Opening Night Recap

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!

Before and After

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 :)

The Sport Less Mentioned

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...

Red Bull, Anyone?

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"...

Coming along

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!

The Equipment Has Landed

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 ;)

Day 2 - Skeletons

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.

DSI Design Review - Day 2

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.