Deconstructing for HD
Dec 4, 2007 1:00 PM
Keith Stuhlmann: Right. Our cabinet company came in and assembled about two-thirds of the producer’s station between our noon news and our 5 p.m. news. It was a little tight there. We did get on the air, but had to do some last minute scrambling to get monitors.
Then, the next day they finished the producer station. Once that was up, we were able to put the equipment in the proper spots for the producer’s station, getting the power run and it wired up.
Then, we began sawing up a much longer cabinet where the production switcher and all the graphics systems were and where the director, the TD and all of the graphics people sit. That took probably about four days, except for the cabinet that was holding the old switcher. Once we got that switcher sawed away from the cabinetry, we had to slide it down to the far end of the room.
While we were sawing, we were also hanging the plasma screens that would be the new monitor wall behind the racks that held the old monitors. We had pulled those old racks forward. We had six racks with monitors in them. We’re talking about the old black and white small monitor and then some bigger monitors and two big color monitors for program and preview. The racks were pulled up to the cabinet where the switcher was.
HD Technology Update: That sounds like a big job, given how important the monitors were to keeping your SD newscast on the air.
Keith Stuhlmann: The first step was asking the directors to identify the monitors they absolutely needed. They whittled the list down, and we removed three racks of monitors. Then, we consolidated the remaining monitors into three racks and pulled those racks forward against the production switcher. That gave us 3ft to hang the plasmas. This was after the contractor had patched and painted the wall.
We already had the Kaleido in house, so once we had the plasmas up, we fired up the Kaeildo, got that set up with the sources needed and pulled the remaining racks out. That let us operate with the old analog switcher on the brand new monitor wall with a lot of folding tables on the side.
The cabinet company installed all of the other cabinets. At that point, we had two switchers side by side, our graphics back in and after our big HD premiere on Oct. 20, we powered the old switcher off and removed the cabinet it was on. The cabinet company put in the final cabinets so we could layout all of the equipment.
HD Technology Update: This process had to take what seemed like forever.
Keith Stuhlmann: We are talking about several weeks for all of this to play out. Actually sawing the cabinetry out and getting things installed was a six-week project. The ceiling project was done beforehand.
HD Technology Update: How did you maintain your sensitive, existing SD equipment in such a dust-filled environment?
Keith Stuhlmann: You get a lot of drop cloths and vacuums — maybe even three vacuums.
While one guy is doing the sawing, you may have two guys with vacuum cleaner hoses right there to suck it into the vacuum as they are cutting. Vacuum cleaners are your best friend.
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