Kalypso Video Production Center Makes Flawless, Live Debut—Classic Worldwide Productions Selects Kalypso to Broadcast Pre-Game Show, Nine Innings of Cleveland Indians Baseball for FOX Sports Net—Classic Worldwide Productions, one of the Midwest's largest and most diverse production and post-production facilities, installed the Kalypso system for use in its Galaxy mobile unit less than a week before the company was to cover a Major League Baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio. FOX Sports Net had teamed with Classic to expand its coverage of Major League Baseball, and on Friday night the Kalypso system proved itself the right system for the occasion. "The Kalypso allows our mobile unit the flexibility to help our clients move the audience's viewing experience to new plateaus," said Jerry Patton, president of Classic. "And Friday night at Jacobs Field, with the Kalypso, we hit a home run." The broadcast also capped a strong behind-the-scenes performance by systems integrator Synergistic Technologies, which recommended the Kalypso system to Classic and performed the installation. "We had a tight window of opportunity and very little room for error," said John Luff, president and chief executive officer of Synergistic Technologies. "The Indians were starting a six-game home stand on Friday night and the truck had to be ready. From the pre-game show to post-game highlights, the Kalypso system delivered everything we expected. "A number of major sports companies have already made statements about wanting to use Kalypso in the future," said Luff. "For that reason, we felt that the system was the best long-term choice for us and our client." As the hub of a teleproduction environment, the Kalypso Video Production Center family combines industry-leading switching and powerful mix/effects (M/E) capabilities with an open, networked architecture that offers a precedent-setting degree of operational integration. With 80 inputs (video or key) it offers fingertip control of a number of previously off-board functions to streamline workflow, from greater M/E capabilities to a programmable clean-feed system—all from a familiar Grass Valley control panel interface. Using a Kalypso system, broadcasters can readily customize graphics and keys for multiple clients and place significant levels of control into the hands of a technical director. The mobile analog truck outfitted by Synergistic Technologies includes a 4 M/E Kalypso Video Production Center and Grass Valley 8900 Series modular products for analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal conversion. Engineers cited the Kalypso system's input and output capabilities, generous M/E banks, and machine-control features as critical to supporting production-intensive telecasts such as Friday's baseball game. They also praised its space saving, 15 rack unit (RU) design. "The Kalypso Video Production Center system packs an incredible feature set into a very small space," said Jim Naughton, design engineer for Synergistic Technologies. "It's one of the reasons we expect it to be the benchmark system for mobile production." There's ample evidence to suggest it's well on its way to doing so. The Grass Valley Group recently announced millions of dollars of Kalypso sales worldwide in applications ranging from mobile sports production and Olympics sports coverage to complete facility rebuilds. ABOUT THE COMPANIESSynergistic Technologies, Inc., (STI) is a digital television and media systems engineering and integration firm specializing in broadcast, production, and post-production systems. In addition to spearheading the development of DTV for broadcast facilities, STI's expertise in media technologies has been continually evolving and expanding to serve a broad variety of markets including satellite communications, healthcare, education, and corporate industrial. Among other noteworthy accomplishments, STI designed and built the technically advanced and nationally recognized Panasonic 720p HDTV mobile production truck. The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. Interactive television. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Internet. It's a world of Digicasting™—of Media Without Bounds™. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy® award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies necessary to get content wherever it needs to go. For the latest Grass Valley Group product information, see www.grassvalleygroup.com. # |
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