Carter Finley Videoboard Update

Solid.

Carter Finley Videoboard Update

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!

Carter Finley Videoboard Update

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.

Carter Finley Scoreboard Update

Something seems to be missing....

WWE

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.

Quick Post with Pictures

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

That's A Wrap

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!

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...

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 :)

Looking Good

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

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

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

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!

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"...

Update: In Pictures

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...

Quick Pictures Post

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 ;)