Vibrint Spotlight

Vibrint Multitasks For WMUR-TV

By Jim Breen Director of News Operations and Chief Photographer WMUR-TV

As the director of news operations and the chief photographer, I wear a variety of hats at WMUR. Not only do I get to shoot and edit, but I get to train, assign, and manage our team of 13 photographers/editors.

Owned by Imes Communications, WMUR-TV is New Hampshire's leading news station and we produce more than 35 hours of local news for our 5 am, noon, 4, 5, 6 and 11:00pm newscasts. We reach the entire state with our newscasts and we have the ability to go live from anywhere in New Hampshire. We were also one of the 24 stations nationwide that volunteered to begin broadcasting a digital signal by November 1, 1998.

WMUR didn't become the number-one station by resting on our laurels. Our toughest competition comes not from other New Hampshire stations, but from network affiliates located in the Boston market, which we are a part of.

To make matters more exciting, when the first-in-the-nation primary rolls around every four years, the ratings game becomes a national challenge and the average workday quickly becomes a 16-hour stint.

Team Effort

Earlier this year, I was part of the team that went in search of a nonlinear editing solution to replace our cuts-only tape systems. Our ultimate goal for nonlinear editing technology was to become more competitive in our larger market by producing multiple versions of a each day's stories and by creating fresh teasers, bumps and headlines more quickly.

The mandate from our news director was that we "don't do anything that sets our newsroom back." Joe Paciorkowski, vice president of engineering, said the editor had to be standards-based and ready for DTV." And because everyone in this station is expected to multitask, our new system had to be easy to use even for the non-technical and infrequent users.

We looked at several nonlinear editing systems including those from Sony, Panasonic, Avid and others before we chose Vibrint NewsEdit. NewsEdit most closely matched the capabilities and speed of tape-based systems, as well as the budget realities of a smaller stations.

The system runs on a PC and uses MPEG video, a Windows interface, and standard networking and storage, so we can actually get up and running and maintain our system easily. In fact, by purchasing the storage we needed ourselves, we saved money right from the start.

Digital Options

Vibrint NewsEdit replaced the right-hand machine in our cuts-only bay from both a capability and price standpoint. But it also gave us added benefits that one can't get out of an analog tape system.

For example, you get to work in a nonlinear fashion. We store audio and video on the computer's hard drive, move it around in any order within a story timeline, and re-use it in multiple packages.

For us, that means getting fresh video on the air in the form of teasers, bumps, and headlines instead of repeating the same old shots over and over again. NewsEdit also gives us simple transition effects such as wipes and dissolves.

I can add a wipe to a story with just a few clicks. In a tape suite, I probably wouldn't take the time to add effects, but with NewsEdit it's pretty fast.

So how easy it is? Well, I've been editing on tape for 13 years and, with no nonlinear experience, the day NewsEdit came out of the box, I did a voice over and it was just as easy as doing it in a tape bay.

With just one day on the system, we went to air with five different pieces including national VOs on the crisis in Kosovo and some local VO/bites on a political candidate’s visit to New Hampshire. With just seven minutes to air, I even slammed out the lead headline VOs and made it in time for the open. Believe me when I say it's easy.

As we train more people on the system, I expect that the greatest challenge will come not from getting people comfortable with the software, but in getting people to think nonlinearly and to take advantage of their new tools.

What isn't NewsEdit? It's not a full editing suite and it isn't a system that you want to set aside for features and special packages. It's a workhorse. It comes through for us with that every-day-get-in-there-and-get-it-done type of editing.

This user report was written for TV Technology magazine www.tvtechnology.com

Jim Breen joined WMUR as a news photographer in 1986. In 1993, he was promoted to chief photographer and in 1997 took on the additional role of director of news operations. Prior to joining WMUR, he was a freelancer in Rhode Island. Breen is quick to point out that team recognition is more important than individual recognition and, in fact, the news team at WMUR has received several awards from the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters/Associated Press in just about every category. The station recently received its first New England Emmy for Spot News. Jim can be reached at WMUR. (Phone 603-669-9999, www.wmur.com)