June 2007

KVIE makes migration to new production, playout workflows

BY JAMES CARELESS
Like other U.S. television stations, PBS member station KVIE in Sacramento, CA, has collected many videotape formats over the years. “From VHS and 3/4-inch U-matic to digital formats like Digital Betacam and DVCPRO, we had installed them all,” said Michael Wall, the station’s vice president of technology.

Not surprisingly, all these tape formats bogged down KVIE’s workflow, both in master control and local production. But with the help of systems integrator Rorke Data, the station has migrated to a tapeless acquisition, editing, and playout solution.

OFF-THE-SHELF APPEAL
KVIE downlinks network programming from satellite and stores it for later playback. The station also shoots and edits its own shows, which are also stored until needed. Originally, this was all done on videotape.

A few years ago, however, the station acquired Pinnacle MediaStream servers, so that shows could be digitally stored and then accessed using a NVerzion automation system. Still, KVIE shot and edited using videotape; plus archived videotape as well.

“When we decided that the time had come to go tapeless, we looked at a wide range of vendors and options,” Wall told GOVERNMENT VIDEO. “However, eventually we chose Rorke Data. There were two reasons for this decision. First, Rorke offers a range of products that integrated seamlessly with the digital assets we already had. Second, Rorke’s broadcast system is software driven, which meant that we were able to use off-the-shelf servers and other mainstream IT equipment.”

KVIE’s new workflow uses a number of off-the-shelf components and Rorke Data’s software-driven system.

It was this second point that clinched the deal for KVIE. “Being able to run a TV station using Dell servers, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and other standard IT products, plus no archive middle manager, significantly reduced our costs,” said Wall. “As well, we were able to do it in a step-by-step process, allowing us to keep the costs under control.”

Today, KVIE’s lineup is still based on programming delivered either via satellite or produced in-house, with content still stored on servers and managed by NVerzion automation software. However, once network video has been acquired, station personnel can transfer it to Rorke Xendata archive via high speed Galaxy RAIDs. Comprised of off-the-shelf hard disk drives, RAID drives free up space on the primary video servers.

For long-term archiving, programs are transferred to Rorke LTO3 data tape carousel. OK, so these units do have tapes, but 400 GB data tapes are as different in capability from regular videotapes as CD drives are to LPs. (All of these systems are interconnected using industry standard GigE Ethernet LAN topology.)

Local video is acquired using Panasonic AGHVX200 HD camcorders and AJ-SPX800 DVCPRO50 camcorders, all of which use P2 solid-state memory cards instead of videotape. “P2 cards allow the fast transfer of video, because reporters can just plug them into card readers that send the files into a Rorke Galaxy LX NAS device,” explained Todd Dahlgren, Rorke Data’s manager of field engineering.
Once transferred, these files can be quickly accessed by multiple editors using KVIE’s two Mac G5-based Media 100 HD edit suites, single HP 8000based Media 100 844XE finishing suite, or Final Cut Pro Edit suites running on the reporters’ desktop G5s over Rorke’s broadband ImageSAN network LAN. KVIE employs Telestream Flip Factory converters to handle its mix of QuickTime, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 video files.

When edited versions are complete, the files are sent back into the system, either for immediate play-out from the MediaStream servers or archiving on the RAID or data tape. To search for video over the Image SAN, KVIE uses Pictron asset management software, built around a Web browser-style user interface.

STEP BY STEP
Being a public television station, KVIE-TV has limited resources, which is why Rorke Data devised a step-by-step digital transition for the station. “We began by upgrading KVIE’s broadcast system, Posted with permission from the April 2007 issue of Government Video ® Copyright 2007, New Bay Media Inc. All rights reserved. “You need to consciously design the kind of workflow you want first, before you make the change. Otherwise, you could make the process less efficient, not more.”
—Michael Wall, KVIE

so that they could move to the new digital workflow quickly,” explained Joe Rorke, vice president of marketing and business development, Rorke Data. “Next we added the Pictron media asset management system, then the Rorke Galaxy LX NAS for storing P2-acquired footage at the desktop. Finally, we added the video archiving solution to finish the package.”

This step-by-step approach made KVIE’s $350,000 tapeless transition financially manageable for the station — and some of the cost was incorporated into KVIE’s regular equipment replacement budget. “In fact, we still have some videotape camcorders in use,” said Wall. “As they come to the end of their life cycles, we will replace them with P2 camcorders, but not until then.”

KVIE learned a valuable lesson during its tapeless transition, one that has to do with people, not technology. “What we learned is that you must provide sufficient training to your staff so that they can adapt to a tapeless workflow,” noted Wall. “Moving into this kind of non-real-time, file-based world can be a radical change for some, and you must help them to make the transition as easily as possible for the sake of the station and its on-air look.”

Wall has a second piece of advice for stations planning their tapeless future: Figure out your digital workflow first and then buy equipment to serve it — don’t buy equipment first and then try to figure out what to do. “Moving into tapeless production isn’t like replacing 3/4-inch with DVCPRO,” he offered. “This is an entirely different way of doing things. That’s why you need to consciously design the kind of workflow you want first, before you make the change. Otherwise, you could make the process less efficient, not more.”

At KVIE, the new tapeless workflow is “an incredible improvement,” Wall said. “The workflow we have now is seamless, flexible, and extremely efficient.”

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