Food Network spices up production facilities
May 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Michael Grotticelli
The HD upgrade includes new cameras, a production switcher, and surround-sound audio production and post rooms.
The new surround-sound control room features a Solid State Logic digital audio console, extensive patch bays and networked connectivity to two production studios in the facility.
Like any good recipe that needs adjustements over the years to keep it fresh, the production and post facilities at Food Network in New York City have upgraded from standard-definition digital to high definition with a sprinkling of new cameras, a pinch of an HD production switcher, and a heaping of newly fabricated audio production and post rooms that are fully surround-sound capable. The new facility can now accommodate more production, and the staff feels more at home.
Owned and operated by Scripps Networks Interactive and located above New York City's Chelsea Market, the facility now accommodates many more shows and expanded international agreements to carry Food Network programming in other countries. Over the past three years, it has grown to roughly 99 million subscribers across the United States alone. The facility operations now reflect the network's changing lineup and expanded nature of the shows. To support this increased activity, the engineering staff has grown by three people (for a total of five), and the production staff has nearly doubled in size.
The facility continues to evolve under the supervision of Bill Jarett, vice president of engineering for Scripps Productions in New York, who said the network has taken a meticulous approach to implementing new technology when it makes sense while maintaining existing workflows to keep productivity high. The broadcaster has completely rebuilt the audio, flex and production control rooms and has become HD-compliant in its studio operations. System integrator Azzurro helped with the upgrade — working a frenetic schedule to get it done in approximately four weeks, while Jarett's engineering team did most of the design work internally.
The traditional tape-based workflow in New York is different from other Scripps Networks sites located in Knoxville, TN, and Nashville, TN. Great American Country (GAC) in Nashville, for example, is completely file-based (standard definition only). Jarett said that at this juncture it doesn't make sense for Food Network to completely replace its VTRs because the crew iso records all of its camera sources, which can sometimes amount to six or seven angles for one show. But it will happen in the longer term. Currently, HDCAM tapes are sent via overnight delivery to Knoxville — sometimes two weeks ahead of their airdate.
Adding a new ingredient
As if maintaining a heavy workload wasn't enough, the network has added more to Jarett's plate by rebranding the Fine Living Network as the Cooking Channel, which is scheduled to launch on May 31 with instructional and entertainment programming produced in the revamped NYC studios. The network reformatted more than 400 hours of existing Food Network programming for the new channel, and about 75 hours of new material will be shot and posted by the end of the year.
Producers often suggest new ways of producing their shows, which sometimes means new technology being added or taken away as needed. The Internet and social media are now routinely embraced. Food Network started incorporating the Internet into some of its shows in 2002. The building also includes a large workstation area for the company's Internet group.
Building on the foundation
The continuing HD upgrade culminated in 2008. That's when the network completed the future-looking installation of HD-SDI cabling and a flexible signal routing infrastructure that was HD-ready. A Grass Valley Concerto router was swapped out with a Concerto Plus, which can now handle SD and HD signals.
The new sound and music recording room (with adjacent voice-over booth at top center) includes a Digidesign Pro Tools setup, where original music and sound effects are composed and mixed.
All show production is live to tape and then posted for several months before it goes to air from master control facilities at the Scripps Networks Media Logistics Center in Knoxville. Food Network's website is managed from the operations facility in Knoxville, although the NYC facilities house a large team of Internet support.
In Knoxville, the shows are also duplicated and stored in a vast tape library on Digital Betacam and HDCAM cassettes at two separate tape storage facilities in Knoxville and New Jersey, and also on a digital nearline StorageTek system in Knoxville. Uplink transmission and master control facilities for all of the broadcaster's networks are also housed at the Knoxville facility. Master control functions are performed in Knoxville, but are backed up by Crawford Communications in Atlanta, GA, so that the network never goes off the air.
The New York facility currently only utilizes one outbound circuit, tied to HD at Azzurro's video switching center in New York City, which can be connected to the Scripps Networks Media Logistics Center via satellite or used for satellite media tours. DS3 and T1 used for broadcast media files and data also interconnect multiple NYC and Knoxville-based operations.
HD post is the main ingredient
At Food Network, virtually every show is completed in post. Once shows are recorded (live to HDCAM videotape) in one of the two in-house production studios (as well as in a state-of-the-art kitchen wired for cameras and special lighting), they are edited in one of several edit suites with Avid Symphony Nitris and Media Composer DX Nitris workstations in post-production, connected to a 64TB Avid ISIS storage array (soon to be expanded to 128TB to accommodate 12 edit rooms).
The network added an Apple Xsan (64TB) and will be adding a Final Cut Server system for graphic and promo production. In the near future, the ISIS and Xsan will be merged, but today they operate almost completely independently of one another. File sharing between the two is not through a direct connection.
Most of the graphics are inserted into the shows while they are edited, and the audio is mixed afterward in a Digidesign digital audio mixing room. Graphics are created using multiple software packages, including: Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator software, as well as the Cinema 4D and Maya packages. For on-screen bugs and IDs, Avid Deko is used for SD and Miranda Vertigo templates for HD.
New HD production and control
The decision to complete the migration to HD in the production studios came to fruition in 2008. That's when the last of the facility's existing Grass Valley 5000 SD cameras (with Fujinon HD lenses) were upgraded to 6000 Worldcam HD cameras with a simple board swap. In addition to the upgraded cameras, the main production studio “A” also now features four broadcast service panels with new fiber-optics connections. A smaller studio “B” has undergone some refinements as well.
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