Studio upgrade

G

Greg_E

Veteran
Finally getting all the pieces together to upgrade our studio to HD. Started out as a 4 camera, 4 tape machine facility in the "standard" TV design. Over the last few years we added 5 HD/SD switchable cameras and moved to widescreen SD, changed all the monitors, put in a Ross Carbonite, put in an Avid Airspeed 4 channel server... And finally an HD router board and HD distribution amps. I've spent the last few weeks designing the new configuration, and the last two days moving stuff around, removing stuff, and trying to pull all the old cables out to make a clean start. Still at least an entire day of pulling old cables out, I had no idea how over built our system had gotten, it was nearly impossible to find cables during the slow conversion process to get things running in the hybrid digital/analog that we've been using.



Also tried an in camera panorama, but it sucked.



The tape machines and camera controls used to be on the right side of the image, all that stuff is now in the production control room where the teachers can see the students sleeping or fooling around on their phones. Soon those racks should be empty, already sent most of the CRT's to recycling.

Anyway, just thought some of you might be interested.
 
The end of Friday, all the rack to rack cables are removed, just need to sort the cables going to other rooms.


Started moving the gear back into place, still need to sort the cables for the other rooms, but getting ready to be able to start connecting everything again (today). Need to take some days and replace the batteries in all the UPS's shown (hard to find a couple), about 350 pounds worth of batteries so may not have decent updates for a couple of days (if anyone even cares).



 
Considering the amount of IT work I normally have to do, this is fun and getting back to my roots. It's a good day when all you need to work on is a bunch of new mic cables and can sit and solder all day. Almost the same with this stuff though I'm trying to avoid having to solder anything, might have to punch a few audio cables to the back of the patch panels, but that will just rid me of more bulk so not too bad. The audio is fairly neat already, the video just got out of hand and needed a complete start from scratch.
 
I find a certain zen to such a process, especially when I know that the result will be clearing out huge mounds of unneeded crap. I bet when you're finished you could set that all up in half the space. Just be sure all of your cabling is rated to a high enough bandwidth to pass your HD signals properly. It was a fun day at the rental house in my old job when I threw out a colossal bin of cheap BNC cables that didn't pass muster for HD signals. Then I had to do a second sweep a few years later for 3G. Clients were constantly mixing in other rental houses' cables on returns from big jobs, and I just kept chopping and tossing them. Like, MILES of them.
 
Everything we have used for a long time is swept to 4.5Ghz, all the old is Belden 1505a and the new smaller stuff going in is 1855a for anything shorter than 50 feet. But we will be a long time before needing 3G, we are going to be 720p like so many of the broadcast networks. But most everything is capable of 1080/60p if we need to do that, cameras might be the exception.
 
Making slow progress. I think I finally finished sorting out unlabeled cables and pulling things I need to reconnect apart, at least for now. Put some of the floor tiles back in.


What came out:


Getting a start on DA's and patch panels, those HDBNC connectors are a real pain. Not only are they not very fun to assemble, the tool needed to latch then to the equipment certainly doesn't work as well as the full size BNC with a Trompeter brand BNC tool.


Back of the camera control units, about half way done for these.
 
Don't worry, color coding will break down eventually. In theory SDI signals are all supposed to be green in this new plan, breaks down as soon as it leaves the room into whatever color was used when it was run. Also breaks down when I run out of connectors and have to start pulling cable from the piles.
 
Another week and the end of the first 1000 feet of cable.





Not perfect, but decent. Just about the end of crimping the HDBNC connectors which is just fine with me.
 
After a week off, and another week of work, the power is on and most things are working. Need to pull 3 of the CCU's out because their internal memory battery is dead (red lights on the front) and track down a few other glitches. Then time to hook up the studio lines and program the router and change the switcher over to HD.

 
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