Broadcast Pix Granite Anchors New Production Van for Riverside Government Television
Billerica, Massachusetts - Broadcast Pix(TM) today announced that Riverside Government Television (GTV), the public, educational, and government (PEG) channel for the City of Riverside, Calif., has anchored its new production van with a Granite(TM) 500 integrated live video production system. While the van was not ready for the beginning of the 2011 football season, GTV produced coverage of five high school football games during the final three weeks of the season - and has already covered one University of California Riverside basketball game live, with more planned in the near future.
Scott Brosious, senior communications technician, was already familiar with Broadcast Pix, as GTV has a Slate(TM) 1000 in its control room in City Hall for city council meetings. "We've never had a problem with it," he said, "but what really sold me for the van was Rapid CG."
An option for Granite and Slate systems, Fluent(TM) Rapid CG streamlines the creation of data-intensive CG graphics for sports and other fast-moving productions. It automatically integrates databases, RSS feeds, and custom actions like scorekeeping into templates, so specific fields are automatically updated within the templates. The result is customized graphics using Granite's built-in Inscriber GS CG that are produced faster, with significantly less effort and fewer chances of operator error.
"Rapid CG works great. We're using graphics more than we ever have before, because we couldn't change them fast enough manually," Brosious explained. "We drop in logos from the schools, so there's no need to recreate graphics from scratch. And we can change info on the fly."
Based in City Hall, GTV has one full-time and two part-time employees, along with a full-time department manager, to handle the production of local government meetings and a variety of local programs. Contractors are hired to assist in the production of sporting events and other multi-camera productions. Because GTV does not have a studio, all shoots beyond city council meetings are shot in locations across the community.
Multi-camera shoots were very limited before GTV had a production van, because there was no remote production unit in place. Instead, the team would edit footage from all its cameras to create a finished program. Now, if a shoot uses more than one camera, the production van is deployed to produce a compelling live-to-tape production.
According to Brosious, most of the season's football games were over by 10 p.m., and coverage was broadcast by 11:30 p.m. on the city's cable channel and online at www.watchriverside.com. The station has a LiveU video-over-cellular transmitter that allows live coverage of other events, such as last November's UC Riverside basketball game and the Riverside Festival of Lights activities. A MotoSAT satellite transmitter was also installed in December, which can send a signal to a dedicated receive dish at the city's emergency operations center.
Purchased from Frontline Communications, GTV's production van was delivered in September, and systems integrator Rich Rosensweig of Vidiflo in Long Beach, Calif., helped the GTV team install all the equipment. The Granite 500 was purchased through Snader and Associates, a California-based independent reseller and systems integrator. Four JVC ProHD cameras capture the action, and programs are recorded to two AJA Ki Pro recorders (one records Program Out and the other records a clean feed). Back at City Hall, programs are down-converted to SD for broadcast.
With three workstations packed in the production van, Brosious did not have the option of installing a large production switcher. The 1 M/E Granite 500 control panel's compact footprint provides GTV with a tactile control surface to switch up to 11 HD/SD-SDI inputs. It also provides comprehensive monitoring of video and files, as well as complete control over Fluent workflow tools including the built-in clip store, which is used for the intro and closing credits during game coverage. "It's a pretty tight space," Brosious admitted. "There's not much room for a bigger panel. For us, it works well. The quality is outstanding."
About Broadcast Pix Broadcast Pix is the leader in integrated live video production systems. Its systems provide the best control surface for combining cameras, clips and graphics to create compelling live video. These surfaces enable total control of the built-in multi-format switcher, clip store, graphics system with a Harris or Chyron CG, and device controls. Its Fluent(TM) workflow enables files and data to be easily incorporated from other parts of the studio. Broadcast Pix systems are a fraction of the cost of a conventional control room to buy, staff and operate. System range from small systems controlled by a touch-screen to sophisticated 2 M/E control panels. Customers include leading broadcast, corporate, education, religious, government, webcast, entertainment and mobile studios in more than 90 countries. Learn more at www.broadcastpix.com.
Suggested caption information: Riverside GTV's new production van, which features a Granite 500 live video production system, is being used to produce coverage of local high school sports and other events.
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