Articles tagged #INTEGRATION
Articles tagged
#INTEGRATION

Videocraft Designs, Supplies, Builds and Installs New Television Studio for RMIT

Recently Videocraft played a major part in the delivery of RMIT’s New Academic Street (NAS) consolidation project which included providing teaching and learning environments for students in their Screen and Media, Screen and Media Productions, Communications and Journalism programs. The scope of works required to deliver this project involved Videocraft designing, building and being responsible for the full construction of RMIT’s new TV Studio A.   Videocraft MD James Taylor explained, “This was a very comprehensive project and build and involved the acoustic treatment of ceiling, walls and windows, specialist acoustic doors, an upgrade of existing mechanical and electrical services and the relocation of existing equipment which was no mean feat. Bearing all this in mind Videocraft fulfilled all of RMIT’s audio visual requirements.”   Moving studios is never easy. Moving studios and simultaneously building a new one is even more complex as Taylor detailed, “This was a challenge for all involved. Maintaining continuity of business whilst shutting down one facility and building and troubleshooting a new state-of-the-art studio definitely had its challenges. That said we approached the broadcast AV installation in our usual professional manner and completed the project on a very tight timeframe and within the budget.”   According to Taylor the program constraints were difficult to achieve however he added, “Despite this major constraint we delivered in full and worked extensively with the end user to ensure their functional requirements were comprehensively addressed. I’m delighted to say RMIT were very happy with the end result.”   When all was complete Videocraft built and installed a state-of-the art digital television studio and master control including fibre link to C31, live streaming capabilities and green lighting technologies throughout. To which Taylor added, “All of this on a very tight budget by and within a very short timeframe. I’m very proud of our team for making this happen. It was an incredible effort and they were so professional.”   Videocraft supplied RMIT with the equipment for two TV studios with all associated cabling, two control rooms, comms, master control, cameras, audio, vision switchers, routers, racks, patch bays, CCUs and graphics. Now complete and ‘on-air’ the new studio is a dynamic and busy teaching facility catering to both VE and HE classes at RMIT in addition to RMITV. As a result students can now put live broadcasts to air on CTV31, live stream broadcasts over IP and cater for numerous pre-records and teaching activities.   James Taylor concluded, “RMIT’s feedback is that the users are ecstatic with the new spaces and the overall user experience has been excellent. The students find the state-of-the-art gear we installed a joy to work with and represents best industry practice, which in turn ensures the graduates are industry ready.”  

Read More

Videocraft Produces Mobile Highlights Show for 2012 Tour Down Under

Furthering its expansion into full editing and production solutions Videocraft recently produced a one-hour daily highlights show for Beyond Productions, Channel 9 and the Tour Down Under cycle race. Videocraft sales director James Taylor explained, “In order to achieve 48 minutes of daily content on the move we had to use Videocraft’s mobile edit facility. This production was not like the Tour de France which is one continuous live broadcast. The Tour Down Under footage is created from scratch while the race is on. This is no mean feat and relies completely on the equipment you use and editors and producers who really know their jobs.” Videocraft’s mobile edit truck moved with the race as the cyclists powered their way across South Australia. Moving with them were multiple Sony PDW-700 XDCAM 4:2:2 cameras acquiring and storing footage on optical discs. Taylor continued, “We used Canon’s new image stabiliser lens for the main motorbike camera material which helped us get far more stable shots. It’s a great lens and perfect for this type of shoot.” Videocraft also provided all the technical management for the production and put together the workflow that included multiple XDCAM cameras feeding material into their edit truck. Inside the truck was an EVS XS server and IP Director which were used for all live stages, ingest from OB trucks and all playout of finished shows. Taylor explained, “We got material into the system and logged it to make the editors job easier. Then the producer could find all the shots they wanted from the OB and put together the highlights for news.” Videocraft also brought a level of functionality and flexibility normally associated with a fixed production house setup to a constantly changing mobile environment – all within 15 minutes of parking their editing truck. A cycle race involves long hours for all involved and the Tour Down Under was no exception. The production was based around 18 hour days every one of which saw producers and editors sitting alongside James Taylor in Videocraft’s edit truck so there would be no interruptions to the workflow. “It was a no frills set up, that’s for sure,” added Taylor. “The camera guys on motorbikes would drop their discs at agreed points and we would ingest the material into our edit system. The editors would then pick content from logs that the producer had created and we would add in graphics from within our system. The story was then put together and cleaned up with the final voice over added using Avid Media Composer’s audio punching tool. Once complete the finished edit was stored in the EVS server for playout later via satellite.” Videocraft also created and encoded news highlight packages for the Internet within their mobile editing facility for the entire duration of the Tour Down Under. All in all a complete production and editing solution. James Taylor concluded, “A production like the Tour Down Under is fast, furious and often hectic but at Videocraft it’s what we do best. In this case we used an Avid Media Composer, Nitris DX and Isis 5000 shared storage solution as this setup is perfect for the fast turnaround, high-pressure environment and critically, it delivers time and time again. Our discussions with our clients as we prepare for this type of production is always the same – what’s required is a reliable and trustworthy workflow with a systems integrator who can make it happen in far from perfect environments. After 40 years in the business, it’s something we pride ourselves on achieving.”

Read More