WTTG’s New D.C. Digs Puts All Eyes On The Newsroom
Fox Television Stations’ WTTG-WDCA Washington duopoly moved into its new home in suburban Bethesda, Md., in late July, a facility that puts its assignment desk, technical operations center and news sets at the architectural center.
New Facilities Insider | Disney’s Digital Center 3 Centralizes Hardware, Allows Control From Anywhere
A first look at Disney’s new Digital Center 3 (DC3) in The Woodlands, Texas, a massive, 187,000-square-foot plant consolidating playout, transmission and media operations. (Sam Exley photo)
TVN’s New Facilities Insider | NBCU Takes The IP Plunge In Boston
The massive NBCUniversal Boston Media Center in Needham, Mass., houses the company’s NBC and Telemundo stations plus regional cable news and sports networks in a new $125 million, 160,000-square foot headquarters. “It’s a complete game-changer,” says one GM of the greenfield build.
TVN Tech | What Starts In Vegas, Doesn’t Stay There
The NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations group’s new facility at its KBLR features a virtualized architecture that has its news/production infrastructure hosted remotely in a data technology center the station group has built in Dallas.
New Facilities Insider | Building A News Network From The Ground Up
Black News Channel is constructing a $26 million facility in Tallahassee, Fla., anchored by technology from Bitcentral, Vizrt and Sony. Its engineering chief, Kenny Elcock, explains how interoperability is key.
CNN Rides The IP Train Into Hudson Yards
The global news giant has built the first major broadcast facility to be completely based on the SMPTE 2110 IP networking standard. “The idea behind going IP was to get everything across CNN’s facilities connected,” says Bob Hesskamp, EVP of broadcast engineering for Turner. “The other reason we did this was we wanted to build a facility that wasn’t out of date on Day One, that was software-configurable, expandable and easier to make changes to.”
Exclusives
KHOU Houston Is Back, Better Than Ever
The Tegna-owned CBS affiliate began broadcasting from 43,000 square feet of space on Feb. 17. The two-and-a-half floors include a large, flexible studio space, two control rooms, edit suites and a multiplatform live desk where journalists produce for both KHOU’s on-air newscasts and its various digital platforms.
NBCU Philly Stations Make Big Leap To IP
The new WCAU-WWSI facility, set for a grand opening sometime this fall, is IP-centric and is designed to not only give the two stations a more efficient space with a common technology infrastructure, but to give their personnel new flexibility in creating content for today’s multiplatform world.
Gray Aims For A Hole In One In Augusta
The new 30,000-square-foot home under construction for WRDW-WAGT, Gray’s CBS-NBC duopoly in Augusta, Ga., will do more than house the latest tech and workflows, it will also serve as a “billboard” to remind the locals to tune in, as well as a classy venue for schmoozing Gray advertisers and investors, especially during the annual Masters golf tournament.
Workflow Efficiency Key At Gray’s New WMTV
WMTV went live from a new 32,000-square-foot facility in Madison, Wis., with its entire operation in late October 2016. The new home of the Gray Television-owned NBC affiliate was designed “from the inside out” from a technical point of view, according to WMTV VP-GM Don Vesely, with an eye toward maximizing the efficiency of the various workflows that drive news and its other operations. Above, the 4,500-square-foot newsroom just outside the centralized rack room. (WMTV/Gray Television photo)
New NBCU Telemundo HQ Preps For Future
The shell of the new 475,000-square-foot NBCU Telemundo headquarters in Miami is up and its completion is about a year away. When done, the new facility will position the various broadcast and cable entities in the division for a future in 4K HDR thanks in large part to the core IP infrastructure planned for the facility.
KING Hits A Grand Slam At Home Plate Center
While Tegna’s Seattle TV properties downsized with the move to a new operations center, they upsized in technology, collaboration and growth potential. The new digs turn out more than 18 hours of news a day with state-of-the-art equipment including Sony cameras, automation, production switchers and news automation that controls gear from Evertz, Logitek, Grass Valley, Abekas and Ross Video.
Award-Winning ESPN Facility Blazes IP Trail
The sports network’s new Digital Center 2 facility didn’t set out to be a cutting-edge technology standard bearer. The designers of the facility simply were looking for a way move about 40,000 signals in and around the facility. ESPN’s solution was a trio of technologies: IP networking, JPEG 2000 compression and MPEG transport streams.
NECN’s New Look: Fresh, Functional, Flexible
Comcast-NBCU wanted to improve the quality of the workplace at its New England Cable news regional network, as well as freshen up its look. So last fall, it began updating every aspect of the sets and technology for its newsrooms and 1,800-square-foot studio in suburban Boston. What it got is a state-of-the-art, modern, appealing, multifunctional studio from John Casey and Sacks Exhibits.
Oregon State Merges Media In New Facility
A $3.1 million, 14,000-square-foot media center allows students at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., to get hands-on experience producing content for television, FM radio, the Web, social media, newspaper and magazine. This state-of-the-art operation could serve as a model for broadcasters looking to integrate media. Shown above is Control Room A. (Photo: Erik Utter Associates)
