
Grass Valley Group Winning In All-Digital,
Nonlinear Hard News Production
Vibrint Systems to Showcase Solutions at RTNDA, Booth 1529
NEVADA CITY, Calif., August 30, 2000
Demonstrating rapid market acceptance of its Vibrint Digital News
Production Workgroup solutions, the Grass Valley Group recently announced
that its powerful, PC-based products are installed in the largest US
television markets. Providing the world's most comprehensive,
cost-effective hard news production solution, the Vibrint Digital News
Production Workgroup systems also are installed at a number of small-to
mid-market stations, underscoring their appeal across all markets to
newsrooms making the transition to digital.
Grass Valley Group will exhibit its Vibrint product line in Booth
#1529 at the upcoming Radio Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)
Conference and Exhibition in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The RTNDA demonstration
includes Grass Valley Group's complete digital news production solution, the
Profile® XP Media Platform and the Vibrint product line,
including Vibrint FeedClip for news ingest, Vibrint NewsEdit for
nonlinear hard news editing, and Vibrint NewsQ for manual news playback.
The demonstration will also feature the Profile XP Media Platform for
automated ingest and playback.
Installations of Vibrint systems in major US markets include WNJU
Telemundo and NY1 News in New York; KWHY in Los Angeles; Philly TV News
WTVE - 51 in Philadlephia; WHDH-TV in Boston. Other US installations
include Reiten TV and Rammar Communications which are in North Dakota
and Texas.
Grass Valley Group's Vibrint product line gets breaking news to air
faster at less cost than traditional tape-based production gear.
Combining the most intuitive news production software with an open,
standards-based personal computer platform, the Vibrint News Production
Workgroup solutions eliminate the need to digitize prior to editing, and
improve image quality by eliminating the generation loss resulting from
repeated transfer of those materials.
The Profile XP Media Platform is the industry's most open solution,
supporting both the high quality video standards required for broadcast
television and low resolution video required for the Internet, as well
as MPEG, DVCPro, HD and MPEG Transport Streams (MTS).
Philly TV News WTVE - 51 Picks Vibrint, Profile for Newsroom Retrofit
The first over-the-air, all news broadcaster in Philadelphia,
Philly TV generates the bulk of its own content, and considers critical
the ability to deliver fresh packages in a timely fashion while
maintaining high production values.
When the single-channel servers and existing, non-linear editing
equipment of its news operation did not live up to expectations, Philly TV
turned to the Grass Valley Group's Vibrint line and its Profile XP Media
Platform. The combination of the NewsEdit nonlinear editor, FeedClip feed
capture system, the four-channel Profile XP Media Platform, and Crispin
Corporation's RapidPlayX software for application news-rundown management,
offered reliability and flexibility the network required.
"We were very impressed with the capabilities of the NewsEdit
solutionand more so because its integration with the Profile server was
seamless," said larry manne, general manager at philly tv. "Other MPEG
systems are in various stages of testing, whereas the Profile/Vibrint
combination is ready to go now. And while cost was not the ultimate
deciding factor, it didn't hurt that this solution was more economically
priced than its nearest competitor."
Reiten Television
Reiten Television Inc., a family-owned North Dakota broadcasting
company has ordered four NewsEdit nonlinear editing systems and two NewsQ
manual playback systems for stations KXMC-TV in Minot, N.D., and KXMB-TV
in Bismark, N.D.
The Grass Valley Group's Vibrint solutions meet the ease-of-use, speed
and image-quality requirements of small-market stations, said Bob Turneau,
chief engineer at KXMC-TV. "The Grass Valley Group's Vibrint line is so
easy to use and fast. You don't have to pre-digitize before editing and
that time savings is critical."
Ramar Communications
Ramar Communications of Lubbock, Texas has ordered three NewsEdit
nonlinear editing systems and one NewsQ playback solution for its startup
news operation at Fox affiliate KJTV34. Ramar also plans to integrate its
Vibrint solutions and the AP ENPS newsroom computing system. The news
operation will launch in September.
"We believe Vibrint offers the highest quality MPEG news solution on
the market and we're very impressed with its ease of use," said Winn
Boedeker, acting chief engineer at KJTV34.
Changing Newsroom Workflows
The Vibrint Digital News Production Workgroup significantly
reduces the need for tape in newsrooms as well as associated frenzied
sprints in and out of edit bays, increasing the efficiency and speed with
which the news is brought to air. Producers can create clips on the fly,
send them to an edit bay over the newsroom's existing network, and
continue to monitor a feed without interrupting the recording process.
"We are replacing tape machines in a lot of areas of business and
improving the work flow to give people a more logical way of doing
production," said tim thorsteinson, president, grass valley group. "We're
enabling our customers to make a greater investment in their original
content. With our standards-based technology, we provide a cost-effective
solution, a plug-and-play migration path, and enable customers to take
advantage of latest technology."
To capture feeds, the Grass Valley Group offers two complementary
solutions: the Profile XP Media Platform for automated feed capture where
the start time is known and where there is an automation system that will
control the feed recording, and Vibrint FeedClip for breaking news
situations. With Vibrint FeedClip, producers can record live feeds to
disk, mark and create clips while viewing the feed, organize them into a
playlist for direct play to air, or send them, in the background, to edit
bays.
To develop polished packages, selected clips are sent to Vibrint
NewsEdit where they can be mixed with archived material or fresh local
field tapes and enhanced with wipes or dissolves.
When the packages are ready for play to air, Grass Valley Group offers
two choices: NewsQ for manual play to air, and the Profile XP Media
Platform, which is designed for automated assist play to air in larger
broadcast situations where it can be controlled by newsroom computers
system or automation.
Highly Networked, Standards-Based Solution for News
A powerful, highly networked and standards-based solution for news
emerges with the combination of the Vibrint News Production Workgroup and
the Profile XP Media Platform.
Built to easily scale as broadcasters transition to digital and the
Internet, the Vibrint solutions are powered by an Intel Pentium platform
relying on standard MPEG-2 video, Microsoft Windows NT®
file and operating systems, and standard networking and storage
technologies. While traditional video servers typically offer only
playback and storage capabilities, the Profile
XP Media Platform, with its Microsoft® Windows NT®
architecture and standard networking and storage technologies, is extensible
to new applications inside and outside a broadcast facility, including
hard-news production.
For more effective collaboration between journalists, producers, and
video editors, the Vibrint system integrates with leading newsroom computing
systems (NRCS) including Avstar and ENPS allowing editors to view scripts
and rundowns alongside the video editing timeline and to organize and
control playback through the Profile XP Media Platform.
The systems are easy to useeven for personnel lacking computer
experience. The Vibrint Workgroup systems are simple to upgrade as
technology evolves and cost-efficient for both large and small broadcast
stations, as evidenced by widespread acceptance in small- to mid-size
U.S. markets.
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The Grass Valley Group
The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than
anybody elseespecially as video goes digital. Interactive television.
Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Internet. It's a world of
Digicastingof 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, including
Vibrint solutions, visit
www.grassvalleygroup.com.
Grass Valley Group and Profile are registered trademarks and Grass Valley,
Insync, NetCentral, Digicasting, and Media Without Bounds are trademarks
of Grass Valley Group Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service
marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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