Portland’s KOIN-DT Ignites News Production With Thomson Grass Valley

The winners in the toughest ratings fight have one thing in common: Thomson Grass Valley™ multiformat and HD digital news production systems.

They're installed at leading station groups in the top five U.S. markets -- and at leading news outlets worldwide. With a complete workflow that spans acquisition, production and playout, it's clear that when you're watching the news, you're watching Grass Valley technology at work.

For more information about Thomson Grass Valley products, please visit thomsongrassvalley.com.

Thomson Grass Valley Articles

April 6, 2007

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KOIN-TV’s Ignite integrated production system provides all new digital production capabilities, improves the on-air look, and reduces technical errors.

As stations across the country make the transition to digital operations, as well as high-definition broadcasting, in anticipation of the government-mandated analog shutdown in February 2009, they’re looking for easy-to-implement and cost-effective technology and systems that make the conversion manageable.

For some, that means changing out individual pieces of equipment in an effort to at least broadcast in digital. For others, a complete changeover to an integrated production system is the best way to go, providing a reliable platform upon which to grow.

At KOIN-DT, the CBS affiliate in Portland, Ore., the Grass Valley Ignite integrated production system from Thomson, has proven to be exactly what they needed to bring the station to the next level of broadcast news operations. It has provided them with all new digital production capabilities, improved their on-air look and reduced technical errors, which plagued the station previously.

Rick Brown, KOIN-TV’s director of operations and the person who oversaw the conversion, predicts that in five years most stations in the country will be operated with some type of automated production system. For stations in small to mid-sized markets like Portland, it makes economic and practical sense.

Although the station infrastructure was wired for digital operation a year ago, the staff at KOIN was working with a 20-year old audio board, an aging character generation system and other well-worn equipment. In the past six months, KOIN has produced five hours of award-winning newscasts in a highly efficient way using the Ignite system.

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Ignite Director Karyn Clarke and the rest of KOIN-TV’s production staff quickly learned to embrace the Ignite system’s workflow.

The metamorphosis began when Montecito Broadcast Group bought the station in 2006. The new management understood the value of an automated production workflow after working with a ParkerVision system (the predecessor to Ignite) several years ago--when the company operated under the name SJL Broadcasting.

Fully embracing the concept, Montecito has implemented Ignite systems at its other stations; one in Honolulu, Hawaii (Fox station KHON-TV) and the other in Wichita, Kansas (NBC affiliate KSNW-DT). All three stations participate in a weekly conference call, along with a Grass Valley engineer, to share notes and production tips on how to use the Ignite system to its best capabilities. This has helped to work out technical issues and bring the sister stations closer together in a singular mission to provide the best programming possible.

Today, not only is KOIN-DT a digital television station, it also broadcasts its newscasts in the 16:9 (“widescreen”) aspect ratio and plans to go HD in the near future in order to accommodate the growing number of HDTV sets in the Portland market.

The station is producing the same five hours news programs per weekday that they did before, but its on-air look is noticeably better and individual news stories include more technical innovations, like digital effects and layered audio elements.

“Our on-air content has become much more consistent as a result of the Ignite system, which has made both our operations people and our viewers very happy,” said Brown. “We now have a cleaner show than we ever did before and newscasts are produced more smoothly.”

The Ignite system brings digital video switching, audio mixing and a host of other features, all integrated into a single system. While Grass Valley offers several different versions, including an Ignite HD system, KOIN has installed an Ignite SD 4 M/E system with the optional QUICbox push-button panel to operate the various features and other necessary equipment. The Ignite system includes an internal audio mixer and video switcher, while controlling graphics and a Sony video server. This is all tightly integrated with the station’s ENPS newsroom computer system, which handles their show rundowns. The station is using four Panasonic HD box-style cameras in the studio, controlled by a Rademec robotic camera system. Images are downconverted to SD before going to air.

Making The Conversion

Transitioning the staff to the Ignite system proved to be relatively easy, once the staff understood how the new workflows came together. In KOIN’s experience, most of the station’s operators, who previously used traditional broadcast equipment (including a Grass Valley 4000 production switcher) and were highly specialized in their disciplines, quickly learned to embrace the Ignite system’s workflow and are now the better for it.

Once they understood the new way of working with the Ignite--where stories are treated as digital files on a Transition Macro Element (TME) timeline and production elements are set up as “events”--training went very smoothly. Grass Valley trainers helped onsite for six weeks to guide the staff and get them up to speed.

“Now that our directors are comfortable with the Ignite system, it’s fun to see how relaxed they are during production and at times trying new things to make the newscasts better,” said Brown.

To this end, the system has also benefited Brown’s staff scheduling activities, because everyone trained on the Ignite system can now run an entire newscast. Before, when the audio mixer or Chyron operator called in sick, he’d have to find a replacement. Having everyone well versed on the Ignite system works well for the station.

“It’s made my life a lot easier and has helped keep the station running smoothly,” he said. “Our show is the same graphics-intensive show it was before we had Ignite, it’s just put together more quickly and with less stress.”

Ignited Workflow

Each day news producers usually complete their show layout for the evening newscast about an hour before, which was always standard procedure at the station. The difference is that with Ignite, late-breaking segments can be imported at any time throughout the show. And KOIN’s news department has done it several times when major news in the Portland area has broken.

News stories are acquired in the field with Sony Betacam SX cameras and edited on Avid nonlinear and Sony nonlinear edit systems, before being played out via a Sony video server. The existing Grass Valley 4000 digital switcher is still used to produce some local shows. KOIN’s on-air live news is now always under the control of the Ignite system, in tandem with Avid Deko character generators and a Thunder server.

“We’re finding it’s much easier for directors to change their rundowns with Ignite,” said Brown. “They just want things to run smoothly.”

“We’re still growing with the system and finding new ways to use it creatively, with exciting effects (e.g., curls and cube effects that fill the wider aspect ratio of a 16:9 screen) that our viewers haven’t seen before in news,” said Brown. “With Ignite, we feel we can lead in the market and attract new viewers by innovating and pioneering new ways to present our news stories. As we get more confident with Ignite, we feel strongly that it will help us achieve our goals.”

Format Flexibility

The Ignite system’s ability to handle multiple digital video formats has been another benefit for KOIN-DT. When the station moved to broadcasting their news in 16:9, it simply required a few weeks of software adjustments to make it work. Moving to full HD broadcasting will be equally as easy.

With the use of IT-centric systems like the Grass Valley Ignite growing across the country, fixing technical glitches becomes easier for customers, sometimes within hours. That was the case recently when Brown found he needed to tweak a graphic element. Being located on the West Coast, he put in a call to the East Coast-based Grass Valley Ignite team offices (in Jacksonville, Florida) on a Thursday afternoon and had a fix by the following Friday morning when he came into work.

Now, with six months of on-air proof, Brown feels he’s now past the transition stage of using the Ignite integrated production system and likes the way it has made his job more manageable. That’s a goal he’s always looking to achieve.