The Tribune media
center consolidates and
maximizes production
In fall of 2005, Tribune consolidated its
Washington, D.C., publishing and broadcast
bureaus into a single facility on the
seventh fl oor of the historic Woodward
& Lothrop Building. The Tribune media center
houses bureaus for Tribune Broadcasting
and Tribune newspapers such as the Los Angeles
Times, the Chicago Tribune and Newsday.
The Systems Group (TSG) designed and integrated
Tribune Broadcasting’s TV news bureau
into the media center.
TSG was charged with updating the bureau
to a digital infrastructure, integrating key
pieces of legacy analog equipment, providing
extensive satellite downlink and uplink
capabilities and improving workfl ow through
server-based nonlinear editing and playback.
A key consideration in equipment selection
and system design was operational simplicity
for the staff.
The Grass Valley DNP platform was chosen
for its integration of desktop editing, ENPS
interface, and server-based recording and
playout with M-Series servers. An SD-SDI
facility router using embedded audio ties the
new digital systems to islands of analog equipment
converted with Evertz modular cards.
Two operationally identical control rooms
include Sony DFS-700 switchers and Mackie
24-8 bus mixers to allow the bureau to provide
two simultaneous feeds to its more than
two dozen sister stations across the country.
An Evertz MVP system provides control
room operators with fl exible video monitoring
of feeds with 40 video inputs driving
three large DLP screens. A Raritan Paragon
KVM matrix (for 16 users and 64 computers)
connects operators in control rooms, the
news desk, and to resources in the equipment
room.
Vincor installed four steerable satellite
dishes ranging in size from 3.6m to 4.9m on
the rooftop. The 4.9m dish is used daily for
uplinks to Tribune stations, including from
Boston, New Orleans and Sacramento, CA.
CompuSat software by Image Engineering
controls primary and backup devices in the
uplink chain, as well as satellite receivers and
Quintech L-band routing for downlink signals.
Incoming feeds from satellite, microwave,
fi ber and WAN are converted and synchronized
by Leitch DPS-575 and X-75 frame
synchronizers.
To support the bureau’s publishing and
broadcast newsrooms, the local cable television
feed is supplemented with 30 channels
of in-house material, including national satellite
news and feeds from the House and Senate
chambers. This augmented cable channel
line-up is distributed to each desk in the media
center.
Tribune’s new facility makes optimum use
of the updated digital infrastructure and ensures
the smoothest possible workfl ow. | 
