ktla.com or www.tribjobs.com ;KTLA-TV
a Tribune Broadcasting station, EOE.
List your Gear for Free www.videoequipment-purchasing.com
ADVERTISERS
PAGE
INDEX
ADVERTISER
WEB SITE
36............... AJA Video ..................................................................... www.aja.com

35............... Anton Bauer ..................................................... www.antonbauer.com
24............... AUTOSCRIPT ........................................................ www.autoscript.tv
15............... Avid Technology ......................................................... www.avid.com
20............... Azden Corporation ........................................... www.azdencorp.com
37............... B&H Pro Audio.................................................www.bhproaudio.com
5................. Blackmagic Design ..............................www.blackmagic-design.com
32............... Clear-Com .......................................................... www.clearcom.com
3................. Cobalt Digital ................................................. www.cobaltdigital.com
23............... Commercial Microwave ...................................... www.cmtfilters.com
36............... Computer Modules - DVEO Division ......................... www.dveo.com
8................. Decimator Design .............................................. www.decimator.com
36............... Eartec ...................................................................... www.eartec.com
21............... Ensemble Designs ................................. www.ensembledesigns.com
36............... ESE ...................................................................... www.ese-web.com
43............... Evertz Microsystems Ltd. ........................................ www.evertz.com
12............... EVS Broadcast Equipment ...............................................www.evs.tv
13............... Florical Systems ......................................................www.florical.com
31............... FOR-A ........................................................................ www.for-a-com
7, 9............. JVC Professional Products ............................................www.jvc.com
19............... K5600, Inc. .............................................................. www.k5600.com
22............... Linear Industries, Inc. ............................................www.linear-tv.com
PAGE
TVTechnology
Call 703-852-4610 for more information.
TVTechnology
TVTechnology
TVTechnology
TVTechnology
ADVERTISER
WEB SITE
18............... Litepanels ........................................................... www.litepanels.com

30............... Logitek ............................................................www.logitekaudio.com
25,42.......... Lowel Light Manufacturing ........................................www.lowel.com
6................. Marshall Electronics .............................................www.lcdracks.com
11............... Matrox Intl .............................................................. www.matrox.com
2................. Miranda Technologies........................................... www.miranda.com
28............... Monroe ................................................ www.digitalalertsystems.com
28............... Moseley Associates ..........................................www.moseleysb.com
33............... OMB ...........................................................................www.omb.com
40............... Pixel Power Inc ................................................. www.pixelpower.com
27............... PRG ..............................................................................www.prg.com
26............... Proconsultant .............................................. www.proconsultant.com
44............... Ross Video LTD. .................................................www.rossvideo.com
29............... RUSHWORKS..........................................www.rushworksmedia.com
10............... Sarnoff .................................................................... www.sarnoff.com
34............... Screen Service BT S.P.A. ..............................................www.screen.it
1................. Snell .................................................................. www.snellgroup.com
17............... Sony Creative Software ................... www.sonycreativesoftware.com
14............... StreamBox ........................................................ www.streambox.com
16............... Telecast Fiber Systems, Inc. ......................... www.telecast-fiber.com
41............... Utah Scientific .............................................. www.utahscientific.com
36............... Xintekvideo, Inc. ..............................................www.xintekvideo.com
While every care is taken to ensure that these listings are accurate and complete TV Technology does not accept responsibility for omissions or errors.
Advertising sAles representAtives

U.s. CentrAl,
new englAnd & CAnAdA:
vYtAs UrBOnAs
212-378-0400 x 533
Fax: 708-301-7444
vytas@nbmedia.com
U.s. sOUtheAst And

mid-AtlAntiC:
miChele inderrieden
212-378-0400 x 523
Fax: 301-234-6303
minderrieden@nbmedia.com
U.s. west:
pete semBler
650-238-0324
Fax: 650-238-0263
psembler@nbmedia.com
itAlY:
rAFFAellA CAlABrese
+39-02-7030-0310
FAx: +39-02-7030-0211
rcalabrese@broadcast.it
FrAnCe:
emmAnUelle pAUtler
+33-1-44-09-99-26
emmanuelle.pautler@wanadoo.fr
eUrOpe/middle eAst/AFriCA:
BOB KennedY
+44-1279 861264
bkennedy@nbmedia.com
prOdUCt shOwCAse
ClAssiFied Advertising:
CArOline FreelAnd
703-852-4610
Fax: 703-852-4583
cfreeland@nbmedia.com
JApAn:
eiJi YOshiKAwA
+81-3-3327-2688
Fax: +81-3-3327-3010
callems@world.odn.ne.jp
AsiA/pACiFiC:
wengOng wAng
+86-755-8386-2930/40/50
Fax: +86-755-8386-2920
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Equipment Guide
Rushworks Powers TheCool TV

by Joe Comparato
Founder and CEO
Cool Music Network LLC
LAWRENCE, KAN.At TheCool TV we
needed a special customized automation
solution that could handle the system that
delivers our programming to millions of music fans across the United States. We broad-
User Report
cast through full-power television channels
via their digital multicast spectrum, and are
also transmitted on cable in each DMA. Currently TheCool TV is live in 52 markets nationwide, and this large-scale deployment required an automation system in each market
to run separate playlists.

We also needed to control, update and
monitor all of the operations from our
broadcast center here in Lawrence.
NO DOWN TIME
We have worked with Rushworks automation for the past two years in connection
with our programming origination, and have
had their machines running 24/7 for almost
18 months now, with all proving to be very
robust, reliable and also extremely simple to
maintain and program.
Adding Rushworks A-List to our networks distribution model has been a game
changer in our channels growth, and marks
a huge upgrade from our previous automa-
tion systems. A-List has been the perfect

solution to our very unique and dynamic
distribution model.We use a third-party software package to create our music lists for
each city, and this system makes creating the
daily playlists for those 52 markets a snap.
The way the system integrates secondary events such as crawls, snipes and lower
third slates has made a great impact on the
look and feel of our network. And it has
made it very easy for us to integrate data systems, info and assets.
By using a very intuitive and simple
script, we can pull metadata from our video
library to create the lower third title blocks
that label each video. Instead of having to
bag and tag each video with its own title
NY1 Cheers Dalet Revamping

by Joe Truncale
Vice President of Operations and
Engineering
Time Warner Cable Local News Division
NEW YORKTime Warner Cable (TWC) is
known for technology innovation in pursuit of hyper-local coverage at its all-news
operations.
Here at the companys NY1 we run
User Report
with a 24-hour wheel format and the volume and pace of production are quite intense, as this also involves local insertion
channels in Staten Island and Queens, N.Y.,
Bergen, N.J., and Spanish-language NY1 Noticias. Anchor segments and packages are
recorded before air. The newsroom simultaneously generates content for our Web
page, the VOD channel and a bi-hourly five
minute newscast for CNN Headline News.
TIME FOR A BETTER SYSTEM

This aggressive news production
workflow was formerly dependent on a
mix of systems we had pieced together.
It had all the shortcomings of integration
workarounds and a technical upgrade
was needed.
After evaluating several systems, TWC
selected the Dalet Enterprise Edition allin-one automation, newsroom and MAM
system for managing the entire news
production workflow. The Dalet package
allows users to ingest, produce, playout
and archive video contentall from one
single user interface. Journalists can easily
assemble a complete story that includes
text, video, voiceovers and graphics right at
their desktops. This is ideal for our reporter-driven workflow.
We have more than 30 ports in our ingest room that can place time-based or
crash-recording video feeds onto the cen-
Joe Comparato
block, we can use A-List metadata to display

the lower third title block for us. In the same
manner, text crawls can be saved as files that
are called when needed.This has eliminated
the need to create each crawl independently.All of our text files for crawls live with traffic materials and can be called up to run on
schedule. We even can change messages on
the fly by replacing the text files.
SUPPORT WHEN ITS NEEDED
We all know that systems such as these
are only as good as the support that comes
with them. And that is where I think Rushworks really leads the pack. We have no
doubts about Rushworks and the A-List
programmers and support teams being the
best in the business. Not only did they build,
launch and deploy 52 systems in less than
six weeks time, they have beenand continue to beright there at every turn to
help troubleshoot and customize our application. Whether its been to help optimize
our playlists, refine triggers for local spot
insertion or to troubleshoot EAS and Closed
Caption issues, we always have the full engagement of the A-List support team.
Joe Truncale
tralized Omneon MediaGrid storage. Media

acquired in the field is also ingested into
the server using the Dalet P2 file ingest
tools, which consolidate all of the files into
one video clip along with metadata.
Dalet MediaLogger is used for inputDalet, PAGE 42
Joe Comparato is the founder and creator of the Cool Music Network and TheCool TV. He may be contacted at joe@coolmusicnetwork.com.
Rushworks at 888-894-7874 or visit www.
rushworks.tv.
41
NEWSROOM AUTOMATION/TRAFFIC & BILLING

MANUFACTURER/MODEL
PLATFORM
MACHINE CONTROL
SPECIAL FEATURES
Avid Technology iNEWS/iNEWS Command

978-640-6789
www.avid.com
iNEWS: Red Hat/

Ethernet
Linux/Windows;
Command: Windows
Avid AirSpeed
Deko and Thunder, RS-422, VDCP,
BVM-75; APls
MOS compatibility, fully redundant configurations,

automation assist for multidevice playback
Comprompter NewsKing NewsCast

608-785-7766
www.comprompter.com
Windows
Fibre Channel, Ethernet, LAN/

WAN, IP, dial-up
Fully integrated auomation software,

serial, IP
Support multiple production devices and name brands
Dalet Dalet Enterprise Editor

212-269-6700
www.dalet.com
Windows, Mac
Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel
RS-422
SOA-compliant, MAM-based, integrated production tools

and ingest/playout
Grass Valley Ignite HD

904-596-3500
www.grassvalley.com
Windows XP
LAN, TCP/IP Gigabit Ethernet
Switcher, audio, video servers, graphics,

cameras
Advance automation (Ignite IQ), content repurposing for Web

and mobile (MediaFuse)
Harris OSi-Traffic, AdConnecctions

816-434-4008
www.broadcast.harris.com
Windows
Ethernet, Internet
N/A
Centralized architecture, multistation/ multichannel

environment
OmniBus Systems iTX

303-237-4868
www.omnibus.tv
Windows
LAN/WAN, Ethernet, Gigabit

Ethernet, Internet
Fully integrated master control,

automation and transmission software
Full-featured, enterprise-class solution, 100 percent

configurable UI multiformat, advance logging and diagnostics
Quantel Newsbox HD, Enterprise sQ

703-448-3199
www.quantel.com
Windows
Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel
CORBA, RS-422 and MOS control
Fast ingest/edit/play-out, no copying or consolidation

required, integrates with Final Cut Pro
ScheduAll ScheduALL, ScheduLINK

954-334-5406
www.scheduall.com
Windows
Ethernet, Internet
MOS compatible
Resource management. Scheduling, tracking and reporting

on personnel, equipment and facilities in production
Video Technics Apella Media Server Family

404-327-8300
www.videotechnics.com
Windows, Mac
Ethernet, Fibre Channel
VDCP, Apella API, TCP/IP
Supports cross-platform NLEs; and ENPS, iNEWS,

Comprompter and other newsroom systems
REFERENCE GUIDE
NETWORKING
This is a selected sampling of current products. Specifications and prices are supplied by the manufacturer and are subject to change without notice.
Equipment Guide
Front Porch Manages

RodeoHouston Content
by James Davidson
Managing Director
Audiovisual Presentation and Broadcast
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
have amassed tens of thousands of hours

of content stored on videotape in multiple
formats, ranging from rodeo competition
to associated performances by musicians,
and auctions of everything from champion
HoustonThe Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has been a

vibrant force in the Southwest and
the Houston community for nearly
80 years. Every year more than
User Report
24,000 volunteers contribute their
time, resources, and talent to the
worlds largest livestock exhibition,
the worlds richest regular-season
PRCA rodeo, and the Southwests
premier entertainment event. This RodeoHoustons Control Room One
20-day extravaganza takes place evsteers to chardonnay.
ery March at Houstons Reliant Park.
We began to transition to a tapeless
Since 1980, the show has produced
workflow as part of our HD upgrade two
its own television programming both for
years ago. A key component in that effort
broadcast and for historical record. We
has been Front Porch Digitals DivAworks,

a plug-and-play content storage and protection system that incorporates a datatape
library, LTO-4 datatape drives, DivAgrid
integrated nearline disk, and a server running the DivArchive content storage management software for managing files. HD
content from 20 Sony cameras located
throughout the rodeo venue is ingested to
a server and then managed and stored digitally, or transferred to DivAgrid integrated
nearline disk and/or LTO-4 storage. DivAworks also manages restoration of
content from archive to server as
needed.
In addition, Front Porch Digitals
DivAdirector affords our editors
and producers easy access to stored
content. Clips can be searched by
customized metadataincluding
sponsor, event, and competitoror
may be browsed frame-by-frame
by using the applications built-in
Windows Media Player. A recent
upgrade to Version 4.0 of DivAdirector now gives us the ability to
locate externalized LTO tapes instantly, and
the thumbnail snapshots that accompany
every new clip entering the system.
With the digital workflow in place, were
gradually working to digitize our enormous,
unique, and irreplaceable video archive.
Older videotapes are currently located in a
warehouse, requiring editors to drive across
the Reliant Park complex, remove the tapes
Dalet
ting additional information into NY1s

preferred data fields. This is a critical step
for retrieving media whether it is in active
production or in the archive.
Simultaneously other channel, Web
and VOD teams can access the video and
stories for their particular needs. All the
newsroom and production tools are right
on the desktop. Users have work-specific
views but they are looking at a common
pool of content.
Graphics entered in the timeline are
played downstream over clean video. The
clean packages can be exchanged among
sister stations who add their individual
logo bugs and graphical layouts. A built-in
chat feature with the ability to send links
to video also speeds internal communications. Contributors from satellite bureaus
connect via high-speed network to NY1s
Dalet system where they ingest, edit and
publish their clips on the same server.
PLAY-TO-AIR SYSTEM TOO
The Dalet system has also improved
collaboration between the editorial and
from shelves, and play them back. However, once the clips have been incorporated
into the DivAworks system, access will be
a mouse click away. The project has already
begun to pay off, as we recently were able
to use DivAdirector to access some old content that had already been digitized, saving
the editors time and effort.
NO NEED TO GO ANYWHERE ELSE
When we first began evaluating media
storage technologies, we looked at diskbased systems such as a NAS or SAN, but
quickly realized that the combination DivAworks/DivAdirector solution would provide key advantages in flexibility, scalability,
and cost-effectiveness.
What really got our attention was the
flexibility of the database to customize
metadata for searches and user interface
friendliness. As we continue to transition
to a completely tapeless environment, DivAworks and DivAdirector will play a critical role in our ability to store the digital
content, keep track of its location, and retrieve the content when we need it.
James Davidson is managing director
of audiovisual presentation and broadcast for the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo. He may be contacted at davidson
@rodeohouston.com.
Front Porch Digital at 303-440-7930 or
visit www.fpdigital.com.
technical teams. In our production control

room, technical directors pre-assemble
and record the anchor segments before
air, firing off video and CGs with the Dalet
OnAir/Carts module. In master control the
same Dalet OnAir playout application handles the advanced automated 24x7 playout
for each of the channels.
The Dalet system also gives better control during breaking news requiring live
coverage. During the live event, start times
of all upcoming stories in the playlist update automatically, allowing the producer
to know when the next item will hit.
By consolidating production and automation within the Dalet system, weve also
simplified ongoing maintenance chores
and lowered support costs. The choice of
an open-IT based system means that TWC
can update systems as improvements become available.
Joe Truncale is vice president of operations and engineering for TWCs
local news division. He may be contacted at joe.truncale@ny1news.com.
Dalet Media Systems at 212-269-6700 or
visit www.dalet.com.

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RF TechnologyMobile DTV at IEEE BTS

FROM CAMERA TO BOOTH TO TRUCK

Broadcast Production Broadband Satellite Mobile

3D Tricks and Treats

version, due to cost, time, flexibility,

Watch the episode

Pee Wee Herman and Rachel Ray ham it up for 3D

didnt want to alienate viewers

MTV Keeps It Real

Photo by Eric Johnson

MTVs The Buried Life stars (L-R), Ben

UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF.The

Rethink embedded audio routing

Rethink whats possible

www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10 TV Technology December, 2010

DECEMBER 1, 2010 tvtechnology.com/12-01-10 VOLUME 28, ISSUE 25

Mr. First Nighter:

3D Tricks and Treats

MTV Keeps it Real

Options Expand for ENG

GTX-16 Built for the Real

User ReportsStation Automation/Digital Content

4 December 1, 2010 TV Technology www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10

From The Editor

december 1, 2010 Vol 28, No 25

T: (703) 852-4600 n F: (703) 852-4585

RF TECHNOLOGYMOBILE DTV AT IEEE BTS

BROADCAST PRODUCTION BROADBAND SATELLITE MOBILE

3D Tricks and Treats

version, due to cost, time, flexibility,

Watch the episode

Pee Wee Herman and Rachel Ray ham it up for 3D

MTV Keeps It Real

didnt want to alienate viewers

Series is reality TVs millennial

MTVs The Buried Life stars (L-R), Ben

UNIVERSAL CITY, CALIF.The

Want to see video clips of a program profiled in this issue?

additional news and information. Want to

Editor-in-Chief: Tom Butts

Follow Tom Butts via his blog at

Chief Financial Officer: Paul Mastronardi

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Group Publisher: Eric Trabb

My former company was a sponsor of Larrys show and I had the

Editorial Director: T. Carter Ross

The new DeckLink SDI gives you true broadcast

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6 December 1, 2010 TV Technology www.tvtechnology.com/12-01-10

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