BILLERICA, MASS. —Relocation to a new building often means a chance to upgrade old equipment. Local Georgia government channel Columbus Consolidated Government TV’s new control room is anchored by a Broadcast Pix Granite 2000 integrated production system.
The second floor room is positioned between the council chambers and CCG-TV studio, with large observation windows in both connecting walls. With three wired drops in different areas of the City Service Center, as well as one at a new aquatic center across the street, the station can connect a camera, have it feed into the Granite, and go live with a press conference quickly.
CCG-TV had been using a NewTek system, but Michael King, CCG-TV station manager, was ready for a change to a Broadcast Pix switcher.
The studio includes two talk show sets. CCG-TV produces about 14 shows a month, in addition to coverage of four weekly council meetings, committee meetings, press conferences, educational videos and community coverage. King has one part-time and one full-time employee, but sometimes borrows staff members from other departments to help produce programming. The station has multiple field cameras, two dedicated studio cameras and two edit suites, plus an additional edit station in the control room.
To avoid bandwidth issues, CCG-TV has its own wireless network, and can use iPixPanel, Broadcast Pix’s iPad-based virtual control panel, to switch a show from anywhere in the building.
During meetings, four Panasonic HD PTZ cameras provide coverage of 10 council members, as well as other city officials and the public. King said the Granite is used to control all the cameras during a meeting, and presets are used frequently to simplify production.
CCG-TV uses many of Granite’s built-in workflow tools, including Inscriber CG and Fluent-View, its customizable multi-view. With Fluent Watch-Folders, each show has its own folder for clips, graphics, and other interstitials.
“You don’t have to shuffle through a lot of stuff you don’t need,” King explained. “We do nine different programs. It keeps everything simple.”
