EDITORIAL CONTACT
Vince Galdi / LRG Marketing
phone:845-358-1801
fax: 845-358-1899
e-mail: vgaldi@lrgon-line.com
News 8 Austin Goes On Air
With Telemetrics Camera Robotics Systems.
By Rodrigo Fernandez
Manager of Newsroom Technology
Time Warner Cable / Local News Group
For almost two years, News 8 Austin has been cablecasting the news, sports, traffic and weather using Telemetrics camera robotics systems. As a Time Warner station, our objective at News 8 Austin was to create a streamlined process by which we could facilitate the production of our studio news content. Telemetrics helped us automate our news production capabilities using camera robotics so that we could cost-effectively offer live programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We have two studios, a control room and a master at News 8 Austin. Robotic controls are located in the control room and master. One of the studios is for our news anchor desk and the other for weather reports. In addition to the Telemetrics camera robotics systems installed in these two studios, we have a third camera robotics system mounted on the ceiling of the facility to provide “aerial” shots of either studio set, or to provide a wide cover shot of both sets.
Three Hitachi cameras are used in the news studio with two additional Hitachi cameras in the weather studio. Each of the cameras and a teleprompter are mounted on a Telemetrics PT-LP pan/tilt mechanism. For the studio ceiling camera, we have a Panasonic AW-E600 camera mounted on a Telemetrics
PT-HP-S pan/tilt mechanism.
All six cameras can be easily controlled and positioned by two different operators from either the control room or master. To avoid control conflicts between the two, the system has lock-outs that require the second operator to secure “permission” to access a camera being used by the master control operator. This is a fail-safe measure we implemented to avoid any chance of confusion during a live broadcast. In addition to their production utility, the Telemetrics robotics systems allow us to power and control the cameras and lenses. This proved to be very economical since we did not have to purchase or install separate camera control units.
Most of our programming is based in most part on pre-recorded segments. However, we have the capability to go live whenever we want to. As a matter of fact, weather and traffic reports are live in critical time periods during the day. The robotics allow us to work fast and with accuracy avoiding “wasting time” on operational redundancy – the system allows us to recall frequently used series of shots.
Pan/tilt performance was a significant criterion when we were reviewing products. We do not have the luxury to edit out rough camera movements and noise. Telemetrics PT-CP pan tilt mechanisms delivered the smoothest and quietest operation of all the units we evaluated. This is important since it allows us to provide comprehensive coverage and without distractions at the camera site.
To control the pan/tilts, we installed a Telemetrics CP-RMQ-S rack mounted control panel with dual joysticks and preset memory in the master control room as our primary controller. The unit is interfaced with a Telemetrics desktop controller in the secondary control room. We are also in the process of installing Telemetrics TM-CPS control panel software, which is a Windows based program that will allow us to view live cameras and preview images with still video presets on a PC screen.
The performance and programmable capabilities of the Telemetrics camera robotic system provide News 8 Austin with comprehensive control capabilities. The equipment also accommodates any future migration to digital production. And although we purchased our camera robotics system through an integrator, Telemetrics engineering staff provided a great deal of support from the design stage through installation and implementation. Telemetrics has been very responsive to our needs. Beyond any technical problems, they have been coming up with ideas on how to improve the systems performance in a very cost-effective manner. The system has performed well and we expect that Telemetrics’ developments continue in the progreesive path they have shown us so far.
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