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By James J. Skvaril and Mark Sarantakos
In order to fill broadcasters’ need for current, accurate economic information, the Chicago-based provider of stock and mutual fund investment information, Morningstar, has often been called for comment and clarification. This demand for their analysts’ knowledge often meant a visit from a news crew or a trip to a local production facility. This tended to tax the already busy schedules of both the Morningstar analysts and the broadcast media. To meet the content demands of broadcasters and make the best possible use of its analysts’ time, Morningstar’s management decided to install a television studio on its premises.
Production Craft, Inc. of Chicago was called in to design the facility and consult with Morningstar officials, along with the project architect and general contractor, Production Craft realized that Morningstar did not have a technical staff on hand to operate the broadcast equipment required for such a facility. Therfore it was an important design requirement fromt eh outset to make the studio operable by non-technical public relations professionals.
It was also important to Morningstar that the facility fit rigid aesthetic concerns, as the studio would be the located just of the main reception area and thus be visible to visitors and staff.
MTS Systems, Inc. provided color line drawings, of all audio and video paths, cable designation, lease hold construction supervision, system installation and integration. Utilizing AutoCAD, MTS also completed all technical documentation, from conceptual signal flow to presentation to as-builts.
ARCHITECTURAL
Special design considerations were required. This facility was to be a “techno” point of interest attached to the Morningstar main reception area and office space. The build out took place in a recently constructed concrete and steel office high rise in downtown Chicago. From an aesthetic stand point the facility was to have glass walls separating the control are form the reception area and the control room from the studio space. Although these glass walls allowed visitors to see the studio in action, it obviously caused concern with regard to sound isolation and reflections. In order to compensate for these aesthetic design criteria, mechanically isolated double panes of ¼-inch tempered glass, splayed 15 degrees off parallel top to bottom were specified. This would limit sound from the lobby activity in the studio to an acceptable level. Additionally, it would minimize direct reflections of the analysts’ voices back to the microphones during broadcasts. The remaining three walls were constructed slab-to-slab out of three different thickness of drywall laminated together without common joints. In addition, the parallel drywall surfaces were treated with acoustical panels to minimize mid- and high-frequency reflection between those surfaces. Padded carpet and an Armstong acoustical 2 x 2 ceiling system were deployed to handle vertical interference.
The studio was located in proximity to the main HVAC distribution path for the entire floor. Neither the vent nor the studio could be relocated. To help isolate this source of noise from the studio, oversized supply ducts with canvas couplers, spring isolators and low noise diffusers were specified to reduce static pressure and velocity.
VIDEO
This was to be an analog composite facility and no accommodation was made with regard to digital television transition requirements. It was decided the cost of retooling this rather simple facility in the future would be less expensive than incorporating any digital equipment at this point.
The deisgn for the facility incorporated a single remote controlled three-chip camera, and an audio system with an auto-mixer and a compression/expansion divide to keep levels within normal ranges without the need for operator intervention.
The camera chosen for this installation was the Sony DXC-950. The box design of this camera does not provide for or require the additional cost of a viewfinder, which for this application is unnecessary. Control of lens iris, camera pedestal and paint parameter is accessed via RMC-950 remote control panel positioned in the control room. The camera’s glass is a Fuijinon 7mm x 14 power. For audio and video quality measurements we installed a Videotek VTM-183 rasterizer, which provides for accurate, dynamic graphic displays of signal levels on a VGA display. The display can be configured in a wide variety of layouts including any combination of waveforms, picture or audio levels as may be required. Audio display was included. The VTM-183 was fed to one of an array of three 25-inch plasma displays provided by Morningstar to help achieve the tech-no look desired. The other two plasma displays were fed discrete DSS receivers with BVS CC100 closed caption decoders in line. However, after composite decoding, color space conversion, and re-resolving to its native resolution, the image on the plasmas was suitable for casual viewing at a distance, but not for reasonable picture quality and composition, a Sony PVM 8040Q 9-inch CRT was installed.
For distribution of video signals we made use of Videotek’s Model VDA-16 and RS-12A.
LIGHTING
For lighting, the talent is illuminated by three Kino-Flo Diva 400 instruments. These lights provide a stable 3200K output with a power efficient, non heat producing, high lumen output. They also feature an on-board dimmer, which varies the light output over a range without affecting color temperature.
ROBOTICS
To allow non-technical operators to frame and compose a proper news style head shot, we utilized an ESI Model 180 controller with a companion ESI DPT 133 pan tilt head. We went with this for its separate rocker switches for control of zoom and focus.
The camera is positioned by an operator standing in the control room watching a monitor and listening for shot direction from the broadcasters via coordination phone line.
Because of the need to carry a TelePrompTer as well as the camerea, we upgraded to the ESI 133, which is capable of moving up to a 15-pound load, provided it is balanced properly fore and after, left and right.
AUDIO
With regard to the audio, it was again important that minimal operator intervention be required. For pickup convenience, we utilized the Shure Brothers U4D UHF Diversity wireless microphone system. The active diversity antenna array was mounted to the lighting gric, and a walk test after installation provided drop-out free performance until we were almost off the fourth floor of the building.
The system includes WL-61 mics and two Shure U1 body pack transmitters, which transmitters, which transmit to separate receiver modules for redundancy in the event of a failure. The output of the receivers feed a Shure Brothers FP-410 Auto mixer, which selects the mic system that is currently active. The output of the mixer feeds an Aphex 320A Compellor, which actively and noiselessly expands low levels or compresses signal levels above a user-definable preset.
As the main function of the studio was to provide for the production of live interview shots of Morningstar analysts reacting to and answering questions posed by an off-site interviewer, a dependable, simple to operate IFB system was necessary. For this application we specified a Gentner Auto Coupler that feeds a Vega RMT-10 single channel transmitter. This system feeds wireless audio to the Vega PL-2S body pack receivers. To provide for additional functionality, we installed a parallel speaker in the control room to allow other Morningstar personnel to hear the question that the on-camera guests is asked. Also included was a Shure Brothers Microflex MX412 push to talk microphone, so that status cues could be provided to the talent. The signal from this mic was mixed in to the IFB circuit.
A Studio Technologies Model 81 Stereo distribution amp handled audio distribution. The audio installation was further simplified through the use of ADC ICON cross connect blocks.
TRANSMISSION
Our outbound video and audio feeds went to an ADC fiber optic transmitter provided by Ameritech Broadcast Services. This transmitter is located in our control room and linked by single-mode-fiber to the phone room. By locating the fiber transmitter in our control room, the exposure to RFI or common mode generated interferences encountered when making a long run with video coax is eliminated. In the phone room our local fiber meets the Ameritech T-3 circuit and makes the run to the local VYVX POP.
Toward the end of the design phase of the project it became apparent that besides its original broadcast purpose, an important additional function for the studio would be to provide video content for the Morningstar website (http://www.morningstar.com/cover/videocenter.html ) and are available as streaming video daily.
The Morningstar studio went online in early October of 2001. The first broadcast usage was a taped segment for CNBC. Since the it has provided additional segments for CNBC, Bloomberg TV and CNN-FN. IN fact the demand placed upon the studio facilities has been so great that a studio manager has been hired to coordinate usage requests and operate the facility.
James J. Skvaril is vice president of Production Craft, Inc. and Mark Sarantakos is president of MTS Systems Inc.
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