By George Hoover, NEP
"One of the more recent challenges we faced was a fast-track program for upgrading two studios to high-definition operations in connection with the production of the Colbert Report and the Daily Show. Both shows had to stay in production in SD during the HD upgrade.
With disgruntled viewers at home and in Congress, the pressure is rising for broadcasters to resolve inconsistent audio loudness and meet ATSC A/85 standards. Step one of the solution is clear: stations need accurate, intelligent measurement of loudness levels.
Cobalt Digital Inc. is joining up with MediaCorp at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) 2009 conference in Singapore. As Host Broadcaster of the event, MediaCorp will build the International Broadcast Centre, which will include the operation of broadcast quality cameras, a live video and audio feed distribution system, and master control room.
The OPT-SW-LP option from Cobalt provides convenient, high-quality ‘loudness processing’ for a range of 9000 series COMPASS™ cards.
Today’s broadcasters work with content from a wide variation of sources and other stations, requiring the ability to manage differences in loudness from program to program. Cobalt Digital and Linear Acoustic® have teamed up to provide a solution to be made available within a number of Cobalt’s 9000 series COMPASS™ cards for the openGear™ format.
Cobalt Digital Inc. is excited to introduce the latest additions to the COMPASS™ line of 9000 series signal processing solutions for openGear™ at the 2009 IBC show in Amsterdam (Cobalt Stand 8.A94).
Highlights to be featured include...
Achieves a "holy grail of system design" with common control scheme
(NEP Studios, New York) – NEP Broadcasting has selected the Cobalt family of modular equipment for the complex signal processing and conversion needs of two New York shows.
[...] "We began the task of system design and equipment identification early in 2008. Gear selection was based in large part on reliability and manufacturer support and service. We also looked carefully at signal flexibility, ease of use, and IP connectivity. TV Magic suggested the Cobalt Digital 9000 series of converters and other terminal equipment as meeting all of these requirements and more.
As the current economic climate forces broadcasters to work under the constraints of ever-shrinking budgets, engineers and executives are demanding audio processing systems that feature more robust functionality in preparing legacy media assets for 5.1 delivery. Cobalt Digital Inc.
Among the challenges at the new FOX-owned SPEED™ facility in Charlotte, NC, was the significant quantity of varying input sources to be received and processed. The number of sources was so diverse that the setting up of each processing card to meet ever-changing needs would have been time consuming and open to operator error. The inputs from each feed/tape could change from event to event and tape to tape. There are also three different cards in a logical group, each doing a different audio function (routing, delay, upmix) that needed to have consolidated controls.