New Television Studio
The Challenge: The Fashion Institute of Technology is one of the leading fashion and design schools on the east coast. VCA was contacted by the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2004 for the purpose of upgrading their old TV studio and bringing it up to modern standards. The old studio was an analog video facility, and much of the old equipment was failing or starting to fail which caused obvious problems with the classes. F.I.T uses the studio for training students in broadcast TV production and workflow. F.I.T. wanted to upgrade the facility to a modern all digital facility. They wanted students to benefit from equipment that was modern and also that worked reliably. They wanted the facility to capture and mix standard definition (SD-SDI); but they also wanted the ability to have an infrastructure that was easily upgradeable to High Definition a couple years in the future. The budget was also relatively constrained, so they asked VCA to provide them with the most intelligent choices possible, that created the best quality solution, but with the best long term value.
The VCA Fusion Solution: VCA worked very closely with the TV Studio Manager, Michael Cokkinos, to determine his current needs and also to anticipate all future needs. VCA provided a complete TV Studio design and equipment specification that more than fulfilled F.I.T.'s needs, both present and future. From 2004 through 2006 VCA's sales and video engineers worked closely with F.I.T., fine-tuning the design and equipment specifications as the needs were further refined and as budgets and timelines were finalized. When VCA was awarded the project in summer 2006 the VCA team then kicked into high gear. VCA provided final engineering and documentation, had our engineers and project managers work closely with the F.I.T. studio manager and F.I.T. Facilities personnel, and procured all the equipment, and fabricated all the racks of equipment, and pre-staged all the of equipment at VCA's fabrication facility located in Manhattan. F.I.T. was able to come by and inspect the staged equipment at VCA prior to delivery. VCA started the onsite delivery and installation in early January, provided a week of extensive product training on site in mid January, and finished everything in time for the first day of classes in late January 2007.
Equipment:
- Ross Video Synergy 1 Digital Production Switcher
- Ross Video Video and Audio Routing Systems
- Ross Video Networked Clip and Still Store System
- Audio Accessories Complete Video and Audio Patchbay systems
- Hitachi Z-4000 Studio Camera Systems
- Vinten Pedestals
- Telescript Prompter Systems
- Tektronix SPG-300 Facility Sync Generator
- Tektronix WVR-6100 Waveform Rasterizer
- Chyron Duet MicroX CG system
- Sony DSR-1800 DVCAM VTR
- Sony LUMA video production monitors
- RGB Spectrum 1690D1 PC Scan Converter with SDI
- Marshall Rackmount Video Monitors
- Wohler Rackmount Audio Monitors
Outcome: F.I.T. has been extremely pleased with the new TV Studio which VCA has designed and built for them. The engineers, teachers and students at F.I.T. all love the new capabilities and the great ease of use that VCA designed and implemented for them.
"It is not often that an educational facility like FIT builds a new television studio from the ground up, so as Project Manager it was a formidable, sometimes daunting task for me," said Mike Cokkinos of F.I.T. "Through the entire process VCA made me feel comfortable. They over-delivered on all of their promises. At the close of the project I can say that as designer, vendor, and installer, VCA was professional, competent, and very hard working."