KSTP - Minneapolis, MN
Design and Integrate a Complete Newsroom Facility
Alpha Video & Audio, Inc., has completed the design and integration of the newsroom facility for KSTP-TV, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS in St. Paul, MN. Working as a design team, KSTP-TV's broadcast engineers, Hubbard Broadcasting's IT Department and Alpha Video engineers planned a completely tapeless, state-of-the-art newsroom solution that brings together ENPS newsroom automation and Apple Final Cut Pro editing. KSTP-TV, the upper Midwest’s first commercial television station, is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. and is an ABC network affiliate.
Custom solutions replace analog equipment
Alpha Video leveraged its significant broadcast expertise to create a custom solution that replaces KSTP-TV's legacy analog equipment with a more flexible and efficient HD/SD digital workflow. To acquire field footage, KSTP-TV will utilize the newly introduced Panasonic AJ-HPX300 P2 camcorders along with live channels for satellite and ENG ingest. All the footage will be immediately available for editing on Apple Final Cut Studio workstations. Each of the editing workstations shares a Promise VTrak storage system using Apple Xsan 2 running on a 4Gb/s fiber network. The archive solution will include Xendata management software and an LTO-4 tape-based library from Spectra Logic.
Gallery SIENNA will be used to seamlessly integrate Final Cut Studio workstations into KSTP-TV's existing AP ENPS newsroom system. Gallery SIENNA allows editors to view newsroom scripts within Final Cut Pro and publish directly to the ENPS rundown using standard MOS communication. Gallery SIENNA will also manage the daily ingest schedules using IngestControl software. The overall system will provide HD/SD play out with real time up, down, and cross conversion.
Bridging the gap between ENPS and Final Cut Pro
Bryan Nelson from Alpha Video's Broadcast Systems Group says, "The ability to bridge the gap between ENPS and Final Cut Pro has been a goal of Alpha Video for some time. KSTP-TV will now be able take advantage of Apple Final Cut Pro's powerful and flexible HD/SD editing workflow in an automated newsroom environment. Alpha Video is pleased to have been selected by KSTP to help them make the transition to HD and offer new ideas on newsroom workflow."
Dick Rice, The Director of Engineering at KSTP-TV says “We have spent the last 3 years planning our tapeless newsroom environment and during that time we have become very pleased with the professionalism, dedication, and talent that Alpha Video provides as our chosen integrator. We are also very pleased that the timing of our project coincides with product releases that fit our requirements so well, enable efficiencies in our workflows, and move us so solidly into High Definition Newsgathering.”
