WWE HD Upgrade Powered by Thomson, by Brian Smith

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.

From the Editors

WWE HD Upgrade Powered by Thomson

by Brian Smith, March 20, 2008

Staff reporter for TV Technology

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has begun a full-scale HD production enrichment at its Stamford, Conn. facilities.

The $12 million deal will provide WWE with a file-based infrastructure consisting of Thomson Grass Valley K2 media servers, an Aurora HD production editing system, Kalypso HD production switchers, a Trinix HD router and Thomson Kameleon and GeckoFlex signal conversion modules.

Thomson was chosen from an esteemed list of manufacturers for its ability to handle the unique needs of WWE’s production environment. The completed system will have full redundancy and the ability to produce high-definition content faster than the former tape-based, standard-definition setup.

K2 media server

The digital production system will include 16 HD ingest channels, a minimum of 2,000 usable and 15,000 stored hours of online HD disk proxy storage, 20 full-resolution observation seats and can support 200 registered users with 50 simultaneous users.

“We’ve used Thomson Grass Valley equipment for almost 20 years and have been very pleased with both the performance and the productivity benefits it has given us,” said WWE Senior Vice President of Television Operations Mike Grossman. “Now, as we make a rapid move to HD, it was natural for us to turn to Thomson and its engineers, who have the knowledge and expertise to get the job done right.”

WWE chose Thomson to mastermind an analog-to-digital conversion in 2001.

Part of the upgrade includes a Nesbit Systems brand comprehensive management system. The MLS/Preview+ will archive and organize all of WWE’s audio and video assets in a shared storage network, providing instant access to over 100,000 hours of content. This is especially important to an entertainment company averaging over 100 hours of fresh weekly output.

“We are very excited about this opportunity,” said Nesbit Systems President Irene Nesbit. “Installing MLS/Preview+ and integrating it with Grass Valley’s MediaFrame to provide a seamless solution for managing all of WWE’s assets is a big win for everyone.”

This integration will utilize a task-specific GUI, linking the abilities and metadata of each application to all other tools in the production suite, on the same desktop. MLS/Preview+ collaborating with the Aurora Browse suite will assist in EDL clip selection, logging, low resolution viewing and two-way metadata exchange with MediaFrame.

Jeff Rosica, Broadcast & Professional Solutions senior vice president for Thomson, had this to say about their courtship with Nesbit and WWE’s potential. “By choosing to install Thomson Grass Valley equipment and teaming MediaFrame metadata architecture with Nesbit Systems’ MLS/Preview+, WWE is at the forefront of how a global media company creates, manages, and distributes content on a variety of platforms in the 21st century.”