New control room, studio take ‘NewsHour’ into HDTV
Dec 28, 2007 8:09 AM
Everybody, including the window manufacturer, eventually came in ahead of what they projected. It worked out OK. Physically there are certain building elements that you would like to have in place before you begin integrating sensitive electronic equipment. So the windows had a timeliness that we were all keenly aware of.
This was a compressed timeline project, and any task that extended beyond its due date raised our attention and caused us to play close attention to it and what it might affect. Once elements were authorized by WETA, things moved extremely fast. As we all know, the optimistic scheduling in the beginning of a project is never what we realize at the end. But it’s funny, the air date never changed. That just meant that we had to be creative and work a little harder than scheduled near the end.
HD Technology Update: Is “NewsHour” using 5.1 surround?
Joe Strobel: The room is built for 5.1 using an SSL C132 mixer and is equipped with 5.1 monitoring. There are Dolby DP570, 571 and 572 units to handle the 5.1. However, I believe right now the audio output is a stereo mix.
HD Technology Update: Will the new HD facilities play into coverage of next year’s conventions, and if so how did that affect the design?
Joe Strobel: That’s absolutely yes, and that’s primarily seen in the control room layout. I mentioned the different segment producers associated with the day-to-day “NewsHour” production. It’s quite an impressive thing to watch the change of personnel in that room throughout the show. At WETA there tend to be a lot of people that come in to watch the production of the show, whether they are donors, supporters, or distinguished guests.
So there was a request from every department including the “NewsHour” for additional space in the control room. The control room has three rows. The first row accommodates the TD, director, assistant director and graphics. The second row handles the producers and the EIC. The back row or third row is really a viewing area for people to sit and observe. There is not a primary function occurring in that row. Once we created that space in the third row we had the ability to truly address historic needs for election coverage.
All of the positions in the second and third row are configured to allow them to drop in additional equipment and gear specific for the election. And that’s the next thing they are going to start doing literally before the dust even settles in this room. They are going to start enabling some of those positions. The infrastructure is there, and the physical support of it is there so we shouldn’t have too many intercoms or control panels gaffer taped to the consoles for this election.
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