[Del Holford]

[Mark Suszko] “As far as what you do with the room that’s being retired, I would look at re-racking the best parts into a mobile studio for IMAG and field switching jobs”

Because we’re a quasi-governmental agency we had to sell the equipment but it was picked up and put into a local remote truck that does Jumbotron for the East Coast Hockey League and Clemson football.

CMX had some really cool ideas and hardware. It’s too bad they couldn’t keep the financing coming in. Perhaps they were just a little to far ahead of their time.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

Let me hop onto memory lane also. I started my career running camera on Bosch/Fernseh cameras and creating and lighting sets for the program I ran camera on. I moved onto RCA TC 44s and actually ran a TCP45 in a studio and on remotes. It was portable like the RCA TR 10 VTR. I started travelling doing telethons and ran a lot of GE PE 250s and began directing. GVG 1600K was the largest I used but also an RCA TS 100 and a Richmond Hill 3 ME switcher. Later after a stint as director and production manager I moved into the tape room with 4 RCA TR 70cs. I learned to punch & crunch doing insert edits where you hit the button 20 frames before the edit went in. We had RCA Editec but that scratched more quad tape than we could stand. Then we got TR 600s and Ampex VPR 2bs but by then I was on the RCA/EECO nixie tube time code editor. A controller for each machine the size of a BetacamSP deck. An engineer modified the machine for RS 170A so we could do match frame edits and dissolve on a GVG 100. We had an Ampex VPR 20 “portable” VTR also. Without a hand truck it was tough to carry. With batteries, around 80 lbs.

Then we got a CVS Epic editor (later Harris bought CVS) with 4 Sony TH 1100As while we waited for RCA to finish the TR 800s. Had a GVG 300 swr with MarkII DVE and Chyron 4 (added on to become a 4100EXB). Audio passed through a Neve audio board and we had a time code controlled Ampex 1/2″ audio recorder. Sweet machine! Later we added in an AVR2 to the 4 TR 800s.
That company folded and I freelanced as a tape op, editor, vacation relief master control operator and whatever. Those Sony 2000s in an NEP truck were sweet for slo-mo.

Then I moved to my current job and edited on a Sony 9000 with GVG 200 swr and Abekas A53D and A72. Soundcraft BVE 200 audio board. We had up to four BetaSP machines (if they weren’t needed elsewhere)and 2 VPR 250 D2 machines. Sony was very gracious to write software for those machines and it took 3 months, during which time I was on a borrowed (from Ampex) ACE 200. While we didn’t have the digital composite switcher like the Abekas A82 we still did pre-reads (which weren’t supposed to work in the 9000 software interface). After 4 passes hue had to be adjusted now and then but I put 10 dogs in a room at the same time and they never knew the other dogs were there 🙂 We had an offline room with a Sony 900 component setup.
We borrowed modules from that room’s Soundcraft BVE 200 when ones in the main room went bad.

Then 6 years ago we went from analog to digital and we purchased HD production capability. A Philips DD35 Seraph HD switcher with 4 LDK 6000 Mark II cameras and the Abekas HDveous. Pixel Power Clarity HD CG (awesome – 2 independent channels). Editing went Discreet with off-line on edit (still trucking along) and on-line in smoke for SD and fire for HD.
That was quite a learning curve but what a system! Version 7 is 64 bit and the timeline effects have been optimized so we wait a lot less for renders.

Everything is getting smaller, faster, and usually better. The story is still the thing but the new tools give more options. Thanks for the memories.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

While this might appear to be a great opportunity for you, I suggest it could hurt your reputation if you can’t perform to network standards.
Your post suggests you aren’t familiar with high end equipment. If you aren’t currently a blazing fast Avid editor it’s likely they won’t hire you anyway.

Since you do have some experience, you might want to see if you can get assistant editor jobs on similar projects so you can see how experienced editors perform and the tape machines and storage systems they use. After proving your worth, editors will let you edit some sections as time allows and you’ll gain more experience under their tutelage. Best of luck.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

I don’t know the problems you’ve had getting it to 16×20 but does Image>Image Size not give you the options you need to change to inches and the resolution you want?

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

This isn’t my area either but what about selecting the area with a polygonal marquee – copy to a new layer and then use Transform>warp and perspective to affect the areas of importance?

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

And on a related issue: LIGHTING.

I’ve seen some presentations where the glare on the whiteboard made the graphic unreadable. On a whiteboard or plexiglas be sure all camera angles (including reverse) are glare free. Tilting the board slightly forward/down on the mount is a start.

This is similar to several Navy movies (aircraft carriers-submarines) where plans or locations are plotted and shot through the board to talent. Proper lighting creates a great effect.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

A daVinci would cost a bundle but would make those colors really pop!

On the other hand, a global color correction of increased saturation within NTSC limits might do what you need. It would be helpful to know what camera(s) you are shooting the footage with for the shows.
On what monitors are you looking at the final product? Color correcting 35mm film is easier to start with than undersaturated video cameras so knowing some more facts would be helpful.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

Hi Dave
We did this during Promise Keepers at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC several years ago. For a short time we connected via Vyvx fiber link to the Promise Keepers event in Denver, Colorado. This was done on JumboTron screens in both venues. I would expect you could do this via satellite with the attendant .6 sec time delay on the satellite link. I doubt the internet would be able to pass live video of any appreciable size at this point.

I’m not sure if each church wants to see more than the speaker and if so it would require a remote truck in each location to feed the switched cameras to the satellite that would send and recieve the signals. HTH

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

You’re looking at a tedious process. It would be easier if your client could just send his logo on eps format. I have to push my clients sometimes but they usually come up with one. Jpeg has so many artifacts that trying to mess with it takes too much time.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television

[Del Holford]

It is also possible they are using virtual sets like the one ORAD makes. All cameras track with the set and graphics are integrated. Networks can afford the technology while most others cannot.

Del
fire*, smoke*, photoshopCS2
Charlotte Public Television