As part of a larger plan to move to high-definition
broadcasting, Brigham Young University Broadcasting has completed a new 51-foot
HD mobile production truck and is selecting vendors for a new high-def facility
on its Provo, Utah,
campus.
"We plan by the time we launch the new [on-campus HD]
facility in December that we would be putting out two of our channels in high
definition," said Brandon Smith, BYUB's chief technical officer. "One would be
KBYU, which is the local PBS station and the other is BYU Television."
BYU Television is available throughout North
America on Dish Network, DirecTV and on 503 U.S.
cable systems, said Smith. Its current standard-definition feed reaches about
50 million homes, he said.
A live video stream is also available atwww.byu.tv.
The new truck replaces an old SD analog truck that Smith said
"we had milked along for the past 25 years or so."
BYUB, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, produces a wide array of programming, including sports, documentaries,
dance performances, concerts, theatrical and religious events for five TV and
five radio properties. This wide array of productions was kept in mind as the
new truck was designed.
"Some religious broadcasters will build trucks specifically
for religious types of events, but we also do a lot of sports and other events
and had to be able to accommodate all of them," Smith said.
As a result, BYUB tapped Calrec Audio "because some of our
audio engineers felt it has multitrack capabilities that would be important for
performance types of events," he said.
Other vendors included Sony cameras and a Sony 8000 switcher.
The truck is wired for up to 10 cameras.
Miranda supplied its NVISION 8288 truck video router and
Kaleido-X16 multi-viewers.
BYUB had chosen the NVISION router in part, Smith said,
because the broadcaster's personnel liked the quality of the vendor's products.
He said the Kaleido-X16 multiviewer system gives BYUB the flexibility to handle
a wide array of productions.
The recently completed new truck was built by Diversified
systems.
BYUB is in the process of selecting vendors for its new on-campus
HD facility. "We have an on air launch date of Dec. 1 for the facility," Smith
said. It will be around 100,000 square feet in size and include three studios.
The BYUB TV facility will be linked by fiber to some venues
around campus. "Because of the sheer number of events we do on campus, we can't
always get our truck over there, so the control rooms will be connected, for
example, to the basketball arena," and other venues, Smith explained.
One key factor in the design of both the truck and the new
HD campus facility is the fact that it will be heavily used by students. "On any
given shoot, students will make up 80% or 90% of the crew," working with full-time
employees, Smith noted. "We expect them to pull off a top quality show without
having 20 years of experience in the industry, so we created room where we
could mentor and train the students on the job.
"A lot of the layout in the truck was geared around having
space in certain areas, so students operating equipment could have a full-timer
monitoring what they were doing," he said. "We've found that by doing that they
can come up to speed very quickly."
BYUB also wanted to use equipment and technologies that
students were likely to see if they decided to pursue professional careers in
television.
"In the facility, we are taking advantage of
technology that is a little more on the leading edge in terms of IT-based
infrastructure and file-based workflows," he noted. "We want to make certain we
would give them experience in the newer technologies that they are going to be
using when they graduate."
