'Worldfocus' Expands HD Operations
WNET Gives International News Show a High-Tech Upgrade
by George Winslow -- Multichannel News, 4/14/2009 3:41:46 PM
WNET.ORG's ambitious international-news program Worldfocus continues to expand its high-definition operations.
The public broadcaster plans to upgrade Worldfocus's current national feed from standard definition to HD sometime this year and to construct a new HD studio in New York's Lincoln Center sometime this summer or early fall.
WNET.ORG -- parent company and operator of public-TV stations WNET in New York and WLIW in Garden City, N.Y., as well as public-media producer Creative News Group -- built a new HD control room and studio for the program's launch last fall. It's already shooting Worldfocus in the 1080i format and broadcasting it in SD and HD in the New York City area.
The program is currently sent to affiliates around the country in standard definition, but sometime this year it should also make the daily international news show available in high-def.
WNET is also in the process of building a new street-level HD studio for Worldfocus and other programs on the campus of Lincoln Center in New York City. Once that studio is completed, sometime in the summer or fall of 2009, the Lincoln Center facility on 66th Street in Manhattan will be linked by fiber to the existing HD-capable control room in the company's midtown headquarters at 33rd Street.
The upgrades are notable because they represent WNET.ORG's first move to produce one of its studio shows in HD, as well as its first foray into robotic cameras and tapeless workflow, noted managing director of engineering Frank Graybill.
WNET began the upgrades last summer, and in a tight two-month schedule built a new HD-capable control room for Worldfocus. For the new control room, the broadcaster installed a FOR-A HVS-1500HS switcher.
The current studio for Worldfocus, built inside one of the existing studios, employs Sony HDCX-300 cameras with Canon lenses and Telemetrics for the camera robotics. For the tapeless workflow, WNET has deployed Omneon and is using Avid Final Cut Pro to edit the stories and packages.
Other vendors include Chyron for graphics, Yamaha for audio and Evertz Microsystems for the video wall, distribution, conversion and terminal gear.
"This was a project that came up very quickly, with a very rapid turnaround of about seven to eight weeks between the first meetings and rehearsals," said Kevin Collins, chief operating officer of Diversified Systems, which is providing integration services for the project.
Besides the short time frame, Collins noted that WNET faced the challenge of creating an HD news operation that would receive feeds from all over the world.
"It was really their first news program and first experience with a tapeless workflow," Collins said.
The use of robotics studio cameras and the tapeless work flow "has been a very big change for us," Graybill said. "But it has really worked out very well," adding that "we've been very happy with the FOR-A switcher and very pleased with the decision to use it."
Looking forward, Graybill said the public content producer has entered into a lease agreement with Lincoln Center for street-level space within one of its facilities. Few details or vendors for the project have been finalized, however.
Diversified is working on the Lincoln Center studio project as an integrator. When completed, the show will be shot in HD from the Lincoln Center street-level studio. Signals will be fed by fiber back to producers and directors the its current HD control room at WNET.ORG's headquarters.
"We are working on developing and designing the fiber link right now," Collins said.
No firm timetable has been made for making the show -- which is presently downconverted for national distribution -- available to affiliates in HDTV. But an HD national feed is expected to become available sometime this year. "It is a distribution issue," Graybill noted.-
... using Avid Final Cut Pro to edit ...
? did they merge or is this a new hybrid package ?
Al Scott - 4/16/2009 11:38:23 PM EDT
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