MOUNT VERNON, N.Y.—In my line of work, whether it’s eSports tournaments, televised boxing, high-stakes upfronts or massive events like Formula One, flawless communication isn’t optional, it’s critical. Over the years, I’ve used a variety of Pliant Technologies wireless intercom systems and headsets on a range of projects. The Pliant gear has become a go-to for me, thanks to its clarity, comfort and adaptability across a variety of production environments.

I first discovered Pliant’s lightweight IEHU In-Ear Universal Fit Headset at NAB Show New York and started using it right away. The thing that really sold me was its incredible comfort, as I wear it all day and hardly notice it’s there.

Customized Comfort
I had the custom ear molds made by my audiologist and sent them to custom ear-mold manufacturer Coda Room Custom Audio. I ordered one for each ear, in red and green. I switch ears throughout the day to combat listening fatigue, especially on marathon productions. It’s a small touch, but one that makes a big difference when you’re doing this for a living. The color coding ensures that I have the right one in the right ear, with no guesswork.

What I also love is how discreet and effective it is. The noise-canceling mic performs really well in loud settings, and the headset connects via a single wire with a four-pin (or five-pin) connector. I’ve never needed or wanted to use anything bulkier since.

As a freelance audio engineer, I work with various manufacturers’ gear, as I
am typically called into established workflows. The great thing about the Pliant
In-Ear Universal Fit Headset is that it works with most industry-standard intercom beltpacks, and I bring it with me to every job.

I use the Pliant headset on just about everything—eSports shows around North America, televised boxing events and network upfronts, which are surprisingly complex productions packed into just 90 minutes.

On top of range and reliability, I also require gear that can withstand long, intense days. I’m usually on comms from 7 a.m. to midnight. Even the best headset can cause fatigue after a while, especially the over-ear models I used to use.

I liked the Pliant headset so much that I bought three more and gave them to crew members as gifts. They’d always say, “Man, I wish I had one of those.” Now they do. (I told them they’d have to get their own molds, though!)

At the end of the day, a headset should be simple: It should sound good, feel good and stay out of your way. That’s what I get from Pliant. Whether it’s the MicroCom XR wireless intercom system or the Pliant In-Ear Universal Fit Headset, the company’s products are always dependable.

And when something works this well, you stick with it.

Extended Coverage
I’ve worked in some pretty unconventional setups. One production in particular involved a show taped inside someone’s private house. The production truck was stationed more than 600 feet away, which posed a huge challenge for comms. A main benefit of Pliant is that the antennas are removable, so I was able to use a directional antenna on each side of that 600 feet to extend the coverage.

Pliant’s MicroCom XR system was deployed for this project, and because it has a wide range and multiple modes of operation, we were able to achieve the coverage we required from the house to the truck and all areas in between. We had a solid signal all the way back to the compound, and that kind of flexibility in the field makes a huge difference.

With Pliant, you get scalability, flexibility and modern features that work just as well for small gigs as they do for large-scale events. It’s a smart investment for any rental company.

More information is available at plianttechnologies.com.

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.—As a radio host and journalist in Haiti, I developed a deep passion for storytelling, music, and digital content over the course of my 20 year career. That passion led me to create Chokarella in 2010—a platform that amplifies Haitian culture through interviews, live shows, and original productions now shared to hundreds of thousands of followers through social media and our app.

I opened the first Chokarella studio in Haiti in 2015, starting with a Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. During the pandemic, I shifted quickly into live streaming, building out a workflow with ATEM Television Studio HD, HyperDecks, Video Assist, and ATEM Streaming Bridge.

Second Studio
To expand our reach, I recently opened a second studio here in Fort Lauderdale, featuring Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K, Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2, ATEM Mini Pro ISO, ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, and DaVinci Resolve Studio. We needed a production setup that could deliver broadcast-quality visuals, integrate seamlessly with live streaming and multi-camera recordings, and fit within our budget. The Blackmagic gear checked all those boxes, providing cinema-quality imaging without the price tag of other high-end systems.

For live productions, cameras with LUTs feed into the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO, and for pre-recorded content, we shoot in 6K Blackmagic RAW, then color grade and edit in DaVinci Resolve Studio, exporting in 4K. The ATEM Mini Extreme ISO handles our livestreams directly, which makes everything faster and more reliable.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 have had an impressive impact on our productions by allowing our team to quickly deliver high-quality videos, even those that incorporate multi-camera live switching. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2s are usually secondary cameras in our multicam setups because they’re perfect for wide or mid shots during live streams.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K is my go-to for 4K interviews, music sessions, and documentary-style content. The image depth is beautiful, and open gate recording lets me reframe in post for multiple aspect ratios without losing quality. The built-in ND filters also make shooting outdoors or under studio lights a breeze.

Full Control With Multiple Angles
For smaller shoots with a straightforward two to three camera setup, I use the ATEM Mini Pro ISO, which works well for our one-on-one interviews, solo content creation, podcast recordings, or pre-recorded segments where we don’t need a ton of inputs. When I need full control with multiple angles, I turn to the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO—its eight inputs are essential for events like live panels, concerts, and events with multiple additional angles.

In post, I use DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading to maintain a consistent aesthetic across content. I also love Resolve’s multicam editing for interview cuts, Fusion for motion graphics, and Smart Reframe to prep clips for TikTok and Instagram. On the audio side, I use Fairlight for noise reduction, voice isolation, EQ, and compression to make sure everything sounds clean and professional.

Most days, I handle post myself, but for larger projects, I have two editors who also work in Resolve. Blackmagic’s gear has helped us level up our production quality while keeping everything efficient, fast, and in-house.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Forty years as a DP behind the lens has taught me one thing: not all LED lights are created equal. The broadcast world has been revolutionized by this technology, but sifting through the options has been a challenge.

Navigating the world of LED lighting market requires time and rigorous testing. After a ton of research and side-by-side comparisons, I’ve learned that manufacturers’ claims often differ from the real world we shoot in. All of us scrutinize the minutia of color accuracy, output, and build quality of whatever lighting gear we’re using.

That was particularly important when Cracker Barrel contacted me with an exciting yet demanding project: to design and implement two different lighting setups in their newly renovated studio space in Lebanon, Tennessee. The newly renovated building on their campus needed two sets: a 30-by-30 green screen and a 30-by-30 white cyclorama.

Lighting Two Sets
The project sounded super exciting, but my first on-site visit revealed two significant challenges that immediately demanded creative solutions. First, the studio had a fixed ceiling height of 11 feet, 6 inches and ductwork that was over both sets that imposed limitations on light placement, requiring the right fixtures to avoid compromising the smooth even spread of light for the green screen and white cyc.

Second, as is typical in a corporate environment, a fixed budget was established for the entire project. This meant finding lighting solutions that not only met the technical specs needed for the green screen and white cycloramas but also didn’t break the bank. This project sent me on a journey searching for lighting gear that could keep up with the daily demands of a busy studio.

Earlier in the year, I’d had the chance to demo Lupo’s Super Panel 60 and their Movie Light 300 at Take One Film and Video in Hendersonville, Tenn., and I have to say I was genuinely impressed. What really stood out with the Super Panel 60 was the exceptional color accuracy, especially when it came to flesh tones.

For the Cracker Barrel job, I set up a side-by-side test with two other major brands to see how they compared Lupo’s lights. Without going into great detail I found that Lupo’s Super Panel and Movie Light 300s provided a consistent and exceptional balance of performance and affordability—a true “bang for the buck” scenario.

To be fair, I had similar results with the other brand of lights I’d tested, and honestly, I could’ve used either of them but, when it came down to it, budget was the key factor. After that demo, I was confident I could deliver the quality Cracker Barrel needed, while staying inside the budget.

Dayled Pro 3000
Since wrapping up the Cracker Barrel studio project—a project that truly showcased the capabilities of Lupo’s gear—I’ve made it a point to incorporate their entire lineup into my lighting arsenal. I have to single out the Dayled Pro 3000, though; that light really impressed me with its ability to focus light with the kind of control you’d expect from a classic Fresnel. It’s not just about the intensity; it’s the quality of the beam, the way it sculpts the scene.

Overall, my experience with Lupo and their products has been nothing short of outstanding. It’s more than just the quality of the lights; it’s the peace of mind knowing you have a company that stands behind their products.

Their customer service team has consistently gone above and beyond to assist me, and when I’ve needed technical support, their response time has been remarkably fast. In this industry, where time is money and reliability is paramount, that level of support is invaluable.

More information is available at: https://lupo.it/en

LONDON—TJC, part of the Vaibhav Global Ltd. family,
is a U.K.-based teleshopping channel, bringing a wide-ranging collection of lifestyle products to its audiences, from finely crafted jewelry and premium beauty products to home and garden decor.

Together with our sister TV shopping channels in the U.S. and Germany, we tirelessly search for unique and captivating pieces, directly sourcing from over 32 countries. We also pride ourselves on production value and like to engage our audience from different locations in ways that are fun and unique.

30-Minute Setup
We were the pioneers of remote broadcasting in the live- teleshopping space, where we have successfully moved outside the studio to create content using Dejero’s EnGo mobile video transmitters and WayPoint receiver. Since we’ve been using Dejero (2020 onwards), it no longer takes a day and a half to set up a studio; we can go from nothing to being ready to broadcast from anywhere in less than 30 minutes.

Last year our U.S. sister company, Shop LC, found themselves broadcasting live from a haunted hotel in Tonopah, Nevada, an old mining town in the middle of the desert. They wanted to bring the viewers a rich historical experience about the town’s gold and silver deposits during their live buying journey.

They brought four Dejero EnGo mobile video transmitters and three Starlink satellite dishes on-site. Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology augmented Starlink’s capacity by blending its LEO satellite network with multiple wired (Ethernet) and wireless (cellular) IP connections. There was no way they could have gone live without Dejero, considering the fluctuating service gaps, fiber and cellular, that existed in such a remote location.

We also conducted a live broadcast from the desert in Tucson, Arizona, where the presenters were selling products while walking among giant cacti. Even in this remote location, connectivity was no issue for TJC because of Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology. In fact, the viewers assumed the background was a greenscreen because of how clear the transmission was. The presenter and guest had to walk through the landscape to prove it was real and were able to answer text messages live, in a different time zone.

EnGo Sharing
EnGo travelled to Italy multiple times last year, broadcasting not only for TJC but also for our U.S. and German sister channels, using EnGo’s “sharing” feature. For the Vicenza Jewelry show, we had to set up on the rooftop of an Airbnb in Venice. The building’s internet connection was almost nonexistent, so we used a SIM card in the EnGo with roaming data, running a CuePoint return feed off a smartphone. EnGo performed flawlessly.

Our parent company, Vaibhav Global, saves money by using Dejero—we can send just one crew member to any location to meet a local presenter for a live broadcast. In Germany and the U.K., we even use an EnGo to mix on-site. In the pre-Dejero days, because of the complexities and cost of RF and booking satellites and hiring production trucks, we simply couldn’t justify these on-location broadcasts.

Shop LC in the U.S. uses two EnGos and eight LivePlus App licenses to remote guests in from all over the world. We’ve made it as easy as possible for the guests, who can be set up and ready to go live in five minutes. Not only is the connectivity reliable, the units are robust: Despite hitting more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Italy and in the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, the EnGo mobile transmitters were “bulletproof.”

More information is available at www.dejero.com.

SYDNEY—Corrivium is a live over-the-top streaming services provider focused on delivering high-quality virtual and hybrid events across various industries. We specialize in crafting engaging and interactive experiences for audiences worldwide, combining technical expertise and a deep understanding of digital media with a focus on live OTT and streaming services and high-quality, low-latency broadcasts.

Our clients rely on us for seamless, engaging virtual experiences, and we continuously refine our workflows to meet the rapidly evolving demands of digital media. To meet those demands, Grass Valley’s AMPP emerged as the ideal solution to expand and optimize our capabilities.

We chose AMPP because of its flexibility and the fact that it supports complex live OTT broadcasts without compromising on speed or quality. The platform’s cloud-based infrastructure allows us to scale resources dynamically, which is crucial for projects with fluctuating demands. Previously, managing multiple live broadcasts globally, all with varying, unique requirements, was a challenge. With AMPP, we now handle these demands seamlessly within a unified platform.

High-Stakes Setup
Setup was straightforward and AMPP integrated smoothly with our existing workflows. Its cloud-native nature enables our team to access it from anywhere, which is essential for real-time collaboration during high-stakes events.

In terms of implementing and customizing workflows for our clients with AMPP, we have found that it has enabled innovative new workflows. During a recent virtual conference featuring 16 concurrent live rooms, we leveraged AMPP to design tailored workflows for each room. Additionally, we built a customizable master multiview to seamlessly monitor all ingests in real time. This streamlined approach not only minimized our onsite footprint, but also ensured high-quality adaptive bit rate streams, delivering an exceptional viewing experience for every audience member.

Another standout example is our collaboration with Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA). They needed to produce multiple versions of their live racing content for various distribution partners while minimizing latency. After proving that AMPP could meet their requirements during trials, RWWA faced the challenge of deploying a production-ready system within two weeks.

Leveraging our extensive experience with AMPP, we successfully deployed a fully operational system ahead of schedule. Beyond the initial scope, the implementation allowed us to help RWWA optimize workflows. The resulting cost savings far exceeded their initial expectations, showcasing the long-term value AMPP offers.

Tailored Solutions
In terms of driving excellence, efficiency and client satisfaction, adopting AMPP has helped us significantly improve efficiency and allowed us to expand our ability to meet diverse client requests. AMPP empowers us to tackle ambitious ideas with tailored solutions, no matter the challenge. Its flexible encoding capabilities allow us to ingest and output virtually any video format, ensuring consistently high-quality content. By streamlining our workflows, AMPP lets us focus on delivering successful events—ultimately achieving 100% client satisfaction.

AMPP has also revolutionized our internal workflows, minimizing manual tasks and enabling our team to prioritize creativity. Its intuitive automation tools simplify managing complex transitions and graphics integrations, saving time and reducing errors. The result is a consistently polished product that not only meets but exceeds client expectations.

As live streaming continues to grow, we’re eager to explore AMPP’s advanced features, including Sport Producer X, opening new possibilities for accessible, real-time storytelling. These advanced production tools have the potential to further enhance our offerings and expand our business into new areas.

More information is available at www.grassvalley.com.

LAS VEGAS—As vice president of Live Events at 4Wall Entertainment, I’ve seen first hand the evolution of intercom systems in the broadcasting and streaming industry. At 4Wall, we specialize in providing cutting-edge solutions for live events, broadcast productions, and streaming services.

Our expertise lies in creating seamless, high-quality audio-visual experiences for a wide range of clients, from major TV networks to online content creators. Integral to our operations are the intercom systems that ensure clear and reliable communication among our team members.

One intercom product we rely on heavily is the Bolero wireless intercom by Riedel Communications. We chose Bolero based on its exceptional audio quality, flexibility, and robust performance in demanding environments. Although we considered several options, Bolero stood out due to its superior technology and practical integration capabilities.

Reliable Connectivity
We utilize Bolero for a variety of purposes, including live event coordination, on-set communication during broadcasts, and managing streaming productions. The ability to communicate seamlessly across different departments ensures that our productions run smoothly, without the hiccups that can occur with inferior systems.

One of the primary challenges Bolero addresses is the need for a reliable, high-quality wireless communication system that can perform well even in crowded RF environments. In live events and broadcast settings, interference can be a significant issue, but Bolero’s advanced RF robustness and flexibility in integration mitigate this problem effectively. This reliability allows our team to focus on delivering top-notch content without worrying about communication breakdowns.

Deploying Bolero is straightforward and efficient. Its decentralized architecture supports flexible deployments, accommodating various production sizes and setups, from small studio broadcasts to large live events. The use of 4-wire ties via NSA-02s is particularly useful for connecting Bolero with existing wired intercom systems, providing a unified and streamlined communication network. This was crucial as technicians had to monitor multiple broadcast program streams during rehearsals and the live event.

One operator, Carlos Ostero, had never used Bolero prior to a recent event. Despite his lack of experience with the system, he found it incredibly easy to program and set up. The intuitive user interface and straightforward configuration enabled Carlos to get the system running without any issues—a testament to Bolero’s user-friendly design.

Our favorite Bolero features include its intuitive user interface and the ease of integrating it with other systems. The beltpacks are lightweight and user-friendly, and have plenty of battery life, which is critical for long productions. Additionally, the ability to configure the system via a web browser provides us with the flexibility to make adjustments on the fly, ensuring optimal performance.

Advanced DECT
Unique features of Bolero that have impressed us include its patented Advanced DECT receiver technology—designed to reduce sensitivity to multipath reflections—and its ability to operate in standalone mode. This allows for a highly flexible and scalable deployment, making it an ideal solution for various production environments.

One feature that pleasantly surprised us is Bolero’s NFC beltpack registration. This allows for quick and easy registration of beltpacks, which is especially useful when managing a large number of units. This feature not only saves time but also ensures we get up and running quickly, even in fast-paced environments.

Having Bolero as a tool in our arsenal is significant because it elevates the quality of our productions. Clear and reliable communication is the backbone of any successful broadcast or live event and Bolero’s performance and reliability, combined with its seamless integration capabilities, give us the confidence to push the boundaries of what we can achieve, knowing that our communication system will support us every step of the way.

Bolero has proven to be an invaluable asset to 4Wall Entertainment—its advanced features, reliability, and ease of use make it the ideal choice for our diverse range of projects. As we continue to innovate and expand our services, we know that Bolero will play a crucial role in our success, enabling us to deliver exceptional audio-visual experiences to our clients and audiences. l

For more information visit https://www.riedel.net/en/.

TULSA, Okla.–Winnercomm, a well-respected production company, along with sister company Major League Fishing, the world’s premier tournament-fishing organization, recently collaborated to unveil a state-of-the-art in-house studio and control room.

Since 1981, Winnercomm has been at the forefront of providing content across all media platforms. It has a distinguished track record of delivering top-tier content to a diverse range of clients, earning 16 Emmy Awards as a result. Winnercomm produces Major League Fishing’s TV shows, which air on a variety of platforms including the Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network, and Discovery Channel.

As a senior engineer at Winnercomm—where we previously leased a studio and relied on a remote truck as a control room—I knew that our increased production needs required us to build our own production and editing spaces.

The New Production Studio
We now have a dedicated studio and control room at Winnercomm’s facilities in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This transition marks a significant milestone, bringing Major League Fishing’s production operations back in-house.

Our new facility includes a selection of audio and video equipment with extensive Avid editing capabilities. This includes two complete Pro Tools suites for audio sweetening, VO’s, etc. Additionally, we have several Dante-compatible solutions from Studio Technologies that deliver pristine digital audio, including Model 372A beltpacks, Model 203 announcer boxes, and various intercom stations including the Model 348, Model 5304, and two Model 5312. We also have two Model 5422A Dante Intercom Audio Engines as the core of our comms system.

I have had a lot of great experiences with Studio Technologies gear in the past so when it came time to equip our studio and control room, they were at the top of my list. The company’s digital audio solutions, particularly those with Dante capabilities, offered solid reliability and were easy to integrate.

These features made the Studio Technologies solutions a must have on my equipment list. The products we’ve deployed are delivering pristine digital audio, with little interference or distortion. This level of quality is essential for our live broadcasts, which now number over 80 events per year, with audiences across multiple networks and streaming platforms.

Beltpacks and Consoles
The Studio Technologies Model 372A Intercom Beltpack is a highly compact user-worn device that combines a single channel of talk audio and two channels of comms or program listen. The Model 203 Announcer’s Console, which supports Dante Audio-over-Ethernet (AoE), offers simple deployment and the audio resources needed to directly support a complete professional on-air position. The Model 348 Intercom Station is a tabletop unit that provides eight independent talk and listen channels designed to serve as an audio control center for production and support personnel.

The Model 5304 Intercom Station is also a desktop unit that provides four independent talk and listen channels that are compatible with Dante audio-over-Ethernet networks. The Model 5312 Intercom Station is a rackmounted unit that is designed to serve as an audio control center for production and support personnel, and the Model 5422A Dante Intercom Audio Engine is a high-performance, cost-effective solution for creating party-line (PL) intercom circuits when used with Dante-compatible products.

More information can be found at https://studio-tech.com/.

LIÈGE, Belgium— WNM is a Belgian company specializing in audio and multicamera distribution as well as ENG activities and intercom provisioning. It also provides technical services for global sporting events and consultancy for broadcast infrastructure projects.

For top-tier events like the recent UEFA European Football Championship, where nothing must go wrong, focusing on the split-second delivery of the highest-quality content is obviously important, although the final result also depends on the tools you have at your disposal. Audio is a core ingredient of any TV production and getting this part right essentially hinges on the flexibility afforded by the mixing system.

Championship Mix
The ability of Lawo’s mc² consoles to function in an open-standards IP infrastructure makes it easy to distribute the required signals to the right destinations. This networking aspect is critical in large venues with a distributed pool of audio stageboxes. IP allows me to easily send audio essences to other sites where they can be reshuffled and embedded as necessary.

This is the kind of audio and video flexibility I needed for the European soccer championship in Germany, for instance. I love the ability to reliably patch audio streams directly on my mc² console, because speed is of the essence when the world is watching.

The A__UHD Core provides a stellar density of fully-featured DSP channels in a compact footprint. While 1024 DSP channels may seem overblown, I quite like having one channel per signal with no need to compromise on the number of inputs and outputs. End-to-end redundancy is another big plus. At the Euros in Germany, for instance, the ability to quickly select all relevant audio channels made my mixing job a lot easier.

I often use the Remote Desktop functionality to tweak parameters in a software application running on a remote computer right from the mc²’s screens. Whether management software, playout apps or external effects—remaining in the sweet spot without the need for a KVM system allows me to stay in the flow.

The Right Dynamic Range
I’m also able to conveniently handle 5.1(.4) productions and other delivery formats in parallel. Then there is the sound quality: the dynamic range of Lawo’s preamps is just perfect for sporting events where levels tend to span the gamut. Basically, you can throw any signal at the A__stage I/O boxes and still get a natural and crisp sound from a mix of on-camera, referee, field-of-play and ambience microphones.

The mc²’s physical and graphic user interfaces have a clear structure, with consistent color-coding for easy identification, and a layout that plays to my muscle memory. I can access the functions fast and intuitively, so that I can tweak settings without even looking at the controls in question.

Did I already mention that I just love the fact that I can assign any parameter to a fader? This is a major timesaver for my typical workflow. During the championship match in Germany on July 14th, for instance, I used this functionality to manage the stereo width and digital gain of my ambience bus as well as to fine-tune the delay settings. These General-Purpose Controllers (GPC) can also be linked to the Audio-follows-Video function in order to tweak a resource’s settings by means of a video event.

So, there you have it: I am extremely fond of Lawo’s mc² consoles, the A__UHD Core and the A__stage I/O boxes. They allow me to focus on the mix and deliver world-class audio content.

More information is available at https://lawo.com.

NEW YORK—SNY is a multiplatform regional sports network and the television home of the New York Mets. Our productions include pre- and post-game shows, game highlights, sports talk shows, radio simulcasts, plus additional Mets entertainment programming airing throughout the year on our broadcast channel, streaming and our social media channels.

Audio is such a key part of making sports video exciting and since we converted to digital wireless microphone technology—specifically the Sony DWX series—our productions have become easier to set up and manage.

That flexibility is a main contributor to helping us produce such a range of diverse content, and it’s also a huge shift from using wired microphones and even the early days of analog wireless. Once we moved to Sony technology—first analog and then digital wireless—we’ve never encountered any issues. Since 2016, we’ve been all Sony digital wireless. It’s the way of the future for us, especially considering our all-digital workflow from our newer consoles to Dante interfaces with our overall communications system.

Sony DWX Wireless
SNY has a full Sony audio solution from the mic head all the way through including a DWR-R03D dual channel receiver. We also have 16 Sony DWX wireless beltpacks (DWT-B03R) and all are in use seven days a week. The number of packs used on a typical show is four, but we’ve had up to eight going at the same time and if both our studios are in use, it could be all 16 at once. In addition, we use Sony’s ECM-90 and ECM-77 lavalier mics.

We like the sound quality and the noise rejection, plus the elements are really perceptive to everything we do. I’ve had talent raise concerns about issues like scratching or hair falling onto the mics, which is always scary for live audio. But these Sony mics avoid those problems by being really good at rejecting noise, according to SNY’s lead audio engineer Adam Young.

The compact size of the packs are the smallest I’ve seen compared to other top microphones. The size alone has made our work easier, and the talent certainly appreciates the added mobility and flexibility.

Often, talent might wear clothing that makes it harder to attach a bigger microphone pack and keep it on if they are moving around the studio quite a bit. The small Sony micro packs make it easy for our A-2s to clip on and not have to worry about a big burden of weight on the talent’s back.

The Wireless Studio
Show set-up and management is easier and faster, especially with features like Cross Remote and the Wireless Studio software.

Most other wireless microphone systems are unidirectional—the beltpack transmits audio, battery level and that’s about it. With Sony you can actually send commands to the beltpack that the talent is wearing and change the microphone gain. You can go from low or medium to high power and do a clear channel scan without going to the beltpack manually—it’s all done remotely.

If we ever notice we are having frequency issues—which is extremely rare—the Sony transmitters make it easy to do a clear scan and pick up a clear frequency immediately. The system is user-friendly in the sense that if such a problem were to arise, it’s an easy fix—you literally just click a button, hold it and everything pairs really fast.

With this system, we can take comfort knowing we are getting a high-quality signal and good battery life just by looking at the Wireless Studio software. It gives us “an extra hand” to deal with the usual challenges that always pop up.

We’re doing live television, and nothing goes wrong until you’re absolutely live. But this system gives us peace of mind in every sense.

More information is available at https://pro.sony.

MILWAUKEE–The documentary “The Loop” looks back at Chicago AM and FM radio stations with that moniker during their heyday from the late 1970s to the 1990s. The Loop was known for its on-air personalities who were notorious for crossing the line: Jonathon Brandmeier, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, Kevin Matthews, and Danny Bonaduce. They inspired and were copied by stations and DJs across the country.

I was brought onboard by production company Duncan Entertainment to produce 5.1 and stereo mixes, plus stems. I used DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight audio post production tools, a Fairlight Desktop Console, Mac mini, Focusrite interface and Lipinski and JBL monitors as part of my workflow.

AI Noise Isolation
Given the project is a documentary, interviews were key, and most were done in decent locations, so noise wasn’t too much of a problem. However, DaVinci Resolve Studio’s AI-based voice isolation did come in handy on several occasions, and it’s so nice to have it on every channel.

As the name implies, it allowed me to isolate dialogue from background sounds, easily removing any unwanted noises. And because it’s AI-powered, I only had to click a button, and the DaVinci Neural Engine did all the heavy lifting.

I’ve found setting the processing to around 30% cleans up the dialogue yet still sounds very natural, and I’ve rarely had to use 100%. I used to reach for another solution for these real-time cleanup jobs, but now I can just press the voice isolate button in DaVinci Resolve Studio, which is incredibly easy and saves me time.

While most of my work was carried out in the Fairlight page, I also used DaVinci Resolve Studio’s edit page to lock the reference video or delete multiple video tracks I didn’t need, and the delivery page came in handy when sending the client a rough mix with reference picture. “The Loop” documentary was a joy to work on. It’s very entertaining and irreverent. Most documentaries are serious and even somber, but not this one.

Studio 19 in Beta
Since my work on “The Loop,” I’ve had the chance to dabble in the beta of DaVinci Resolve Studio 19, and some new features have found their way into my workflow right from the start, including dialogue separator, music remixer and ducker.

The music remixer FX is my current favorite. With it, I can lower the vocal of a song when it’s under dialogue, keeping the rhythm and percussion strong. Ducker does what it’s supposed to: one track can auto-adjust the level of another track without needing side chain compression or automation curves. For example, you can automatically set background noise or music to lower when dialogue is present. Nothing flashy here, but very useful and so handy.

Another AI-based tool, dialogue separator, helps bring dialogue upfront while lowering random noises that I swear are from outer space. Sometimes it makes you wonder what is happening on set, but thankfully in post, I have a tool that makes it easy to rebalance the dialogue against background sound.

Finally, audio panning to video is another AI tool that I have my eye on to use in my next project as it works amazingly well. Using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s IntelliTrack AI point tracker, which tracks people and objects, I can quickly pan multiple actors, for example, and control their voice positions as they move across 2D and 3D spaces.

I’ve had features like these in third-party plugins for quite some time but having them in DaVinci Resolve Studio on every track, only one click away, is a luxury. l

Randy Bobo is founder and sound designer at Independent Studios, which delivers crafted audio and visual post production to filmmakers, advertising agencies, corporations and digital media producers. For more information about Independent Studios, call 414-347-1100 or visit www.independentstudios.tv.

For more information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit
www.blackmagicdesign.com.

SOUTH BEND, Ind.–Founded in November 1842, the University of Notre Dame is America’s leading Catholic, undergraduate research institution. It’s home to approximately 8,900 undergraduate students, 4,200 graduate/professional students, and hosts several of the United States’ most renowned athletics teams. Collectively known as the “Fighting Irish,” as their sporting prowess has developed, so has the desire to produce better live game coverage.

Built in 2017, our Notre Dame Studios production facility was designed to be a fully IP from the start, however it’s not part of the athletics department. As part of the Office of Informational Technology (OIT), we’re a centralized production facility that serves all of the Notre Dame campus. We produce a variety of events year-round, ranging from performing arts and academic events to weekly coverage of the Catholic Mass from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Our Calrec Installs
Our three studios encompass a range of content, from simple studio shoots to linear broadcasts, covering approximately 125 annual athletic contests for ESPN’s ACC Network. More recently we have provided the backbone for all of Notre Dame’s home ice hockey games to NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

Our commitment to NBC made us rethink our audio infrastructure. The sheer number of microphones we have in place around the rink, combined with providing content between periods, means we produce a whole professional show for NBC. We knew we needed to upgrade to provide the level of audio quality that NBC required.

After seeking advice from our own A1, Garry Elghammer, as well as several visiting NBC A1s with whom we share feeds, we installed a Calrec Artemis audio console, Type R surface and IP ImPulse cores into our Rex and Alice A. Martin Media Center. The Artemis is installed in Audio Control Room 2 (ACR2), the Type R is in ACR1, and we operate three smaller control rooms that use Axia Fusion consoles.

The Artemis is the heart of the entire audio system, and it’s when covering hockey that we really stretch its legs! It’s a 48-fader console with an empty bay that will enable us to extend to 56 faders in the future, which is NBC’s minimum requirement for football coverage. It has redundant ImPulse cores, which not only allow us to maintain our full IP workflows but means that the whole Notre Dame facility can interoperate on the same SMPTE 2110 network, whether that’s an audio product like Calrec or Axia, or a video product like Evertz.

Network Flexibility
We have a modular I/O unit in the equipment room for interfacing, a 32x32 EDAC I/O unit in ACR2, a 12x4 fixed format I/O box located in one of our studios, and three portable 24x8 fixed format units that we use around campus. It enables us to work like a REMI; with fiber operating between all our venues we can facilitate various types of productions. It makes bringing in all the different audio feeds really easy, and it means that the Calrec network benefits the whole university and not just athletics.

With I/O boxes strategically placed across campus, we have enough flexibility to cover a variety of events. ACR1’s Type R is a more compact 36 fader surface but has all the features of a larger production console, enabling us to mix for shows for ESPN, and it’s well understood by visiting A1s, which increases the pool of contractors/freelancers we can use.

Our Calrec IP infrastructure enables us to flex our network when required to service the whole university. We’re also committed to training the next generation in all areas of broadcast, even non-broadcast students are learning operational skills to give them valuable, real-world paid experience in professional audio with many students seriously considering a career in broadcast.

For more information on Calrec visit https://calrec.com.

NEW YORK—As a cinematographer, visual storytelling, leading a team, staying on schedule, executing, and elevating my Director’s vision are some of the many things I do everyday. My problem solving skills are always working in the background. I love finding ways to maximize my resources, which was especially relevant in the production of “Scary Good,” which I shot on the new Canon EOS C400 camera, in collaboration with Canon. Problem solving is present in all my work.

“Scary Good” is a mystery/thriller “whodunit” short film that can be seen on YouTube. I had a unique perspective on the overall workflow, since I work in both narrative and documentary background and this time around I got to shoot, direct and help conceive the concept from the beginning.

As the camera stalks and chases a box office attendant, veteran actress, maintenance worker and backstage tech, through the historic United Palace Theatre in New York City, this two-minute film fills audiences with a level of anxiety. Culminating in ultimate relief as the group bursts out of a top floor balcony into the sunlight, it illustrates just how much storytelling relies on sound and visual cues.

The 'Scary Good' Puzzle
The first part of the “Scary Good” puzzle was understanding how far we could push the camera. There are many features included in the EOS C400 camera that I didn’t know could exist at its price point; and it’s also very light and small for the power that it holds.

The crew is always a huge part of the success of every project. My gimbal operator, Nadine Martinez; my ACs, Thom Cameron, Cheryn Park, Lisa Chin; my DIT, George Robert Morse; my lighting designer Alexa Mignon; my key grip, Vinny Davino; and my costume designer, Pamela Shepherd, are all people I’ve worked with before. I’ve developed so much trust and a shorthand with this team. Pam and I met while working on Ziwe (Showtime) and I was always impressed with how she elevated the characters.

My camera and lighting team helped me execute every frame and every camera move. The lighting Alexa helped me create on screen really pushed the element of suspense. Lighting cues motivated sound design and gave the actors something to respond to. Like every production, we had limited time and limited resources. The triple base ISO really allowed us to maximize the dynamic range in the camera given the existing lighting parameters at the theater.

I wanted the theater to look as elegant as it appears in person by being strategic with my exposure and adding lighting to accentuate what was already there. I was really fortunate to have access to the EOS C400 camera and Canon senior technical specialist and sales engineer Paul Hawxhurt’s expertise. He helped me shoot some tests during our tech scout to see which ISO would give us the best latitude in that space.

6K RAW Files
Ultimately, we decided setting the base ISO to 3200 and rating the ISO at 1600 was the best way to create more details in the shadows without causing additional noise. The ways we utilized lighting and camera movements to introduce our characters made the audience feel a bit unsettled. This played into building the dramatic tension throughout, creating almost an extraterrestrial presence, which was amplified by the frenetic energy of the edit, led by our editor, Emily Spiegelman-Noel.

The EOS C400 camera’s ability to record proxies in real-time while recording in-camera 6K RAW files was really helpful for the tight turn-around in post. Our editor, Emily, was able to walk away with a hard drive of proxies to get started on the edit right away. The LUT we chose was the Canon CMT 709. We used this for our on-set monitors and this was the starting point for my DIT, George Robert, and I to create a few CDL’s for our colorist. While we were in the color grade, we made minor adjustments to help accentuate the look and feel of our film. l

Christine Ng is a Hong Kong-born, New York City based cinematographer. She can be reached at ms.christineng@gmail.com and at www.christineng.com.

More information is available at www.usa.canon.com.

FORT WORTH, Texas—“Chopper Cops,” an all-new docuseries produced by SEE IT NOW Studios and V1 Productions, recently debuted on CBS/Paramount+. The 10-episode series offers an unprecedented look at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department’s state-of-the-art helicopters, operated by elite police pilots known as “Air One.” Throughout each half-hour episode, the series showcases these “chopper cops” as they utilize high-tech infrared cameras and augmented-reality mapping to support ground units in locating and apprehending suspects, providing a critical “eye in the sky.”

V1 Productions, a Texas-based, full-service production house that offers television and film production, live broadcast and post-production services, has built a reputation for delivering compelling, humanistic stories through its unscripted and live productions as well as breathtaking cinematography.

Unique Cameras, Unique Angles
For “Chopper Cops,” the production needed to capture content from various sources, including helicopters and the deputy police cars. To achieve these unique angles in extremely space-conscious locations, we relied on a selection of POV cameras from Marshall Electronics, including eight CV506 Miniature Full-HD Cameras, two CV568 Miniature HD Cameras with Global Shutter with Genlock and two CV504-WP All-Weather Micro Cameras.

The cutting-edge technology of these cameras allowed us to provide an immersive and authentic viewing experience without interfering with police work in the air or on the ground. The camera’s compact size and robust capabilities are essential for capturing the intense and often unpredictable nature of police aviation operations.

Marshall’s CV506 camera was used in the interior of deputies’ cars and helicopters, including scenes captured from the dashboard of the squad cars, as well as the footage that was filmed over the shoulder of the pilot and Tactical Flight Officer (TFO). For these aerial police applications, the pilot is responsible for the safe operation of the helicopter, and the TFO is responsible for law enforcement and coordinating ground resources.

The Marshall cameras were also used to capture some footage from the dashboard of the Sheriff helicopter looking back at the Pilot and TFO. The CV506 can capture detailed shots while maintaining an ultra-discreet miniature POV perspective without sacrificing versatility or convenience.

Miniature POV
In addition to being used in a similar capacity to the CV506, Marshall’s CV568 miniature global camera with genlock delivered synchronized, HD footage critical for capturing coordinated movements and actions within the vehicles and aircraft. The CV568 is built around an impressive 1/1.8-inch Sony global sensor with 25% larger pixels and interchangeable M12 lens mount, making this the most capable POV camera in the miniature camera lineup.

In addition to the exterior of the sheriff helicopters, the Marshall CV504-WP camera was used to film from the exterior of the deputy squad cars. Footage captured from the exterior squad cars depict the cars in motion and highlights the sheriff decals. Footage captured from the exterior sheriff helicopters includes POV from the skids that show the helicopters flying over the city, and shots of the infrared camera on the belly of the helicopter.

The CV504-WP delivers exceptional 10-bit 4:2:2 video performance from a durable aluminum alloy body through weatherproof breakout cable and flexible, interchangeable lenses. The new Sony sensors offer rich color, accurate video with improved low-light sensitivity and refined remote adjust-and-match capability.

This series would not have been possible without Marshall. They were able to have several cameras on board without interfering with the actual mission of the aircraft and real police work being done. We have used Marshall cameras across a number of productions, and we will continue to use them to capture unique perspectives as we push the envelope in documentary filmmaking by combining compelling storytelling with innovative technology to bring audiences closer to the action than ever before. l

W. Hulsey Smith is the founder, president & executive producer, V1 Productions. More information about the company is available at https://v1.live/. He can be reached at Hulsey@v1.live.

More information is available at https://marshall-usa.com.

CHICAGO—Filmscape is an educational, not-for-profit organization focused on helping residents in the Chicago metro and surrounding areas who want to pursue careers in film and television. With such a broad market in the Midwest, our goal is to grow and benefit the film and television community through engaging conferences that provide knowledge for working behind the scenes in the industry. We specialize in educational content covering all things production and film.

To livestream our Filmscape 2024 sessions in June to viewers at home through our YouTube channel, we utilized three JVC PTZ cameras–one KY-PZ510WU and two KY-PZ400NWUs, which were managed by the RM-LP100U camera controller.

Low Profile, High Quality
The three PTZ cameras were spread out on opposite parts of the room. The KY-PZ510 was used as the primary camera to zoom in on the individual speaker, while the two KY-PZ400 cameras were positioned on opposite sides of the stage for panel discussions. The low profile of the JVC PTZ cameras made it ideal for placing them in environments we might not have been able to with a traditional camera setup.

The compact construction of the cameras allowed us to mount one on a wall, put another on a large stand and suspend the third from the ceiling. This enabled us to bring our livestream to remote viewers and provide the necessary impact through a sharp, clean image with the best possible technology—which is what Filmscape is all about.

One thing we were fascinated by was JVC’s auto-tracking feature in the 510 Series cameras, which we utilized throughout our presentations. The speaker was able to walk around the stage and speak to attendees without having to worry about whether or not they were in the shot.

We found that the auto-tracking feature simplified the process for the film crew, as they did not have to manually track an individual speaker on stage—the tracking system on the camera efficiently followed the presenter. This provided a more-intimate connection that gave our livestream viewers a more in-person experience.

More Production Space
Having PTZs placed strategically around the room, out of the way of traffic, gave us a much larger space to work from. We no longer had to lose those seating positions for the cameras; we were actually able to add seats in this environment.

Our staff was also impressed with the fact that JVC cameras made it possible for the operator to connect to a computer and livestream directly to our YouTube channel. The information was also preserved for on demand viewing. The simplicity of the built-in technologies of the JVC cameras, such as the ability to connect over Ethernet and control them in multiple ways, is amazing to me. These features allowed the camera operators to perform at a higher level, and that’s important.

Creating a seamless livestream can become very complicated when you have more than 1,000 people around you while at the same time trying to run simple, efficient camera workflows with non-traditional camera placements. We are proud and honored to have the JVC PTZs to capture this event, and to join us in building our community (not only locally in Chicago, but across the Midwest); bringing film and television education right into homes. l

Gary Adcock is the executive director of Filmscape. His capabilities and knowledge keep him in demand as an industry consultant and reaffirm his passion and dedication to educating a new generation of artists, technicians, and filmmakers for trade associations like NAB and PERG. He has also participated in the semi-annual TV Tech Summit. He can be reached at gary@filmscapechicago.com.

More information is available at www.jvc.com/in/pro/professional-camcorders/ptz-cameras.

BATON ROUGE, La.—As a top public research university, Louisiana State University is also well-known for sports, especially NCAA Division I football. As a member of the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference (SEC), our LSU Tigers consistently rank high among college football teams. We have also won recent national championships in baseball (2023), women’s basketball (2023) and gymnastics (2024).

SEC schools like LSU that want their athletic events carried on ESPN’s digital SEC Network platform must contribute their own live video streams to the network. Since ESPN wants the flexibility to put the games on either their digital or linear platforms, SEC schools must utilize video facilities—such as cameras and video control rooms—that meet ESPN’s strict broadcast quality standards.

The Hitachi Kokusai Legacy
Since the launch of the ESPN SEC Network in August 2014, we’ve continually upgraded our video facilities, centrally located in the campus administration building, to produce broadcast quality live sports. We recently bought two new Hitachi Kokusai Z-HD6500 multiformat HD cameras, each packaged with a CU-HD650 camera control unit (CCU) for shading. We also plan to acquire a few more Z-HD6500 camera systems this summer as our budget allows.

Our confidence in the Hitachi brand is buoyed by our 10 years of experience with their older camera systems, including nine SK-HD1300’s and eight SK-HD1200’s that remain in use. We now have 19 Hitachi Kokusai camera systems equipped with Canon lenses. Our Hitachi cameras have given us tremendous peace of mind because they’ve just been incredibly rock-solid, despite Louisiana’s typical heat, humidity and rain.

We also built four control rooms, which are regularly in use, and often have two or more control rooms running in tandem. One produces the SEC network feed, while the others produce video for the venue’s big screen displays.

The control rooms can share the same camera sources, and they’re directly connected via fiber—using MultiDyne fiber network components—to our sports venues across this expansive campus. These include our 102,000-seat Tiger Stadium for football, Alex Box Stadium for baseball, Maravich Assembly Center for basketball, gymnastics and volleyball events, and Tiger Park for softball.

Easy to Mix
We like that we can easily mix footage shot by our different Hitachi camera models, especially for replays and highlights. Once our shaders set a certain video look, all three camera models can maintain those settings without drift. The cross-compatibility of our Hitachi cameras with CU-HD650 CCUs gives us the operational flexibility we need to rapidly reconfigure our equipment complement according to our production requirements.

All of our Hitachi cameras produce vivid imagery and the Z-HD6500s especially provide excellent light sensitivity, which is beneficial when moving between different indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. Hitachi’s Global Shutter feature, available in our Z-HD6500 and SK-HD1200 cameras, is also something we often leverage to accurately capture fast-paced sports action. Considering the speed of a baseball from the pitcher to the catcher or being hit by the bat, the global shutter produces artifact- and flicker-free imagery that holds up well, especially for slo-mos and replays.

I work with my colleague, John Schiebe, director of television operations for the SEC Network, to coordinate production schedules and juggle resources to effectively produce hundreds of LSU sports broadcasts and events annually. The reliability, flexibility and performance of our Hitachi camera configurations help our pretty lean staff save time, maximize resources and handle a bigger workload.

Lee Scioneaux is director of broadcast operations and live events at LSU Athletics. He can be reached at scioneaux@lsu.edu and John Schiebe at jschieb@lsu.edu.

For more informtion about Hitachi Kokusai products, contact Kenneth Cyr at
kenneth.cyr@hitachikokusai.us or visit www.hitachikokusai.com.

JACKSON, Miss.—With a legacy of excellence and innovation, Jackson Academy’s Raider Network has become one of the largest and most influential high school broadcasting platforms in the nation.

We use a 35-foot production truck for broadcasting sporting events as well as band performances, school plays, choir competitions, and various other on- and off-campus events. Equipped with more than 15 cameras, 12 channels of instant replay, 48 channels of high-quality digital audio, and three channels of professional-level graphics, the truck ensures that every moment, every play, and every cheer is captured with precision, delivering an unforgettable experience for both the live audience and viewers at home.

Simplified Management
The backbone of our workflow includes a host of Blackmagic Design products, which have been instrumental in elevating the quality and capabilities of our broadcasts. The Blackmagic Videohub router—a pivotal component that simplifies our video stream management—is at the heart of our operations. This robust router handles video streams of all frame rates and sizes, seamlessly routing them to nearly every piece of equipment in our state-of-the-art broadcast truck. With 25 outputs connected to our ATEM Constellation 8K live production switcher, we enjoy unparalleled flexibility, enabling us to produce a wide range of content.

The router’s built-in fiber cards are a game-changer, allowing us to transmit video signals over miles via single-mode fiber optic cable. This ensures we can cover events regardless of location on campus. Our custom-made breakout boxes simplify signal flow management, making it incredibly easy to route video signals anywhere we need with just a click.

Integration with third-party software elevates our control over the Videohub, enabling us to manage routing both on site and remotely. This feature is particularly beneficial for offsite productions, ensuring we maintain seamless operations regardless of our physical location. Nearly all video signals pass through the router, which efficiently handles both video and audio, directing them precisely where needed and providing our production team with exceptional flexibility.

The Videohub also connects to three frame syncs, our Blackmagic Mini Converter SDI Distribution, the truck’s exterior patch panel, Blackmagic HyperDeck and HyperDeck Mini broadcast recorders, streaming computers, and more. This extensive connectivity allows us to maintain a versatile and adaptable production environment, ensuring that all our broadcasting needs are met efficiently.

NextGen Diverse Talent
With the Blackmagic Videohub router at the core of our setup, we are equipped to deliver high-quality, professional broadcasts that showcase the diverse talents and events at our school.

Jackson Academy’s Raider Network doesn’t just pursue broadcasting excellence but is also committed to nurturing the talents of the next generation, allowing broadcast students to run cameras, conduct replays, operate the scoreboard, serve as parabolic mic operators, and more.

It’s a journey that extends far beyond the realm of high school, equipping students with essential life skills and giving them a glimpse into the world of high-stress, live broadcasting. The Videohub, and all other Blackmagic Design gear, not only provides us with unparalleled quality and flexibility for our broadcasts but is easy to use and fast to learn, so even our students can use it.

Our awe-inspiring setup wouldn’t be possible without the cutting-edge technology that underpins the Raider Network’s operations. Blackmagic Design’s products ensure that Raider Network offers an immersive experience for its audiences like no other. l

Josh Hinkle is a graduate of the Jackson Academy Class of 2015 and Ole Miss (2019) and served on the Ole Miss production crew in conjunction with the SEC Network. He can be reached at joshhinkle4@gmail.com.

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo.—We’re a medium-sized broadcast group with multiple network affiliates across 10 markets, but we face the same challenges as other industry organizations, large or small.

If we want people to see us, then we need to be on every media platform. We couldn’t provide diverse programming and services on our increasing number of channels and stations without reliable and efficient master control, program automation and distribution.

We found the right platform for our needs with the Crispin Corporation, a Sony Group Company. The Crispin solution provides a browser-based playlist tool, webRPX, allowing for reliable and flexible control. Plus, Crispin’s CORE and its full suite of applications, is built to support a hybrid approach of on-prem, VM, and multisite.

Fractions of Seconds
We pride ourselves on local news coverage and in many of our markets we are the news leader. When viewers tune into live programming, everything must be dialed in perfectly—fractions of seconds can be the difference between ruining or enhancing the viewing experience.

In the fall of 2023, we deployed the Crispin software suite at our broadcast operations center (BOC) in Colorado Springs, Colo., and we are aggressively rolling it out to the remainder of our markets. We quickly began seeing the benefits—dependability and less time spent troubleshooting on-air issues, resulting in a better working environment and improved programming for our viewers.

I can best describe our search for a viable master control and automation platform as preparing for the future by going “back to basics.” Our industry used to be focused almost exclusively on hardware; now that’s become largely a commodity with so many software options on the market.

However there are still legacy workflows that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. SDI is still a part of our plans. The resources simply aren’t there to redo each station and become a full IP house. IP will take the place of baseband, but the on-ramp to get there is still pretty long.

Crispin offered an ideal software-based platform that fits how we work today, allowing us to manage our existing baseband infrastructure and on-premise workflows. It also gives us the flexibility to leverage cloud and IP for future growth. It’s the best of both worlds.

Our BOC and market stations operate on a hub-and-spoke model. A few years ago, we were deciding between centralizing at the hub and transporting programming to the spokes or keeping the heavy lifting on-premise at the spokes with remote control managed from the hub. We chose the latter option.

Granular Control
Also, since we don’t have the resources for dedicated fiber or satellite uplink between all our facilities we rely heavily on public internet. The system we chose had to be resilient and able to run 24/7 without much maintenance required, which was especially important since we have added channels and services but not the staff.

With Crispin, we have granular system-wide control over a reliable remote IP connection and the assurance that all programming and ad content is being delivered and inserted properly with no downtime.

At one of our stations in the Crispin roll-out phase, our legacy automation system failed, and we were facing the prospect of dead air. But the Crispin system was running and even though it wasn’t fully commissioned, we flipped over to it to provide an hour of programming we otherwise wouldn’t have had.

That invaluable peace of mind is worth any time or costs involved with new technology, and we’re confident that as our needs change, the Crispin suite will grow and adapt with us.

James Crawford is director of engineering for St. Joseph, Missouri based News, Press & Gazette Broadcasting. He is based out of Idaho Falls, Idaho. He can be reached at james.crawford@npgco.com.

Additional information is available at www.crispincorp.com.

LOS ANGELES—Block by Block Solutions specializes in audiovisual solutions for unique postproduction environments. We offer turnkey services, from architectural drawings and consultations to installation, programming, and servicing, ensuring that every project meets our high standards. 

Excellence isn’t just a platitude; it’s necessary in the high-stakes world of Hollywood production where millions of dollars are on the line and things move fast. The solutions we spec and install must be of the highest caliber, so we’re constantly on the lookout and evolving to ensure our clients’ systems are outfitted with the very best. In 2019, during an installation project for Blumhouse Productions, we decided to start using IHSE as a product standard for clients of Block by Block Solutions. 

Integrating New Edit Bays
Blumhouse Productions is renowned for its prolific output in the horror and thriller genres and in recent years the company has been expanding its footprint to support that growth. They gutted former office space to add about 20 additional edit bays as well as upgrade their screening room, which serves as a multipurpose space for color correction and audio mixing.

This project presented some unique challenges, particularly the need to integrate new systems with the existing infrastructure. The main requirement was to create a seamless integration where new and old edit bays could be controlled locally and remotely, with full KVM functionality extending to their screening room. 

The studio had an IHSE system that was installed about 10 years ago, running DaVinci Resolve for color correction and Avid Pro Tools for audio mixing. We realized these solutions were a testament of longevity and reliability, and IHSE is a great partner for building out solutions for our client’s unique demands. 

IHSE stood out in two ways: Its support for legacy products and their direct connection with Pro Tools. IHSE enabled us to integrate the new and old systems, providing a seamless user experience. All it took was a firmware update on the old IHSE equipment to ensure compatibility and performance. 

With a direct connection with Pro Tools, we were able to streamline operations significantly. This meant that Blumhouse could maintain their existing workflows without sacrificing any functionality—a crucial aspect for their operations. 

Mission-Critical Reliability
IHSE has a reputation for engineering robust and reliable KVM solutions. In fact, the IHSE name is well-known in mission-critical applications such as air traffic control. While post-production isn’t life-critical, it does demand uninterrupted and flawless operation due to the significant costs and tight schedules.

In practical terms, the IHSE KVM system allowed for instantaneous switching between different edit bays and the screening room. This capability is essential in a fast-paced production environment where every second counts. 

The IHSE system’s ability to handle multiple resolutions was another advantage. We had to accommodate both 1080p video signals and higher resolutions for different tasks within the same environment. Security was also a top priority as film piracy continues to escalate. IHSE KVM switches meet TPN (Trusted Partner Network) requirements, ensuring that all data and operations remain secure, which is vital for a studio handling high-value content.

IHSE’s support team was instrumental in helping us deploy, program, and troubleshoot the systems. The ease of integrating new technologies with a decade-old system was impressive and highlighted IHSE’s commitment to backward compatibility and long-term support. This not only saved Blumhouse money but also ensured continuity and reliability in their operations.

A few years into using the system, Blumhouse continues to benefit from the robust, flexible, and reliable IHSE solutions. They’re an indispensable part of their upgraded facilities and our ongoing service contract with them. The seamless integration and operational efficiency have significantly enhanced their production capabilities, allowing them to focus on what they do best—creating compelling content. What’s more, IHSE’s reliability, flexibility, and outstanding support have set a new standard for us. 

David Dowling is the COO of Block by Block Solutions in Los Angeles. His background includes more than a decade of studio integration expertise. He can be reached at david@blockbyblocksolutions.com.

For more information, visit www.ihse.com.

LINCOLN, Neb.—Starting out with a single over-the-air channel in 1954, Nebraska Public Media has been providing news, education, entertainment and sports programming for the last 70 years.

We now support five live-to-air TV channels, two radio channels and online resources. In addition to producing live community and news programs, we broadcast programming from PBS and NPR on TV, radio, online, social media and mobile apps. We transitioned into streaming when we began broadcasting live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Nebraska Legislature.

The Emergency Alert System is also a huge portion of what we do, and as the State Emergency Communications Committee Chair for Nebraska, I help with a lot of EAS activities. In addition, we serve as the backup for the PBS Diverse Disaster Maintenance System, which means we cover the entire country with PBS signals when serious weather hits the East Coast. 

It’s a lot to manage, and I have spent the last 29 years helping the station connect its local communities to the world and each other. 

Automating Master Control
As network operations manager, it’s my job to keep everything on air, and I’ve been working with Imagine Communications products since 2000 to ensure our master control infrastructure meets our changing needs. 

We use Imagine’s Versio integrated playout engines for channel origination, four Nexio+ AMP servers for record and quality control, Nexio Motion for media asset management, and ADC automation for content control and delivery. The Versio offline Creation Station enables us to quickly create a snipe or a crawl for sports or for EAS alerts. In addition, we use Selenio encoders for transcoding, which enables us to operate 12 live streaming channels and create VOD files for PBS Passport delivery.

Imagine ties everything together, and everything is interoperable. The Nexio Motion software moves files around our facility, including to Avid editing stations and to the web, making our file-based workflow perform efficiently.  In total, we have 91 workflows built in the Motion system to shuffle files around in our facility.

All of our signals go to air through the Versio platform, with each of our five channels split between two ADC Air Clients, which let us monitor and control multiple playout and ingest channels from a single UI. Our operators are very comfortable with this setup, as we have been using ADC for years, and the Versio is mostly hands off. 

Automating our workflow helps simplify all our on-air operations, and the fact that our operators don’t have to touch it illustrates the reliability of the Air Client and how well it works. The playlist is everything, and the Versio platforms just run and run. 

Managing Growth
As time goes on, our services keep developing, and Imagine products enable us to grow alongside them.For example, our tie-in with the Nebraska Legislature requires a big commitment to record facilities, and we recently upgraded our Nexio servers to provide the capacity for 16 HD record channels. Next year we’ll add English and Spanish captioning to the Legislature—for each floor debate as well as all its hearing rooms—which we are obliged to copy for the public archives.

Finally, like most of our broadcast peers, we are starting to plan for the inevitable transition to IP, and we know that Imagine gateway products enable a hybrid environment and gradual migration to ST 2110. 

Al Krause is network operations manager at Nebraska Public Media. He can be reached at akrause@nebraskapublicmedia.org.

More information is available at https://imaginecommunications.com.

DURHAM, N.H.—New Hampshire PBS currently operates three high-power DTV stations plus two LPTV translators across the state to serve Granite state viewers.

During the FCC repack, two of our high-power stations were affected; WEKW-TV in Keene (moved from Channel 52 to 18) and WLED-TV in Littleton (moved from Channel 49 to 23). For these two repack stations, we purchased new main and backup Parallax 5kW liquid-cooled transmitters from Hitachi-Comark. However, our primary station WENH-TV in Durham was not affected by the repack.

WENH signed on Channel 11 on July 6, 1959, making it the first educational television station in New Hampshire and one of the first educational stations in New England outside Boston. Our primary station serves the southeastern area of the state including the state’s largest city of Manchester and Concord, the state capital.

For the analog to digital transition, WENH was assigned Channel 57 during the simulcast period and analog channel 11 was shut off in February 2009. After the transition, we elected to go back to our pre-transition Channel 11; operating two Larcan air-cooled, solid-state DTV transmitters in main-standby mode. Note that these were actually the analog transmitters that we converted for digital operation. These two Larcan systems were originally installed back in 1996 so they were more than past their expected lifetime.

Planning the Upgrade
While looking for a replacement for these old VHF transmitters, we considered the reliability of the Parallax units that we had installed at WEKW and WLED. Both transmitter sites had main and backup DTV transmitters, and since the main transmitters operated so well, we we never had to switch to the backup.

We thought about converting and moving one of the backup units for use at WENH to replace one of the aging Larcans so we contacted Comark who were more than happy to work with us on this unique project. Prior to the conversion, Comark made site visits to WENH and WLED to review the project and develop a cost-effective proposal to complete it.

In late 2022, we signed the contract with Hitachi-Comark. The backup transmitter from our WLED Littleton site was decommissioned; Comark then removed it along with the associated cooling pump system and heat exchanger. It was then returned to their facility in Southwick, Mass. where they converted it from UHF to VHF.

UHF to VHF Conversion
Since the transmitter is modular, the conversion primarily included replacing the internal three-way UHF PA RF combiner system with a new VHF three-way combiner.  The rest of the Parallax transmitter was largely re-used. Hitachi-Comark also provided three new VHF liquid-cooled final amplifiers.

Once we converted to the 5 kW system, Comark delivered the new transmitter to our WENH-TV transmitter site. Before installing the new VHF system, Comark removed the existing Larcan air-cooled system as well as the old, unused Harris UHF IOT DTV transmitter and associated RF mask filter. While this sounds like a simple process, the transmission equipment is located on the second floor of our facility with the only  access via a hatchway in the floor and a chain hoist.

The newly upgraded Parallax VHF system was installed in place of the Larcan system, connected through the existing VHF RF mask filter system to help keep costs down. The cooling system was installed and the system turned on and the FCC proof-of-performance completed by Comark’s field engineer in March 2023. We’ve since noticed improvement in OTA signal quality.

We’re leaving the second Larcan system as a backup but will likely repeat this process with the backup Parallax system from WEKW in Keene and finally retire it altogether. 

Tom Nickodemus is a broadcast transmission engineer at New Hampshire PBS. He can be reached at tnickodemus@nhpbs.org. For more information visit https://comarktv.com.

LONDON—This year is my 20th anniversary working with the most intrepid explorer on modern TV today, Simon Reeve. Over the time we have worked together, we have crossed Arctic tundra, crisscrossed countless mountains, spent time in hostile environments with military and police units, and spent countless hours traveling in all manner of transport. From canoes to cargo ships, light planes to 3km long trains and more 4x4’s than I ever thought conceivable. And filming all the way whilst doing it. 

For as long as I have had an active choice, since the 1990s, I have made Sachtler tripods the only choice for supporting all my cameras. I recently undertook my latest adventure with Simon Reeve for the BBC 2 series “Wilderness,” where we traveled into the dense jungles at the heart of the Congo Basin. 

Tripods for the Wilderness
Previous jungle experience had taught me this was going to be a tough trip so we prepared hard and left nothing to chance. This calculation included the weight of tripods and batteries to be carried. Every piece had to be carried by hand to the forward research base deep in the jungle. From the camp, we set out each day in the search of the elusive Bonobo monkey. We carried our filming equipment through dense undergrowth and I often found myself waist deep in rivers and stuck in muddy peat bogs. 

Not once did my trusty Sachtler aktiv tripod disappoint. Light enough to be carried through the vines and thick foliage, it never got stuck in mud when I had to deploy it quickly when we first heard the sound of the Bonobos. We were using long zooms—well over 200mm—so I had to be sure when I finally did see our “TV treasure,” the shot would be steady. The beautifully compact and lightweight aktiv tripod head and flowtech legs performed as well as many heavier tripods I have owned.

Sachtler’s aktiv is faster, and in documentary television production, seconds matter. In the past, I’ve lost shots because I was still leveling or something moved and I had to rebuild the tripod. aktiv’s setup is seconds faster and sometimes those seconds can make all the difference between getting the shot or not.

The Trust Factor
I’m often asked by colleagues, “why do you use Sachtler tripods? They  cost more.” In today’s cost-conscious production environments, many look towards alternatives. I understand why, but it’s an argument I will counter: It’s very simple, you can’t buy trust. Trust must be earned. Trust takes years to build and seconds to evaporate and disappear.

Having used most manufacturers’ equipment at some point over the years and having pushed that equipment to the edge, I found my camera work journey circling back to the same products, time and time again. It’s no accident that Videndum is the owner of most of the camera kit accessories I use on a daily basis—mainly Sachtler tripods, Anton/Bauer batteries and Small HD monitors. Every time I click an Anton/Bauer on my camera or lock my camera onto my Sachtler tripods, I know that these parts of my kit do the exacting job I require.

The trips in the heart of the Congo Basin are right at the top of my lists of filming experiences. It’s a life-affirming moment to come face to face with some of our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. The results on screen for these chance moments were made more possible by choosing the best tools for the shoot and a good dose of luck from the filming gods. 

More information is available at www.sachtler.com.

WICHITA, Kan.–ABC affiliate KAKE Television, owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group, went on-air in 1954 from a facility here in Wichita, Kan. The station serves as the flagship of KAKEland Television Network (KTN) which comprises eight stations that relay ABC shows and other programming provided by KAKE. Central to our success is our popular locally produced newscasts that reach homes across central and western Kansas and stretch as far as counties in Colorado and Oklahoma.  

This year marks a milestone for KAKE as we celebrate our 70th anniversary by launching a totally redesigned state-of-the-art studio. We wanted only the very latest cutting-edge technology to provide our viewers with a superior visual experience. The project included an updated camera system, new LED lighting and an advanced motion graphics package. We also knew that this major upgrade had to include the very latest and most reliable teleprompter technology available. 

New Studio, New Tech
As corporate chief engineer of the Lockwood Broadcast Television Stations Group, I oversee growth initiatives for the group and am involved in all technical operations.  As such, I was determined that each equipment choice represented the latest technologies, met our requirements, and was interoperable. 

I was introduced to CueScript at several industry events and came to know the company as a forward-thinking organization.  Michael Accardi, CueScript’s founder and president, was a terrific ambassador for the brand, always available and always paying close attention to our requirements and priorities. I knew both support and performance would be top notch.

IP-Based Teleprompters
We installed six IP-based CueScript teleprompters which are a combination of the hardware framework, and the software that run the scripts. We use Juniper switchers in the studio that are connected by fiber to our Juniper core IP infrastructure. Connectivity is only as good as the network and using IP connectivity made setup fast and easy.

The actual installation was also a breeze and very intuitive. KAKE Chief Engineer Mark Jenkins— who was on set daily—said the process was effortless and the smoothest part of the installation. The prompters pointed at our MOS system, connected, and started pulling scripts immediately. We didn’t need any real training either, just a short remote session and we were up and running.

CueScript prompters offer a choice of handheld remotes or very sturdy foot pedals. So far, our talent seems to prefer the remotes, but it’s nice to have the choice. Looking forward, if we have a need to increase our prompter family, I will call CueScript. 

More information is available at www.cuescript.tv/

IPSWICH, U.K.—As a freelance broadcast camera operator, I find myself covering all sorts of events and scenarios across the country, mainly sports. It has been commonly said that the U.K. can experience all four seasons in a day, which means my kit needs to easily withstand all of them. 

Before I made the switch to Anton/Bauer, my least favorite season was winter. This is because batteries—all batteries—hate the cold. However, some deal with this issue better than others. 

One of the mainstays of my work is EFL football, the majority of which is covered by four camera remote broadcasts using owner operators linking to a director and replay op based at IMG in London. The bulk of U.K. football is played in the colder months which can wreak havoc on power solutions.

Powerful Problems
Until I switched to Anton/Bauer Titon batteries, power was always a problem. I used to do FACS checks on one battery, warmups on another, first half on yet another and then a final battery change at halftime because I just could not trust my old batteries. In addition to how rapidly they would decline, the power indicators were completely arbitrary, looking almost full for most of the time, then suddenly dropping. 

Since making the switch, this problem has become a thing of the past. I ended up getting two Titon 150’s and two Titon 240’s and I can do all of the above on one Titon 240 battery with no changes. And if I do start to worry, all I need to do is check the accurate time remaining display on the side of the battery to see exactly how much time I have left. 

Most camera positions in a stadium do not have power unless they are on the main gantry; even then, the power can be unreliable, so a good set of batteries is essential. I used to carry upwards of 10 batteries on some shoots, now I just carry four.

I also do a lot of work using the OB company’s kit, and some of these regular jobs use RF cameras. 

Often the batteries provided are not particularly high quality and I can end up doing a battery change every half hour to an hour, which can frustrate and prevent me from fully focusing on the job. Not only that, but weight becomes a huge issue when shouldering an RF camera, and batteries can be very heavy. 

Less Stress
Therefore, I started bringing my Titons to these jobs just to make my life easier, and it’s been a game changer. The Titon 150 and 240 batteries are both considerably lighter than other batteries I have used and more powerful. I can run an RF link, camera, my Litepanels Brick (powered by the D-tap on the battery) and various other bits for over 2-3 hours on a 150 and almost five hours with a 240, making work far less stressful. 

The Titon batteries have another added benefit for me, a USB A connector that allows me to charge USB devices while simultaneously powering my kit, which is so convenient. This is particularly useful as I use an action camera to record behind-the-scenes content for Instagram and other social media, and my action camera has a tiny battery. This extends to other handy things like being able to charge my phone, which has been especially useful when comms go down and my phone is the only link to the director. 

More information is available at www.antonbauer.com.

CHARLESTON, Ill.–For the last 15 years, I’ve worked as a broadcast engineer for WEIU Television and Radio, the PBS-affiliated broadcasting stations at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). This means I do everything from transmitter maintenance and desktop computer support, to streaming live events (like commencements), to supporting newsroom operations. Additionally, I provide engineering support for the sports television broadcasts produced by the EIU Athletic Department for ESPN+.

When ESPN began working with the athletic department, they wanted EIU to provide live coverage which included the university’s soccer, baseball, and softball teams. Most of these games take place on fields that are on the edge of the main campus, and campus Wi-Fi coverage in that area was spotty at best. 

Cheaper than Fiber 
We initially proposed to run fiber-optic cables across the campus to the playing fields, but after examining the cost of installing fiber, it was clear that this wasn’t within our budget. We then examined wireless IP, but this would require students to aim antennas and still require the addition of long cable runs at the receive site. Finally, we decided that the best option would be using cellular—half of the cell towers in our county are located on EIU’s campus, so we’ve got the benefit of a reliable data network. 

I looked into various wireless IP video platforms, and Comrex’s LiveShot was the clear choice for us. Because we’re eligible for a reduced-cost data package through the state of Illinois, it’s a massive plus to not have to subscribe through an equipment manufacturer. The complete LiveShot system was 20% of the cost of running fiber to the playing fields, and it was a plus that we would own the equipment outright. Additionally, because we have a Comrex ACCESS NX audio codec for our radio station, I knew that Comrex equipment and customer support were reliable.

We use a remote truck for our broadcasts, so I built up a mount for our LiveShot portable unit in our equipment racks, where it’s easy for students to access. Since all of ESPN+ sports programming is student-run, everything we use needs to be intuitive, so that our students can learn the ropes.  

It’s been very easy to teach them how to use it. I pre-configure the equipment so that once the students are in the field, they can just push a button to get connected. I’m able to show them the interface, and they generally don’t struggle to understand it. Plus, LiveShot comes with the “LiveShot Control” smartphone app which allows me to check on the unit configuration from my phone and make adjustments as needed without needing to be in the field with them. If a student calls me in a panic, I’m able to identify the problem and walk them through it immediately. 

Rock Solid
With LiveShot, we’ve also benefited from the reliable quality it provides. We use CrossLock, the network management tool that’s included with LiveShot. We use just two modems, and once they’re connected, it’s rock solid. Per ESPN+ standards, we broadcast in 720p, and we’ve never had an issue with the connection breaking up. Plus, the video quality is excellent.

I’ve used Comrex equipment in one form or another since 1980. Without a doubt, Comrex has met our needs on every occasion, both in radio and in television. LiveShot is an incredibly well thought-out device that comes with a great price, solid reliability, and excellent support. There’s a lot of competition out there, but I’m always eager to choose Comrex when the need arises.

More information is available at www.comrex.com.

LOS ANGELES—At elzo Designs, we bring professional live streaming and production workflows to life with a focus on creating a cinematic experience for emerging digital media, such as podcasts. We often implement Blackmagic Design products in our installations because of the compatibility that the ecosystem provides. 

We have had a lot of conversion needs throughout the various installations
we’ve done and we’ve found a huge advantage to using Blackmagic Design converters, in particular the Teranex Mini IP Video 12G and the Blackmagic Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 12G, both of which have helped us immensely with numerous projects.

Integrated Set of Tools  
On a recent project for a large manufacturer that included building four micro virtual production stages, we deployed the Teranex Mini IP Video 12G, that allows the client to convert video to IP and route it over the existing ethernet network, and then convert IP video back to SDI. 

We created banks of IP addresses, and found any component on the network just by our IP list, including computers, cameras, switchers, and other converters. That was really fascinating and helped us design the studios with a set of tools as opposed to individual pieces, because we understood how it all fit together.  

We also completed a project where we created a remote rig, which again was fascinating because we were accessing the rig by dialing into a computer to which all our components were attached. Everything that had an ethernet cable needed to be plugged into a switcher that then went into the computer, and then we could see everything.

This setup bridged everything from broadcast to production to computer networking and solved an enormous headache we had created for ourselves because we originally saw everything as standalone products; but they’re not. All the components talked to each other and worked seamlessly together, and the Teranex Mini IP Video 12G was a big part of that.

The Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 12G is another headache solver because it can convert SDI to HDMI and HDMI to SDI simultaneously, and since it supports camera control protocol conversion, it’s so easy for us to use with Blackmagic Design cameras and live production switchers. 

We can use the Pocket Cinema Camera with SDI-based ATEM live production switchers, or Blackmagic Design broadcast cameras with the HDMI-based ATEM Mini line, and still get full control of the camera color corrector, tally and even remote recording without having to think about the different connections.

Simplified Connections
We can connect either SDI or HDMI from the converter out to the switcher input, the switcher program out to the converter input, and then the HDMI or SDI converter input connects to the camera. We just have to name the cameras correctly, and the converter finds the cameras (however many we have), and the connection is incredibly stable as well. 

This option blew us away when we first discovered it. We did a bunch of power cycles with it, and it worked perfectly every time. The camera control protocol worked flawlessly and allowed us to really depend on it for remote image control and adjustment.

While bigger and more expensive pieces of gear are usually prioritized in installations, the smaller pieces of gear are just as important and often go overlooked or under considered. Blackmagic Design converters are like the mortar between the bricks. We now design within the Blackmagic ecosystem specifically because of its converters. l

For more information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit
www.blackmagicdesign.com.

LAKE ORION, Mich.—For more than 20 years, Orion Neighborhood Television (ONTV) has been producing three public access channels serving the Lake Orion community, just north of Detroit. These PEG channels include a public access channel, education access channel, and government access channel carried by our local Comcast and AT&T U-verse systems. 

With diverse programming spanning local government meetings, school board meetings, sports, concerts, graduations and our own newscasts and public affairs programs, we produce roughly 800 shows a year. Using Cablecast Community Media software, we make this programming available via broadcast, livestream, and on demand, including our own YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers. Our channels are also accessible using Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV. 

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, we are fortunate to have the generous support of our local government. We have a full HD production facility that we use to produce our shows, and for added revenue, we make it available for commercial use. We also teach production classes, offer internships to college students and co-ops to high school students, and provide grants to our school district’s video program to facilitate technology upgrades. 

 Committed to Captioning
We’re also committed to keeping our media facility up to date. For example, even though ONTV falls below the $3 million annual revenue mark—at which the FCC mandates captioning—we deem it important to make our programming more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. After evaluating our options, we chose the ENCO enCaption automated captioning solution. 

We have jumped years ahead in our captioning roadmap since installing enCaption, which we purchased through a county government grant. enCaption automates both live and non-live program captioning in real time with virtually no delay. It’s readily available whenever captions are needed, including for live coverage of government and school board meetings, among other live events. It is also far more affordable than using human captioners.

As meetings are produced and recorded, our Tricaster Mini at the venue feeds an SDI video signal into the Blackmagic 40x40 SDI router in our facility. That signal is then routed through our Cablecast system into enCaption. That program output then flows to our distribution channels, including Comcast, AT&T U-verse, and all our livestreaming platforms. Since our district doesn’t conduct meetings on Friday, we take that time to download our sidecar video files for the week and attach them to our VOD program files.

On-Site Captioning
For in-person attendees who are deaf or hard of hearing, we can also pump captions of the proceedings onto meeting room screens. This involves routing an NDI video signal from enCaption, with the captions over a black screen, back into the Tricaster on site. The auxiliary NDI output of the Tricaster is fed to a meeting control system, which displays it onto video screens next to and above the dais. If multiple people speak over each other, enCaption will zero in on the loudest and screen out others for clarity.

We also use ENCO’s DAD radio automation system to play out audio podcasts we produce, as well as PSAs, music and weather announcements onto our channels and Cablecast message boards. With up to 16 playback modules, DAD supports numerous workflows that include automated ingest, logging, scheduling, playout, programming control and more. 

Between enCaption and DAD, we’re very pleased with the high-quality results we get from these systems. With these reliable, affordable products, ENCO has become critically important to our overall production infrastructure. l

For more information about enCaption and/or DAD, visit www.enco.com.

LOS ANGELES—Editing a documentary requires editors who are organized and who have iron-clad patience to search through and review hours upon hours of footage.

But for a show like “Deadliest Catch,” on which I’ve been a picture editor for the last 14 seasons, these talents are stretched to the limit. Up to 47,000 hours of footage is captured for each season of the show and all those rushes—which include footage from shoulder-mounted cameras shot by camera operators/producers who are on deck with the crab fishermen, as well as multiple fly-on-the-wall mounted cameras from each boat—need to be condensed down into just over 20 hours of finished programming. 

“Deadliest Catch” is the Discovery Channel’s high-octane series that documents fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing season, which is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The show has been a fan favorite throughout each of its 300+ episodes in 19 seasons, the latest of which I was honored to be nominated for an Emmy Award.

Rushes Come in 'Waves'
In my work on this show, I work exclusively with Avid Media Composer editing software to turn the hours of footage that make “Deadliest Catch” the suspense-filled show that it is. I work with approximately 10 other editors and together we’re responsible for crafting the daring stories of life on the fishing boats. 

For “Deadliest Catch,” footage comes in waves (pun intended) because the boats are on remote parts of the Bering Sea for weeks or months at a time. That means we’ll be editing earlier episodes of a season while the season is still being documented and footage is still being shipped back as we only get the rushes once the camera operator/producers come ashore.

The unpredictable nature of the job and the delay in receiving rushes means changes need to be made to episodes already in the edit­—the death of Captain Phil Harris late in season six for example. An unexpected event that happened in the middle of a stint at sea, we were told that we’d soon be receiving footage of his death. We went back to previous episodes to line up what was coming. It made us look at older rushes, considering using things that before his death seemed unimportant but afterwards felt significant. 

Editing Flexibility
In any season we use a lot of different features that help us turn the huge amounts of footage into the episodes that you see on TV. While I edit, I’ll mark up clips in our edit bins with locators that do a few things; reminding us to request other angles of something that happened on board or flag something as a good shot that I might want to use later. 

As a team of editors, we also narrow down bins to only show unreferenced clips to our advantage. Seeing only clips that haven’t already been used means we don’t accidentally double up on musical cues in any season. 

I’ve had the pleasure of working on “Deadliest Catch” for so long and I love seeing how the stories have continued to engage audiences with each season; not only that but I’ve also been lucky enough to have already received an Emmy for my work on the show. But none of that would be possible without the incredible job that the whole production team does bringing us this mountain of footage from which to craft these stories. 

For more information visit www.avid.com. 

CLEVELAND—As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip hop, there have been a lot of homages done for its musical pioneers. However, some legends were being overlooked. I realized no one was examining the role that Cleveland artists had in the rise of hip hop, and I needed to change that.

With that, “216: Legends of the Land” was born. The four-part docuseries focuses on the people, places and things that helped evolve Cleveland’s hip hop culture from the early ‘80s to the superstardom of Bones Thugs-N-Harmony. It premiered this fall at NerveDJs’ 20th Anniversary & Hip-Hop’s 50th Celebration & Awards Weekend and as a first-time filmmaker, it was a dream to have my project premiere at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Each of the docuseries’ 30-minute episodes focuses on a different part of the culture, and features local legends such as DJ Cochise, DJ Johnny ‘O, M.C. Chill, Cleveland radio station WDMT FM 108, graffiti legends Sano and Mr. Soul, and b-boy Forrest Getemgump. 

Software for Collaboration
For the docuseries, I worked in lockstep with three other editors (as well as serving as the DP, producer and director). Although we originally started editing the project with one software, it quickly became clear that we needed a different setup as we were running into issues with workflow and digital handoffs, stepping on each other’s toes instead of smoothly collaborating. 

We were familiar with Blackmagic Designs’ DaVinci Resolve Studio since we were grading the docuseries with it, as well as shooting select scenes and interviews with a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. I also had used DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight audio post-production tools in the past to score movies and I knew what it was capable of, so we decided to dive in.

Since DaVinci Resolve Studio combines editing, color correction, VFX, motion graphics and audio post-production all in one software tool, we knew that not only could we edit the series, we could also effortlessly transition to the next part of post production with a single click and no downtime in between, saving us precious time and energy.

Streamlined Workflows
After transferring the entire project to DaVinci Resolve Studio, it grew legs and wings—each editor was able to seamlessly work on the project without hampering each other’s work. Our workflow was smoothed out and became extremely efficient and we no longer had any lags or crashes throughout the process. With an editing team of four, the ease of digital handoffs was a big benefit.

In addition to video editing, we also used DaVinci Resolve Studio for its robust color management system and ease of use for sound design with Fairlight. The animation and VFX tools it has for green screen work were also incredibly helpful for the series’ narration scenes. On DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fusion page, the motion graphics tools for keyframing, dynamic zoom tool, cleaning up green spill and more made life so much better and easier. Additionally, the color space transform tools really came in handy since the docuseries was filmed with multiple cameras with different codecs.

Ultimately, the move to DaVinci Resolve Studio smoothed out all the editing issues we were having, and we were able to take advantage of the program’s additional Fusion and Fairlight tools, which was an added bonus. It was very user-friendly and allowed multiple editors to work together seamlessly, so we could deliver the project in time for its premiere at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

More information is available at www.blackmagicdesign.com.

BALTIMORE—Delivering multimedia solutions since 1999, Kolrom Multimedia has created hundreds of films and presentations for a myriad of organizations and businesses. With three green screen studio locations across Maryland and New Jersey, including a full wraparound 24x18-foot deep cyclorama wall, each of our projects receives premium service from experienced designers, filmmakers, editors, illustrators, and animators. 

Providing pre- through post-production services for films, documentaries, educational videos, commercials and more, our green screen studios host multicamera virtual events and live streams, including talk shows, telethons and lectures, as well as for virtual production, music videos and VFX work. 

Seamless Signal Monitoring
With such a diverse portfolio of services, accuracy is key, and we’ve finetuned our workflow, right down to signal management and monitoring, to create a seamless capture to delivery experience for our customers. Signal monitoring is also paramount, even though it may seem like a simple part of the overall workflow.

Our green screen studios are equipped with Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pros and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks, which are fed into Ultimatte 12 HD and Ultimatte 12 HD Mini real-time compositing processors. From there, the feeds are sent into our ATEM Mini and ATEM SDI live production switchers, which include the ATEM Mini, ATEM Mini Pro, ATEM Mini Extreme ISO and ATEM SDI Extreme ISO models, and then into the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G. The final step for the workflow is our HyperDeck Studio HD Mini and HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro recorders, which the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G feeds into.

With presentations, talk shows, and lectures as highly sought-after services from us, the spoken word is vital to those deliverables, and as such, audio, and by extension, audio monitoring, are key. When looking for a simple, clean way to monitor audio without having to rely on our control room’s television’s speakers, we turned to the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G. 

We selected it because we needed an accurate audio and visual representation of the levels, which the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G delivers with its two bright audio level meters on the front panel. We even have the flexibility to select between VU or PPM or Loudness scales with a choice of EBU or BBC meters, from -45 to +3 decibels, -12 to +12, or 0 to 7, depending on the scale. 

Matching Audio to Video
Additionally, on the video side, the built-in LCD lets us monitor the video source, which lets us know that the audio matches our incoming video feed, and includes source information, video format and the audio channels being monitored. If needed, the HDMI 2.0 output also allows us to monitor on UHD displays.

We also appreciate the Blackmagic Audio Monitor 12G’s compact design, which fits perfectly in our rack and our workflow, freeing up precious desktop space while seamlessly monitoring audio. It’s simple with its at-a-glance level monitoring—while still being powerful enough, with its dual subwoofers, extra wide range speakers, and class D amplifier—to impress clients hanging out in the control room. 

Additionally, the majority of our customers are non-profits, so they need to promote their organizations and marketing and fundraising programs as cost effectively as possible. As such, we strive to implement professional, yet affordable gear in order to provide top-notch services but at a cost that’s reasonable for our customers. Blackmagic Design has allowed us to do just that across its product lines, from something as simple as audio monitoring to creating more complex virtual environments. 

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit
www.blackmagicdesign.com.

LOS ANGELES—As a Los Angeles-based post-production rental and support company, Vortechs provides equipment and ADR services, along with access to editing suites, screening rooms and soundstages, among other offerings. 

We manage close to 100 suites between Silverlake and Santa Monica, Calif., and support productions in Atlanta, New York and London. The core of our business is renting editing gear and rooms, but we have also more recently started offering remote production systems for teams working off-site. Another aspect of our business is sourcing other types of production equipment to clients, for which we’ll specify, set up and support the gear.

On the Road 
When required, we also travel on-site to clients’ shoots to help with the productions. This includes several recent major motion pictures, like Chris Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which was filmed in New Mexico; the movie adaptation of “Wicked,” which was shot and edited in London; and “Gladiator II,” filmed in Malta and Morocco. Other recent projects include TV series like FX Networks’ “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” HBO’s “Righteous Gemstones,” Apple TV+’s “Physical” and Amazon Prime’s “Peripheral;” as well as films such as “My Spy 2,” “Strays,” “A Man Called Otto,” “Champions,” “Amsterdam” and Sony Pictures’ “65.” 

To support these high-profile projects, it is imperative that we use equally matched equipment, such as JVC broadcast monitors, which have been our go-to solution from the very beginning. There are many LCD monitor brands to choose from, but JVC is the leader among all editing rental houses throughout Los Angeles. I think this is because JVC hits a lot of marks―not only brand recognition, but also its products’ standout features combined with an unmatched price point. 

Whether it’s the current DT-N24F ProHD Broadcast Studio LCD Monitor or the legacy DT-V24G1Z Verité Series Studio Monitor, JVC can be found in nearly every Vortechs editing bay. We also deploy the brand’s DLA-RS4500K Projector in our screening rooms for VFX-heavy projects. 

The Right Specs
The most important factor in our choice of JVC was the support for SDI, which provides us with the I/O necessary to set up our editing bays. The DT-N24F supports up to 3G-SDI (SMPTE 425M), including Level-A and Level-B, which are capable of transferring 1080p uncompressed digital video data at a max rate of 60fps at 3Gbps. 2K-SDI (2048x1080p) is also supported to downsample to full HD display. 

Additionally, the DT-N24F is compatible with ITU-709 standard color for HDTV, so the contrast and color reproduction is very good right out of the box, and it is always reliable. The JVC monitors also have built-in waveform, vector scope and histogram, along with a 16-channel audio level meter with alerts and output selections, so you can just hit a button and quickly pull up all the necessary information. 

As a rental company, it’s important for us to provide equipment that is straightforward and easy for our customers to use. I would say 95% of our clients expect us to supply gear that they can just simply turn on/off and switch between inputs without having to know the intricacies of the product. The JVC monitors definitely deliver on these needs. When you consider all that you get for the price, the brand has a lot of selling points for us and our clients. 

For more information visit http://pro.jvc.

NEW YORK—Secret Weapon Studios is a new film-tech startup founded by filmmakers for filmmakers to make production more efficient for everyone, while remaining cost-conscious.

The cloud is a central technology for enhancing efficiency in today’s post workflows, which is why our turnkey post platform, PostHero, leverages DaVinci Resolve post-production software, Blackmagic Cloud remote collaboration tools, and Blackmagic Cloud Store and Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini network storage solutions, coupled with certified assistant editors, editors, training, 24/7 support and more.

DaVinci Resolve 18 supports Blackmagic Cloud, so users worldwide can host project libraries on the DaVinci Resolve Project Server in the cloud, effectively sharing projects and working collaboratively with editors, colorists, VFX artists and audio engineers on the same project simultaneously. 

Remote Teams
An unscripted series for a major streaming service recently employed PostHero for its post production workflow, effectively connecting a fully remote post team of nine between Puerto Rico, California, New Jersey and New York. 

Managed by Secret Weapon Studios’ post supervisor, a main Blackmagic Cloud Store in New York hosted the raw media and proxies, while the other eight team members were supported each with a Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini hosting the proxies. The team was linked together by Blackmagic Cloud, with its Blackmagic Proxy Generator App automatically creating and managing proxies from the camera originals, with those proxies synced to the team’s Blackmagic Cloud Store Minis via Dropbox.

With an extremely tight delivery timeframe that left us no wiggle room, the real-time collaboration provided by the workflow was essential. Connected via Blackmagic Cloud, everyone worked off the same media so all edits were seen by the entire post team in real time, and the editors could even set permissions if needed. With a remote team spread all over the place, we had zero issues with someone having the wrong media or project file—rather the result was a seamless, streamlined workflow that saved time and money.

Collaboraton Not Chaos
In general, most editors still work remotely today, and many of our clients keep asking if there is anything we can do to help streamline their post processes; now we have an answer. With Blackmagic Cloud Store, Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini, DaVinci Resolve Studio and the collaborative power of Blackmagic Cloud, an editor, assistant editor, colorist, sound mixer, VFX artist and more can all be collaborating on the same timeline at the same time from anywhere in the world.

If you’ve been in the business long enough, you’ve probably experienced some of the waves of changing editing technology, and here we are in 2023 embracing the new wave with DaVinci Resolve, which takes all the chaos out of the remote work equation. 

As with any change, there is sometimes a bit of pushback from editors who can be set in their ways, which is why we at Secret Weapon Studios supply vetted and certified assistant editors and editors, alongside training with the hardware, software and support, so it’s a no-brainer for everyone. There is a lot of new technology revolutionizing the film and content industry, and we’re excited to be in the middle of it, working alongside companies like Blackmagic Design. 

Greg Olliver is founder and CEO of Secret Weapon Studios. For more information, visit https://secretweapon.studio/posthero/.

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

GLENDORA, Calif.—The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is the sanctioning body for the largest motorsports organization in the world and our goal is to provide a safe environment for drag racing.  On the television production side, where I work, we aim to deliver engaging racing action to our fans and viewers on Fox, in-venue, through our OTT platform and on our multiple content delivery platforms and take this content through post production.

I make sure everyone on our content team has the tools to do their job efficiently and effectively, to get the content out as quickly as possible.  One of the key pieces of our process is Sony’s Ci Media Cloud, a cloud-based solution, which allows for collection, backup, review and streamlining of media workflows.

The NHRA has a vast library of archival content, and each race generates between 4 and 5 terabytes of content that result in upwards of 600 to 800 hours of programming annually.  Because of this, we knew we were going to need a large asset management system to store all of our content and deliver it effectively.  We also sought a system that could be accessed from on-site in our edit workflow and our cloud-based workflow.

A ‘Swiss Army Knife' for the Cloud
We ultimately chose Ci because it allowed all of our assets to be managed in the cloud and we didn’t have to keep on prem storage.  We also quickly found that the cost savings associated with Ci were tremendous. Furthermore, in unison with Amazon Web Services storage, Ci allows us to create storage management policies that push content into the S3 Glacier and then down into Deep Archive at regular intervals.

The NHRA is responsible for producing between 20 and 24 events a year, and we have upwards of 30 cameras on site. Each camera is connected via fiber, wireless or directly to the cloud and we get that data back to our users quickly and efficiently.  The camera-to-cloud workflow in Ci means we can rapidly get assets from our multiple cameras back to Ci and ready to be used by our content team.

We also use Ci to automate ingest and upload. Camera feeds are recorded in EVS and files are exported by the Xfile and then sent to a NAS location that is set up as a watch folder in Ci Relay, which uses transfer acceleration and bandwidth management to automatically upload files to the right locations in Ci, giving us instant access when we need them.  Making our content available to our editors with speed and ease allows us to deliver the experience that our fans expect, whether it’s televised or on our social platform.

Live Streaming With Ci
In addition, we’re live streaming 10–12 hours a day to our fans.  Every bit of that funnels through Ci, making it easily available for our social team, marketing team and sales team to go in and look at anything that’s been on our OTT or on television.  They can grab it for a proof of performance, send it to a marketer to show what we’ve done for them on-air or get it to our cloud-based editing team so they can turn it around and create new assets that are ready for the next show nearly instantaneously.

Ci really is the heartbeat for the backend of our entire production workflow, whether it’s providing the storylines in the television show, an item on social media, a regular post or something that marketing can use to sell tickets.  

More information is available at www.cimediacloud.com.

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL-TV, channel 5, is the NBC affiliate serving the Research Triangle area in North Carolina and is locally owned and operated by Capitol Broadcasting Company. Our station produces about 12.5 hours of live news every day, offering viewers a mix of breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and educational content. 

The volume of content we manage is growing rapidly, driving us to optimize our news archive. We wanted to upgrade our archive to enable faster access to historical content and simplify search, enabling digital news assets to be reused and monetized more effectively. 

The Key Challenge
Our existing archive consisted of a mix of spinning disk and an optical disk archive system. Given the sheer size of our archive, one of the challenges we faced during the upgrade was deciding whether to store the archive in the public cloud or on-site. Ultimately, we chose to host the new archive on-site to speed up access to content and ensure high reliability with no reliance on internet service.

Our key requirement in an archive solution was support for an S3 connector. Supporting S3 would ensure seamless integration with third-party solutions, like artificial intelligence platforms. We also wanted an archive solution with high scalability, flexibility, and a predictable cost model.

We worked with Bridge Digital, a Nashville, Tenn.-based systems integrator, to ensure a seamless implementation. After evaluating the available archive solutions, we chose Perifery’s Swarm S3 cloud-native in-facility archive for its fast access to media content, S3 compatibility, and reliability.

We installed Swarm software on a 500 TB storage platform that will continue to grow as our station’s needs evolve. Deploying Swarm has transformed our archive operations—the S3 cloud-native solution reduces complexity by offloading content from online workspaces. Once content is offloaded, Swarm keeps it online and easily accessible anywhere, anytime, providing us with a powerful web-based search tool and enhanced metadata awareness. 

At WRAL, we need to be ready to cover breaking news 24/7, and Swarm offers instant access to all of the assets in the archive whether we have an internet connection or not. Beyond speeding up the archive workflow, Swarm software provides us with flexibility, scalability, and a predictable cost model. We aren’t locked into a particular cloud vendor or piece of hardware. 

Integrated Access
Swarm software compatibility with the S3 open standard for object storage ensures that we can integrate third-party applications with the archive. Currently, Swarm is integrated with Eon Media’s Eon Archives AI product and BitCentral’s Oasis media asset management software. Integration with Eon Media’s platform to Swarm allows WRAL’s archives to serve as a highly advanced AI-powered media store, supplying hyper-local and media clients, as well as content creators across the globe with stock and archival footage.

In addition, Swarm software is scalable, allowing us to grow in capacity and throughput. We can rapidly scale up to hundreds of nodes, and dozens of clusters as needed—from a few 100 TBs to hundreds of petabytes and beyond. 

Furthermore, Swarm includes multi-layered security, encryption in-flight and at-rest, immutability, WORM, and automated replication capabilities to ensure that internal or external parties never violate the integrity of WRAL’s content. 

Our data storage requirements will continue to grow. With Perifery’s Swarm software, WRAL is ready for the foreseeable future. Swarm provides us with a flexible, scalable, and reliable S3-compatible archive solution that speeds up access to digital assets and improves content discovery. 

More information is available at www.perifery.com.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—At Middle Tennessee State University, our broadcast audio advances and remote production accomplishments have been rapidly evolving.  A prime example of this happened in June during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., where more than 80,000 fans took in 135 scheduled acts on six primary stages over a non-stop four-day weekend. The experience of seeing and hearing multiple overlapping shows, especially amongst the kaleidoscopic lights of “‘Roo” at night, is exhilarating and dizzying. 

However, if the crowds, sound levels and smells of a live music festival aren’t your speed, there was a streaming alternative on Hulu, which broadcast two channels of Bonnaroo programming over the same four days with live and time-shifted coverage of 71 selected performances.  

It takes a national level crew of producers and craft professionals to create 70 consistent hours of great-looking, great sounding, high-definition multicamera concert television. But who would have guessed that 29 of the streamed performances, originating from two separate Bonnaroo stages—sometimes at the same time—were switched and mixed entirely by a crew of university students in a 40-foot expando box truck nearly half a mile from NEP’s mobile units in the master control compound?  

Emerging Artistry
In 2014, when this story begins, the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU hosted a symposium on music festival management that opened the door to an educational partnership with Bonnaroo. I became the coordinator and audio supervisor on a faculty/staff team that taught nearly 100 students over the next five years how to mix, shoot, engineer, and direct live performance coverage of Bonnaroo’s “emerging artist” stage. 

What began next as a limited plan in 2018 to replace the truck console and deploy digitally networked field boxes led to another opportunity thanks to Calrec. We made a transformational investment in not just one but three digital broadcast audio consoles with associated I/O equipment to support broader collaboration and training on premises as well as in the mobile unit.  We certainly didn’t know how relevant distributed production and remote integration would become within the next year.  

Breaking the Mold
During peak-Covid, we used our Calrec Summa-32 and Brio-36 consoles in a variety of linked and independent configurations across the MTSU campus on dark fiber Hydra2 networks and within the College of Media and Entertainment’s studios. The equipment and its unique capabilities also helped us launch a new broadcast audio production course.  

We broke the mold again at Bonnaroo in 2022 when we were asked to go live and produce several mainstage EDM acts for that year’s Hulu broadcast. Not only did we shoot more total performance hours than any previous season, we spanned more than 3,000 feet with a dozen video lines and over 100 audio channels to reach both the EDM stage and our alternate venue, thanks to our Calrec upgrades.    

To achieve simultaneous broadcasts from two stages in 2023, we implemented two fully independent video production switchers, a complex audio traffic scheme with multitrack recording, and independent audio program mixing, monitoring and QC, thanks in huge part to the flexibility of the Brio’s split console layers, dual inputs per channel, multiple main buses and Calrec Fader Assist. 

For more information visit https://calrec.com/

SYCAMORE, Ill.–Nighthawk Video was founded at an interesting time for the live event industry at the end of 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic. Along with others I have worked with for almost 15 years, we had a vision to combine and offer the very best in personalized and customized services with the latest in video technologies and solutions. Global touring acts such as the Eagles, Rolling Stones, KISS, Paul McCartney, and Lady Gaga trusted our team enough to continue working with us at Nighthawk Video.

Throughout the years, we’ve worked with Grass Valley cameras and switchers, but their newest camera, the LDX 150 is a game changer. I don’t write this lightly.

The Perfect Fit
Let me explain why we’re so excited about the LDX 150 for our live event clients: From a technical standpoint, the global shutter and high sensitivity of the LDX 150 4K camera makes it perfect for live events, achieving consistent picture quality in a dynamic lighting environment. When artists use lighting color and brightness to tell a story, we show the picture of that story from low light moments to the sun’s full brightness plus the diverse palate of colors to follow.

The Grass Valley LDX 150’s optimal sensitivity and low noise—with wider dynamic range for HDR—is instrumental in creating pictures in the most challenging environments better than ever before. But for our clients and shaders, the biggest impact has been the LDX 150 combined with Grass Valley’s Creative Grading—something no one has ever seen in a show. Creatively, it’s the biggest thing: A night and day difference between how we used to do a show and how we do it now. 

Lighting, a camera’s best friend, can give the camera shader/colorist a run for their money. In the past, the vision of the video picture or “look” would be managed from a remote video control location or truck without sight of the actual display or proper monitoring of such. This would often create deviations of interpreted looks from out in the venue to the video production camp and lead to many discussions in which precious time is consumed. 

Not anymore. Now we shade “on-the-fly,” grabbing a tablet running Creative Grading, walking out to the front of the house and actually seeing what we need to see. Shaders can quickly get to the adjustments they need to make from anywhere in the venue and they can compare settings between cameras, troubleshoot problems, create profiles and creatively make live adjustments at a rapid pace. 

Live Grading
I can sit with a creative designer and bring up “snapshots”—a whole bunch of quick, different looks and bounce back and forth between them. This allows the designer to rapidly see the changes in desired picture attributes, meeting expectations efficiently and quickly. The way the app is designed, it takes a minute to figure it out and once driving it, you feel like you’re sitting in a Ferrari.

The final thing I want to touch on is the NFC app, which is extremely useful. It makes identifying cameras and installing licenses super simple. Daily Licenses are a big thing for us as we can adapt the cameras to each customer’s requirements when needed, for the time it is needed, at a fraction of the cost. 

More information is available at www.grassvalley.com.

BOISE, Idaho–Before the DSLR revolution, working in news was a rite of passage for many videographers, myself included. While I began my video career at the local news station and spent four years learning the ropes, I eventually transitioned to indie filmmaking and more recently, commercials. 

Given my career trajectory, I didn’t expect to return to news 11 years later, but when I saw a job listing for a freelance videographer with the main requisites including a background in news and ENG style cameras, but specifically “no DSLR style cameras,” I was intrigued. The gig consisted of live shots and field interviews covering a trial, and even though it had been more than a decade since I did a live shot, I had done hundreds in the past and felt comfortable doing them again.

Trial Coverage
I ended up covering a six-week trial with the Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 camera by my side. At a base level, an ENG camera was needed for this workflow as internal audio recording via full-sized XLR inputs was a must for the stick mic, and an SDI output for the LiveU transmitter was also not up for negotiation. 

In addition, I knew the URSA Broadcast G2 would give me easy and affordable media options for recording (SD, CFast, SSD), plenty of external connection ports, and on top of the camera’s color being unbeatable, Blackmagic cameras have the best menu systems of anything I’ve used. Being able to jump through menus is very important when working fast in live news.

My lens was a Fujinon XA16x8A-XB4, and this is where the URSA Broadcast G2 really set things apart. One of the best things about using the camera is that its B4 mount creates an affordable opportunity to use some high-quality glass. The Fujinon is an 8-128mm parfocal servo zoom lens with a T/1.9 fixed aperture. It’s inexpensive (I bought it used), sharp, fast, clean and covers the sensor of the URSA Broadcast G2 in UHD mode.

All-Weather Gear
I was outside the entire six weeks, with the weather ranging from 19 degrees F with snow and wind, up to 85 degrees F with the sun beating down on us. The URSA Broadcast G2 never had a temperature issue, and I never had any problems with viewing the screen and EVF or getting proper exposure.  

In general, news happens fast and is unpredictable. Interviews are long and, on the fly, so you can’t afford to let your arms get tired. People get pushy, so you need to have a presence. A DSLR-style camera, while more than capable from an image/audio capture standpoint, is not advantageous in a news setting. 

Being able to shoulder a camera that has some weight to it, having a sharp viewfinder right at the appropriate eye level, and having all the controls accessible for changing settings without diving into a menu is imperative for a camera in an ENG environment. You only get one take, and I can’t pause the world and waste time diving into menus to change brightness or increase my audio levels. You need those controls accessible on the fly, and that’s right where they are with the URSA Broadcast G2.

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit
www.blackmagicdesign.com.

NEW YORK—Directed by Academy Award Nominee Joe Berlinger, our four-part Netflix series “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” delves into the now infamous crimes of Bernie Madoff, a Wall Street titan whose fraudulent tactics cost investors billions of dollars before his eventual downfall and arrest amid the 2008 financial collapse. Through interviews with victims, whistleblowers, investigators, and Madoff’s former employees, the series examines his psychology and the innumerable systemic failures that created fertile ground for Madoff’s decades-long grift. 

Madoff was a fraud. He created the trappings of a legitimate operation, but when investigators peeled back the curtain, it was all fake. We wanted to play with that concept in our series, so we created a staged replica of Madoff’s downtown Manhattan offices in the iconic Lipstick Building skyscraper. 

Two Cameras, Two Styles
Using in-camera transitions, we seamlessly married present day interviews with recreated sequences, all filmed in exactly the same space with actors and interviewees sharing the same set. We wanted the series to fluidly flow back and forth between the two styles of filming, employing visual slights of hand to echo the way Madoff’s financial stage-craft allowed his long con to flourish and deceive so many.

We filmed the series with two Canon C500 Mark II cameras. The A-camera lived on a Ronin 2 with Cooke 2x Anamorphic prime lenses, most often a 50mm or 75mm, sometimes a 100mm. The B-camera I’d use for graphic plates and lock-offs, as well as the tighter second angle for interviews. 

One surprising trait of the C500 Mark II is that you are able to use Super35 anamorphic lenses with the camera, despite it being a full frame sensor. If we stayed tighter than 40mm we could shoot S35 lenses without vignetting, and with the full frame sensor also pull in a little extra anamorphic texture on the edges of the frame. 

The series required an intense level of planning in pre-production to make our stage build work and sell the illusion. It also required a lot of creative problem solving on our actual shoot days as well to map out those in-camera transitions as we went. Not only was every interview lit and composed to be a standalone interview, every interview was also composed and lit to be the A side of an A to B shot which would transition into an entirely different time/place/scene/frame rate in recreation. Without revealing how we created those transitions, I’ll just say we used a combination of reflections, variable frame rates, real time lighting changes cued off a dimmer board, and camera movement.

IN-CAMERA TRANSITIONS  
VFX assisted us with some of the transitions that were impossible to achieve in-camera. But even with those I was hyper intentional to structure shot sequences so they always had clean ins and outs for easy stitching. 

That meant foreground wipes with extras, pans across office columns, or pulling back from blown-out windows, etc. I’d start and finish all our recreated shots so they could be seamlessly blended in the edit. That kept our VFX additions to a minimum since many of those cuts worked as normal edits without additional assistance.

Keeping the series visually fresh while shooting it all in that relatively confined set space was our biggest challenge. Even though it was a sizable stage build with tremendous attention to detail, we had to max out every square inch of the set given the many recreation scenes and many interviews. 

That was also what made this series such an engaging creative challenge: One of the best parts of production is working within a defined set of limitations—then it’s reliant on your creativity and every other department’s creativity to bring ideas that will elevate the work beyond those limitations.  

For more information visit www.usa.canon.com.

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—The Service Electric Network (SEN) is the television production arm of Service Electric Cable TV and Communications, a third-generation family-owned company. The company was founded in 1948 by John Walson with the goal of bringing TV service to the Lehigh Valley through what was then described as a “community antenna television system”—and today called “cable television.”

The company has since expanded into telephone and broadband internet service and operates a live production arm with three mobile units for regional news, sports and event coverage, including local concerts.

Triple A Production
Situated about one hour north of Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley is home to several minor league sports teams associated with professional Philadelphia teams. Service Electric Network broadcasts all home games for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Triple A baseball affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Philadelphia Flyers’ AHL team. Our three mobile units are deployed to the local venues, where we use Hitachi Kokusai cameras for our live production workflow.

Our friends at Hitachi Kokusai would agree that SEN is an anomaly in today’s media environment because we remain a regional entity that continues to grow and prosper despite not being part of a large media conglomerate. 

And because of that independence, we also have the freedom to consider the best technology for our organization when it comes to price and performance. Eight Hitachi SK-UHD7000 4K/HD cameras were among our more recent purchases, which we have since added to our mobile units to replace long-serving Hitachi Kokusai SK-HD1200 cameras.

The SK-HD1200 is an outstanding camera with excellent HD performance and image quality, and we continue to use three of these cameras for studio productions. As sports production tends to be on the leading edge for broadcast quality and resolution, upgrading to the SK-UHD7000 made perfect sense. 

Hitachi Kokusai has engineered a dual-4K/HD system that somehow provides even greater image quality and lifelike visuals with exceptional color reproduction, thanks in part to its greater atmospheric sensitivity. 

On the technical side, the cameras incorporate three 2/3 CMOS image sensors with global shutter technology, which minimizes unwanted artifacts such as flickering in banding, which occurs from asynchronous lighting sources inside event venues. 

The SK-UHD7000 cameras also improve production quality for our high school sports programming, important to local high school sports fans.

Path to 4K 
The futureproof design of the camera is perhaps of most value. While we achieve outstanding HD quality productions today, the SK-UHD7000 offers a dual 4K/HD workflow, along with separate controls for HDR and SDR, making us well-prepared for a 4K/HDR future as we gradually upgrade our broadcast and production infrastructure and workflow.

I have worked at SEN since 2001 and we have used Hitachi Kokusai cameras throughout my tenure. As general manager since 2019, I stick with the brand not only because of the quality it brings to our productions and viewers, but also because of the very fair price point and exceptional customer service. 

Product reliability is strong, and we rarely require technical support—though they are responsive when needed. The quality of our programming is what keeps people subscribing to SEN, which is of utmost importance as an independent media entity. Hitachi Kokusai cameras help us translate our level of commitment and broadcast quality to our subscribers. l 

To learn more about Hitachi Kokusai, contact Ken Cyr at kenneth.cyr@hitachikokusai.us or visit www.hitachikokusai.com.

BATON ROUGE, La.–As director of operations and chief engineer for two locally-owned ABC affiliate stations in Baton Rouge, La. (WBRZ and KBTR), I maintain the technical side of our on-air structure, which includes master control, transmitters and scheduling. 

When I joined these stations two years ago, WBRZ had no automation in place for our master control and our playout servers were well past their end of life.  Our operators were manually firing all sources and were writing and initialing paper logs.  The whole process was complicated and required manual reconciliation.  My job was to get a new system in place, and I’m proud to say that we’ve now built a new TV station with updated playout servers, routers, encoders and Crispin automation.  

Support & Flexibility
This was my first master control overhaul and as I began doing my research on automation companies, Crispin kept coming up again and again for their reputation, reliability, and solid support.  I spoke with numerous playout manufacturers and toured other stations, many of whom were using Crispin and were very happy with the results—which speaks volumes in this industry.  

Another indicator of Crispin’s dependability was on display during their demos.  I’ve witnessed many demos that don’t run as expected, so seeing Crispin’s expertise during these product overviews gave me the confidence and peace of mind that their solutions were reliable, which is critical in my line of work.

What ultimately made Crispin such an attractive option was its flexibility. In addition the support team is top notch and has exceeded my expectations, helping address our specific needs in a realistic and beneficial way that suits both of our Baton Rouge stations.  With Crispin, we’re not locked into just one box—it can be customized to the different requirements of each station.

For this specific project, I once again turned to Technical Services Group for integration, who I’ve worked closely with for more than 20 years. They’ve continued to be a supportive partner throughout the process, which required many moving parts.

Smoothing the Transition
Now that we’ve deployed Crispin’s platform, we can tangibly experience the numerous benefits.  With every new technology and process comes a learning curve but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how quickly my operators have adapted to Crispin’s automation.  It’s very intuitive, straightforward and simple—all very important features. With Crispin, our shifts not only flow better, our operators are also more informed and empowered.  Overall, the transition has been smooth thanks in large part to Crispin and TSG.

One of the biggest benefits of Crispin’s master control automation is the secondary records. They remove the need for operator intervention, as they can be scheduled automatically.  This has really simplified the workflow for recording our newscast and playing it back on our other channels.  Before Crispin, those records would’ve gone to an external recorder which then would have had to be clipped and ensured that the clip was ready for air and scheduled properly in order to be aired again. With Crispin, this is all done seamlessly and flawlessly.

As we look ahead, KRGV in Weslaco, Texas, another locally owned ABC affiliate, will be updating their automation system in the near future and Crispin is at the top of our list.  

For more information Crispin, a Sony company, visit https://crispincorp.com/.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—I have been a broadcast engineer for Texas A&M Athletics’ 12th Man Productions since July 2017. With a full-time staff of 17 and more than 100 paid student workers, we are responsible for producing the majority of home ESPN broadcasts as well as all in-venue videoboard shows.

We produce approximately 120 events a year from simple three-camera shoots all the way to national-level broadcasts for ESPN. We often will have multiple events a week and sometimes multiple events a day. Because of this workload, we have to have a comprehensive broadcast control system.

2110 Routing
I am constantly seeking ways to enhance operational efficiency and streamline workflows. In my quest for an ST 2110 routing solution, I came across Cerebrum from EVS. I started evaluating the system in December 2021 and was pleasantly surprised by its extensive capabilities and extremely customizable interface. 

One of the standout features of Cerebrum is its ability to provide whole system management from a single client application. This means that I no longer need to rely on multiple control applications for various functions, as nearly everything is conveniently accessible within Cerebrum. It simplifies the management of complex operations, making it easier for me to navigate and control different aspects of the production workflow.

During the evaluation period, I was particularly impressed with the system’s ability to quickly stand up an NMOS router. In just a matter of days, I was able to configure and integrate the router seamlessly into my existing infrastructure. This rapid implementation immediately had me hooked as we were beginning to integrate more and more ST 2110-native components, which was going to be crucial to our upcoming workflows.

Real-Time Monitoring
Another significant advantage of Cerebrum is its comprehensive device monitoring and reporting capabilities. The system enables me to keep a close eye on the health and performance of all connected devices in real time. By providing detailed insights into device statuses, errors, and alarms, Cerebrum allows me to identify and resolve issues promptly, minimizing downtime and maximizing operational efficiency. With the customization capabilities inherent in Cerebrum, I can build complex dashboards and event email alerting for specific thresholds and device metrics.

Cerebrum is highly customizable, allowing me to tailor it to my specific requirements. From the layout of the control interface to the selection and arrangement of controls, I can personalize the system to match my workflow preferences. This level of customization ensures that I have quick and easy access to the functionalities that matter most to me, boosting productivity and ease of use for our engineering staff.

Additionally, Cerebrum offers advanced scheduling capabilities, including the ability to create salvos. In addition to routing, salvos enable me to group and execute multiple device commands simultaneously, saving time and effort. Whether it’s triggering a series of actions for live production or automating routine tasks, the scheduling feature within Cerebrum is incredibly powerful and versatile.

My experience with Cerebrum has been overwhelmingly positive and I have found it to be an invaluable tool for streamlining my broadcasting operations. It is truly a system where your time and imagination are the limits. We were able to include some custom programming time in our initial purchase which allowed us to stand up an extremely functional and powerful foundation. Since then, we have expanded and developed our own interfaces, creating even greater efficiencies and capacity. I am truly excited to continue to grow our use and make our lives easier along the way.  

For more information about EVS’ solutions visit https://evs.com/.

ALLENTOWN, Pa.—WFMZ-TV 69 is an independent VHF station serving the Lehigh Valley and Berks County of eastern Pennsylvania. At 80.6kW ERP, WFMZ’s over-the-air signal penetrates the Philadelphia market to the south, east into New Jersey, and several counties north and west.

After the repack ended in 2020, WFMZ moved from its 800kW UHF Channel 46 to WBPH Bethlehem’s 80 kW Channel 9, also shared by WLVT Bethlehem, which also broadcasts WPPT Philadelphia in SD on its shared space.

Post-Repack Challenge
Post-repack, various technical challenges reduced our signal penetration. The original Channel 9 antenna was a Horizontal polarized six-bay directional antenna with a transmitter TPO of 10kW. The sharing partners agreed to solve the lost signal problem by moving to an omnidirectional, four-bay antenna system with 50% horizontal and 50% vertical polarization and doubling the power of our existing GatesAir 20kW Maxiva VAXTE VHF transmitter to 40kW TPO. 

To my understanding, this is the highest power air-cooled VAXTE transmitter GatesAir has produced, and it has once again powered our signals into the neighborhoods we lost post-repack. 

We had the choice of increasing our transmitter size or starting over with liquid-cooled. We chose the former, and our refurbished Maxiva VAXTE went live in January 2023.  Along with price point and confidence in their longevity and technical support, we stayed with GatesAir because they were a common denominator for all three broadcasters in the channel-sharing agreement.

That importance is amplified by the fact that the transmission systems are on the WFMZ property. WFMZ’s studios and tower are colocated on South Mountain in Allentown, and we have long hosted the other two stations’ transmission systems.

GatesAir and their installation partner managed the original installation and upgrade. We updated the coaxial and electrical infrastructure inside our transmitter building in 2018, and installed a constant impedance filter (CIF) to take the VAXTE signal to the antenna. Rather than replace it in the upgrade, 

GatesAir suggested we add a second CIF to the “new half” of the transmitter and combine the two signals at the output. With 48 power amplifiers in the VAXTE, managing the timing, combining and line lengths for the RF signal, sampling, measuring, and correction is a weighty challenge. Their service team worked through those challenges, and the result has been impressive.

The New Footprint
Our new transmitter footprint spans six cabinets, with eight amplifier modules per cabinet. While that seems big, it is expected for an air-cooled transmitter at this TPO. Full-sized doors on the rear of each cabinet provide access for maintenance. Replacing an amplifier module is simple, with only some quick disconnects required while the transmitter remains on the air.

We use redundant Maxiva XTE exciters in the transmitter. These are ATSC 3.0-upgradeable units that provide stable power and meet all performance specifications for the signal. The VAXTE’s web GUI allows us to monitor exciter performance and drill down to see the voltages, currents and temperatures for each PA module, as well as reflected power and general power output from the transmitter. Connectivity to a remote-control system provides alarming if any power thresholds are crossed.

Viewer response to the increase has been positive. A contributor to an online local broadcasting forum recently commented that WFMZ’s signal once again reaches into his neighborhood on the market’s outer edges, and a family member of our staff reports she can now receive the station at her home northwest of Philadelphia. That tells me that the transmitter and antenna system upgrade have fulfilled the purpose of improving our coverage.  

More information is available at www.gatesair.com.

DALLAS—As a full-service production company, our mission at GlobeStream Media is to deliver innovative and immersive live stream experiences, event AV, and video production services to audiences around the world. Achieving this goal — and meeting the needs of our customers — requires us to leverage the highest-level broadcast technology to ensure we deliver the most valuable and stimulating video content. 

For the past several years, we have worked with USA Softball to livestream their 16u and 18u GOLD National Championships. This is their premiere youth tournament, featuring many players who will go on to play collegiate softball. USA Softball aims to deliver a high-quality broadcast of the games not just for families and friends who can’t be present, but for college recruiters as well. 

REMI Live Streaming
Each year, the tournament takes place at several venues across the host city. With games happening simultaneously, we have expanded our use of remote integrated production (REMI) to enhance our workflows and increase the production value of our live streaming service. Remote integrated production allows us to leverage our control room in Dallas, so we don’t have to roll a production trailer or send fly packs on-site, helping us keep costs down. 

In recent years, as we’ve looked to expand our REMI operations further, we prioritized two vital considerations when looking at equipment. We wanted a solution that offered deep support for IP video technologies and one that featured a robust ecosystem with strong support for integration and automation. 

With only a few on-site operators, we also needed equipment that would easily integrate with our control room and require minimal setup and operation. That’s why we turned to Panasonic’s KAIROS live video production platform, paired with the company’s corresponding camera solutions.

We had two different configurations for our remote production of the GOLD Nationals this past year. For the preliminary games, we used several AW-UE40 4K/30P Ultra Quiet PTZ cameras. Using the SRT Listener functionality of the PTZ cameras and the SRT Caller functionality of our KAIROS system, we leveraged a VPN connection between our control room and the venue to allow the cameras to stream directly to KAIROS as soon as they were turned on. This eliminated the need for on-site configuration. 

Additionally, we were able to control the cameras remotely directly from KAIROS, allowing our technical director to frame up shots directly from the control room. This was a truly plug-and-play solution. 

For the tournament finals, we supported USA Softball with a multicamera production that included three AW-UE40 PTZ cameras and three AG-CX350 4K Handheld Camcorders. Leveraging our VPN connection to the remote cameras, we were able to not only get setup quickly, but also enable remote camera control and tally, both of which are integrated into KAIROS’ IP-based ecosystem. 

Flexible Multiviewer
In the control room, KAIROS’ mutiviewer functionality gave us tremendous flexibility to configure our production environment, much more so than other systems we’ve used. The fully customizable interface allowed us to re-size, reposition, and individually assign each pip, supporting a streamlined environment for our technical director, all without the need for external systems. The on-premise version of KAIROS and the cloud-based version also have the same multiviewers with the same functionality, simplifying the set-up process.

Ultimately, our livestream was a tremendous success. Not only did KAIROS give us the functionality and ease-of-use we needed for this complex broadcast, but the solution also allowed us to create more dynamic content that could make at-home fans feel as if they were present at the games in person. We’re excited to continue to harness the power of KAIROS for future livestreams to come. 

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.–At SociallyU, our slogan is: "We make videos as fast as you can talk." This reflects our commitment to delivering high quality videos in record time. SociallyU specializes in real-time editing and virtual production. With our innovative assembly line workflow and real-time keying, we provide clients with finished 4K content, usually the next business day.

SociallyU is proud to serve a diverse range of clients from all walks of life. Whether they're creating timeless content or going live for events, our clients include professionals from various industries, non-profits, corporate teams, and social media influencers.

Monitoring is Key
Delivering high quality content in record time to a range of clients means our workflow must be robust and flexible. For example, all 40 of our ATEM Constellation 8K switcher’s inputs are filled in addition to our Smart Videohub 12G 40x40 router being completely full. 

When you’re managing a workflow of this magnitude, monitoring is key. It’s why we rely on three Blackmagic MultiView 16s and one Blackmagic MultiView 4, all routed into the Smart Videohub 12G 40x40, which help us keep an eye on everything to make sure it’s running smoothly. 

One Blackmagic MultiView 16 shows our 15 Mac minis that we use for various tasks, including Keynote, Pro Presenter, etc. Additionally, it shows our ZoomISO feeds, so I can see all our remote guests waiting to be brought into our production. 

Another Blackmagic MultiView 16 shows our Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pros along with the composited shot that is being generated by our Ultimatte 12 4K keyers and Unreal Engine. The third Blackmagic MultiView 16 shows our six HyperDeck broadcast decks, including recording status, how much recording time is left on the drive, and timecode for making editing notes. Additionally, two Blackmagic Web Presenter 4Ks run their monitor outs into this multiviewer, showing the status of our live streams.

Blackmagic MultiView 4 is our remote unit with all four inputs connected to our Smart Videohub 12G 40x40, so we can feed any four sources into it. Typically, we use this one for sending back a custom multiview to our audio engineers who join us via Zoom to mix sound remotely. 

Often, they need to see the program view and a side shot of the studio to help us with mic placement. We usually route teleprompter and our status multiview into it as well, so they can follow along and help us with editing notes.

4K Output
This enhanced flexibility in monitoring all remote and in-house video sources is paramount. It’s also a great way to show our clients all the resources we have at our disposal, such as Zoom guests, computers for keynotes, recording capacity, etc.

With the multiviewers’ 4K output, we can clearly tell what each source is and read text within the multiview. Additionally, the built-in SDI pass through eliminates the need for distribution amplifiers. The multiviewers allow us to customize the views, like removing borders, labels, and audio meters, so that we display only what needs to be seen for the client.

From live events and fundraisers to evergreen content, we’re dedicated to helping our clients leverage the power of video and reach their audience effectively, no matter their line of work. Whether you're a CEO, hosting a virtual event, or appearing on live national TV, trust SociallyU to elevate your video content to new heights.

For more information about SociallyU, call 423-375-0183 or visit www.sociallyu.com.

For additional information, contact Blackmagic Design at 408-954-0500 or visit www.blackmagicdesign.com.

ATLANTA—We started Plaid Turtle during the pandemic when organizations were forced to come up with a virtual event model and were unable to meet in person. Having been in the industry for a combined 50+ years and having worked together for more than two decades on various film and live event productions, we pooled our resources, knowledge and relationships to launch our new company, with the goal of producing virtual learning events that feel like a cinematic—rather than a virtual—experience. 

After producing some events and re-engineering some systems within a client’s studio, we were asked to manage the equipment, labor and calendaring for the space—but we quickly realized that lighting needed a major overhaul. The studio had around 70 traditional lighting fixtures ranging from 750-2kW each, and while not all of the fixtures were in service, the age and color temperature shifting made it extremely difficult to produce projects of a consistent quality.

Moving to LED
As the end of the year approached, the client approved funds from a canceled project to replace the traditional fixtures with LED. Having worked with Litepanels and really liking the Gemini 2x1 Soft and Gemini 1x1 Soft lights, we called for some advice on the fixtures and scale for the space. 

We were connected with Litepanels co-founder and Gaffer, Pat Grosswendt, who recommended the Gemini 1x1 Hard. In our initial designs, we anticipated using eight fixtures above each 20x20, but after talking with Pat, he was confident we could accomplish our goals with five. Taking budget into consideration, we knew we could afford 20 of the 1x1 Hard fixtures, so we built designs ranging from 5-8 fixtures per 20x20.

We knew that on paper, the Gemini 1x1 Hard panels produce 3000 lux @10ft/3m of white light, and without diffusion it is 20% more powerful than a 200W HMI. When we got the first five up in the grid without diffusion and turned one on, the result was truly staggering. 

Comfortable for the Talent
With the output of the Gemini 1x1 Hard, the budget for 20 fixtures was enough to light the entire studio. We placed five above each set diffused through a 20x20, two butterflied as key lights with 8x8 diffusion, one for each of the five set windows, and three on rolling stands to use wherever fill is needed.

With the lighting up full, we can open our iris all the way for beautifully shallow depth-of-field, with the lighting level still very comfortable for the talent. And although we are often on-site to manage productions, we also needed to offer a turnkey solution for other occasions. Utilizing the built in DMX capabilities of the Gemini 1x1 Hards, we were able to tie them all together and set up scenes, so at the press of a button, our client can have the studio up and ready for shooting.

Finally, making the change to LEDs from tungsten provided some environmental advantages as well. We were able to reduce heat and noise level output, making the sets even more comfortable for everyone. The Gemini panels also deliver huge savings in energy consumption. 

Despite its impressive light output, the 13.25-pound (6kg) 1x1 panel has a nominal power draw of just 200W. With the traditional fixtures, we were drawing over 70,000W while operating the studio, but now, running 20 Gemini 1x1 Hard lights, we are only drawing 4,000W.

The versatility and power of the Litepanels Gemini 1x1 Hard made it the perfect solution for us and our client.  

More information is available at www.litepanels.com/en

SYDNEY, Australia—Telstra Broadcast Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra Corp., Australia’s largest telecommunications company. We are a global media and managed services business that provides media and broadcasting solutions and assurance with facilities worldwide including APAC, EMEA, and the United States. 

As our customers become increasingly global, they need to distribute content to and from different parts of the world to other broadcasters or intermediaries. To achieve this, TBS relies primarily on our global media networks, our fiber, internet, and our PoPs around the world. We also have access to Telstra’s subsea cable network where we can deliver contribution and distribution services for all of our products, but most recently for our new Media Production Platform (MPP). 

Aligning Our Facilities
MPP is a cloud-based platform from Telstra that allows users to control any broadcast workflow remotely via a web browser and the public internet.

With AMPP from Grass Valley, we are aligning our facilities and our end-to-end media networks to provide infrastructure as a service. By combining on-prem signal conversion such as Alchemist HD and KudosPro with the virtualized software found in AMPP, we can give customers content in different formats from a signal conversion perspective. 

For example, we aggregate numerous sporting events in our U.S. facility, but we need to reformat from 59.94 frames per second down to 50 frames per second to supply it to European networks. We use an on-prem KudosPro with motion compensation. This way, we’re able to convert it at our facility and then push it out over the network for global distribution of that product. 

The most recent use case was the localization of major sporting events using MPP and AMPP—which is incorporated into MPP. Rather than go from the venue back through our facility and then into the cloud, we went directly from the venue into our public cloud instance where we then used GV AMPP to do the time-based conversion, format conversion, or even HDR to SDR. 

On-Prem and in the Cloud
We’ve deliberately moved away from doing things physically on-prem thanks to the maturity of MPP and the ability to orchestrate feeds from different locations using our media networks into the public cloud or into our on-prem facilities. We let the end-to-end workflow decide where the workloads go. 

We’ve always been a Grass Valley house, so carrying on our investment and knowledge is very important. Using Alchemist for frame rate conversion is great, and the fact that it can be on-prem or in the cloud means that we now have the same product, with the same usability in hardware and in software with the surrounding platform. As the orchestration between the two environments improves, the solution becomes more and more powerful. 

What’s Next
As a managed media network provider, our operation is multi-site from a physical on-prem perspective and multi-region from a cloud perspective, so the crucial next step will be to combine them in the orchestration layer so we can send signals back and forth from on-prem into the cloud using a mixture of compressed and uncompressed formats.

What we like about the public cloud environment is that we now have the flexibility to do what we want. We can have what we had on-prem in the cloud, and it’s now an OpEx model rather than a straight CapEx model. This allows us to choose how we distribute the workloads and manage costs. 

We can also have the workload where we need it, which means we can use it on-prem when it makes sense and use it in the cloud when it makes sense. Managing where we can run that workload is significant and helps us manage the cost of producing the event. l 

For more information visit www.grassvalley.com.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Texas A&M University is the home to KAMU-TV and FM, the primary PBS and NPR member stations serving College Station and the Brazos Valley. With reach into the Waco, Temple and Killeen markets, we reach thousands of viewers and listeners over the air, including three digital TV channels (national PBS programming, Create and PBS Kids).

PBS continues to strengthen its streaming presence to reach more viewers through initiatives like PBS Passport, which provides members with extended access to on-demand programming. PBS also provides free live TV streams at PBS.org, embedding the local member station’s feed into a branded web player (as in “KAMU Livestream”). 

Downmixing Problems
A recent change in the national PBS delivery systems caught the attention of KAMU Livestream viewers, which turned into a problem-solving mission to correct a perplexing audio issue. PBS made a change to the technology infrastructure of its centralized encoding system, which feeds live TV streams to member station web players. 

The previous system automatically downmixed 5.1 broadcast program audio to a 2.0 stereo mix for web streams at the handoff point from the encoder. As one of the first stations added to the new encoding infrastructure, we soon began receiving calls from KAMU Livestream viewers that they could only hear odd noises. We quickly confirmed that channels one and two of the 5.1 surround feed were coming through, and realized we had a downmix problem on our hands. 

We knew immediately that we wanted a problem-solving device that we could plug in to fix the problem. With limited budget and engineering resources, we wanted to avoid complex software solutions with downmix appliances that required extensive configuring, testing and finetuning to consistently downmix audio. We soon came across MultiDyne and its NanoBrix Series of distribution and conversion products, which includes a specialized audio product to specifically downmix surround audio to stereo.

Plug & Play
The NanoBrix NBX-5.1-DMX-PCM-3G is a miniature hardware downmixer that accepts embedded discrete multichannel audio and re-embeds a converted stereo downmix into the processed SDI output. The design is simple, with one input to take in the SDI signal, one SDI output with the embedded, processed audio, and a second reclocked output. This made for a quick plug-and-play installation. The downmix problem was solved upon connection.

The beauty of this product is that the problem was permanently solved. As previously mentioned, we wanted to avoid software solutions that required us to monitor and fine-tune settings. The NBX-5.1-DMX-PCM-3G positions two bi-color LEDs on the front of the device that indicate the presence of a valid SDI video signal, and the presence of embedded audio within that signal. 

Same as a traffic light, green illumination confirms that everything is moving forward, while red illuminations indicate that the signal has come to a stop. This provides simple and straightforward signal monitoring in case we need to troubleshoot. To this point, illuminations remain consistently green.  

The NBX-5.1-DMX-PCM-3G downmixer fits seamlessly into our studio infrastructure. The program audio is output from our master control switcher and into our router. The router passes the audio feed to the NBX-5.1-DMX-PCM-3G, which downmixes the audio and sends it back into the router. From there, the stereo feed is sent into our primary and secondary encoders, which feed the PBS infrastructure serving the KAMU Livestream viewers. 

We also like the fact that if we expand our streaming architecture to other encoders, this product will automatically perform the same task since it is already part of our routing system. The NBX-5.1-DMX-PCM-3G is therefore not only a cost-effective and simple way to solve downmix problems today, but a futureproof solution for new downmix requirements added down the road. l 

For more information, visit www.multidyne.com.

MUMBAI, India—As one of the largest players in the global content localization space, with offices worldwide, ZOO Digital is a technology provider for premium content brands. ZOO Digital’s localization services adapt original content for different languages, regions and cultures, and its media services ensure that content is technically compliant for all required streaming service platforms. With our services and global capabilities, content creators can extend the reach and financial opportunities for both new and existing entertainment content.

In 2017, when we were then known as Vista India Digital Media, we explored various automated AV quality checking tools in the market for our automated QC workflows—focusing in particular on their capability, scalability and speed.

Automated QC Support
The deciding factor in choosing Interra Systems’ BATON solution was based on three key aspects: BATON’s fit with our specific QC needs, its speed performance, and Interra Systems’ responsiveness and support. These aspects are paramount, as automated QC is the first in a long line of processes that ensures content qualifies for downstream flow—with QC being repeated once again at the finalizing stage. 

We also liked the responsiveness and support of the Interra Systems team who guided us through the trials we conducted ahead of full deployment, quicking answering all of our questions as well as providing flexible licensing options. This gave us a sense of the level of support we could expect from them, and I’m happy to say that they have been consistent.

We have deployed BATON for the QC of all of our mezzanine files for any video and audio anomalies such as drop frames, tics and pops, black frames, and more. These files are usually delivered to a variety of premium OTT platforms.

Speed & Quality
These partner platforms have highly stringent quality standards coupled with a need for fast turnaround delivery schedules. Any gaps in content files detected downstream will lead to the reacquisition of content and wasted resources and will also impact the delivery timeline. BATON has helped secure our QC workflow manifolds by saving time, effort, and identifying anomalies like frame corruption, digital hits, and more, which can easily be missed during “eyeball only” QC.

The AV material we QC with BATON ranges from HD, to UHD, to HDR10. With the volume of work we handle, we typically perform quality checks 24/7. We put BATON through its paces on a daily basis and I’m happy to say that we haven’t experienced any breakdowns since we started using it. BATON has stayed ahead of the curve with the ever-changing quality requirements of various content platforms with frequent upgrades, and shows Interra Systems’ commitment to deliver best in class solutions. 

Sathya Narayanan is CTO at Zoo India / Vista India Digital Media and has more than 25 years of experience in the media and technology space, covering a range of industries including film, animation, gaming, and media technology solutions. Narayanan’s passion is to architect technology solutions related to the M&E market, leveraging years of domain expertise in the media industry. He can be reached at
sathya.narayanan@vistaindia.com.

For more information, visit www.interrasystems.com.

COLOGNE, Germany—With Sky Sport HQ as the new broadcasting and production center in Munich, Sky Germany rightly adorns itself with one of the most modern sports broadcasting centers in Europe. Sky Sport HQ covers 4,600 square meters, of which 1,700 are used by four high-tech live studios. The broadcasting center has 41 rooms. Sky can produce and broadcast up to 12 programs in parallel on one weekend. Sky Germany operates five sports channels that broadcast around the clock.

However, this tremendous output requires an enormous effort in technology, equipment and, of course, many employees. At first glance, it is hard to imagine the capacities and technical work involved in this project.

Qvest Media, a German-based broadcast systems architect, was responsible for the technological planning and system integration. For their ambitious project, Sky only considered the best technology currently available on the market.

CENTRAL SERVER ROOM

To ensure that the equipment ran smoothly and around the clock, high availability, reliability and redundancy were essential. That’s why we chose G&D KVM products for the broadcasting center’s IT infrastructure, since they serve as the backbone of the entire IT system and make it possible to move computers into a central server room.

In order to meet the demands for security, redundancy, workflow facilitation and give individual production teams the ability to collaborate on live reports, we developed a fully redundant structure of the production and operating computers, which also included removing them from studios, control rooms and post production.

Two completely mirrored, redundant G&D matrix switch clusters, each consisting of a ControlCenter-Digital 288, were installed in the central equipment room to provide redundant access to the various user and computer modules of the individual systems. If—in the event of a fault—switching via one of the two matrices is not possible, the second matrix is used automatically. Thanks to full redundancy, the production teams can continue to work without interruption.

The central equipment room houses approximately 100 high-performance computers, which play their part in ensuring that the Sky program runs around the clock. All systems—such as ingest servers, video servers, studio automation servers, servers and clients for graphics systems, teleprompters, servers for camera robotics, general configuration servers/clients and servers for broadcast automation—we have now been separated from their users, who can access them via KVM.

WORKSTATIONS AND THEIR TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT

In order to promote collaboration and efficiency in the broadcasting and production center, all video and program control rooms, as well as ingest, playout, graphics department and several studios, are now almost computer-free. Access to the remote equipment is via KVM, in which receiver modules (CON units) for DisplayPort and DVI were installed at the workstations.

The KVM matrix ControlCenter-Digital has been integrated into Lawo’s VSM broadcast control and monitoring system to ensure uniform control and to simplify multilevel, complex processes. Thanks to G&D’s IP-Control-API, the VSM controller communicates with the KVM matrix and can execute any switching commands such as simultaneous switching of different program requirements or exchanging setups between several control rooms.

With their own production and broadcasting center, Sky Germany gains maximum flexibility and even more freedom for future in-house productions. Individual workflows have been improved, making everyday production easier. Moving the equipment into a central server room has significantly reduced noise levels in studios and control rooms as well as the maintenance requirements for IT administrators.

Find out more about Qvest Media at www.qvestmedia.com.

For more information, visit www.gd-northamerica.com.

NEW YORK—Today’s live mobile production environments need infrastructures that are agile and scalable in order to meet the ever-increasing consumer appetite for high-quality content. As a full-service broadcast facilities company, our clients look to us to provide innovative solutions, including the newest tools to help them enhance their production capabilities and meet demands. To do this, we knew we needed to transition to IP, so we partnered up with Grass Valley to design a full IP outside broadcast (OB) unit, Eclipse. 

ADDING IP TO OUR PORTFOLIO

We had been planning for years to build an OB unit with IP technology at its core. We wanted to future-proof our offering as IP can handle much higher bandwidth than legacy SDI environments, supporting more live streams from a live event and opening up new, smarter approaches to content creation. Grass Valley is at the forefront of IP technology development, so it was an easy decision for us to choose them as a partner to design a fully end-to-end IP truck.

Our unit comes fully loaded with Grass Valley's new LDX 100 IP camera platform, delivering three-times high-speed UHD capture and full HD and UHD HDR. We also purchased Grass Valley’s Creative Grading solution bringing unparalleled creative control to camera shaders. Simplifying the IP workflow is the GV Orbit dynamic system orchestrator; using the interface, operators can easily configure and change systems on the fly. The IP workflow is supported by an IP fabric built with Nexus 9000 Series Switches from Cisco Systems, which support the latest SMPTE 2110 suite of standards. 

The unit also includes Grass Valley's K-Frame XP video production engine, with Kayenne switcher control panel; Kaleido SD, HD and 4K UHD IP multiviewers; IPVU IP to HDMI monitoring gateways; Densité and IQ Modular signal processing and conversion; and the Audio Live router for live multistream IP audio.

Eclipse gives us the ability to handle everything from HD to 4K UHD and HDR, plus the capability to scale up to 8K when needed. Our clients get much more operator space, more firepower and greater production capability all in one unit. This added free space will allow for greater distancing options for show personnel in a post-COVID production environment. What’s more, IP gives us and our customers the ability to stay ahead of a fast-evolving mediascape and we’re excited to support our clients on that journey to leveraging the full potential of IP.

A TRUE PARTNERSHIP

The biggest challenge with IP is getting control and diagnostics right. We needed a partner with great switching capabilities and tight diagnostics, and Grass Valley delivers the best solutions in those areas. That technology leadership combined with a track record of reliability and true industry expertise made Grass Valley the obvious choice for the job. 

Another key factor in choosing Grass Valley was that we wanted a partner that values a long term, ongoing collaboration. We didn’t want to engage with a vendor who saw this simply as a sales transaction. Our business philosophy is based on partnership, we ensure our customers get the best solutions and support to take their businesses forward, and we expect the same level of commitment from our supplier partners. 

Eclipse will be ready to roll out later this year, and when live events start to return in new and unique ways, it will be used to support a range of mobile productions, including reimagined major award shows, theatrical productions and other creative live entertainment events.

Eric Duke is president of All Mobile Video, and can be contacted through www.allmobilevideo.com/contact. 

For more information, visit www.grassvalley.com or call Grass Valley at 514-333-1722.  

MIAMI—Mediapro is an independent production company in Europe’s audiovisual market. Offering a full slate of technical and creative services, our portfolio includes everything from content production, post production, media and digital asset management, to the acquisition of sports TV rights and the distribution and broadcast of television channels. We currently have 58 offices spread across 36 countries on four continents.

File transfer that is fast, reliable and secure is essential to the success of our operations. Whether we are producing and distributing live coverage of top-tier sporting events, like the Pan American Games, or creating award-winning cinema and television, our geographically-distributed employees and customers overwhelmingly send files digitally. Production and postproduction services regularly send AVC, Apple ProRes and XDCAM files in bundles that exceed 300 GB in size. We also broadcast from 17 television channels that all count on the timely delivery of content via file transfer.

GETTING ON THE SHUTTLE

Signiant’s Media Shuttle provides an ideal SaaS solution for Mediapro’s business needs. Media Shuttle’s Send, Share and Submit portals are accessible on any web browser—providing a simple means for thousands of our professionals and clients to access and deliver content from anywhere in the internet-connected world. Media Shuttle’s accessible and intuitive portals allow us to send files of all kinds to technicians, marketing personnel, production assistants, etc., and there is never a problem in understanding how the system works.

Not only is Media Shuttle simple to learn and use, the application also eases the burden on our IT staff by allowing them to delegate portal administration rights to another user. This designated portal administrator can add and remove users, monitor content flow, enable features, and change the portal design. This ensures that our IT department maintains control of network and storage settings while removing the need for them to spend time managing portals. Using Media Shuttle, it’s easy to manage transfers, configure portals, upload and download material—always independently of the IT guys.

Before moving to Media Shuttle, we distributed content by FTP. That protocol’s limitations made long transfer time lapses and interruptions a constant issue of concern in our day-to-day operations. In comparison, Signiant’s acceleration maintains a consistent level of performance when transferring large files, even over great distances. The software’s high-speed, intelligent transport mechanism and network optimization allows for the use of all available bandwidth, and its checkpoint restart capability ensures that files transmit reliably when connection is restored after a network interruption.

INSTILLING CONFIDENCE

At Mediapro, we also recognize Signiant’s responsiveness to concerns we may have. We particularly appreciate Signiant always working on improving the system and updating us on any new developments. It shows foresight, competitiveness and ambition. They care about us and anticipate our needs.

Media Shuttle and its portal system have helped our clients feel confident about the delivery and arrival of their content. We never have to cancel a show due to a transfer problem. Media Shuttle’s speed and reliability ensure that Mediapro can keep fans cheering.

Marc Andreu Valls is director of Media Services at Mediapro—his department is in charge of the digital ingest and delivery. They provide services to 17 on-air channels, receive the content, files, do the QC, cut and edit the files and send the programs to the Master Control, and different VOD and OTT platforms. He can be reached at info. us@mediapro.tv.

For more information, visitwww.signiant.com.