Category
Post & network production facilities
Submitted by EUE Screen Gems/Solid State Logic Design Team EUE Screen Gems: George Cooney and Chris Cooney, studio principals; Thorpe Shuttleworth, exec. VP; Mitchell Brill, head of corp. dev.;
King World: Rich Cervini, VP; Alan Blacher, lighting design
Shaffner/Stewart: Joe Stewart, set design
Showman Design Technology at work Avid
Adrenaline workstations
ISIS storage array
Thunder MX triple- channel still store
Pinnacle Deko 3000 CG
Solid State Logic C100 digital audio console
Sony
BVP-900 and 950 cameras
HDS-X3700 serial digital router
DME-5000 DVE
DVS-7350 digital video switcher
DVW-A500 and M2000
VTRs
MAV-555 video disks
MSW-M2000 decks
Rachael Ray’s new 9000sq-ft studio cooks up delectable sights and sounds
King World Productions’ “Rachael Ray” is a bona fide syndication hit. And studio landlord EUE Screen Gems Studios in New York City couldn’t be happier. The show is taped in a sophisticated 9000sq-ft studio that EUE created specifically for “Rachael Ray” in its 125,000sq-ft four-floor Midtown Manhattan complex.
The EUE design team worked with Rich Cervini, vice president of production and technical operations for King World, to make a home for “Rachael Ray.” Timing was critical. In a mere three months — from demolition to first shoot day — the original Studio 6A and its control room were gutted and refitted with all digital equipment, new lighting equipment and an innovative, rotating audience platform.
The new control room features a Sony 3.5 M/E DVS-7350 digital video switcher (32-input with 13 aux busses), two Sony DME-5000 DVE units and 64 PatchAmp SDV/HD serial digital video DAs with analog test outputs. For confidence monitoring, there are several 14in and 20in Ikegami CRT monitors with SDI inputs and Leitch VTM-3100 SD LCD-based waveform and vectorscope rasterizers.
Stereo audio for “Rachael Ray” is recorded on a 48-input C100 digital console from Solid State Logic, with multiple ties to an elevated production bridge, where a Yamaha M7CL console is used to drive the speakers in the audience. The SSL board was chosen for its flexibility, which includes the ability to record full surround sound (5.1 channels).
Numerous HD-compatible DAs from PatchAmp and audio jackfields from ADC support the studio’s traditional SD and analog infrastructure. The audience seating platform employs multiple floor-mounted speakers that capture audience reactions and are often incorporated into the overall mix. Sixteen mics positioned directly above the audience are mixed by a Mackie 1604 board as a sub-mix, and then routed into the SSL C100.
Four editing suites with Avid Adrenaline workstations (three for show segments and a fourth for on-air promos), along with four Apple G5 workstations, are networked to an Avid ISIS storage array that enables editors to share clips and retrieve elements digitized into the system. Daily roll-ins are handled directly from tape or are ingested into an Avid Thunder server. Six Sony DVW-M2000 Digital Betacam recorders are used for program and ISO record, as well as one DVW-A500 and one MSW-M2000 (IMX) for playback. Graphics are generated with a dual-channel Pinnacle Deko 3000 CG.
King World has tentative plans to move the show to HD sometime after 2008. Because of preplanning and current equipment choices, the upgrade will only involve the installation of new HD cameras, a new HD production switcher and an HD-capable router.
