New studio technology - network
RAI’s new NYC location and asset management
The Systems Group (TSG) of Hoboken, NJ, was awarded a design build contract to relocate RAI’s New York City bureau to a new location in downtown Manhattan. The New York facility operates the North American news bureau for the Italian broadcaster, providing daily programming to corporate headquarters based in Rome. The North American location has operated out of New York City for more than 40 years, supporting upwards of five networks and other RAI subsidiaries, including RAI 1, RAI 2, RAI 3, RAI News International and RAI News 24.
An innovative asset management system was required to maximize the overall operational efficiencies, with a goal to increase the productivity and dependability of the system. TSG began feasibility and consultancy work in 2004. It was tasked with space planning, mechanical and electrical design of broadcast spaces, along with designing a tapeless SD broadcast facility. The transition to was completed in July 2005.
The new facility is based around a Grass Valley network-attached storage (NAS) server system. The system allows RAI the flexibility to ingest, edit, log, playback and archive all of its media assets from radio newscasts to long-form talk show-style productions.
The facility also has embarked on the blue laser transition with the deployment of three Sony XDCAM camcorders into the field for acquisition. TSG designed and built four edit bays based around the XDCAM format with the Grass Valley NewsEdit for nonlinear editing and ingesting into the NAS.
The NAS also uses the Grass Valley Ingest Station, allowing RAI to control the 64x64 Concerto router and allowing a centralized point for ingesting incoming feeds directly into the NAS. Once ingested, the editors and control room operators have the ability of playout or editing of the recorded feeds immediately.
Also within the NAS topology are multiple licenses of NewsBrowse, allowing RAI’s producers to browse all assets on the NAS, view them at their desktops and add metadata. In certain cases, producers have the ability of conforming assets at their desktops and publishing back to the NAS for playout.
The facility is a diverse all-digital location with a radio station, radio production studio, five edit rooms, two control rooms, two studios, insert camera positions and rooftop standup locations.
Design TeamTechnology at Work The Systems Group: Grass Valley: Carl Van Dusen, sr. proj. mgr. Kayak switchers Michael Panico, sr. sys. design eng. NewsEdit NLE Justin Francione, integration supervisor IngestStation Chris Brown, lead technician Concerto router Trissa Dudzinski, proj. coord. NewsBrowse RAI: Harrison analog audio consoles Michael Hariban, head of prod. Image Video under monitor displays Sal Paglia, chief eng. Leitch master clock system Raritan KVM routing RTS Adam intercom system Tektronix reference and T&M Telemetrics robotics system
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