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Home: Video University Forums: Teaching Video Production:
TV Studio Equipment?

Jordan O.
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Jan 3, 2006, 12:18 PM

Post #1 of 10 (5805 views)
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TV Studio Equipment?	Can't Post

Hey All,
I'm currently working on the equipment purchases for the next school year for my high school's television broadcast program. We're good on studio cameras and we have videonics switcher, along with some misc monitors, etc. We also have enough audio equipment.

I'm looking at the Newtek Tricaster for live switching, as well as a secondary edit system. Anyone have any experience with this unit?

Any suggestions for a modest teleprompter setup?

As far as editing, I'm considering a powermac FCP setup for the edit bay, and 5-10 iBooks with FCE (or powerbooks if the new iBooks are firewireless)

Anything else?

Thanks,
Jordan

Stoney
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Jan 3, 2006, 1:07 PM

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Re: [Jordan O.] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

I haven't used the Tricaster system, but I did see it at NAB last year. It seems to be a nice portable switching system, but I didn't like the idea that the only imputs are either RCA composite or S-Video. It would be nice to have BNC composite and XLR instead of RCA for audio. I'm not sure what kind of cameras you have, but BNC is usually the best way to go in the composite realm because it locks the cable in place. For around the same price, Panasonic makes some nice production switchers, the only problem is that they don't have graphics built in, which is a nice plus for the Tricaster.
I don't think that it has any editing capabilities, unlike it's big brother the Toaster, but I could be wrong.

As for editing, I'm a PC person and have Premiere Pro in my edit suites, but there is definitely nothing wrong with going Mac and FCP, although I'm wondering why you want to with iBooks? I'm guessing either price or for the portability. Either way, you might want to think of having at least 1 or 2 more desktop edit stations, just for the overall ease of adding more storage, bigger monitors and being more stable. Also I have a close friend who tried FCE and really had a lot of problems with it, so he ended up going with FCP. Something to think about.

Good luck.
Stoney
LE 6.1, DVC-80, GL-1 & TRV900

wilebill
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Jan 3, 2006, 2:13 PM

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Re: [Jordan O.] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Have you thought about going with the Video Toaster instead of the Tricaster? The Tricaster is intended more for "amateur" (hence the RCA inputs, etc.) usage instead of pro usage. By amateur I mean people who don't generally do video for a living. The editing capabilities of the Tricaster is rather limited, too. Having said all that I wouldn't mind having one for some of the live events that we do. NewTek's "pro" system is the VT[4]. The 2 systems are meant for different markets, that's why they're different. Wink

The VT would give you all the live production capabilities that you would probably need, plus it serves very well as an editor, 3D modeler/renderer (Lightwave), CG, paint, etc. There are a lot of churches using the VT as well as other HS facilities that I've read about. I recently saw an article in the Birmingham (AL) News talking about how their HS recently started using the VT. Several govt. agencies use the VT as their main editor. FEMA shipped in several units to Jackson to cut their Katrina-related footage.

Talk with Paul Lara at NewTek, and he can give you more specific examples of usages, or call one of the dealers.

Regards,
Billy Horton
Video Image Productions

Studio & On-Location Video Production
2 NewTek VT[4.6] Editing Suites

Jordan O.
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Jan 3, 2006, 8:09 PM

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Re: [Stoney] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunatly we don't have the budget to have cameras equipped with BNC connnections, stricly S-video. The main advantage of the tricaster is the titing ability and additional video playback deck (Hard Drive)

We're looking at iBooks mainly due to duarability. This is high school we're talking about Tongue

. But if the rumors are true, the new iBooks will not have firewire. I have yet to really check out the price difference between the iBooks and the Powerbooks. I'm also going to add a 2nd Powermac to list.

As far as FCE vs FCP goes, its just more cost effective to have FCE on the remote units and FCP in the edit bays. The laptops are really for editing in study halls and on the go.

Thanks,
Jordan

Jordan O.
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Jan 3, 2006, 8:12 PM

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Re: [wilebill] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

I have considered the VT, and believe me, I'd love to get one in there, but I fear it is overkill for our production setup.

I'm setting up 3 different plans, from highest cost to lowest. The VT will be on the top one.

Cheers,
Jordan

Stoney
User

Jan 4, 2006, 1:44 PM

Post #6 of 10 (5752 views)
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Re: [Jordan O.] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Another system that would be worth looking at is Broadcast Pics. It is a very high level switcher that has graphics and video playback capability. You can build it to spec and add on things as you go along. If your doing specs for a high end system, it would definitely be worth looking at for a fully professional production switcher. The best thing is that it will grow and you can add on more as money becomes available.
Stoney
LE 6.1, DVC-80, GL-1 & TRV900

Jack_Tripper
Novice

Jan 4, 2006, 10:25 PM

Post #7 of 10 (5735 views)
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Re: [Stoney] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

What is your budget?

What is your class size?

DepModeFan
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Jan 5, 2006, 12:36 PM

Post #8 of 10 (5715 views)
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Re: [Jordan O.] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

For an inexpensive teleprompter set up check out Prompt! at:

http://www.movieclip.biz/prompt.html

The software is simple and only runs $44 for Windows. I have been using it for 2 years now...I got an old PC that was not being used from our tech guy and installed it on that. I then split the video monitor cable out to 2 other monitors (also gotten for free from our tech guy) that are positioned just below our cameras. With enough distance between your subject and cameras, you can't tell the talent is looking below the lens.

WCorey
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Mar 4, 2006, 11:37 PM

Post #9 of 10 (5330 views)
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Re: [Jordan O.] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

Comments from a high school video program instructor:

We have had the Tricaster all year. I am quite pleased with it. Keep in mind that BNC connectors are only that (connectors) the signal is still composite. Your S-Video is a better signal than what is going in or out of equipment using BNC connectors. BNC is just a better connector than RCA because they don't come loose due to their locking abiiity. Anyways...back to the tricaster. We use it in two ways: One as a mobile mixer and graphics machine. We keep it in a flyaway case for this reason. So football season it can be unhooked from our studio "snake" and be securely loaded and transported ot our stadium which is a couple miles away. We use it in the studio as a downstream graphics machine and back up switcher should our main switcher go down.

The preset graphic templates that come preloaded are very well done. But you are stuck using them when you want LIVE graphic changes. For instance we use the basketball lower third and full screen graphics during our live coverage of our basketball games. I do not like the lower third "running" score template because I think it takes up too much real estate which means we don't show it all the time even though we would like to. You also can't change the preset templates in any way other than the text itself. What I mean is that you can not adjust the font, the point size, the color, etc. You can only change what it says. But... you will want to create your own graphics in PhotoShop and then export them for use in the Tricaster. Theoritically I suppose one could update a Photoshop file then save it and the Tricaster should recognize the change instantly so if you have a networked TriCaster and networked computer you should be able to change a graphic nearly instantly.

The webstreaming and encoding of your programs is really a great feature that is truly click and go! We have been streaming all of last few our programs.

We haven't used the TriCaster for editing much. Simple edits such as taking off a leader or tail is one thing but complex editing on the Tricaster is not what I would rec. Thats really not what it is designed for.

If you have another questions just email me and I would be glad to help. We have a large budget at our school due to additional technical funding so I am actually looking at replacing the Tricaster in our studio with a higher end "graphics" only machine such as a Chyron. We will still continue to use the Tricaster as a road machine.

Corey
Emporia High School
Emporia, Kansas
"A lot of times when you first start out on a project you think, This is never going to be finished. But then it is, and you think, Wow, it wasn't even worth it." Jack Handey

Razz
User

Mar 6, 2006, 1:39 PM

Post #10 of 10 (5294 views)
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Re: [WCorey] TV Studio Equipment? [In reply to]	Can't Post

try this: www.prompterpeople.com

Good luck.
Razz