In Broadcast - December 2014 - 46

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 38 - DECEMBER 2014

N E W S

InSTUDIO
HD Production Causes Studio Rethink Cont.

46

The broadcaster owns and
operates, programmes or provides
sales services to 58 television
stations in 35 markets. Sinclair's
television group is afﬁliated with all
major networks and reaches about
22% of all US television households.
There are approximately 220 Ross
Video OverDrive installations in the
US, according to Scott Bowditch,
Marketing Product Manager for the
OverDrive product line.
"Automated Production Control
(APC) allows the production facility
to create more complex and more
consistent newscasts while reducing
the frequency and severity of on-air
errors," Bowditch said.
"The bulk of the tasks of creating
a newscast are undertaken in preproduction rather than execution,
meaning that the user and the
system are given the luxury of
verifying that things are done
correctly prior to going on-air."
The OverDrive system takes
the rundown from the Newsroom
Computer System (NRCS) using
MOS protocol and creates its own
production rundown. The OverDrive
system then takes control of various
production devices - Production
Switcher, Video Servers, Graphics,
Robotic Cameras, Audio Mixing, etc.
- and puts them into a single GUI.
OverDrive has the ability to control
over 200 devices made by countless
manufacturers using numerous
different control protocols. This
means that coordination of these
devices is managed by the system

rather than needing to manage
the execution with numerous
sets of hands.
He added that OverDrive also
allows for "partial" or "semi"
automation. Individual devices can
be run manually - audio mixing in
the case of live music for instance
- while the rest of the production
remains automated. There are
two new features of OverDrive:
There's a new HTML5 NRCS plugin
(moving away from the traditional
ActiveX workﬂow). This is important,
Bowditch said, because ActiveX
is no longer supported. The new
plugin makes coding a newscast
much faster and simpler than ever
before. Another new feature is
called Caprica, which, for the ﬁrst
time, allows OverDrive to control
production switchers made by
companies other than Ross.

Remote Production

And these days the control room
does not necessarily have to be in
the same building as the studio. A
control room located two blocks
away is driving robotic camera
systems at WABC-TV in New York,
over a ﬁbre connection.
This includes three box-style
HD cameras mounted on three
unmanned robotic pedestals.
Various types of camera control
automation software, from
companies like Telemetrics,
allows operators to work with a
touchscreen or a mouse and a
virtual joystick to have full control

Overhead camera tracks provide a unique POV in the studio

of up to eight cameras including
storing up to 16 presets. Additional
features include the ability to adjust
CCU settings with automatic GUI
indicators, direct serial control that
complements the existing Device
Server-Ethernet control system
conﬁguration and the availability of
XY axis control slider bars.
"These types of solutions bring
more creativity in camera movement
and overall improved production
capabilities to any newscast, no
matter how small in size or the
market they are broadcasting in,"
said Anthony E Cuomo, President
of Telemetrics, adding that his
company has installed systems for
NBC's "Tonight Show with Jimmy
Fallon" and ABC's "The View",
both originating from studios in
New York City.
"We believe all the new studios are
going automation worldwide. What

we are seeing is more of them going
with camera track systems and for
the ﬁrst time overhead mounted
track systems with elevation
(a combination of Telemetrics'
TeleGlide and Televator systems)
which we pioneered in developing."
At the end of the day, the trend in
TV news studio technology is ﬁnding
that right mix of providing the most
ﬂexibility at a cost-effective price.
In today's current tough economy,
broadcasters are being asked to
create more programmes with the
same resources and studio space.
They also have to keep viewers'
interest in a multichannel world
filled with an increasing variety
of on-air looks and capabilities.
That's why embracing new robotic
or automated technology and
refreshing a station's on-air look
with creative studio space design
is critical to staying competitive.

Atomos Ships 4K Shogun Monitor/Recorder
A

"The wait is over for thousands of
video professionals." said Jeromy
Young CEO and Co-Founder of
Atomos. "Having been at the factory
personally to oversee the production
and testing of our ﬁrst Shogun units,
I can assure the world that the ﬁnal
product will exceed already high
expectations."
The Atomos Shogun claims a
number of world ﬁrsts in the 4K/HD
monitor/recorder space including:
First 4K/HD monitor/recorder
with 12G SDI & 4K
HDMI connections;
First 4K/HD monitor/
recorder with SDI to
HDMI & HDMI to
SDI conversion;
First 4K/HD monitor/
recorder with a
truly pro monitor
pixel density in
excess of 300ppi;
First 4K/HD monitor/
recorder with balanced
XLR audio in/out.
The Atomos Shogun 4K/HD monitor/recorder
Outside of the

t CCW in New York, Atomos
announced that its new Shogun
is shipping and unveiled a bundle
offer on the purchase of a Ninja Star.
Atomos demonstrated the
powerful feature set of the award
winning 4K Shogun and conﬁrmed
it has completed its ﬁrst production
run. Atomos also announced that up
to December 31, 2014 customers
will receive 50% off the usual price
of the Atomos 64GB CFast card
when purchased with a Ninja Star.

feature list however, the user
interface powered by AtomOS6
is the jewel in the crown. With
every feature one touch away, new
monitoring features like 2:1 zoom
and a host of layout improvements
designed to make camera setup,
shot setup and work in postproduction easier, Atomos reckon
that the Shogun will be the "go-to"
product for modern day filmmakers.
Announced earlier this year
the Atomos Shogun implements
ProRes standards. Recording all
content to 4:2:2 10-bit, gives the
user the choice of HQ/422/LT bit
rates, the ability to create Favourite/
Reject XML ﬁle markers and is not
restricted by ﬁle size limits in the
recording (e.g. 4GB or 2.5min).
Shogun features a stunning
1920×1200 SuperAtom IPS 7"
touchscreen at 325 PPI and 178
degree viewing. 400nit brightness
and multi-frequency (48/50/60Hz)
operation, depending on video input,
gives super-smooth monitoring and
playback. The Shogun also has

"The wait is over," says Atomos
CEO Jeromy Young

genlock-in for synced recording
and playout. The included Lemo
breakout cable for XLR Audio gives
balanced audio, mic and Phantom
power, taking the Shogun to the
highest level of audio capability.
Also Atomos has announced a
seasonal offer for the Ninja Star,
the world's smallest Apple ProRes
recorder. Up to December 31st 2014
customers will receive 50% off the
usual price of the Atomos 64GB
CFast card when purchased with a
Ninja Star. Now even better value the
Atomos CFast 1.0 cards are perfect
for HD recording or applications
where the faster speeds of CFast
2.0 are not required.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://www.telemetricsinc.com/products/camera-robotics/cts-camera-track-system/cts-camera-track-system/camera-track-system http://vimeo.com/105958711
In Broadcast - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - December 2014
