SEATTLE—Last summer, KOMO, a Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned station and ABC affiliate in Seattle, was under construction for a new studio and additional control room. Since we already had success with Ross Video, we tapped Ross’ OverDrive, DashBoard, XPression and Acuity production switcher for KOMO’s upgrade.
Ross Acuity production switchers were installed into two KOMO control rooms.ADDED CAPABILITIES
All of KOMO’s news and productions are done via OverDrive and Acuity. OverDrive has a Quick Recall touchscreen to control Acuity, which makes on-the-fly breaking news easy, offering quick recovery from anything coded incorrectly or added last minute (such as graphics or camera shots). It also provides Direct Control Audio, which—like Quick Recall of sources—can add any audio for any source with the touchscreen, coded or not. Both of these touchscreen options are available in preset, or can be taken to air instantly.
Acuity builds effects and stores with the user-friendly touchscreen workstation, as well as run two menus simultaneously. In conjunction with the switcher surface, we can quickly build or modify complex commands and switcher effects in a logical way. Acuity makes it easy to identify created memories, as well as notes or explanations operators may leave with a built effect or memory.
The strength of Acuity is the dedicated Custom Control row. It’s a separate row with colored LED buttons to group or organize our custom controls as desired. Any Custom Control can be easily available in the Quick Recall Custom Control section for instant routing of monitors, or any one-touch command needed for operation. The success of complicated automation is in the Custom Controls—you can even have up to 10 Custom Controls fire at the same time.
We also use Ross’ Custom Control Shot Box as an extension of our Acuity switcher to control automation. Shot Box has the same color options as the Acuity and enables us to build multiple pages for more accessibility at the SuperUser position.
THE RESULTS
The ROI is watching a SuperUser execute a complex show with multiple devices and graphics while running audio simultaneously, and making it look easy.
Acuity with OverDrive is smooth and fast. We added a DashBoard touchscreen to our OverDrive control room to control our IP devices. We have a monitor’s page for instant manual routing of all studio monitors via P-BUS protocol routing, audio control for instant playback of audio cuts outside of coding, and clip playout commands if needed outside of OverDrive. Soon, Dash-Board will control our LED lighting.
Ross “nailed it” with the Acuity. It’s proven to be the most powerful and user-friendly automation switcher on the market.
Joseph Campbell is director TV-News at KOMO News and KUNS News. He may be contacted at 206-404-4000.
For more information, please visitwww.rossvideo.comor call 613-652-4886.
