Here’s the FINAL wrap-up…
Affiliated with Cabot Coachbuilders, a family-owned motor coach business that’s been in the trade for over 45 years, Accelerated Media Technologies (or “AMT”) knows their stuff when it comes to mobile satellite broadcasting trucks of multiple platforms in a variety of ENG, DSNG and DSENG configurations. AMT’s current platforms include the Ford E250 and Ford E350 Series Vans, Mercedes Benz Sprinters, Ford F250 and Ford F350 Series Pickups, Ford Expedition EL and Chevrolet Suburban LT (the vehicles meet or exceed all applicable SAE standards, NEC Codes and FMVSS Standards 207, 210, 216, and 302).
Specializing in vehicle integration for a wide range of mobile applications including broadcast and mobile communications, AMT merges the capabilities of multiple divisions (such as Cabot), and is therefore able to innovate new products from each division into most every application. A specialty truck builder offering rack-ready and fully-integrated solutions, when it comes to quality, everyone states that AMT has the “best quality” in the industry. This statement means nothing without the credentials, processe
s and experience to back it up.
Their comprehensive in-house engineering team takes care of that, applying extensive CAD system experience to unparalleled documenting, managing, purchasing and tracking and controlling costs. They’re experts in systems integration, ensuring the proper installation and work of sophisticated electronics.
I was able to get inside and dream about owning one of these finely crafted highly engineered broadcast control units at the show! The truck they brought actually belonged to a local customer who gave permission for AMT to stop-over and display their product at the CCW Show just prior to delivery! It was an actual, working mobile broadcast control unit on its final voyage for service at a local television station, not a mock-up or “showpiece” but an actual working vehicle! It was so very exciting!
Steve Defala, Western Regional Sales Manager at AMT and official “booth-man” at the show, spoke to me about all that’s put into their product and how they have several specially-selected vehicles for which they have developed specific broadcast/media control footprints. All of the trucks mentioned above as well as over a dozen others are available and loaded with the specialized equipment (antennas, air conditioning units, generators and other support devices) for use in mobile broadcasting. Until you sit within one of these marvels and consider what they can do, you can’t even imagine what it’s like.
Although AMT was founded in 2010, it was by a group of highly experienced mobile communications specialists whose experience spans back nearly 40 years. Members of this team were involved with the formations of many of the networks everyone now relies upon for news and sports, while others developed the broadcast industry’s very first mobile satellite vehicles! Collectively, they have been building mobile communications vehicles for the broadcast and law enforcement industry since before there was a mainstream industry to utilize them!
Their primary mission, however, is to evolve communications platforms and broadcast vehicles beyond conventional solutions to better align
themselves with the new financial, operational and functional models set forth by the various industries. The need for less expensive, easier to operate and smaller platforms has never been more evident. By constantly working with industry professionals and OEM vehicle manufacturers, AMT has provided some of the most ground breaking platforms the industry has seen in 10 years, with safety and reliability ratings far above that of other solutions. Examples of this include the Expedition CCV and Swift Series ENG vans which have quite literally redefined news platforms.
AMT is an affiliate of Cabot Coach Builders Inc., and is a leading manufacturer of mobile communication and detection vehicles, mobile surveillance vehicles, mobile ATMs, and mobile office vehicles for national and international markets. Merging the capabilities of multiple divisions and relying on the nearly thirty years of custom vehicle manufacturing of its parent, has propelled AMT to the forefront of the industry. Cabot Coach Builders (CCB) is a leading design, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of products for the limousine, livery, private, specialty vehicle and mobility markets. Marketing under the brand names Royale™, Royale Mobility™ and Cabot Specialty Vehicles™ CCB products are well known for their custom craftsmanship, durability and reliability.
Ordinarily, I don’t stress over the floor upon which I tread; one floor is as good as the next… however, when I feasted my squinties on the raised platform of the FreeAxez Flooring System, something came over me which I could not explain!
Offering a low profile raised-access flooring system and effortless wire management, FreeAxez is installed worldwide for a diverse set of applications such as commercial offices, training rooms, conference rooms, universities, laboratories, classrooms, courtrooms, libraries, museums, emergency operations/911, casinos, warehouse conversions, hospitals, medical facilities, and more. Moves, adds, and changes can easily be performed by in-house personnel, without the need for special tools. Wire management just became a whole lot easier!
Roger Jette, FreeAxez’s chief engineer, explains that FreeAxez is designed for the general office environment, not just for data centers or computer rooms; it is intended to be installed under every desk. Say goodbye to the headaches of accessing cables on ladders via dusty ceilings, old computer room floors, core holes, trenches in concrete or electrified furniture. FreeAxez is ideal for the distribution of power, voice, and data cables for new construction as well as retrofit.
Vice President John Miller states how FreeAxez is an award winning, all steel, quick-connect, low profile access floor system that breaks the mold of
the traditional post and panel raised access floor; it not only provides unparalleled capacity and flexibility for the modern office and high technology environment, saving life cycle costs and improving workplace efficiency, it also eliminates the need to run power, voice and data cables through the ceilings and down power poles and makes it unnecessary to acquire integrated wire management from the systems furniture manufacturer.
Another added bonus – the FreeAxez low profile raised access floor system does not attach to the structure, and can be depreciable as equipment! Not only does this solution provide the benefit of easy-access to wiring, but it comes with a tax advantage, as well! Not too many usable products can boast that feature! And it’s made in the USA – it doesn’t get much better than THIS! Or does it? You don’t even have to buy it – it’s available FOR LEASE! Truly a marvel!
And then I turned the corner on the display floor, and saw them – A global manufacturer of a wide-range of multi-function SD & HD LCD video monitors up to 70” wide, Plura’s plant in Phoenix, Arizona, has equipment specially designed for digital broadcast and professional video production monitor creation. When I stopped-by the Plura booth, President and CEO Ray Kalo was there and we chatted not only about their fantastic monitors, but about Broadcast Beat Studio’s connection to Plura as a Valued Production Partner (or “VPP”).
Plura’s line of broadcast and professional video monitors are, in one word, superb. Not only are they manufactured with the highest-quality components for superior picture quality, they also contain software enhancements, such as audio loudness logging and V-Chip decoding, which further adds to a software-driven evolution in digital monitoring solutions.
Plura isn’t just monitors, though. Plura seeks to fulfill every unfilled niche in the broadcast and professional video production arena. While Plura’s
product line includes studio and portable video monitors, it also has test and measurement equipment and software, character/template-driven graphics generators, digital signage systems and the Alpermann+Velte brand of timecode products, production timers and studio clock systems.
Over the past two years, the broadcast and production industry has been losing options for professional timers and clocks. Reliable vendors have been dropping and ending support of these valuable and often underappreciated studio tools. Fear not! A new array of networked production timers from Plura’s Alpermann-Velte SPT series of infrastructure solutions for connected studios has arrived, and for advanced wireless applications – a mobile app.
With rackmount and tabletop versions each capable of distributing six different timers across unlimited associated hardware or software devices, SPT products integrate seamlessly with leading multiviewers, incorporating digital timers and/or analog clocks into the visual display, enabling synchronization with studio clock reference systems, and IP control to all connected devices, for starting, stopping, reset and the adjustment of other timer settings.
Media assets have metadata, and metadata needs managing; this has been the principal mission of ProTrack for over two decades. Effectively tracking how, when and where non-linear programming (online, mobile, VOD) is being published adds the most value to the sales process when you decide to sell some of your digital assets, instead of letting them sit around collecting dust. Your content has value, and it’s time you put that value to use.
Protrack is designed to enhance organizational transparency and facilitate efficient workflows across Programming, Sales, Traffic, Engineering, and IT departments.
In order to reliably access, activate, and promote the content, you need a system that can truly create a true media asset; with ProTrack, you can: create & repurpose metadata, handle invoicing & affidavits, manage sales contacts & contracts, schedule & track interstitials, perform template scheduling, track sales inventory, easily integrate to automation/archive, perform proxy sampling, and even engage in linear & nonlinear scheduling.
Did I mention that Quantel was there? Well… Quantel has been in the video graphics industry for over 40 years and has been responsible for a number
of major technological breakthroughs, including the first viable digital effects system, the first digital paint system (Paintbox), the first digital compositor (Harry) and the first online digital editor (Henry); but that’s in the past. Today, Quantel is all about IP, Virtualization, 4K, Software as a Service, Media Biometrics – in addition to their incomparable graphics solutions.
At the Show, I spoke with Quantel’s Matthew Zajicek and Danny Peters about the various graphics devices and software they are touting today, and about how, in a sense, they seemingly become “industry standards” the moment they appear, based on the longtime range and affect Quantel has had in the television circuit through the use of their graphics technology. I mean, who doesn’t remember wanting a Paintbox way back in the beginning?
Not only do Quantel products deliver at SD, HD, 2K, 4K and beyond, they also combine the most advanced IT technology with super-powered image processing hardware and brilliant software. Quantel’s post-production systems deliver the quality, resolution and performance that is required to capture high-margin, high-value work – the type of graphics superiority not only demanded but expected in the industry. Quantel produces the most powerful and efficient tools for the digital age. Period.
What was most astonishing to see in action was the Pablo Rio – Quantel’s software high quality color and finishing system. Building on the Pablo pedigree, it runs on standard COTS (“Commercial Off The Shelf”) hardware, making it the most customer-friendly and versatile system for ease of use ever! Pablo Rio is all about choice; customers have complete freedom in how they specify and purchase their system, which is where the versatility comes in. Pablo Rio users can choose just the right system for their individual requirements, which is where the ease of use comes in –
users can select the hardware they’re most comfortable with! It’s win-win!
Whatever configuration the user chooses, Pablo Rio is the complete color and finishing environment that provides the ultimate productive workflow for 2D and S3D projects – and high frame rates too. Paplo Rio works effortlessly with media from across a wide range of data formats including high frame rate, Stereo3D, Apple ProRes 422, OpenEXR, RED HDRx to ARRI, Canon, Sony F65/55 RAW, SStP, Phantom, Silicon Image, Blackmagic Cinema DNG, Sony XAVC and GoPro – even a wide range of QuickTime soft-mount codecs. Paplo Rio is a complete color-finishing solution. Simply stunning!
I also experienced LiveTouch, which is is Quantel’s studio highlights system. The demonstration of LiveTouch showed me how selecting highlights from multiple incoming feeds and playing highlights to air can be fast and direct. Thanks to extensive collaboration and consultation with sports broadcasters and their on-air operators, Quantel determined that editors should be able to punch in and out, mark interest points, block play with live speed control and add to/modify playlists – even while the playlist is on air. It’s ALL there! And the LiveTouch panel makes it all simple and fast.
Quantel makes everything look so easy to do – and that comes from years and years in the broadcasting business and knowing what’s needed the most!
Clear-Com was a sight for sore ears! They showed-off their LQ Series, a new family of ICON devices for linking intercom and audio systems over IP networks. Because of its low audio latency communication link, it’s “a natural” for natural intercom conversation, networked music performances and for audio signals that are transported via different facilities. Operating in the license-free1.9-1.92GHz band, FreeSpeak II was also presented as a DECT-based, all-roaming wireless communication solution in the United States for live events, broadcast, sport production, industrial, military and government applications. Finally, there was ProGrid, the professional live audio, broadcast and production industry jewel that offers a synchronous, optical fiber signal transport system that can carry, distribute, and route many different lines of audio, intercom and video signals, in addition to being able to control data, all across long distances without conceding its performance, speed, or quality.
Another Broadcast Beat Studio Valued Production Partner (or “VPP”) is TBC Consoles – which made a spectacular showing at the Show! World-class technical furniture designers, manufacturers, and installers, the folks at TBC Consoles can create single operator desks to sophisticated control rooms, providing the products and the expertise to design, engineer and manufacture ergonomically-correct and highly-organized workspaces that not only lead to greater efficiency, productivity and personal performance, but are also comfortable and aesthetically pleasing at the same time! Their staff of highly experienced designers, engineers, project managers, CNC operators, craftsman, laminators, and metal workers at their company headquarters in Long Island, New York (which includes over 30,000 square feet of manufacturing space) work diligently to achieve the finest in height-adjustable desks, technical furniture, control rooms, edit consoles, graphics consoles, broadcast furniture and other unique applications; in addition, TBC Consoles applies their expertise to security and network operations, transportation, power utilities, dispatch, healthcare, and other applications of their products. Broadcast Beat is proud to have them as a VPP!
Well, it’s that time again… time to put CCW-SATCON 2014 behind us, and look toward NAB 2015 in the Spring! Again, a big Broadcast Beat Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to let us interview them, the CCW-SATCON Show Folks, NAB, The Javits Center, the Broadcast Beat Crew – as well as all of our readers and supporters because, without you, there wouldn’t be a Broadcast Beat… so remember to keep the Beat and stay blogged-in! 🙂
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