TV Technology - January 7, 2009 - (Page 44)

BUYERS GUIDE USER REPORT FFV Shines in ‘Knight Rider’ by Robert Chartier Chief Executive Officer 24Frame.com CULVER CITY, CALIF. iew any episode of NBC’s “Knight Rider” and you’ll notice that the series is rich in “hero graphics.” These are the moving images that appear in the background on multiple computer screens, as well as on the 17-foot video screen that the actors interact with from their main control room as a piece of action plays out. 24frame.com makes such video possible by providing the equipment, video playback and editing services for the series. Up to 100 monitors have been deployed on the Knight Rider set for various types of video playback to support the storyline and cue actors. V The Fast Forward Video Elite HD recorder is ready for action. NEW DVR FITS PERFECTLY With the television production’s fast pace and aggressive scheduling of a typical television production, no one can afford even the slightest delay in the capture and presentation of all video components. Therefore, we rely heavily on advanced digital video recording technology for playback and editing of content to be displayed on the “hero screens.” With a recent re-working of the Knight Rider series, the program moved to total HD production, which gave us an opportunity to work with state-of-the-art integrated camera-mounted and studio HD DVR systems. In fact, we were the first to use an entirely new system, the Elite HD from Fast Forward Video (FFV). The Elite HD is the first-ever camera-mounted DVR and player to use JPEG2000 compression for recording HD-SDI video signals. We also use two rack-mounted FFV Omega HD DVRs with dual video outputs, which also use J2K compression for highquality HD-SDI recording. At the shoot, the HD cameras record directly to the Elite units via an HDSI connection. Later, we can remove the Elite’s mini hard drive and plug it directly into an Omega deck— no downloading onto other media or conversions is required. The footage is ready for immediate editing and playback to the set monitors. This setup enables us to shoot and edit video footage in advance, thus streamlining and simplifying live production. On other shows, in situations requiring shooting exterior angles of a moving car, we use a special configuration of six Iconix portable HD cameras equipped with Elite DVR units. A custom software application provided by FFV enables all six cameras to be controlled and monitored by a single engineer, and a simple “start-stop” switch allows us to gang-control all of the Elite decks. Other custom software enables the Omega decks to individually trigger multiple playbacks with multiple actors, in differ- ent parts of the set. With the actors speaking their lines on cue from the playback, the video essentially becomes another cast member, even though it’s being triggered from a trailer 80 feet away. With Knight Rider, we’ve continued our ongoing success with FFV, a partnership that goes back six years. FFV DVR systems have played an integral role in much of our television work, including all five seasons of the NBC program “Las Vegas.” Integrating the Elite and Omega units ensures that there’s not one second of downtime in our ability to instantly work with video footage. Also, FFV’s willingness to provide specialized hardware/software configurations has made the difference in our ability to offer complex camera/DVR configurations at a reasonable price point. Robert Chartier is chief executive officer of 24 Frame.com, a provider of 24 and 30 frame computer/video equipment and custom graphics to the film and TV industries. For additional information, contact Fast Forward Video at 800-755-8463 or visit www.ffv.com. USER REPORT Video Technics Solves Problems by Michael Forys Programming Operations Specialist City of Beverly Hills BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. The city plans to build a new, integrated studio facility, but I feared the old automation system wouldn’t last much longer and decided that we needed to make the jump to digital sooner rather than later. NO TIME FOR NEW FACILITY ward-winning Beverly Hills Television (BHTV) operates two channels, BHTV10 and BHTV35, which feature live city council meeting coverage, programs on a variety of city services, local information pages and educational programming. We currently operate from three different physical locations: City Hall, a production/edit department about a mile away and our master control facility in a third building. We used to record public meetings at City Hall, and then transport the tapes to our master control facility for playout on S-VHS video decks controlled by an aging automation system. PSAs or documentaries created by our editors were recorded on tape and walked over to master control. A We initially looked at a video server for master control only, but after meeting with Video Technics (VT), we realized that their products could provide a complete workflow solution. VT’s robust performance and networking capabilities impressed our IT team, and we were especially excited that their Apella servers could play out mixed video formats with different encodings back-to-back. Previously, we had to dub our different sources to tape, with the attendant generational loss. As we were planning an upgrade to the City Hall facility, it made sense to ingest “live to file” at that venue from our four new Panasonic cameras. This led to the addition of a second Apella for City Hall, with system integrator TV Pro Gear overseeing the installation. City council meetings can run two to five hours. The VT Director and Proxy Editor software lets us ingest the meeting footage via baseband SDI, quickly, non-destructively remove meeting recesses, and then send the file over the City’s existing Ethernet LAN for addition to the playlist. Apella, identify the file we want to use, accept the transitions, and pull the Chyron graphic in for play-out. Our editors now produce PSAs and documentaries shot via DVCAM on Final Cut Pro workstations, then drag and drop the finished package into the VT HotFolder, with the content automatically ingested into the database across the street. No one has to bicycle media around or worry about third-generation videos failing in antiquated decks. Best of all, when we move to our new facility, our investment is not lost—the Video Technics system can add additional servers for news trucks, incorporate centralized storage via NAS or SAN, and support most any type of NLE that we choose to add. So once we do finally shut the doors on our cable TV museum, our VT gear definitely won’t be left behind. Michael Forys is the cable TV program operations specialist for the City of Beverly Hills and has more than 15 years experience in production and operations. He may be contacted at mforys@beverlyhills.org. For additional information, contact Video Technics at 404-327-8300 or visit www.videotechnics.com. The Video Technics Apella server In our master control facility, one Apella server replaced three racks of aging analog gear. The VT Scheduler software lets us script satellite feed ingest during off-hours, and the builtin router control made ties to the old automation system unnecessary. We can browse our Chyron folders on the 44 January 7, 2009 • TV Technology • www.tvtechnology.com http://www.24Frame.com http://www.24frame.com http://www.Frame.com http://www.ffv.com http://www.videotechnics.com http://www.tvtechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TV Technology - January 7, 2009

TV Technology - January 7, 2009 NFL Enters a New Dimension Mobile DTV Looms Large in 2009 Contents A ‘Flexible Framework’ Doing More With Less ‘X’tra-Streamlined Finish Line in Sight for BAS Transition Ahead of the Relocation Curve DTV Transition Survival Guide ENG and the Lines of Communication DTV Transition Survival Guide Who Do We Really Work For? Obama to Expand Internet Access The Wizard Takes a Holiday The Solid-State Disk Revival To Light the Ear... or Not Hulu Gets It Right—the First Time User Reports—Video Servers & Recording/Controllers Reference Guide Product Showcase Classifieds Marketplace TV Tech Business

TV Technology - January 7, 2009

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