GRASS VALLEY, Calif.—High school AV departments are upping their games these days, like some Texas high schools that are utilizing AJA Video Systems technology for their own TV studios for students to produce and broadcast a live daily news show.

Prosper Rock High School in Frisco, Texas, worked with Digital Resources, a Texas-based AV systems integrator, to construct its on-campus TV studio, while Fort Worth’s Northwest Independent School District collaborated with Digital Resources in constructing the Creative Media Production Academy to train students in 3D animation, live event production, broadcast and more.

With these facilities, students learn how to deliver daily newscasts from start to finish, serving as the production crew, news anchors, director/technical director and floor director. 

Digital Resources installed AJA equipment for both projects. This includes the two AJA Ki Pro Ultra 4K/UHD and 2K/HD recording devices—one for master recording and playback and the other for ISO recording. An AJA Helo H.264 streaming and recording device is also standard at both facilities to stream content to the schools’ websites and social platforms. The AJA Kumo 1616 router was provided for routing signals in and around the studio without degradation.

“We’re helping schools bring that broadcast studio experience to the classroom, including all the standard production equipment, and AJA gear is always a part of our designs,” said Tim Bock, director of marketing and sales at Digital Resources. “It’s a staple in most modern studio environments, easy for students to learn quickly, and highly affordable, which is ideal for schools with tight budgets.”

From city council meetings to important public safety updates, running one public access channel can be a challenge. But since 1983, Pasadena Media has operated four public, education and government access television channels for the City of Pasadena, its school district and community college. And on top of producing content for four channels, the non-profit also runs the city’s community media training center and television studios.

“We provide training to the public to use our equipment and create their own tv shows. Typically we shoot with two or three crews per day, and we shoot about two episodes with each crew. I think we are shooting about the same as a regular news studio,” explains Chris Miller, Chief Operations Officer for Pasadena Media and the channel manager for Pasadena’s community access channel known as Arroyo.

With such heavy and regular use, when it came time to upgrade their gear, the studio needed professional equipment that was robust and durable.

“At last NAB [2018], I was looking for pedestals and heads to replace our failing 15 to 20-year-old Libecs. The Libecs weren’t build to handle the load we had on them quite frankly. After meeting with a competing brand, I ended up talking with David from Manios Digital who gathered information on my situation like no one else did, and he proposed the best solution. He offered the Cartoni P90 Pedestal which was a better-quality pedestal and head for the price than anyone else could give me so I really couldn’t refuse,” adds Miller.

“On our old system, we had probably over sixty pounds on the pedestal with the teleprompter, but the main problem was the wheels. The wheels were two parts that would tend to fall off, and we had to keep repairing them. Our users aren’t experts. They’re beginners, and since the wheels weren’t smooth and they weren’t reliable, we had to keep the gear stationary. Once we got the Cartonis though, that all changed.”

Pasadena Media added three Cartoni P90 Pedestals, a top of the line two-stage pedestal designed to support even the biggest camera/lens combinations of up to 198 lbs. Compact and portable, the Cartoni P90 Pedestal is equipped with high precision double wheels that allow ultra smooth traveling and steering. They paired the P90 with Cartoni’s Master 30 head. The Master 30 is a broadcast fluid head that can handle payloads of up to 88 lbs when in studio configuration with a low center of gravity – such as with a teleprompter.

“The P90s are great. They are easy to use so even our least-experienced users can perform more skillful maneuvering, get better camera shots and incorporate movement when we are shooting. The people who come through here are ordinary people. They aren’t people from nearby Hollywood; they are people who are trying to learn a new trade or just have their voice heard through the channel. One of the big things for us in moving from the prosumer level pedestal to the real deal is that the feeling in the room has changed. The feeling is that ‘oh, this is real now.’ People seem to give more. They try harder,” says Miller.

As a non-profit, Pasadena Media has to make their dollars count. That meant going with a brand that could offer performance and durability.

“It’s important to us that anything we buy will pass all of the initial tests and withstand the test of time. David [from Manios Digital] was great at helping us not get something that was at the lowest tier like we often do, but we got something that we really needed,” adds Miller.

Manios Digital is the exclusive US distributor for Cartoni Camera Supports.

NASHVILLE, TENN. – For as long as we can remember, the societal view of the future has been sleek, shiny, even aerodynamic. In recent years most broadcasters have focused on those ideals when dealing with studio redesigns, integrating touchscreens and augmented reality systems, for example. But Gary Kanofsky and RFD TV went the other way. Aiming to appeal more to its rural demographic, when it came time for RFD to redesign its studio, the network went with barn doors and trusses to provide a unique look.

That doesn’t mean the broadcaster is behind the times. While it went retro with the décor, RFD made sure that its infrastructure utilized state-of-the-art products to bring the highest quality to its viewers.

To accomplish this, RFD founder Patrick Gottsch hired Kanofsky last year as the new chief content officer and executive vice president of news, and more specifically, to help launch the redesign.

“Patrick Gottsch had wanted to upgrade the quality of what his product looked like on the air,” said Kanofsky. “Number one, he was frustrated by the limits of what he couldn’t do on TV and he wanted to be able to do more. And the second reason, he wanted to make the product more appealing so we could widen our net.”

Launched in December 2000, RFD-TV is owned by Rural Media Group with its studio based at Northstar studios in Nashville, Tenn. RFD rented out a small space in the studio that was limited to a chroma key and a couple of cameras; even though the space was HD capable, RFD did not have the tools to utilize it. Kanofsky described it as “The kind of thing you would expect to see at a college TV station or a really small market cable outlet.”

The first step in the redesign came when RFD picked up shop and moved its studio to the former home of Great American Country on Music Row in Nashville. From there, Kanofsky dug in and got to work.

“The highest priority was to make sure that in building the new studio the cosmetics and images, as well as the presentation, did not drift away from the core values of the network,” he said.

With that in mind, Kanofsky brought in Jim Fenhagen and Camille Connelly of Jack Morton Production Design Group. They focused on browns, woods, and imagery typically associated with rural lifestyle. “The fire place with the big, heavy, rich brown leather chairs, the rusted out tractor seat and wheels… you’re not going to see that anywhere on television except on RFD TV,” said Kanofsky.

Perhaps more important to the redesign, though, were the things that viewers can’t see. RFD’s new studio had one disadvantage over the networks’s previous home at Northstar: it was only SD. To make sure that it got the most out of the redesign, RFD was committed to becoming fully HD-capable. As a result, the studio’s infrastructure needed be completely overhauled from the ground up.

RFD tapped Grass Valley for its video system, including the K2 Summit, Ingest, Playout, and proxy and craft editing systems,and added ENPS MOS for automation. New lights, new video monitors, and even completely redesigned Orad graphics (utilizing real-time data) were added to the new and improved studio.

The first broadcast in the new studio took place on March 23; a mere six months after the company began the redesign process. The reaction thus far has been great according to Kanofsky.

“The producers absolutely love the control they have,” he said. “The graphics teams loves that they can focus on creativity and they don’t have to do all this manual garbage. The sales people are ecstatic with what we constructed. They bring clients down now to see the stage and there’s a real wow factor when you walk in.”

Kanofsky has worked in the industry for 36 years, holding positions with CNBC, Bloomberg and CBS, but he is particularly proud of what RFD was able to accomplish. “We created something that is every bit as sophisticated, as robust and as capable as anything I’ve ever worked with anywhere.”