Bozeman Montana: City Hall to Courthouse on a single strand

Folks,

Just got a call form Westlake saying that a new system in Montana was up and running and the customer is happy. It is a cross-town link on a single strand between the Bozeman City Hall and the County Courthouse. Paths were:

<- 5 NTSC Videos, 20 Audios, 5 GPIs

-> 2 NTSC Videos, 8 Audios, 2 GPIs
<-> 4 RS422, 2 RS232

I did it all with two 5242 and three 5142 pairs on CWDM in Viper2 frame. Drawing attached.

jim

WHYY builds two new HD studios using CopperHead G2

Blogheads,

WHYY in Philly is currently installing six new CopperHead G2 2400 systems for two three-camera studios; one in Philly, and one in Wilmington DE.

They are implementing them on Sony's new PDW700 XDCamHD camcorder. They were spec'ed in and purchased thru Sony in Park Ridge New Jersey.

The folks at WHYY say they are willing to participate in a press release once they get the systems up and running. Right now, there are some bugs in their design and a learning curve that they are experiencing. It'll be a coupla weeks till it shakes out.

Sony will be interested to be included in any PR that is generated.

Jim

Newseum Press release

For Immediate Release

Telecast Fiber Systems’ Vipers Transport High-Quality HD Signals for Newseum

Advanced Fiber Optic Production Systems Enable Remote Broadcasts and Power Large-Format A/V Equipment Throughout New ‘Museum of News Media’

WORCESTER, Mass. — June 17, 2008 — Advanced fiber optic systems from Telecast Fiber Systems are enabling live remote HD television broadcasts throughout the Newseum, a museum of the news media in Washington, D.C. The Newseum, which opened the doors to a vast new 250,000-square-foot facility in April, is using Telecast Viper portable fiber optic production systems to transmit high-quality signals for remote broadcasts from any one of 50 drop points located throughout the building, as well as to high-visibility A/V equipment.

Newington, VA-based Communications Engineering, Inc. provided systems integration services for the Newseum’s fiber optic network and equipment, including sourcing of the Telecast Viper systems. The Newseum’s five portable Viper “mussel shell” units can be quickly deployed to any of the 50 broadcasting support panels (BSPs) located throughout the facility, each of which has a minimum of 12 single-mode fiber connections in addition to copper connections. The BSPs have been strategically located to take advantage of the many compelling visual settings the Newseum has to offer. For instance, ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos often broadcasts a portion of his Sunday morning “This Week” program from the Newseum’s sixth-floor terrace, which has a sweeping view of Washington D.C.

Once connected to a BSP, the Viper unit carries all camera, audio, and miscellaneous signals such as intercom and teleprompter to the Newseum’s master control center over its fiber backbone. In addition to live remote camera shots, the Viper units transmit HD broadcast signals to A/V equipment like the “Electronic Window on the World,” a 40-foot by 22-foot-high LED screen. A focal point of the Newseum’s Great Hall of News, the giant screen features continuous, breaking news from around the world.

“The Viper units are a key component in our strategy to leverage the most advanced fiber optic technology throughout the Newseum. With the Vipers, we’re able to plug in and connect virtually anywhere in the building with any type of camera, monitor, or signal — and we’re able to project to high-resolution equipment such as large-format LED screens without losing any signal quality,” said Bud O’Connor, engineering director for the Newseum. “With five Viper mussel shell units, we have the option of transmitting five separate remote shots simultaneously, and we can use them for our own broadcasts or pass them along to other broadcasters.”

In addition to the Vipers, Telecast’s SHED (SMTPE Hybrid Elimination Device) and HDX units provide local power to the Newseum’s HD cameras via single-mode optical fiber. “The SHED technology is very important to our operation because it gives us full studio-level control of our cameras in the field with very little gear and effort. The result is a very sophisticated, gorgeous shot that looks as if it were created in the studio,” said O’Connor.

“The Newseum is a showcase of all of the most powerful benefits of fiber technology in a widely distributed broadcast setting, including the ability to route signals throughout such a large building and have them arrive, in perfect shape, anywhere in the venue,” said Richard Cerny, president, Telecast Fiber Systems. “We’re excited that Telecast technology is playing such an important role in the Newseum’s ability to employ fiber optics not only for HD broadcasts, but to drive such dazzling features as the ‘Electronic Window on the World.’”

More information about fiber optic solutions from Telecast Fiber Systems is available online at www.telecast-fiber.com.

# # #

About the Newseum
The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America's Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The exterior's unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfill its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other. The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces, and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museumgoers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made. More information is available at www.newseum.org.

About Communications Engineering, Inc.
Communications Engineering, Inc. (CEI), located in Newington, VA, is a leading, award-winning broadcast and multi-media systems integrator. The company also offers complete equipment service, support and training. Its subsidiary, CEI Sales, supplies products and services for a wide range of clients, and for federal agencies and organizations through GSA. CEI has helped to define the leading edge of systems engineering and implementation for the communications industry since the mid 1980’s. For more information, visit www.commeng.com.

About Telecast Fiber Systems, Inc.
Telecast Fiber Systems, Inc. is a leader in portable and fixed fiber optic systems for television broadcast production. The company’s video, audio, and communications systems are used worldwide by TV networks, teleproduction companies, sports venues, and various private, educational, and government and military organizations to extend range, simplify cabling, and reduce labor costs and set-up time. Telecast systems accommodate all television production signals, including NTSC/PAL video, SDI and HD/SDI video, analog and AES/EBU audio, HD and triax camera interfaces, and intercom and data signals. More information can be found at www.telecast-fiber.com.

All trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective owners.

Media mayhem at San Francisco City Hall

Team,

I thought you might like to see pictures of Monday & Tuesday at SF City Hall when the media turned out to cover the first Same-Sex marriage licenses and ceremonies. Of course, we lag years behind you forward thinkers in Massachusetts…

SF City Hall is fibered throughout, and multiple strands from every room (“inside access points” photo) go down to the basement, where they can be patched outside to the “Fiber Hydrant,” a weather-proof monument on the corner of the block where the Live Trucks park.

KPIX has their own CopperHead, and KGO uses two pairs of 5122s (Notice their kludged-together 5122 device with the V-Mount battery plate). KGO will be getting 3100 CopperHeads on all of their new ENG Trucks when they are available.

We loaned two G1 systems to KUTV (Fox) and KNTV (NBC O&O). They will be buying systems for their trucks, too. They also want 3100s.

This was a temporary solution. Soon, no hardware should be in the Fiber Hydrant, just MX connectors to connect to CopperHead Base Stations in the truck.

Thanks to Eric Olsson, who honchoed the demo gear in and out and provided training and support to the fiber-illiterati. Also thanks to Bryan who got KGO a loaner RX5122 when their failed last week during testing (you’ll get it back when Worcester fixes KGO’s).

Jim

GopherCam uses HD-POVs for NASCAR

http://www.sportsvideo.org/portal/artman/publish/article_9791.shtml


Fox Sports Gophercam brings roadkill view to Daytona 500, 2008 NASCAR coverage
Feb 13, 2008 - 10:22:20 PM
By Ken Kerschbaumer

Fox Sports is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500 with a new HD camera angle that sounds like something out of Caddyshack but would make NASCAR founder Bill France proud: Gophercam. The specialty camera, based around Sony one-third-inch CMOS chip imaging technology, a DPA microphone and built by Inertia Unlimited, will be placed within the pavement of the track on the apex of each turn and give viewers a gopher’s view of oncoming NASCAR race cars zipping overhead at upwards of 200 mph. “No gophers were harmed,” jokes David Hill, Fox Sports CEO, “and this is the most compelling shot I have ever seen in the history of sports. It reinforces the speed and precision at which the sport is raced.”

Michael Davies, Fox Sports director of engineering, says the idea for Gophercam was born last season by NASCAR on Fox Director Artie Kempner. Fox trialed an SD version of the camera in Texas, Charlotte and Delaware and showed video of the coverage to Hill. “He decided almost immediately that he wanted to have four of them at every track,” says Davies.

The cameras, designed closely with NASCAR Media Group, are nearly flush with the track and less obtrusive than a lane reflector on a highway. The discrete footprint ensures the camera does not endanger drivers while also minimizing potential damage to the camera that results from being run over thousands of times by more than 40 cars traveling great speeds.

Jeff Silverman, owner of Inertia Unlimited who designed the camera, knew the system would need to be HD to meet Fox broadcast criteria. The problem last year was that there was not an HD solution as HD POV cameras had camera control units. In addition, they were all multicore, making it impossible to get signals off the track due to distance constraints. But in the NASCAR off-season he found an imager by Sony that would do the trick. With some heavy modifications that included building a circuit board to output component HD he was able to build a small 1080i/720p switchable camera that could fit into a cylinder that is four inches in diameter and about four inches tall. Given the go-ahead by NASCAR to proceed with the project he turned around fully operational units in about a month.

The cameras have already been installed in tracks in California, Las Vegas and Daytona. Each camera requires a four-inch core to be drilled into the track and a cylinder to be placed within the core. The camera is then dropped into the cylinder and connected via a 15-pin connector by seven wires that are stacked on top of each other in a one-eighth inch channel that runs to an AJA box that converts the component signal to HD SDI. A Telecast Fiber HD POV link then muxes audio, data, and video into two strands of fiber that run back to the compound to another Telecast box.

One innovation in the camera system is the use of a prism to minimize the camera’s above-surface footprint. With the prism only the custom-designed lens is above the surface (and within a metal plate). Images are then passed through the prism and to the camera but, because of the prism, images are reversed. An Ensemble Designs frame synchronizer flips images back to normal. A Bradley Engineering-designed remote control panel controls gain and color.

“The challenge for us in the TV industry is to capture the sights and sounds of NASCAR,” says Michael Waltrip, NASCAR on Fox analyst. “This isn’t a gimmick or a gadget but a way for the guy at home to say ‘I get it, NASCAR is exciting.’”

Gophercam is the big new feature for viewers but for Fox Sports the big accomplishment was using the same production trucks back to back on arguably the two biggest televised sporting events: the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500.

“What we accomplished last year in two weeks we had to do in two-and-a-half days,” says Davies. Before the ice in champagne buckets used by the New York Giants could even melt, Game Creek’s Fox units, used in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, April 4, began the cross-country journey to Daytona so they could arrive by April 7.

While the Game Creek trucks traveled day and night across the country Nascar Media Group was completing all long-haul fiber runs and interconnects at the track. Once the trucks were onsite in Daytona they had to transition from NFL mode to NASCAR mode: loading in new elements, rebuilding the tape room, redoing audio. “Software files are used for some things but it did require some hardpatching and reconfiguring the layout of the video panels,” explains Davies.

Silverman also made the trip from the Super Bowl and quickly through himself into the down-and-dirty task of using a concrete saw and drill to install the cameras. The next steps will involve constant evaluation of where best to place the cameras on the track to satisfy viewer’s need for speed.

“We’re being conservative in the placement of the cameras on super speedways,” he adds. “This is a multi-year project and we’re proceeding with an abundance of caution. But on slower tracks we should be able to get more aggressive with the camera placement. At a track like Bristol these cameras will be outstanding.”

“This gives viewers a better sense of the banking and we’ll be taking it through the full tour,” adds Ed Goren, Fox Sports president.


© Copyright 2006-2007 sportsvideogroup

U2 in 3D

CopperHead JTs, POVs, and Various Viper2 stuff was used for this. Gene Baker and Mark Burnett were on site for some of the production in South America.

http://digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/depth/u2_3d_0122/

Jim