Tualatin Valley Community TV Adds Broadcast Pix Mica Video Control Centers to New Control Rooms
Billerica, Massachusetts - Based in Beaverton, Ore., Tualatin Valley Community TV (TVCTV) produces PEG (public, educational, and government) programming for cable subscribers in 14 cities and Washington County. Earlier this year, TVCTV moved from a three-studio setup it shared with a magnet school to its own two-studio facility. Each new studio has its own control room, which is anchored by a Broadcast Pix(TM) Mica(TM) Video Control Center(TM).
A division of the Metropolitan Area Communications Commission, TVCTV produces more than 400 local programs each year for its five cable channels. Its main studio is dedicated to community programming, while a second studio is used for government programs, in-house productions, and contract work.
By design, both control rooms are very similar. "We do a bunch of outreach programs for each community," explained Thaddeus Girard, TVCTV production services manager. "We have 14 freelancers and five in-house producers. Both studios running the same platform is huge. Two Micas in house will help volunteers by easily cross-training and reducing crew costs."
The move to the new facility also included a move to a file-based workflow, which allows TVCTV to take advantage of Mica's built-in Fluent(TM) Clip Store. "One of the most exciting things for us is having so much stuff stored in one unit," Girard said. "What we'd used before was a ton of monitors and decks - and it took a lot of engineering and tweaking. Now we can use internal clip stores instead of three DVCPRO decks. I'm excited to have it so tightly integrated with Fluent-View and get rid of so many crummy black-and-white monitors."
TVCTV is also exploiting the capabilities of its new production switchers to improve its on-air look. "We want to try to spice it up as much as we can. There's so much power, we can do so many things," Girard said. "It's fun to program your own vision and have it show up almost immediately. Mica has just made our workflow much more sensible, creative, and easier."
TVCTV implemented the Mica workflow in March. They were purchased through Professional Video and Tape in Tigard, Ore., and installed by Delta AV in Portland, Ore. One of TVCTV's new studios features robotic HD cameras, but programming is down-converted and broadcast in SD. Mica's multi-definition switcher can mix eight HD/SD-SDI inputs with seven channels of internal clips, animations, and graphics.
Beyond its new studios, TVCTV produces live coverage of city council meetings for seven cities, and Girard plans to begin migrating existing local city council control rooms to Broadcast Pix systems later this year. "Mica fits that perfect niche, allowing us to expand a little bit but keeps us within budget," Girard added. "All around it's been a fantastic piece of equipment for our new facility."
About Broadcast Pix Broadcast Pix is a leader in live video production systems. Its Video Control Centers(TM) empower operators with patented techniques that combine cameras, clips and graphics to create compelling live video. The integration of a multi-format switcher, clip store, graphics system with a Harris or Chyron CG, and device controls provides the lowest cost of ownership at a fraction of the cost of a conventional control room to buy, staff and operate. Systems range from compact systems controlled by a touch-screen or voice-automation to sophisticated 2 M/E control panels. Customers include leading broadcast, corporate, education, religious, government, webcast, entertainment and mobile studios in more than 100 countries. Learn more at www.broadcastpix.com.
Robin Hoffman
Pipeline Communications
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