CV-HD

Meeting McCreery

2011-07-27T23:14:00.000-04:00

Today some of us in CanesVision had the pleasure to meet Scotty McCreery, winner of American Idol 2011. Our hometown hero, hailing from Garner, NC, was in town today for the American Idol Live tour. Scotty is a great guy and was great to work with today. Special thanks to the show producers and to Scotty for giving us a few minutes of the day!

Carter Finley Videoboard Update

2011-06-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

Solid.

Carter Finley Videoboard Update

2011-06-24T16:18:00.000-04:00

The actual videoboard puzzle pieces started going up today! I was able to get over and get some good photo and video if you're interested!

Workers get the pieces in place and begin to bolt/weld each piece. It is like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece is about the same size, shape and weight. Good thing they've got blueprints for this thing!

Panels are being un-crated and lined up for install

Here is a time-lapsed video (sorry so shaky... it was made with my iPod!) of one of the panels going up. Didn't figure you would want to sit through all 10 minutes it took to get the thing from the ground to it's final home!

Finally, I'll leave you with a few Instagram photos I took, just because I was there.

Carter Finley Videoboard Update

2011-06-22T09:58:00.006-04:00

It's been nearly two months since the last update here... Time flies when you're having fun ;)

Here are some shots and descriptions of the progress on the CF north-end videoboard.

While it may not look like much has changed (other than the zoom of the camera...), there is actually a whole new catwalk structure that has been mounted on the front of the existing steel. It will provide for easier access to the panels should they need servicing, etc.

Here's a closer look at the catwalk system from the top of the north-end bleachers.

Looking up to the top of the existing structure, it looks like a bunch of fire escapes.

A view from the ground, behind the bleachers.

Straight up!

A panoramic that I took with my iPod. Not perfect, but pretty cool.

I call it "Goliath".

The video panels are arriving! All these and it's not even all of them ;)

The install should begin tomorrow for the video panels.

Hope you've enjoyed this pictorial update of the progress.

Carter Finley Scoreboard Update

2011-04-27T10:45:00.005-04:00

Something seems to be missing....

WWE

2011-04-25T13:18:00.005-04:00

A few pictures of my brief walk around the arena today with WWE in the house.

View from "The Office"

From the floor.

TV Truck

In loading dock, looking toward the arena bowl.

Carter Finley Stadium

2011-04-25T10:40:00.005-04:00

For the Wolfpack Nation (and geek nation), there's a nifty new item to follow.

After much speculation, Carter-Finley Stadium is getting a new videoboard.

By the time I got around to getting a shot of it, the entire old videoboard was deconstructed. I will do my best to keep things updated on here as to the progress. For now, here's a picture of what it looks like as of this morning.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-22T14:26:00.004-05:00

Streaming

2010-09-24T20:13:00.001-04:00

CanesVision is streaming pre-season games for 2010!

In need of a geek break?

2010-03-12T16:04:00.002-05:00

A contemporary of mine with the Pittsburgh Penguins has started a sports/media/technology blog over at http://www.backteching.com/. Bookmark it and follow along as he shares some about the Penguins' transition into their new building and control room, as well as other technology updates from around professional sports.

Take a look around, and tell him CVHD sent you!

It's been a while

2009-12-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone.

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Things have just been a little crazy. Two times in the past month, we've had 5-day marathons of events, one of which just ended last night.

Since last I wrote, we have gotten full-swing into hockey season, concluded our football season with the Wolfpack (though we're not completely done with football yet....), and have begun our basketball season with NC State.

For those looking for equipment perspectives, I hope to continue on the series I started about the equipment reviews soon, as well.

Quick issues we're having:

Cam Mate iris control for the robotic camera is very touchy, and the gear has a tendency to "slip off" the iris ring of the lens if it is tweaked too quickly. Gentle adjustments keep it happy, so we deal with it as best we can. The overall camera is working out quite nicely, with the broadcast trucks loving the angle, as well.
We had a Gefen DVI/Fiber extender go out to one of our multiviewer monitors. It's under warranty and was sent out for replace/repair. We had a spare or two, but at $1000/pair, we want to be sure it's replaced!
One of the Centrio cards has lost it's mind, as far as the monitors it's displaying to. One of the monitors is showing a crazy resolution and I'm working on getting tech support to call me back. We just noticed this one last night, so this is an ongoing issue that I hope to resolve before Saturday's hockey game.
The other night, our primary Daktronics scoreboard control computer went screwy in-game and left us with a mostly-black board during game play. There were a few issues in the 30-seconds leading up to this, including data freezing up, sequences "pausing" and then finally the computer locking up. We've since streamlined the way we switch to the backup system so that we aren't left with empty boards for too long. Of course, I'll be fine if we never have to use that protocol, but... you never know with live production!

As for game-night operations, things are going much more smoothly. We're getting into a pretty good rythm and our game-night staff is getting used to the new setup fairly well.

December holds twelve events for us (compared to a modest fourteen events in November), including our final football event of the year on Dec. 12th (NCHSAA Championships.... 3 football games, one day) and NC State's first Commencement in HD.

Quick Post with Pictures

2009-10-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

You know things are busy when I do not even have ten minutes to post even a quick update about how things are going here. I wanted to post something quick to get back into it.

Here are some pictures from pre-season. I know it's been a while now, but this is what I've got, so you'll have to deal with it.

View from the back of the Control Room looking at the Monitor Wall

The Director and Technical Director

Producer's position, overlooking the ice

Audio Room

Video Shading and Engineering

A closer view of the monitor wall from behind EVS replay

New Official Logo?

2009-10-08T00:16:00.000-04:00

Happy Barcode Day. Didn't have much time, but had to make one of these when I saw it on Google today ;)

Conspicuously Absent

2009-10-03T22:54:00.000-04:00

I know things have been quiet around here, but it's been a long week. The earliest our team left work this week was around 11 PM, and that was after the hockey game on Friday! I hope to have a few more thoughts composed in the near future.

Even though Opening Night is now history, we still have quite a bit of work to get everything the way it will eventually run. So, another long day on Monday (hopefully not 2 AM again...),

Bear with us through this time, and I'll have more to share, I promise.

Initial Equipment Review: Part 2

2009-09-24T00:36:00.000-04:00

I decided to tackle something that I know very little about (a) because it will hopefully be a shorter post for me to write and (b) it will hopefully be a shorter post for you to read ;) Please note that some of the links I are close to what we've got... I don't know the exact model numbers or specs, sorry!

Cameras

We have four Ikegami HD cameras and Canon lenses for our show. All the specifics? I'm not sure :) I know that the CCUs give us a greater amount of control than we've had in the past. They look incredible! It's pretty amazing that we can see pretty much from goal line to goal line with these things ;) We have the typical broadcast setup of two build-ups/studio configs (one wide game follow, one iso),

In addition to the Ikis, we have a Panasonic P2 ENG camera that we can convert for our show. This past Friday, we had our cameraman between the benches. He'll probably be there again this Friday, as we do not get first pick of this spot during the regular season. The nice thing about this camera is that for ENG work, it uses the P2 cards, just like the handhelds we bought last year. This really helps our workflow because there are no tapes :) Everything is file-based, and we can bring the clips right in to edit with them.

We had a few issues with them, including setting the auto iris in too narrow of a range. Some of it is still trying to get used to them. The cameras are, after all, the least used piece of equipment, as we only really get to use them on game nights (save the P2 cameras we use for shoots/ENG).

Another thing that I didn't expect was the "bend" in the image. It's not severe, but you can certainly notice (zoomed way out) that the boards on the opposite side have a bend in them. It's almost as if it has a wide-angle lens on it. Which, I guess makes sense ;) It's a wide-screen image! I guess I wasn't expecting it... AND, you can't really notice it that much at even a small amount of zoom.

For those of you actually keeping score, you realize that I haven't mentioned the robotic camera yet. If so, kudos to you. And, you really need to get a life outside of reading this blog ;)

The camera itself is a tiny body Panasonic. Again, I do not know many specifics. As I write this, Cam Mate is currently re-designing our setup. The company primarily deals with cameras on jibs, with the longest runs being around 80 feet or so. The run that needed to be made in our case is closer to the 500-foot range. There isn't enough power getting down the line to completely control the camera and get a solid signal. We have tested the camera with several different cable lengths, as well. We actually got a cable made for a jib (roughly 40 feet or so, I believe), and everything worked perfectly. So, we know it works and we're working with Cam Mate to get it resolved. We've been excited about this camera for some time, but we have serial number 0001 of the camera controller... it's going to take some time to sort it out. We have several people working on this - from our engineer to DSI to Cam Mate - to have it up and running as soon as possible.

Audio

The last thing I think I will tackle for the day is our audio console. We have a Yamaha M7CL, which is the little brother of the board in the production side of things. So far, no complaints other than I'm not used to a digital board ;) I'm fairly well versed in the analog side of things... the menu structure of digital boards never makes much sense to me :) I'm learning, though! We are also still trying to get the levels set for in-game. Unfortunately, there's not much way to do it except... well, in-game. So, for that, I'm thankful for pre-season :)

Initial Equipment Review: Part 1

2009-09-21T01:10:00.000-04:00

I wanted to give an initial impression opinion of the equipment that we have in the new digs. Some is more glamorous than others, and not all of it is glowing. Please note, these are my personal opinions from my point of view. I may not have the best grasp of everything I'm reviewing, but I'll tell you what I think about what I know ;) This is more intended for those within my readership that are looking at making purchases like this in the future, who want to know more about something from an end-user's perspective, or even for those who spec'd and installed the stuff in our room :)

For the Caniacs reading along, I'm sorry :) It's going to be really boring!

This will most likely take a few posts, simply because I don't have time to write out an ultra long-form post. If you're interested, please stick with me. I hope it's helpful in some regard!

Again, the following opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff and/or management of the Carolina Hurricanes, NC State Wolfpack or the RBC Center.

Video Switcher

First, it's easy for me to start with the Ross switcher because that's what I use on game nights as the technical director. So far, I'm loving it! We previously had a Grass Valley 2200 with an external [Pinnacle] DVExtreme for the special effects (replays, Bubblevision, Bobblehead cam, etc.). Now, all effects that I'm using are built into the switcher itself.

Side note: I am using one of our existing and upgraded graphics machines to run our replays for football, but that was more function over form: I needed to have those done before I even trained on the switcher, so it made sense to work them the way I already knew how :)

Some effects are contained within the switcher, including an NC State logo wipe transition and an Under Review graphic for football. For hockey, I have been able to [somewhat] recreate the BubbleVision, Bobblehead cam and MirrorVision effects from the old Pinnacle DVExtreme, with hopes to do more coming up in the regular season. I can see the potential of the machine, but just have to learn more about how to make it work :)

Our setup is kind of unique on the switcher. As installed, the switcher had MLEs 1, 2 & 3 (moving farthest to nearest), with four keyers per MLE. MLEs 1 & 2 had the effects board set up on them and MLE 3 (the closest one) was a simple preview/program bus (though it still had the four keyers). With the old 2-ME GVG (which had ME 1 closest and ME 2 farthest) was set up so that the DVE was actually used as one of the two keys on ME 1 and used aux outputs from the switcher to feed ME 2 out to it for replays, etc. (One of several issues with this setup was that our cameras would not tally if they were run through the DVE, so if there was ever a side-by-side graphic, the director had to be very dilberate on letting the cameras know they were online.)

All that to say, we were used to having our effects on the bus closest to us, and asked if the configuration could be changed accordingly. One of the cool features of the Ross is that you can actually reassign MLEs and even the aux busses) across the MLEs (meaning, instead of having MLE 1, 2, 3 you could have MLE 2, 3, 1 if you wish). However, the "squeeze and tease" [S&T] card (as the effects card is called) is hardware and installed for whichever MLE is on a particular row: i.e.--if it is on "row 2", it will always be on row 2 even if you remap the MLEs.

Coming full circle, what's unique about our setup is that, as originally configured, no S&T was installed on the closest MLE. To get the effects down on the closer MLE, they actually abolished MLE 1, so we have MLEs 2, 3 & 4 (farthest to nearest), with S&T installed on 3 & 4 (two closest MLEs). MLE 2 is now a straight preview/program bus. Crazy, huh?

I will say that the Custom Controls are amazing. I'm sure that many switchers out there do this these days, but I'm coming from one that did not. The most automation the GVG 2200 had was an "auto trans" button ;) Being able to completely reset my key setup, recall memories [e-mems] and even preform transitions all within a single button is amazing. For instance, my "Under Review" graphic for football is a single button that loads a still in the background, sets and positions three fly keys (MLE 2 & 3 so the boxes can be switched to the best look at the home/away coaches and our Camera 1 that will always get the "white hat") and even a chroma keyed overlay. All this is set up and even put into MLE 4 preview, ready to take. All that, and it's just one button ;) I know, it's probably child's play to a veteran TD, but it's cool for me to make it work and I'm proud of it, dangit!

On a side note, running our football replays through another machine (like we did before) was actually addressed by Image Video who installed our tally display system. We actually have an MLE that was to be sent to the machine tallied any time the graphics machine is keyed. Meaning, if we run replays through the box, the replay machines can tally even though they are not technically "on air" (because the graphics machine is what is actually online). We have some adjustments to make to have this work appropriately (due to the MLE-shuffle described above), but the basic workflow is in place. Hopefully it's just a few tweaks along the way.

I'll try to give an objective "grade" for everything. Again, my own opinion, and you would probably get various ratings even from my colleagues who use the same equipment every day.

For the switcher, I would give it a solid A for an initial opinion rating.

Multiviewer

We have a Harris Centrio for our primary multiviewer, and an Predator II for our backup in case the Centrio really takes a dive. Our producer actually views the Predator in-game, as it shows the ten most essential sources (cameras, graphics, etc.) plus preview and program. Plus, it helps us know that the Predator is there in case the director and TD need it.

The ease of designing in the Centrio Layout Designer is a plus. You can make source windows, UMDs, audio meters and more and link them all into a window. Once in a window, you can change the input and the UMD follows (passes through router naming) as well as the tally (being driven by Image Video). The one thing I haven't gotten to follow is the audio meters. I'm not sure if it's a software limitation or something that I'm doing wrong, but I always seem to have to change the source on the meters independently.

We have several different states for our elements, as well. The PIP borders will tally green for preview (interchangeable for preset, by the way), red for on-air. We also have a secondary tally "dot" that we can place that will illuminate for sources that are being recorded in our EVS (helpful since we do not have an AP that calls for replays and such). In addition, the window (collective name for PIP, UMD, etc.) will alarm by flashing red/yellow if video signal is lost.

Helpful tip: When several items are in a window, you can only edit the window's properties (border, tally, alarm state, source, etc.). We were told that if we wanted to change a property such as the PIP border color or something, that we had to "break" the window (meaning you lose all of your window formatting). Something I learned is that you can simply "unlock" the window and then edit individual parts contained in the window (PIP, UMD, tally, etc.).

We actually did have one of the Centrio cards completely lock up on us and I had one of our engineers re-seat the card to get it to reset. The system is a little clunky in that if something goes awry, you have to plug a USB mouse directly into the Centrio card in the frame to do some diagnostic work (such as restarting the multiviewer or even the whole card). In this case, that didn't even work and it needed a full reboot.

One Centrio card feeds two monitors, fed via DVI running 1920x1080 resolution each. In practice they are essentially a really large dual-screen side-by-side computer display. There is a limitation of 32 inputs per card. Those inputs can be replicated as many times as you wish on those cards, but the two displays have to share the 32 sources. We actually ran into an issue with this already, as the technical director and video shader share a card. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea, as the video shader and TD both like to see lots of sources. Maybe it would have been a better mix these two up and place them with a lower-stressed display. Since none of us had really been exposed to this type of virtual environment, we didn't have a clue what the layout would be. We'll figure it out soon enough.

I haven't worked much with the Predator system, but it was set up to give us the essentials in case of a catastrophic Centrio failure. The Navigator software for the Predator is a bit less intuitive than the Centrio's Layout Designer. However, we do have several quad-split displays that are also able to be driven by the Navigator, so that's an added bonus.

Initial opinion rating: A- (only minus for the stability issue, which hopefully will not be a recurring problem.)

I trust that all of these will not be this drawn out ;) In the future, I want to hit EVS replay, cameras, com system, Daktronics and more. I also hope that I haven't just alienated my readership ;)

Rolling Along

2009-09-20T00:29:00.000-04:00

Tonight's football game went pretty well for us. Which is good for me. While things went alright for us last night, I was not personally in as high of spirits as I was after our very first event in the control room, and tonight helped me feel a little better.

It's not that things went eternally wrong last night, it more just us trying to get used to things. Plus, following a hockey game and keeping up with it is a lot different than working a football game... It's faster and more demanding from the crew, to say the least.

That said, tonight was much more laid back (at least from my perspective). I'm getting used to the buttons I'm supposed to hit (though I'll be the first to admit I wasn't perfect). Of course, a big Wolfpack win helped the morale, too ;)

I hope to have a more in-depth post, mostly good for curing insomnia. Perhaps I can gather those thoughts tomorrow as best I can.

For today, I'm done :)

One down...

2009-09-19T00:58:00.000-04:00

I had every intention of writing yesterday or today letting everyone know that we were amping up for our first HD event. But, I'm sure most of you knew that was coming.

So, now it's over :) If you were at the game, I hope you enjoyed what you saw. I know there were a few glitches and unsightlies, but hey, it's pre-season! If you weren't at the game, everything went perfect and we're up for an award ;)

This was the first real stress test for the control room and we've got some issues to work out, certainly. There are several issues just with the Megatron computers getting things synced up. Other issues circle around our graphics computers. And then there's our cameras... There are plenty of things to keep us busy. It's funny, though... it seems like we have quite a bit of work just to get us back to the point we thought we should be at at the beginning of this night ;)

Such is the nature of the beast.

I did ask one of our interns to take some pictures of the production... here's some of the better ones I got...

Nice...

Maybe some day I'll get some pics in-game. Until then, keep imagining ;)

Now, it's time to shake it all off and focus on a football game tomorrow. After that, the Caniac Carnival and back to the long hours next week.

Holy schnikes

2009-09-16T01:14:00.000-04:00

It's going to be a photo finish! Who will win? CanesVision, or the clock?!

The first pre-season game will be bare-bones, to say the least. We're working major overtime to make sure things are in working order for the fans.

Tonight was a big to-do at the arena for all the part time employees (for all departments). It always comes at the most opportune time for us... Anyway, this year we had nearly all of our employees present to go over the old, revised and new procedures for our game-day operations. I'm hoping that the learning curve - at least from the procedures side - will not be too great for everyone. The learning curve for equipment will probably drive a few to drink ;)

Anyway, if I'm not sleeping, driving or working.... I'm usually updating the blog ;) Hope we can make it all worth while for everyone by Friday night! For now... good night.

A Hard Day's Night

2009-09-11T22:41:00.002-04:00

Less than one week away from NHL pre-season hockey! Cheers from the fans, urgent screams from the production crew. Certainly, time is against us, but there is good news... ready or not, our first hockey game (and our first true HD game) will be over a week from now!

We barely had time to wrap the commercial shoot before we were thinking about the next shoot, which is tomorrow [Saturday] AM. NHL Training Camp officially starts tomorrow (see the Canes roster here). With that, tomorrow is physical day. From 7 AM - noon (or a little later), the players will file through the doctor's office getting blood drawn, eyes examined, the works. In addition, all of the guys get their official league headshot taken tomorrow, and CanesVision even converts one of the patient rooms into a make-shift studio. We will be shooting video headshots for all 40-plus guys tomorrow, even the ones that will be spending much of their time in the AHL. This way, if someone is called up during the season, we have the footage already.

For the astute observer, you'll realize that tomorrow is also an NC State football home game, as well. When it rains, it pours! Three of the five CanesVision full-timers (plus an intern) already set up the "studio" in the doctor's office today, and the four of them will be meeting up at 6 AM so they're ready to go when the guys start coming through. After all the guys come through, it's time to strike and get the last-minute stuff together for the football game.

The other two of us (yours truly included) will be holding down the fort at the arena for the game-day preparation of the football game. Thankfully we have one under our belt. Hopefully things will go smoothly in both locations!

Sunday is technically an off day, and really the only one in sight until after the start of the regular season. There's still so much to do and so little time to do it! Building the show from the ground up is certainly a daunting task. Having to do that while juggling football (and the pre-season hockey games) and looking ahead to basketball is quite overwhelming!

So, those who need their hockey fix... it's coming! For those of you going to the State game tomorrow, have fun! We're working hard to make sure it's an enjoyable time for you wherever you may be :)

And....

RIP victims of the 9/11 attacks. God bless the families of the lost and continue to comfort the survivors.

That's A Wrap

2009-09-10T21:08:00.000-04:00

An interesting point about the photo shoot: we're using a high-speed camera on the jib to create ultra-slow motion capture. We've got some cool surprises up our sleeve for it's use, as well :)

On that note, here are a few more photos from the commercial shoot. Enjoy!

Tuomo Ruutu standing by.

Cam Ward reviewing his shot.

Cam Ward picking a fight with the jib.

Action!

2009-09-10T18:21:00.001-04:00

Yesterday and today were the "commercial shoot" days, where we get many one-on-one elemental shots of the players to use for ticketing commercials or videos or whatever.

We utilized the services of Trailblazer Studios to shoot the footage. We don't have the budget to have the cool toys like a full-out production studio has (like the big lights and the jib). CanesVision did have a station on the ice for a green screen shoot for our in-game presentation production.

Thanks to Gregg Forwerck, the team photographer, we have some behind-the-scenes looks at what's been going on. My thanks to Gregg for helping me out with this!

Ray Whitney mugging for the jib.

Erik Cole getting some direction.

Erik Cole in action.

Staal's turn.

CanesVision's location on the ice.

Staal's on fire! Well... at least his stick...

Released

2009-09-09T19:36:00.000-04:00

So, I just noticed that this press release was out... a week later ;) Many of you may have seen it, but it's the "official" release from the RBC Center about the Megatron.

Also, ncsu1 shrewdly deciphered that we're doing our commercial shoots on the ice. The look from above:

Have a good one everybody. If you see my wife, tell her hi for me ;)

Networking

2009-09-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

I've spent all night trying to figure out how to get a "tweet this" link at the bottom of all my posts. I've tried about twenty combinations of code in my page template but to no avail. I found a code that I used and it gave me this cute little twitter icon at the bottom of the post. Unfortunately, you'd probably skip right over it if you didn't know it was there!

So anyway, all that to say... I do have a "tweet this" icon that will automatically open Twitter and allow you to tweet the blog post. However, it uses the long-form web address name (as opposed to a bit.ly-type URL shortener).

If any of you geniuses out there can help me with this, I would love to add various social networking badges to my posts so you can share the wealth of knowledge that is the CVHD blog! Well... maybe so that you could at least tweet or post on Facebook about how geeky things get around here.

I do have TwitterFeed linked up to automatcially Tweet my blog posts for me... that's not what I'm looking for :) (unless there's a better one!) I'm looking for something that my readers can easily share this site with others.

Opening Night Recap

2009-09-04T00:03:00.013-04:00

Wow.

Things couldn't have really gone much better for our first event (I'm talking from a broadcast perspective... State losing was not a happy thing...). The crew that was there tonight did a great job adjusting to the new setup.

We weren't perfect. The first event of the season (typically a football game) usually has a few rusty glitches and absent-minded brain lapses. Tonight was no different, but there is something key in that statement... we only had to deal with the rusty glitches and such tonight. There was never a point where we were in nuclear meltdown mode because things were going way wrong. If I mentioned the things that were going crazy most of you would not have noticed. Some of the bigger things, maybe, but many were "behind the scenes" (which is just where we like for them to go wrong!).

The first notable thing is that all of the cameras have already been living at the stadium for a few weeks now. That made things relatively "easy" for setup (please don't kill me, Engineers), and also prompt for breakdown at the end of the night. Instead of having to cart everything back over to the arena at the end of the night, we were able to either store the cameras in a closet or just bring them back up to the [Carter-Finley] control room. Very nice!

Other than the cameras living at the football stadium (and the guys being able to get out of there a little earlier than normal), things really didn't change much for the CF crew. The Skycam guys were in our control room (as they usually are when ESPN is in the house)... They certainly take up a lot of space when they're up there...

For the arena crew, things were VERY different. I explained in an earlier post about the mechanics of a football game for us (somewhat), so I won't re-bore you with those. I'll bore you with different stuff! For the most part, the positions themselves were "business as usual". We had a Director, Technical Director, replays, graphics & Audio. The operational side of each spot was very different!

Even some positions that were virtually the same (i.e.--we had purchased a couple of graphics machines within the last year or so that were upgradable to HD, so we upgraded them over the summer), were still different because we had them doing some different jobs than in previous years [for football]: partially because we (a) were on a learning curve and built certain things on certain machines because we knew how to, and (b) machines that typically did a lion's share of work for football were now no longer a part of the control room.

It took us a little while to get used to our monitor wall. Even though we set it up precisely how we wanted it, it still took some time to adjust once we got into the game. But, thankfully it's easily changeable, so we can tweak as we go. Overall, however, it was incredible to have all the sources that I needed (as the Technical Director) at my disposal when I needed them and not all the way across the wall!

[Geek alert:] On that note, I'll talk about the switcher now :) Can i just say... CUSTOM CONTROLS ARE MY FRIEND! I'm sure that all the switchers these days can do similar things, but the Custom Controls on this Ross were a life saver! I've spent the better part of my last two or three days running through scenarios on the switcher and actually intentionally trying to mess things up so that I could build a Custom Control to get me out of it. Our Engineer appropriately coined them as my "bailout buttons".

[Uber-geek alert:] Basically, when I set for certain effects (such as a First Down or the "under review" effect that I'm glad I built...), my key sources/types changed. Also, due to the limitation of two chroma keyers per MLE, I had to compose some keyable sources on a separate MLE to take them to air. When I needed to quickly reset to "normal", I had created some CCs to get me back to where I needed to be without interrupting the program stream. I know, it's elementary to TDs who have been doing this for a while, but I'm making this thing work and it's cool to see it do what I actually want it to do ;)

I could lull you into an even deeper sleep by continuing that realm of discussion, but I'm starting to put myself to sleep, so I'll hold off ;)

Other positions included replay, which utilized both our old SD Profile system that was integrated into the room; perfect for football. I would say that 75%-80% of the replays that were shown in the first half were run from our old system while the EVS operators got a little more comfortable with their setup. In the second half I would say it was much closer to 50%-50% between EVS and Profile. We even had a post-game recap that was composed on the EVS and played back at the end of the game. Also, with the ability of the EVS to create and export clips in real time, there was no need to "dump to tape" at the end of the night. The clips were already there!

Our graphics/playback guys did a great job, even through a couple of technical hiccups along the way. Everything in our control room is so immersed in computers now - we're completely tape-less at this point. Meaning, we aren't set up to be able to push play on a VTR and take it as a direct source in the switcher as we were in the past. Everything is loaded into a Click Effects Crossfire clip server and played back from there. This machine also does many of our sponsorship collateral and informational pages. The other graphics machine handles nearly all of our replay transitions (with appropriate sponsorship branding). The only replays it does not handle is for a First Down. It also takes care of many "live" (not usually pre-recorded) sponsorship obligations.

One of the spaces that sometimes gets overlooked is Audio. God bless our audio guy right now! He has a massive new console with 48 faders (plus bussing/output) and about a million levels of menu structure in the new audio board. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly on our end. We were fighting gremlins over at the stadium (who had eaten two amplifiers over the summer... we were pushing a ton of signal down a pipe that was seriously inhibited by lack of power...), but the arena side went pretty smooth.

Overall, I really couldn't be happier with how things went for our first event. Well... maybe if the Wolfpack could've put one in the "W" column... But for us, it was a great start to our brand new world!

I Can See My Car From Here

2009-09-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

A little fun for the day.

Kickoff

2009-09-03T10:17:00.002-04:00

It begins tonight.

NC State Wolfpack vs. South Carolina Gamecocks, 7 PM. If you can't be here, it's on ESPN.

It's As Cold As Ice

2009-09-03T10:14:00.003-04:00

As of 10:18 AM, September 3rd, 2009

UPDATE:

1:40 PM

Look in live HERE.

Seventy... and Still Young

2009-09-01T22:33:00.004-04:00

Wow... post #70 and yes, we're still here!

Things are moving faster as we get closer to kickoff. We're now within 48 hours of football season, and we've still got a few loose ends to tie up. A few were handled today. A few scary moments, today too... nothing a few calls to various tech support lines couldn't fix, though.

I found out today that News 14 will actually be coming by at some point tomorrow to do a quick story on the control room. They may just be coming by to talk to our hot dog champion (which I believe is actually being challenged at the Roast Grill tomorrow...). When I get a link to the story, I'll post it for you :)

In thinking about the whole conversion - now that it's technically hindsight - I thought that I would begin compiling an series of posts that review very specific parts of the control room, from cabling to consoles. These posts will be mostly toward those making decisions about future conversions/installs (like the Penguins). They will also recap my personal opinion about the equipment and even perhaps some candid interviews of our staff to give their thoughts: likes, dislikes, things we should have thought about on the front end that didn't come up until it was too late... you know :)

I would hope it would make for good reading for anyone, but the nature of these posts will be by and large for the broadcast (or even plan/average/run-of-the-mill) geek. Look for these posts to trickle out toward the latter part of October or early November (that'll pretty much be the next "free" moment I get... and then we're doing basketball pre-production while maintaining football and hockey, so who knows?!)

Also, over the next few days, be sure to check out the RBC Center Webcam: it's time to make the ice!

A personal thanks to Brady and Brad, my Ross techies that helped me out of a jam tonight.

And, because I felt like checking... Here are the current stats on the blog, June 1 - August 31, 2009. I understand how precious time is and I feel privileged to have you along for the ride.

16,263

Visits

7,665

Absolute Unique Visitors

29,780

Pageviews

Before and After

2009-08-28T23:56:00.007-04:00

For those of you who actually marked this day on the calendar, you already know what I'm about to say: (1) Get a life [yes, this day WAS on my calendar so I'm speaking to myself...] and (2) today was the day DSI wrapped up their end of the control room conversion.

It's been a crazy whirlwind of insanity over the past three months (almost to the day). I wanted to quickly recap with a few before and after shots :) If you want to read more about the early days of the conversion, read about it here (and feel free to poke around in the other posts. You can sort loosely by date on the left-hand column; look for late May, early July).

Engineeringland, May 27, 2009

Engineeringland: August 28, 2009

Control Room/Monitor Wall: May 27, 2009

Old Monitor Wall full of single-source CRT TVs, mostly black and white. Notice also the large clunky furniture.

Holding up the back deck is our own Eric Bridenstine, who set a Roast Grill record of 19 chili-dogs! He had an hour, but it only took him 53 minutes. We at CanesVision are certainly proud. Read more at the N&O and here you can see some of the Twitter updates from other customers that were cheering Eric on (and others vowing to avenge his effort). Stay Tuned to CanesVision Online for a video recap in the near future :)

But... that's beside the point...

Control Room/Monitor Wall: August 28, 2009

Of course, we still have to clean and neaten things now that the bulk of the work is done. There are still a few odds and ends to be taken care of (I mentioned cleaning, right), but also a few loose ends that we're working out. Thankfully, the loose ends pertain to hockey. And, why am I happy about that? Because we're ready for football [as far as equipment/install is concerned], and that's less than a week away!

I do hope to get a better/more thorough walkthrough soon, but... you know... there's quite a bit else to do around here :)

Potpourri

2009-08-27T00:13:00.005-04:00

Yep. It's that time of year, all right. The days just keep getting longer. The 10 PM mark was breached today. That, after two weeks of 8ish nights. You know you're up against the wall when Preview Day comes around.

Tomorrow, we get to show off all the stuff we've been working on to "the Wolfpack" (generic term for all those involved who have a say in our final production). It's been a whirlwind, especially with DSI trying to tie up all the loose ends before Friday.

On some other notes:
* Our [HD] cameras were fired up this week and look very nice. I saw one of them with the star filter in and, even in the minimal lighting of the arena bowl, and it was pretty :)

* We also fired up our old cameras at the football stadium. It's good to see everything lighting up and signals getting to where they need to go.

* I think I have a pretty good grasp on the Switcher (thanks, Brady). It's doing most of the things I want it to. The things that it isn't doing... well, those are probably just user error ;) Good thing I've got the manuals for late night reading material!

* The Centrio Multiviewer is pretty cool. Being able to customize things to our liking (and the ease of changing it if we need to) is very nice. We've had a couple of hiccups with it, but I'm pretty certain it's because we're taxing the system pretty hard trying to lay things out, try different layouts and such. When we get it to our liking, it'll probably just take a good restart to make it happy.

There are only about a million things that are going on right now, but this is about all that my brain can process for today.

Another random thought: the Hurricanes just re-vamped the website. Check it out: http://hurricanes.nhl.com.

The Final Countdown

2009-08-23T22:38:00.003-04:00

One more week of install. The big stuff is in and we're down to the little details. DSI will hand us the keys to the kingdom officially on Friday. One better, our sign-off day for our football creative is this Thursday.

It's a little crazy in that the Pack actually kick off the NCAA football season on Thursday, Sept. 3 vs. South Carolina. So, we have a grand total of six days (including the weekend) to get everything set and ready to go.

Reality is starting to sink in!

Wow...

2009-08-20T23:28:00.004-04:00

Man I'm exhausted!

Three days of switcher training is now a memory. Hopefully I can just as easily "store" and "recall" information from my brain as it is to store and recall presets in the switcher! Okay, geek joke, sorry. It is midnight, after all ;)

Among other things happening around the room today, we tested our program (main video output) video on the main boards today from the switcher, as well as testing our aux (alternate) send to the upper boards. Basically, I can be sending out two separate feeds through the switcher simultaneously. Just as long as I get the right source going to the right output I'll be fine :)

A few more days of football production and I can turn my focus more toward hockey. It sure is getting close!

Lots of buttons...

2009-08-18T21:55:00.006-04:00

Well... it's official... my head is about to explode. And, we have two more days of training on the Ross switcher. My head is spinning and we've barely scratched the surface! Things that we had outboard computers doing in the past can now all be done inside the switcher.

Our old switcher could do some nifty things, but couldn't even play in the same league as this new switcher. The amazing levels of customization, user presets (for input mapping, button colors, et al.), keyer setups and more are pretty amazing. Our trainer is flying through the the possibilities, and I know we're just getting started.

The next two days will be getting down to building presets and effects into the switcher, so it's bound to be tedious. However, it's going to be great for us in the long run.

Oh yeah, and then there's football...

Learning the Facts of Life

2009-08-17T22:43:00.003-04:00

Things are down to the wire with football production. All the while, we have equipment configuration and training going on... whew!

A couple of us took the crash course on the Centrio Multiviewer last week. The concept is easy, but the level of customization makes it extremely flexible. Since this system is tied directly to our Router, all of the input names are set by the router. Also, the tally display system passes these names through for consistency.

Today, we had an engineer setting up our Ross Switcher today, and there is training over the next three days on it. If you follow the link through, and want to see what we've got, we have the Vision 3 QMD/X control surface. I have to say, even with the little things that I learned about what the switcher can do, it made me that much more excited about it. Now I just have to learn how to make it sing before football starts ;)

Personally, I am completely moved out of my temporary shelter for the summer and back in my permanent home. Within the next week, the other guys will be moving down, as well.

I know that I have not been on top of the updates as best as I should, but there are lots of things going on right now! So many I can't even remember them all ;)

While I'm Away, I'll Write Home Everyday...

2009-08-13T11:42:00.002-04:00

Just a reminder to pick up your CanesVision HD/Wolfpack TV HD wallpapers, exclusively from the CVHD Blog :)

Choose your resolution and have fun!

>>>Click Here<<<

Class is in Session

2009-08-11T22:53:00.003-04:00

While I spent my entire day moving more stuff into my permanent home (as well as fighting with a new piece of hardware... which I was finally informed by tech support is incompatible with my motherboard... go fig), other folks on our crew were having a more productive day.

One of our full-timers and several part-timers have been learning the new replay system. I heard farily positive things from those involved, which is good ;) I can only hope that switcher training will go as well for me later this week!

There are so many things going on simultaneously right now... Wolfpack Football production (deadline quickly approaching...); Intercom setup/testing; signal testing at all production stations; editors (such as I) are beginning to move into the control room all while training is going on... it's pretty crazy!

Hopefully, tomorrow I can knock out quite a bit of my football production that's on my plate and then on to more hockey (sorry, just more to do for hockey) :)

Looking Good

2009-08-06T22:34:00.005-04:00

Harris is in the house now configuring the router and monitor wall :)

We are also going to start the process of moving our editing machines back into the control room, so we should be settling in throughout the next week or so.

Just keeping you updated as I can :)

The Sport Less Mentioned

2009-08-04T21:31:00.008-04:00

Notice I didn't say less important :) It just gets pushed aside in all the HD conversion talk because Carter Finley isn't going HD (yet).

Since some of you may not know, CanesVision is not only responsible for in-game production for all Canes home games. We also do all NC State (men's) basketball home games as well as NC State football games. Yes, the control room at the RBC Center controls the videoboards at Carter Finley.

On game day, we have a minimal crew actually in the stadium (producer, audio producer, stats guy & four cameramen + two grips). The other positions are stationed in the RBC Center control room, just as they are for basketball or hockey (director, technical director, replay ops, graphics...)

In the past, any event at Carter Finley necessitated a major breakdown of eqiupment at the arena only to rebuild it all across the street. The cameras used for hockey & basketball were also used for football (meaning a lot of equipment, such as the camera control units have to come, too... they're heavy....). We had road cases we would load the CCUs into to cart them over in... it was a multiple-day ordeal sometimes (which is problematic if you have a bball/hockey game the night before)...

No more! :)

Since we have the new HD cameras for the arena, we're utilizing the existing cameras solely for football now, meaning much less wear and tear on the equipment. With that, it means we need a more permanent place for the equipment to live (that's not just road cases sitting on a table...)

So... here's the rough plan for our solution.

I realize most of you (even some employees!) wouldn't know what it used to look like ;) Take my word for it... This desk is the "new" video shading station for the stadium. Much nicer - and more permanent - than what we used to have!

These racks are existing and remaining, but I wanted to share... because :)

So... if the arena is HD, and the football stadium is SD, how can the HD control room handle it (and so quickly)? Two concepts: fiberoptics and up/down conversion.

[Over-simplification alert:] We capture the video with the cameras, send them to the Carter Finley control room (for shading, etc.), then ship them over as sources on fiber to the arena. The sources are upconverted to HD so we can mix them in the switcher (with graphics and replays, etc.). The program output is then down-converted and shipped back across on fiber to the videoboards.

Side note: all of our graphics and such for football must completely be contained in a 4:3 world, even on graphics machines that typically do 16:9 work for the arena... so we still get to use the same equipment, just in different ways.

The amazing thing is that through all of this - all of the connections and such - the delay from camera to board is negligible delay in the signal. If you're GOOD, you can spot that there actually is a quarter-second (8 frame) delay, but that is actually BUILT IN so that video & audio [from the single-point speaker setup] match at the 50-yard line (think: speed of light is faster than the speed of sound - therefore, we slow down the light to let the sound catch up...). Cool, huh?

And... where are we? :) Here's our view of the [brand new] field.

And, since I was up there anyway...

Hot Off The Press

2009-07-31T15:35:00.000-04:00

I told you that there were some awesome things going on in the background here. And it's all for the awesome readers of the CVHD blog!

Presenting CanesVision HD & Wolfpack TV HD desktop wallpaper, exclusively from the CVHD blog!

To download the wallpaper, click your resolution choice below the picture.

CANES WALLPAPER: 1200 x 800 (16:9)

CANES WALLPAPER: 1024 x 768 (4:3)

NC STATE WALLPAPER: 1200 x 800 (16:9)

NC STATE WALLPAPER: 1024 x 768 (4:3)

Instructions on setting the dekstop background can be found HERE.

Don't forget: you can be alerted of new posts to the blog via Twitter @CVHD!

Enjoy, everyone, and have a GREAT weekend... don't stare at your computer screen too much!

Lighting It Up

2009-07-31T15:00:00.000-04:00

A few pictures to update you. These were actually taken yesterday, but not much has visibly changed since then :)

I keep referencing the monitor wall because it will really be the focal point of the room on game day. The final monitors were placed, so this is the final configuration of the wall :)

And... the switcher control surface was installed yesterday!

Switcher: under wraps

IT LIGHTS UP!

(Demo Mode)

See?

Wanted to get this out before the weekend.

Also... something AWESOME is coming in just a few minutes... stay tuned!

Oops...

2009-07-31T01:01:00.001-04:00

Another project got in the way of an update today!

SORRY!

I will do my best to make up for it tomorrow ;) (and then some!)

Red Bull, Anyone?

2009-07-29T23:50:00.017-04:00

Why is it that I can't get around to starting this until nearly midnight? You think you fall asleep READING it... sheesh... ;)

I do have some cool stuff coming down the pike. I have to run it through the channels first, but stay tuned within the next couple of days for something really cool :) Have I piqued your interest enough yet? Good! Now, stay awake!

First, I'd like to give a shout out to Destination Wake Forest for drumming up interest in what we've got going on here. Thanks so much for the mention!

Now to the geeky stuff:

I got to see the camera that we're going to be using on the robotic head.

It's simple, but it works :) Something I learned about the robo head that I thought was interesting... Stay with me, I don't know how much I can simplify :)

Basically (I know, ha ha), there's fiber running from the control room to the robo head for the HD camera signal. However, the signal from the camera actually comes out HD SDI (BNC Connector) and plugs straight into the head. Then, the signal is converted into light and transmitted through the optical slip rings and actually exits the head as fiber! I figured there would be some elaborate external "box" we'd have to mount on the side of the camera for conversion - NO! The head actually converts it for us :) Streamlining the process is good!

A part of this whole process is the camera control station. This is where the color/iris (brightness), etc. for all of the cameras can be set remotely.

The large monitor (which is identical to those on the monitor wall - 46"er!) is a source monitor driven by the multiviewer. The smaller monitor just below and to the left is the "match monitor" (to make sure all the cameras look the same).

Notice the four identical RCPs (remote control panels): those are for our four main "manned" cameras.

The medium-sized RCP is for an additional camera that we can use for our show or that we can convert for ENG work. If the opportunity presents itself, I will try to go into more detail on all the cameras other than the robo :)

Okay... for those who are still awake... or have unexploded brains...

We have our main monitors on the wall that will show the video sources through the multiviewer. It looks good to see the big guys on the wall :)

It's not quite finished yet, but it's certainly closer! WOOO!

Someone also asked me why I'm putting these crazy watermarks on all my pictures. I noticed early on that my photos were showing up in places that I didn't put them... and no one knew where they came from... So, I know they're annoying, but I am doing this so that I can still get credit for staying awake writing all this stuff down :) It's inevitable that these pictures will be re-circulated elsewhere... All I ask is that you give the blog credit. The address is http://canesvision-hd.blogspot.com/. You could also promo the Twitter address @CVHD.

Thanks!

Now that the mean stuff is out of the way, and because I got so many good comments about the Canes picture, I wanted to make sure I spread the love to the NC State crowd!

Special framing just for you! Includes the '74 and '83 Banners :)

I can almost hear a distant "WOLF"... "PACK"...

Update: In Pictures

2009-07-28T22:52:00.006-04:00

A few things have been going on over the past couple of days, and I wanted to update you on it! I may not be as timely as I should, but hopefully I'm keeping you interested ;)

While the overall room looks pretty much the same as it did last week, a few details have popped up that are worth noting :) The second row of the control room started getting some of its auxiliary user equipment - some of which has been posted previously, but it's cool to see it finding it's final resting place... um... finally!

This is one of the EVS replay stations; the "shotbox", keyboard and touchpad/stylus have been placed.

The second EVS replay station.

Something familiar for our CanesVision crew... the "Profile" Slo-Mo machine still lives!

For those who have no clue what I'm talking about... We are actually keeping our "old" standard-def (SD) replay system to be used for extra replay angles. We can actually run these on either analog or down-converted [HD to SD] signals, then bring them into either a frame sync or directly into the switcher and voila! Two additional replay angles! These are perfect for football, as the cameras are already analog (we're using the cameras we used to use for football/hockey/basketball solely for football for now... until Carter Finley gets HD displays, at least...). For hockey and basketball, we will be able to put either goal overheads or "slam cam"s into these units for extra looks in-game.

Info overload, huh?

More pictures, then!

I know I posted a similar picture Friday, but look... it's alive! The audio board is the first operational thing in the control room :) Of course, it isn't quite fully hooked up to everything on the output side yet... because not everything is there yet!

The robotic camera controls were placed on the second row, as well. It's a big box, but the ability and flexibility of the camera will be tremendous!

And now... what many of you have been waiting for... the main event! We threw together some logos to place on all the boards for a photo op for the Sports Business Journal, which is doing a story on our HD conversion... No ideas on a publishing date just yet, but I'm guessing pretty soon....

Also, due to Daktronics still ironing out some last minute details on the physical board, it was down on floor-level, but that just means it's closer to take pictures of ;)

Nevertheless, here's a small preview of things to come! Do enjoy!

I hope to have a similar NC State look by the end of the week (don't hold me to it!).

Until next time...

Can You Hear Me Now?

2009-07-24T21:45:00.006-04:00

Good!

The audio console was hooked up today, along with the other peripherals for the audio room (CD player, meters, etc.)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quick Pictures Post

2009-07-23T16:21:00.005-04:00

A couple of images from today.

First is the controller for the EVS replay system. This is what the operators can mark, recue & replay the footage. It interfaces with the EVS computer and can have the replays/clips labeled and logged so that we can access them later to make videos and such. This is the same brand of replay system that nearly every sports broadcast truck uses for live production. YAY :-)

And... two more monitors are up on the wall! They will wait to place the last couple of monitors until the top ones get completely wired up. But, it's nice to see them up there!

Man I can't wait ;)

Coming along

2009-07-23T00:22:00.016-04:00

Wow... things are going slow tonight. It took me about an hour just to upload the pictures for this post. YIKES... Since I'm running on borrowed time, I'll be quick :)

Several things are going on all at the same time right now (imagine that). First, Engineeringland is starting to fill up more and more. It's getting harder to see through the racks. But that's a good thing!

Engineering Racks

Close up of what will be our video shading (camera matching) station.

The match monitor is up top and the CCUs are down below.

Something I think is amazing is the size of the video switcher's brains. The previous switcher took up the better part of a full rack (roughly 6.5 feet tall), and now it's shoved down into a 3RU box (about 5.25 inches tall). There is a tally display controller that is about the same size. Overall, I'm impressed by the size of the unit!

Switcher "Brains" are highlighted.

Another nifty item that came in today is the Robotic camera head and controller. I referenced this in a much older post, but it's finally here. I can't wait to see it in action. Fast, HD game coverage from right above center ice. Sweet!

Nice case... too bad the mount will go under the Megatron and never go back in there!

I'm sure we can find something to store in here. Whatever it is will stay watertight ;)

The camera controller that will live in the Control Room.

This box was custom built for CanesVision.

Note the finishing touch of the Canes logo in the corner ;)

And finally, the some of the monitor wall monitors were un-crated today. DSI is waiting on some extra fiber connectivity to get signal run to the wall, but they started putting it together today!

Staging in the hall.

It's a long way to the top...

One is better than none ;)

On a side note: sorry to any of you that were expecting the Megatron to be active during Select-A-Seat. There were plans to use it, but Daktronics had to come back and resolve some power issues. The boards were off most of the day today and may be off quite a bit tomorrow, as well.

Hopefully soon we can start to post some more images of the board clad in Canes & NC State garb, but know (a) we aren't going to tip our hand too much on what's to come in the season and (b) we're busy rebuilding stuff from the ground up so it may be a couple of weeks :)

Thanks to all who are keeping tabs on us. We are still just as excited as you are!

2009-2010 Hurricanes Schedule

2009-07-21T10:53:00.003-04:00

Okay, I know I'm late with this, but better late than never, right? :)

If you've been living under a rock and are using this blog as your only source of news and information... get a life...

And... Here's the Canes' schedule for the 2009-2010 season :)

CLICK HERE FOR THE SCHEDULE

Shaping Up

2009-07-17T14:41:00.006-04:00

Things are begining to take shape in the control room :) It's cool to see the equipment going in. Each day, the stack of boxes in the hall is getting gradually smaller while the room itself is looking more like "home".

It's been a few days since my last post because of Daktronics training. It was a good session, and actually a day longer than originally planned. We have enough now to really start working on creative content to get things lighting up the right way. There are still some issues and a ton of growing pains, but we're coming along.

Since the last post, the router panels, audio monitors at each station and workstation (desktop/GUI stations) have been mounted.

July 16: Router, Intercom & Audio Monitor placed in the first bay (from the left), source monitors in the second...

July 16: By the end of the day, individual GUI monitors were mounted.

July 16: Also by day's end, the mounting brackets for the monitor wall were in place. Power strips are ready to go, as well. Note that one of the Marshalls (used in the consoles) is already living in it's place on the monitor wall, as well.

July 17: Early on, the consoles were supplied with power. Here you see a station that utilizes two router panels (for source selection) and an intercom panel is sandwiched in between.

July 17: Other items were wired up and turned on, including the Marshall monitors (glowing blue here). Signal and power have been run to the workstation GUI monitors, but the machines they connect to have yet to be installed in the racks :)

July 17: A closer look at a powered up console.

Next week, the monitor wall monitors should go up. That will be a fun picture day ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Equipment Has Landed

2009-07-14T22:50:00.016-04:00

Three days before the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11's launch (no real correlation other than date... and the corny title... and a little history perspective...), CanesVision's HD eqiupment has landed at the RBC Center!

[Equipement Photos: July 14]

Monitor Wall Monitors! 46"ers... times 5 :)

Video Switcher

Replay System

Audio Console

Last week, a few equipment racks landed, including the Daktronics rack (that was previously moved to my office - now finding its final resting place), the closed-circuit TV rack (sending signal to the concourses, suites), the demarcation rack (basically, termination point for every cable in the control room... I know that's over-simplification, but... still...) and a couple of blank racks to be filled in... well... now :)

[July 10] Daktronics Rack

[July 10] Demarcation Rack on Left; CATV Rack on Right

On Monday [July 13], the equipment showed up and DSI's on-site crew got to work pulling cable.

DSI brought five total racks, built with some time-consuming connections such as the audio & video patch panels among other things. Other equipment such as the frame syncs and multiviewer "brains" were placed in the racks, as well.

[Remaining pictures, July 14]

Equipment racks filling in

Tally Display Controller

Frame Syncs (responsible for up/down/cross conversion of signals)

Today, the first of the equipement started going into the consoles :) This is an exciting thing for me personally as it will start to feel more like a real control room.

The intercom panels, the router panels and the audio monitors for each station were placed today.

First equipment in the consoles :) Intercom Panel.

This is a 12-channel box.

Even though it's not in it's final place, here's a

32-channel intercom panel in comparison.

Also, the video monitors for each position were placed.

Used as alternate Program (what's on the main videoboard), source (what each position's machine is outputting to the switcher) or even router-fed (selectable) inputs in each position.

While all of this has been going on, several of us have been getting some training with the new Daktronics system.... which is ironically a lot like the old system.... just with a prettier board to play stuff on :)

[Misc Photos: July 14]

Another look at some of the consoles

"Turret" for the Technical Director, including intercom,

rasterizer (digital vectorscope/waveform), etc.

The 32-channel intercom won't be there ;)

Carolina Hurricanes 2009 Exhibition Schedule

2009-07-10T10:22:00.004-04:00

Fri. Sept. 18 vs. Nashville: RBC Center, 7:00 p.m.

Mon. Sept. 21 at Atlanta: Philips Arena, 7:00 p.m.

Fri. Sept. 25 vs. Atlanta: RBC Center, 7:00 p.m.

Sat. Sept. 26 at Nashville: Sommet Center, 5:00 p.m.

UPDATE:

Training camp schedule and partial roster can be found HERE.

Taking shape

2009-07-08T11:33:00.006-04:00

The TBC consoles are here :)

Of course, DSI will be coming in next week to put equipment into the consoles, but they're here and almost completely installed!

These consoles are much more user-friendly than the ones we had before and a lot less bulky. Each console has a 4-RU (rack unit) tall backsplash. In addition, there is a tray that you can slide and position the articulating arms for the monitors.

There are three consoles, the first of which is for the director/tech director. The second console is for our replay system and robotic camera operator and the third console is for our graphics/video playback operators.

From the back of the room

One of the consoles from the side.

There are many advantages in using pre-fabricated technical consoles such as this. I referenced the advantages in a previous post.

I just wanted everyone to know that things are moving along just as planned :) Thanks for sticking with us!

Learning the Ropes

2009-06-26T12:19:00.002-04:00

We're in the process of working out some of the bugs in the system for the Megatron. We are testing out some scoreboard (actual clock/score/etc.) layouts for hockey and basketball this week, as well as testing font sizes vs. sight lines and such. In addition to having several videos in the works from the editors for both football and hockey, it may look like not much is going on around here, but there is PLENTY of work behind the scenes. I feel that we're getting to a point where more visible changes and updates may be coming within the next couple of weeks.

Just wanted to keep everyone up on things going on here. I hope to have more updates coming soon!

In the works

2009-06-23T23:39:00.002-04:00

Never to be forgotten, we are working on some scoreboard/stats templates for basketball today. I didn't get any images :( but we're trying our best to crank out content as best we can!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we're still working even if it's quiet here :)

Holding Pattern...

2009-06-19T13:39:00.005-04:00

As far as the videoboard goes, we're in a holding pattern. Daktronics has finished their first phase of getting the board together and turned on, and will be back next month to put some finishing touches on the project.

With the Keith Urban/Sugarland concert tonight, the upcoming WWE event, a hold for the arena floor so that the basketball floor can be re-finished, the Megatron (which I will affectionately refer to the thing from now on) will be staying put up in the rafters for a while.

In the mean time, there is much work being done as far as content creation and scripting the Venus system to make it do what we want.

We did find out that our training sessions will stagger throughout the month of August, starting around the 5th. With the room being turned over to us on the 28th, that's a lot of information to cram into a short amount of time!

Just know there is a lot of stuff going on in the background, and please keep checking back for the latest :) Remember you can follow along on Twitter @CVHD.

Just imagine...

2009-06-18T01:40:00.003-04:00

Okay, I know I'm crossing vendors here, but you have to give props to Mitsubishi for their work in Dallas... the Cowboys now have the largest HD screen in the world (or will have in their new stadium), and here's a sneak peek of it in action!

Keep in mind what you're seeing here... This videoboard is 60 yards long and over 70 feet tall. If hung from the rafters in the RBC Center, it would extend from goal line to goal line (actually over by a foot or so on each end) and extend from the catwalks to less than 20 feet above the ice!

Content was found at EngadgetHD.net

God Bless America

2009-06-17T23:59:00.004-04:00

Running the boards for signal check and heat tolerance. Nice choice of testing content :)

I See A Pattern Forming...

2009-06-16T23:13:00.008-04:00

Earlier today, they took a still from my personal camera and put quite the interesting subject on the board...

Look, Ma... I'm in HiDef!

Notice there are three separate signals on the boards on the top. We can run something different on all eight if we want. It's all in the scripting :-)

We'll be running more test content over the next few days, and scripting over the next few weeks. Be patient... these things are tricky and we have to create the content to script, too ;) It's coming soon, I promise!

Check check....

2009-06-15T23:41:00.001-04:00

Special Thanks to Paul Chapman for this photo :)

Testing 1...2...3...

2009-06-15T14:45:00.006-04:00

I'm not in the office today, but I did notice they are testing out the videoboard today. Probably just test patterns and such (I really can't see what's on there right now from the webcam, but it's getting tested :-)

Here's the image around the time of this post.

I will have more details when I am back in the office tomorrow... I should be able to put my own test content on the board by the end of the weekend... fingers crossed!

Exciting times

2009-06-12T22:07:00.005-04:00

I have to be careful not to get too many people's hopes up on this one, but it's still very nice!

I can't remember where, but some time ago, I heard that July 17th was the earliest that we could have the Daktronics computer(s) that could run all of the videoboards. Meaning, any creative content built ON the Dak computer, scripts (a single button that can play content on multiple boards) or RTD pages (Real Time Data - stats, game clock, score) that we needed would have to wait until July 17th to be STARTED. Remember: we have to rebuild E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G from the ground up.

Well....

Dak brought their rack of equipment (including data distributors, Venus/V7000 computers, etc.) pre-built. Meaning, all the pieces were already screwed in and wired up (within the rack). They had some computer issues to iron out once they turned it on (RAID controller problems), but once that was done, the rack was ready... but... it was still just sitting in the hall.

Asking the project manager how long it would be before it was in place and ready, I was given an answer of "a few weeks" [because they would need to wait for Diversified to finish some things first...].

Then, out of the blue, the following option was presented...

Why not move the rack down to your temporary office?

Simple, but AWESOME! The electricians were still wiring up the power today (officially meaning it took longer to POWER the board than it did to BUILD it), and there are some fiber terminations that still have to be made.

BUT... by the end of NEXT WEEK (nearly three weeks ahead of "schedule") we should be able to start sending some test content to the boards.

NOW... for the depressing part... While we can run content on the boards, it will still be a few weeks before we have everything starting to sing. There are tedious scripts we have to build (so that we hit one button and everything goes crazy, or whatever it's supposed to do), as well as building our RTD pages to hold our scoreboard info, shots/fouls, blah blah blah...

Because it will still be a few weeks, it means that - according to the original schedule, we'd be getting "up to speed" around the same time as all of our main equipment training kicks in the first of August... NOW, we'll have a little "extra" time to make sure things work on Opening Night :)

I know, I know... not as exciting as "we're running stuff already", but it's another significant step in the process! Now... time for a caffeine refill and back to work ;)

Oh yeah, and congrats to the Penguins for winning the Cup...

Feeling more like home...

2009-06-11T14:04:00.005-04:00

We got intercom stations and tape decks set up in our temporary offices today so we can work a little easier. It's starting to feel a little more like home!

Someone had asked on a previous post about the physical size of the boards. I actually got firm numbers, but I don't think they tell the whole story...

The old boards had quite a large bezel (physical area outside the display surface, like a TV would have...) between the display area and the corner of the panels (nearly a foot if I'm not mistaken).

Old Matrix Detail

Old Jumbotron Detail

The new boards have pixels covering nearly every ounce of space, so even if the physical board is the same size, this one has a larger image because of the smaller bezel.

The Lower Ring and the lower portion of the Main board

That said, the rough physical dimensions comparison is as follows:

OLD JUMBOTRON:
Width: 34' (at the top)
Height: 20'

NEW VIDEOBOARD (not including the "RBC Center" lettering):
Width: 29' (at the top)
Height: 23'

Again, the numbers lie a little ;) The USABLE DISPLAY AREA has easily quadrupled for us on these boards, so don't let the numbers fool you. Even looking at it hanging in the room it looks gargantuan! Remember, too, that part of the size was due to the ad panels at the top, the tri-vision displays at the bottom and the RBC Center designations in the corners.

Also, there has been a rather exciting development here over the last couple of days, and I will be more at liberty to share tomorrow...

Building the future

2009-06-10T09:11:00.003-04:00

Time lapse of the new video board constructed for the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. This replaces the old Jumbotron and will be the new scoreboard primarily for the Carolina Hurricanes & the NC State Wolfpack Men's Basketball team.

Deconstructed

2009-06-10T09:05:00.003-04:00

With a new video board going into the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC, the old Jumbotron had to be taken out. Here is a time lapse by CanesVision on the deconstruction of the old scoreboard.

From the inside

2009-06-09T15:48:00.006-04:00

Special thanks to Chad for posting in my absence! I think it's a good thing that we're documenting all of this for posterity, if nothing else! Of course, some people obviously find it interesting, because according to Google Analytics, this blog - that I thought maybe 15 or 20 people would find interesting - now has over 4,600 page views from more than 1,400 unique visitors from across 36 states and even Canada... no pressure to get my info right, eh? :)

The Daktronics boards were physically completed on Sunday! Here is what the completed videoboard looks like - close to the ground, at least!

Man... that's a monster!

From the corner

Catwalks inside the videoboard allow for maintenance access and such.
Much more user friendly than the previous version!

You can certainly notice the "high school locker" look I referenced previously...
Also, note the cable bin in the lower left... this is for the cable to spool itself when the board is raised.

And this is how it's looked for most of the day. We have seen so much progress that the next few days will be rather "slow" for us... The electricians are hooking up all of the power and such to the boards today and I'm sure into tomorrow.

As for the control room, we are in the holding pattern for equipment. We got in some rack bases today; we'll get more tomorrow... Slowly, all the equipment that is meant to "drop ship" to us will begin trickling in over the next couple of weeks. DSI will have the site supervisor and some personnel beginning on July 6th(ish), with the full team in house beginning July 13th. Their main objective - wrangle all of the equipment, stick it in the room and wire it up to work!

Not too difficult, right?

So, if I'm a bit absent from posting, it may just be because there's not much to say during the "slow" parts... basically there's nothing new to take pictures of ;) But, rest assured, there's plenty of work going on from the inside!

And then there was HD

2009-06-07T14:00:00.003-04:00

Saturday brought the installation of the main HD boards. The crew got to work early, but I did not... When I dropped by around 11am, the main frame for the video boards was completed and the lower sections of the boards were staged around the frame and ready for assembly.

Main boards and frame

The frame for the lower boards sits on the ground for now, awaiting installation of the main boards. The 4 main boards are approximately 16' wide by 9' tall, and were each shipped in 4 pieces. Each piece was half the width of the main board, and the lower sections were about 6' tall, while the upper sections were about 3'. As you can see in the next couple of pictures, the upper section was attached to the lower section, then that half of the board was bolted to the frame. the process was repeated for the other half to complete one side of the 4-sided main display structure.

Wider view of the whole structure. In the foreground is the lower left panel of each side of the main display.

The upper right section of a main display is being moved into place.

As with the other boards, the front panels are removed to bolt the panels together and to make power and signal connections.

The south-facing main display is complete and attached to the main frame. You can get some perspective of the size relative to the person standing by the forklift to the left of the board.

-Chaq

That Has A Nice Ring To It...

2009-06-07T13:29:00.003-04:00

Although I'm nowhere near as timely with my updates as Stephen, hope you find this interesting none the less. This is still progress from Friday, when the construction crew was in high gear and probably made the most progress in any one day of the project.

The upper ring is completely assembled and the upper matrix is being lowered into place for connections.

Just a few inches more... (T.W.S.S.)

First turnbuckles are being connected from the upper matrix frame to the top of the upper ring. Everything was lined up pretty well, but there was a little "persuasion" needed to get everything just right. It's pretty cool how much you can make the board sway when it's suspended on the hoist...

Looking good, but do you really want to stick your arm in there?

Raise it Up!

This is pretty much where construction ended on Friday. Plan for Saturday is to assemble frame and hang main boards.

More to come...

-Chaq

Taking Shape

2009-06-06T19:34:00.008-04:00

Since Stephen is on the road this weekend, I'll try to keep everyone up to date on the videoboard progress.

There was significant progress made on Friday, with the upper matrix boards completed, the RBC Center logo and text, and the upper LED ring completed and hung. We also bid farewell to the old Jumbotron screens as they were loaded onto a flatbed and drove off into the sunset...

Here you can see the upper matrix/scoreboards hung with a slight angle down toward the bowl/floor. The gap between the boards will be covered shortly with a small, black bezel.

This is the RBC Logo and lettering that will adorn the top of the video board structure. The logo and text were laid out on the supports which were then cut into 3 sections and attached to the tops of the matrix/scoreboards.

There are 2 sets, one will face east (penalty box/Basketball scorer's table side) and the other West (hockey bench/b-ball press table side).

A view from section 102 as the board is raised.

Upper ring is being uncrated.

The upper ring is almost complete. As Stephen mentioned before regarding the upper matrix panels, each of the ring sections has to be bolted together and connections made by removing front panels and inserting bolts, and connecting power and control cables.

The last section of the upper ring is moved into place. You can see the connection points where the sections are bolted together. Also visible is the hole the control and power cables pass through. On the top of the panel is a u-shaped bracket that will connect the two panels as well. After the ring is raised there are the same type of brackets that hold the bottom of the sections together.

This is one of the turnbuckles (and safety cable) that connect the upper ring to the scoreboard/matrix frame. On the left is the base of one of the upper panels, and the black area in the middle is actually the floor of the catwalk that goes around the upper section, behind the displays.

More later...

-Chaq

Long weekend...

2009-06-05T10:02:00.002-04:00

I will be out this weekend (wouldn't you know it), but hopefully there will still be some updates. I will try to get some snapshots from the webcam up here at least :)

Link to a "live" shot HERE.

Not what I was expecting

2009-06-04T14:03:00.014-04:00

When Daktronics started to un-crate some of the new videoboard panels, I went down to take a look... These certainly aren't what I expected!

First, notice the construction. The previous Jumbotron was a rats nest of exposed wires and such and you could see all of it from the back.

Old Jumbotron

The rear of the new videoboard panels looks like a high school full of lockers, giving access to particular parts of the videoboard. Inside these lockers, there is a plethora of cabling, but also of circuit boards and fuse panels...

New videoboard panel

The biggest surprise to me was the front of the thing... I'm used to the RGB triangle of the ribbon board and old Jumbotron. If you've ever seen our ribbon board up close, you've probably noticed that each pixel is made up of three tiny LEDs - a red, green and blue one. (hence the red/green/blue dotted theme I chose for the blog... it all comes together....)

Existing Ribbon Board detail

The LEDs on the new videoboard panels are below the surface, and all you "see" is the resulting color in these little squares... Each square is one pixel. Simple enough and makes perfect sense, but totally not what I was expecting!

New videoboard panel pixel detail

What's the benefit of something like this? With the current ribbon board, look at it especially when there is white displayed on it. This means all three LEDs are at full brightness for every pixel. If you look at the board at an angle, depending on where you look, the white may look either a little blue/green or maybe pink. This is because the blue, green or red LED is closest to you in the triangle that makes up the pixel.

With the pixels in the new videoboards, they are the color you want them to be at the surface - all the color mixing happens behind the pixel. So, no matter which angle you look at it from, white is white, orange is orange and so on.

Note the distance between the pixels. The pixels above are 20mm offset from center, meaning the center of one pixel to the center of the next is 20mm. The main videoboards (coming over the weekend...) are at a 10mm spacing, meaning the clarity and definition should be AMAZING!

With all that boring stuff said... Here are some shots of the boards before they are hung. Each of these free-standing sections is one-half of ONE side of the upper boards. There are 16 of these sections to make up the 8 boards.

Back

Front

To give you an idea about the size of these things, take a look at this...
I'm 6'4"...

goofball...

And then it started to come together...

Hanging the first piece of the new videoboard!

The center boards are taken out to bolt the frame together as well as connect the cables between the two halves.

More of the same

Almost done... and this is just the TOP :)

Add to this a 360 ring below, then the main videoboard and another 360 ring on the bottom...

Sweet!

The framework

2009-06-04T12:35:00.003-04:00

The frame for the upper boards begins to take shape!

There are four 4½ ton wenches that support videoboard. These are the same ones that held the previous scoreboard.

TRIVIA: The new scoreboard is slated to weigh in just over 33,000 lbs!!!

From near the Canes player entrance.

From the catwalk.

Underway

2009-06-03T16:37:00.003-04:00

The steel supports for the new scoreboard! These will attach to the winches to connect it to the ceiling.

Keep checking out the progress HERE.

Scoreboard-less RBC

2009-06-03T12:42:00.004-04:00

FYI: I just signed up for a Twitter account to post when I update here. Find me @CVHD.

Not much left....

2009-06-02T15:48:00.005-04:00

It's been a busy day. CanesVision has been having creative meetings all day, so I have been bouncing back and forth trying to get pictures as best I can...

I missed the matrix panels being taken down... but here they are in a heap...

Only videoboards left!

Looking slim...

There she goes....

Frame

Busy day so far....

2009-06-02T12:26:00.011-04:00

The camera & speakers had to come off the bottom of the scoreboard before the Dak guys got started. Then, the engineers started removing the panels piece by piece.

They started with the ad panels up top (simply removing the placards).

Then, it was on to the tri-vision panels below the Jumbotron and Matrix boards, but they took the whole piece off.

After that, they removed the ad panels (light boxes).

Dak currently have all of the "scoreboards" (team name, clock & score info - from above Jumbotron screens) off.

They have one of the "player/penalty" clocks down (from above Matrix boards).

They're still working, and should have the entire board dismantled by the end of the day.

Quick post... more later

2009-06-02T10:20:00.004-04:00

Farewell

2009-06-01T17:06:00.006-04:00

For the last time...

Out with the old.... in with the new....

2009-06-01T12:44:00.002-04:00

As the crates holding the new videoboards rolled into place. In all, there were four flatbed tractor trailers that brought us the new stuff :)

By the end of the day, the speakers and "Camera 5" will be disassembled and safely put away... tomorrow morning, the old board will be brought down for the last time.

As a teaser of what is to come... I snapped this from one of the Dak installer's handbooks :) Enjoy!

It's here....

2009-06-01T10:23:00.004-04:00

Link to the RBC Center Webcam

Random

2009-05-29T00:39:00.003-04:00

If you happen to have an iGadget (iPod touch/iPhone), add the blog to your home screen (use the bookmark, add to home screen option) and see the nifty little icon. That way you can follow us no matter where you are.

Day 2 - Skeletons

2009-05-28T23:26:00.010-04:00

Bryan and Jordan began the surgical removal of equipment today: disassembling, inventorying, and divvying it up to either be saved, shipped, scrapped or stored.

Here are some pictures of the happenings of the day. Thanks to Jordan Keen for the pictures :)

At the start of the day
Monitor Wall - From Entry Door

And, as the day progressed, some notable images...

VTR Racks (note the shelf.... the left rack is already gone, as are the DigiBetas...)

Engineering land from the corner/door.

At the end of the day...
The Monitor Wall - from the Audio Room door

Also, make sure you bookmark the RBC Center Webcam... Besides catching snapshots of the Sesame Street production, you'll be able to see the physical removal of the current Jumbotron and scoreboard paraphernalia and the new Dak videoboards will be installed shortly after! The entire process is to be completed on June 18th, the day before the Keith Urban/Sugarland concert (they obviously don't plan to use it, it just needs to be done and out of the way).

More pictures to come tomorrow, I'm sure.

Day 1 is Done!

2009-05-27T22:30:00.013-04:00

And we're all sore....

We mainly got our editing stations out and moved down the hallway. We've been assigned to three broadcast booths used for home and away TV/radio.

The reason you don't see much by way of consoles or monitors on the wall leaving just yet is because that all starts tomorrow. Our engineer begins surgically removing most of this through next week.

Our DSI project manager will be on-site Monday for a walk through. Some time Monday afternoon we will be shipping five tall racks (similar to the ones on the monitor wall) to Seattle so DSI can actually pre-build some equipment into the racks. This means there will actually be multi-tasking by several parties and we'll be getting things done simultaneously. Then, the racks will pretty much "drop in" and bolt to the rack bases and DSI will wire it up. I know, it's an over-simplification, but it's the flow of the project, at least.

Control Room - From Entry Door

Edit Station - one of the most drastic changes

Front Deck - From Producers position toward Matrix/House Production

Front Deck - From Matrix Position toward Producer/NHL Replay

The "Darkroom" - forgot to get a "before" of this one... oops!
Another one of the drastic changes!

Audio Room

Monitor Wall - from Audio Room door

Some of the aftermath in the Press Row hallway...
that's for tomorrow!

So... what's going on?

2009-05-27T21:40:00.004-04:00

I realize from a post that I just received that some people reading this don't really know what's going on, so I thought I'd try to expound. Also, welcome if you are linking to this blog from the Canes' website!

In a nutshell: the RBC Center is getting a new HD videoboard ("jumbotron") and is redoing the control room to be completely HD.

(note: "jumbotron" is a brand name used by Sony... saying "jumbotron" is like saying "kleenex" or "band aid"... you're equating the brand name with the product. Since Sony doesn't make Jumbotrons anymore - in fact, we got one of the last ones when the building was built - we'll refer to it as the "videoboard")

Why the change?

Even though the building is just shy of ten years old, some upgrades needed to put in place. After 7000 of broadcast hours (as noted by the videoboard controller), things were starting to either break, otherwise malfunction or simply become obsolete because of newer technologies.

But it's only been ten years!

Think of it this way: in 1999, how many of you had heard of a plasma TV? [rhetorical] Back at the turn of the millennium, large format plasmas were still in the $10K range. Now, how many of you have them in your home? [again, rhetorical] 50" plasmas are now under $2K.

So goes the world of broadcast. The world of HD has grown in leaps and bounds and has been field tested enough that we're able to make smart (or at least well informed) decisions about equipment purchase and such, and even future proof ourselves so we may get a bit more than ten years out of this room!

The new videoboard will be full-LED, with no static displays for time clock or penalty/fouls. It will be supplied by Daktronics, who furnished our current (existing and surviving through the transition) 360° ribbon board and now defunct Matrix panels. They also supplied the two videoboards in the north end of Carter Finley Stadium.

Enough for this post... pictures of our progress today will be posted shortly!

RBC Webcam

2009-05-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

If you're fast, you can check out the RBC Center Webcam and see the last of the ice being scraped off...

Calm before the storm

2009-05-27T11:57:00.011-04:00

Mainly a pictures post of what the control room and such looked like on Day 1 of the conversion.

Front Deck - Looking toward Producer/NHL Replay

Matrix/Stats (hey hey hey... goodbye!)

Front Deck toward Matrix/House Production

Engineering - from Keen's desk

Engineering - from hallway door

Control Room - From Final Cut station toward door

Audio Room - Patch Bay/Racks

Audio Console

Control Room - from door to Front Deck

Final Cut Stations

Monitor Wall - From entry door

Control Room - From Entry Door

Entry Door

More pictures should be up by the end of the day with the ghost town of a control room that should be left. I'll also try to get pictures of our new home for the summer before/after setup.

On to the next thing!

RIP SD Jumbotron 1999 - 2009

2009-05-27T09:18:00.004-04:00

Thanks for the ride, Canes... now it's time to get down and dirty.

Today marks the first official day of the room conversion, and we'll be yanking out our computers, shelves, and pretty much anything that's not bolted directly to the floor. Tomorrow, Bryan Keen will start disassembling the equipment.

Now, if we could just find our baseball bat...

DSI Design Review - Day 2

2009-05-21T20:33:00.006-04:00

Well... all the "cool" stuff was pretty much discussed yesterday :)

One nice thing about today was a simplification of the patch bay. Basically, the panel will follow the signal flow from top to bottom - sources at the top, distribution amps underneath, then on to the inputs to the switcher and router under that.

In addition, the sources across the top will normal all the way down, meaning if Camera 1's source output is Row A, Column 1, then you could find Camera 1's DA and switcher/router inputs all the way down Column 1. Think of it as a larger than life functional excel spreadsheet ;)

We finalized the console finishes today; we'll be going with the cherry wood-like side panels and the "charcoal matrix" countertop finish on TBC IntelliTrac systems.

In addition, we will be using TBC TracWall framing for the Monitor Wall monitors to mount to. The TracWall system will be bolted to a laminated panel that basically flattens out the front wall, since there is a slight curve in the wall that is to hold the monitors.

On a side note, our backup V7000 that feeds the backup ribbon board took a dump on us during the last round. We sent it back to Daktronics, who replaced all the hard drives. The unit works well, but needs the mirror to work overtime to get it rebuilt :) If we keep having problems, the nice thing is that the Dak team should be in town in late June/early July to hang our new scoreboard!

Today was mostly patch bay location (oddly enough), as well as signal flow/connectivity. In addition, we discussed the usage of Blu-Ray as our medium of choice for archiving our air check/proof of performance and even melts. The issue is that stand-alone Blu-Ray recorders are not even yet available in the US.

DSI Design Review - Day 1

2009-05-20T22:08:00.012-04:00

I know I'm not going to do this justice, but I wanted to get some of the more "interesting" items (at least some of the things I understood ;) ) from the meeting today with Diversified.

I also don't know exact model numbers for some things, but I will try to link to them and I will re-post things that may be incorrect or incomplete.

One of the biggest items from the meeting today - in my estimation - is that we are going to get a new product from CamMate that will allow for a full 360° continuous rotation for our camera mounted under the scoreboard (currently referred to as "Camera 5"). Our current robotic camera is s.....l.....o.....w...... and is used primarily for an overhead of puck drop/tip off, teams taking the ice/floor and crowd/color shots. It also only goes about 330° around and we have to position the dead spot somewhere the lens isn't long enough to reach in the crowd.

The new camera will actually be used primarily for game follow. We will not have to worry about dead zones anymore because we will actually be able to spin the camera continuously in any one direction until we get tired of doing it ;) We were looking at a Panasonic head that was about $3K cheaper, but it had hard stops at 400° (more than a full rotation, which is good, but it still stops), so if the operator "loses" where he is, he could get burned by "hitting the wall".

Side note: since the scoreboard camera will be utilized primarily for game action, we will actually have a roving, sixth camera for most events used for fan/color shots more than our current setup.

A nifty by product of this (and of us being a 720p world - which makes us compatible with our main broadcast rights holder that holds the contract for the next four years at least - FS Carolinas), is that TV broadcast can now use our camera for live or replay as desired. We are actually putting CanesVision and Broadcast program feeds at this station so the operator can tell if he's "live" on Broadcast even if he only has tally for the CanesVision show.

Okay, hopefully the other couple of issues will be quicker. At least I'm not boring the less than super-uber geeks with signal path stuff (that's still fuzzy to me anyway...)

We will be utilizing Harris X75 Frame Syncs as utility up/down/cross convert signals used in production. While our cameras will all be run at native resolution (again, 720p), other signals - such as our present analog 4:3 NTSC cameras which will still be utilized for NC State Football - will pass through these to lock to our production. I noticed at Harris' website that the X75s are "obsolete"... I will be bringing this up at the meeting tomorrow :)

Another nifty feature in the control room is our "safety net" of redundancy to our production. We will be utilizing a Harris Predator multiviewer as a backup in case the main multiviewer, Centrio, crashes during a production. The Predator (linked above is the Predator2 - unsure of our exact model on order...) will receive 12 signals that can keep us afloat in the event of a failure.

The nice thing is, these 12 signals are direct feeds into the switcher, meaning the Centrio AND our routing system can both fail and the sources will still hit the switcher and the Predator to keep us live. Of course, if the switcher goes down, you're screwed anyway and we'll have to get a nice spinning logo from our Dak operator out front ;) If interested, the 12 sources designated as essential are Cameras 1-6, Crossfire 1 ("FIRE"), Crossfire 3 ("VDOC"), Miranda XG ("KERMIT"), EVS Out (single out, dual channel), Preview & Program. This gives us all of our manned cameras, including robo, our graphics, clip playback and replay source... everything we need for a barebones production :)

The outputs of the Predator will live on the "B" side (alternate input) of one of the five monitors on the monitor wall & out at the producer's position on the front deck overlooking the arena bowl. Should the Centrio go down for whatever reason (it does run on Windows...), it would just take a few seconds to flip the monitor over to the alternate input for the backup system.

Other issues such as where each of the Editors lives for pre-production was hashed out today. All of the Editors will be in the Control Room now, and will have mostly-adjacent desks.

In addition, we also went position-by-position for the game-night operation positions to make sure they were just right. Let me tell you... having TBC on board will make a big difference! Not only in functionality, but it will also look friggin' sweet!

Tomorrow is more of the same, but we're also meeting with some other people throughout the day, so I'm not sure how much will be interesting to share, but if it is even remotely good, I'll probably put it in writing.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I know some of this is a snooze, but when it's all said and done, it will be LIGHTYEARS (pardon the fiber-optic pun...) ahead of where we are now.

On the Table

2009-05-19T10:24:00.007-04:00

Something substantial here in CanesVision has happened and I needed to share. We are getting actual technical furniture from TBC!

It may not seem like a big deal, but it is a rather big victory for CanesVision. The technical consoles are the "desks" that all of the production equipment positions are located at in the broadcast environment: i.e.--Director, Technical Director, replay, graphics, etc.

Up until yesterday, the debate was going on about using a technical console manufacturer or having someone coach someone through the steps to build a console from scratch. There are many issues to consider when building something like this from the ground up, including rack units and rail configuration, as well as power accessibility and cable management.

A contractor had originally stated that he could produce these consoles for a significant amount less than what we could purchase the TBC consoles for. However, through the course of several discussions with them and TBC contacting them directly, they were able to strike a deal and the furniture for the broadcast positions will be honest-to-goodness technical furniture!

On hold

2009-05-15T01:54:00.002-04:00

The Carolina Hurricanes are returning to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in four years!

That means no demolition tomorrow! The new room can wait ;)

DSI will be back in town this week for a final review of everything. Some items are already purchased/decided on and others are still to be finalized. Hopefully there will be something interesting to write about next week!

For now, GO CANES!

From the other side...

2009-05-09T00:54:00.002-04:00

I want to be sure to mention that if you're already in an HD world, please feel free to share your thoughts or experiences here as you feel so inclined. It would be good to have insight from people from the other side here.

Thanks!

Oh yeah, and GO CANES!

Window to the World

2009-05-08T16:03:00.004-04:00

There are so many things that I want to be able to say about everything that is going on around here... too bad I only have time for short posts!

I wanted to start on the equipment side of our room renovation with the focal point of the room - the monitor wall.

Currently, the CanesVision control room is full of rack-mounted CRT source monitors, ranging from 9" to 24" in size, most black and white, a few (graphics and preview/program) in color. The footprint is staggering...

Technology has come a long way in the near-ten years since this room was built, and the monitor wall is getting a definite upgrade! We will be utilizing a total of five NEC LCD4615 displays for our monitor wall sources. To "break up" the monitors into usable sources, we will be using the Harris Centrio Multiviewer software. We have already downloaded the software to be able to lay out the wall, but haven't had much of a chance to figure it out since the team is still going strong in the post-season (incessant knocking on any surface that closely resembles wood can be heard...)

The nice thing about the multiviewer setup is that it is custom configurable with virtually no limit to the number of layouts you can design. So, there can be a layout for hockey with separate director and td, hockey with a single director/td, basketball configured both ways, football, monster trucks, graduation... you can have a different layout based on the number of inputs and type of event, without having to physically patch anything. Just drag, drop, save and import :)

In addition to the monitor wall, there will be additional multiviewer outputs (all driven from the same Centrio) at the video shading position and the producer's position. Currently, our producer can not see anything but our program feed. Now, the producer will be able to see as many inputs as we can squeeze onto his monitor :)

There are so many other things I want to talk about, but I don't want to bore anyone to death. So, for now, this is good enough...

If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment and we'll try to figure out the answer ;)

The [Not So] Beginning

2009-05-03T15:43:00.002-04:00

I'm creating this blog in hopes that I can update throughout the summer on CanesVision's conversion to High Definition. Not sure who will find this interesting or useful, but I hope to post at least weekly throughout the next few months to keep readers aware of the changes coming to the RBC Center in the fall.

It's not really the beginning, as conversations have been going on for several years on the HD conversion, but only in the past year or so have the conversations been pushing toward reality.

The big puzzle pieces are that we are using Diversified Systems. for the integration of the room. In addition to the control room going HD, we are getting a new full-video scoreboard from Daktronics.

As things progress, I hope to fill in the gaps on all the decisions made on equipment (which has all but been finalized already...) as well as room integration and such. If there's anything you wish to know, please comment and ask! I hope to have others involved in this process looking in on this blog and offering their comments, as well.

Thanks for stopping by!