New Newseum Facility Shows News As It Happens

by Michael Grotticelli,

What better way to spotlight the history of the News business and demonstrate how content is developed than by employing the very tools and systems used by stations around the world today. A major bonus was that the new building would occupy the last prime real estate left on historic Pennsylvania Avenue (between the White House and U.S. Capitol building), in Washington D.C.

That was the goal for The Freedom Forum in designing and building the new Newseum. The challenge, however, was developing the museum’s new home with innovative technology that combines a file-based high-definition production environment with interactive kiosks (over 130), multiple galleries and digital theaters.

The resulting Newseum will open in the first quarter of 2008 with numerous interactive exhibits, live news feeds coming in daily from around the world, and a complete multiformat HD production, archiving and asset management infrastructure. More than three years in the making, the new Newseum is much larger than its previous location, which was situated outside of the city in Arlington, Va. Once it opens to the public this spring it’s estimated that millions of people will visit the museum each year. The ground floor of the building includes well-known restaurants and retail shopping, which should help attract crowds.

Indeed, this is no mere museum with traditional A/V display systems. This seven-story building also functions as two fully working HD production studios, including serving as the new home of ABC’s “This week with George Stephanopoulos.” It will also house other TV programs and various nationally syndicated radio shows.

HD News Production and Historical Exhibits

The multi-million dollar facility offers visitors a unique multimedia experience that spotlights five centuries of news history while employing the latest news production technology. There are seven floors that house HD production areas, museum galleries and 15 theaters.

One of the theaters, called the “Big Screen Theater,” features a 90-foot wide screen with images projected with five Christie Digital DW3K 720p HD projectors. A Vista Systems Spyder video processing engine is used to blend the edges and create a seamless image. The projection equipment is controlled by a Medialon show control system.

Inside the new building are the latest HD production facilities, including two control rooms, five edit suites and a multiformat HD news production infrastructure. The backbone of the infrastructure includes a SD/HD Grass Valley K2 Media server-based storage area network (SAN, including 14 HD inputs/20 HD outputs and nine SD inputs and 14 SD outs), a Trinix HD video router (256x256) and two Apex digital audio routers (256x256 each). Grass Valley Encore control software keeps everything in check.

A/V systems integrator Electrosonic (with offices in Long Island City, N.Y.) engineered all of the museum’s interactive exhibits and designed special software to control the networked K2 servers for content play out in the building’s many presentation theaters.

Design Team: The Freedom Forum/Newseum: James Updike, vice president of Technology George O’Connor, director of Engineering Michael Saunders, project manager Frank Ginsburg, broadcast engineer Communications Engineering, Inc.: Raef Alkhayat, director of Engineering Don Brassell, senior manager of Systems Support Engineering Ruber Huertas, senior systems engineer Electrosonic: Dan Laspa, project manager Equipment List: Artesia asset management system Avid HD Adrenaline and DS Nitris systems Barco Overview displays Barco (22- x 40-foot) LED screen Canon HD lenses Christie Digital DW3K 720p HD projectors Chyron HyperX HD CG Cisco Ethernet switches Doremi MPEG-2 video players Euphonix audio console Evertz MVP display processors Forecast Consoles Front Porch Digital DIVA Grass Valley: LDK 6000 HD cameras   Kalypso HD switchers   K2 Media servers   Trinix HD video router (256x256)   Apex digital audio routers (256x256)   Encore control software Ikegami HDL-40 HD cameras Samsung 2.4 LCD monitors with ELO Touch (for interactive kiosks) Snell & Wilcox Yukon standards converter Sony CRT ad LCD monitors Sony HDCAM VTRs Sony Digital Betacam VTRs    Sponsored Link   Tektronix WFM audio monitors Telestream FlipFactory StorageTek system Sun Microsystems robotic library Vista Systems Spyder video processing system Wohler Technologies audio and video monitors

“This Week”’s New Home

The two identical control rooms include a Grass Valley Kalypso HD 4 M/E production switcher and an Evertz MVP multi-image display processor. Completely redundant, the rooms can be digitally linked together for larger HD productions, but will usually operate independently. The large K2 SAN supports not only the broadcast control rooms but also other museum galleries and exhibits throughout the building as well. There are two audio control rooms with Euphonix digital audio consoles, in addition to five Avid HD edit rooms (with Adrenaline and DS Nitris systems). The fifth suite doubles as an audio sweetening room with a Digidesign Protools digital audio workstation.

For producing television shows, the Newseum’s two studios, “A” and “B”—one of which will host program “This Week” which will be on the air from the new location soon—feature at least four Grass Valley LDK 6000 mk II HD cameras each. “This Week” will be produced in the 720p HD format for ABC but the same Grass Valley equipment can also produce shows for other clients in the 1080i HD format as well.

One of the two video control rooms includes a glass wall where visitors to the museum can watch as a show is in progress. Visitors can also watch the program on a large 22 x 40-foot Barco LED screen located in the atrium of the building as you enter. When not producing a live show, one of the Kalypso switchers will run a pre-programmed looped segment to simulate its operation.

A Long Road

In 2006 systems integrator Newington, Virginia-based Communications Engineering, Inc. (CEI) was called in to design and implement the IT- (Ethernet and 100baseT) and video-centric (baseband HD-SDI) network and equipment for the new production and museum space. Raef Alkhayat, director of engineering at CEI and project supervisor, said the extensive build project was divided into two basic systems, broadcast and traditional AV systems. Both had very specific requirements, with a very unique message and a purpose. The CEI design team worked very closely with the Freedom Forum on the design, and then set out to locate and install the most flexible equipment available. It all had to be HD capable, in order to accommodate the widest variety of paying clients. Alkhaya said CEI worked closely with various equipment manufacturers to design—and in some cases invent—suitable solutions.

The need for the significant amount of routing was necessary because the new facility, in addition to the broadcast cameras and various CG and still stores, distributes multiple inbound and outbound signals through Verizon, and numerous Ikegami HDL-40 box-style cameras located on the building, as well as on the roof and across the street. [These are controlled by a Telemetrics robotic system.] The Grass Valley Trinix router not only feeds the broadcast control rooms but also the various monitors, galleries and theaters throughout the building as well. Doremi servers are also used to play back video for the various exhibits throughout the Newseum.

Networked Signal Distribution

The file-based environment serves two purposes. First it allows students and journalists to research hundreds of hours of low-resolution video and audio elements, as well as thousands of still images, of historical significance. And the archive continues to grow every day. The idea is to handle and save all material as a digital file for long-term storage.

The architecture also allows the museum’s video editors—working on Avid Adrenaline and DS Nitris systems—cutting in-house projects for the museum to share files via the Turbo disk recorders directly connected to their workstations. Completed files and others content is then sent to the K2 central storage system or to the StorageTek archive system that’s managed with a Front Porch DIVA system; all tied to an Artesia asset management system. Telestream FlipFactory is used for transcoding files, attached to a Sun Microsystems robotic library, where all long-term storage is kept.

In the end the new Newseum has become a showplace for what the news business is all about, like no other. Frank Ginsburg, broadcast engineer at the facility, calls it “one of the most technologically advanced museum ever built.”

From CEI’s point of view, it’s a highly advanced broadcast facility project, on top of a pretty compelling museum with over 130 interactive kiosks, multiple themed galleries and movie theaters of various sizes and decors. Basically, there’s something for everyone. The Newseum uses high-tech equipment to convey a very unique message. The design needed to be friendly and easy to use for the average museum visitor. After taking a tour, one will agree that indeed it is.


.