East Hamilton High School’s Hybrid Workflow For Studio And Field Productions
Balancing IP and Baseband In High School Workflows
East Hamilton High School is one of over 75 schools in the Hamilton County School District in South Central Tennessee. The EHHS video program serves 120 students over a three year program of work. The second and third year students work in the program’s studio to produce a variety of content including the daily announcements show, Otis in the AM. East Hamilton High School did not have a space to be able to produce their content in a live environment so teacher, Scott Moore, and the students would have to shoot the show and edit it in post. This workflow was cumbersome for Moore and the students and limited their ability to create more, better content.
According to Moore, his biggest challenge is “simply not having the proper equipment to provide a good learning experience as well as an excellent production for the community.” In the fall of 2023, Hamilton County Schools
decided to change that with an aggressive request that would put East Hamilton High School's video program on top of all others with an IP focused workflow. Requesting both NDI and DANTE workflows, Hamilton County Schools showed it was serious about the level it wanted East Hamilton to be on as it prepares students for the world they will experience after they graduate. For Moore, the overall goal of the upgrade is so that “Students will have the opportunity to learn real world scenarios that they can apply immediately to a live production at a television station, a sports event, or an in house presentation such as church or convention centers. These types of jobs are in demand right now.”
The Expansion and Upgrade of East Hamilton High School Control Room and Studio
Moore and his students produce Otis In The AM approximately 150 times each year. Their current workflow requires that they produce a couple of shows each time they film so they have time to record, edit, and post the show for the community. From ideation to completion, a show would take a couple of days to produce. This workflow limited Moore and his students in terms of creativity and the ability to give their community the latest news in a timely manner. Amitrace worked with Hamilton County Schools and Moore to create a plan to expand the student work area and improve the tools and workflows the students used each day.
Moore wanted a state of the art workflow for his students and decided that a Vizrt TriCaster TC1 was the way to achieve that goal. The TC1 allows Moore and his students to use a variety of sources in their shows including Blackmagic Design Studio 4k cameras, a Vizrt 3play 3p1 as well as NDI sources from ProPresenter and NewBlue FX’s Captivate Sport.
The control room features two 4-bay Watson Unlimited broadcast consoles. These consoles are the home for the TriCaster, communications equipment, monitors and more.
To streamline the look of the studio and create flexibility, the Blackmagic Design Studio Camera 4k Pros were integrated into the studio via the Blackmagic Design Studio Converter. This allows the cameras to be powered via an ethernet cable as well as send the video signal back to the control room. In addition to power and signal to the control room, the studio converter allows Moore to send his students their teleprompter feed via the same cable using the Studio Camera 4k Pro camera’s HDMI out.
In an effort to further reduce the cables needed in the studio, Amitrace lead engineer, Phillip Greene engineered a power over ethernet for the 15 inch Ikan teleprompters. Greene ”decided to try to reduce the ultimate number of cables present in the studio to keep the studio clean and effective. I made the decision to power our typical teleprompters using POE injectors to supply them the necessary amount of power. This allowed us to use only two network cables to each camera, reducing the need to run extension cords along the studio floor. Instead, our network cables ran through a cable trough into the studio.” Cable management is often a challenge in a high school studio due to the nature of studio design where classrooms are often converted to studios without the architectural infrastructure offered in professional installations. Greene and Moore worked closely with the plan to keep a clean, safe studio floor for the students.
Ikan lights were used in the studio to improve the look in the studio. Moore uses a physical set that he received from a local television station as the center point of their look on the air.
For Greene, the task was fun as he got to challenge himself
and work to build great experiences for the students. “Scott is an extremely knowledgeable and talented broadcaster. Working with him allowed us to create unique workflows for advanced production styles that we [Amitrace] haven't come across before. He is a driven educator who is excited to use his years of experience to train his students what a true production looks, sounds, and feels like.”
Creativity In Engineering Generates A Hybrid Workflow for Field Productions
Professional level sports productions are on the horizon for the East Hamilton program, and Moore is excited about its impact on the students. "Just like athletics build teamwork in their sport, live productions bring team building skills to students that would not necessarily be in a sport. Live productions provide a way for students to think quickly and make reactionary decisions while at the same time, developing planning skills. Once the production is complete, they not only have the knowledge of a working Live TV Production, they have a since of pride about their role in that production to make it a success."
According to Greene, “The most exciting portion of this project is the hybrid SDI/NDI remote production kit. We have enabled him to produce a show either on or off his own network with a combination of Dante Intercom units, Magewell 12g NDI converters, a Black Magic ATEM HD8 switcher and URSA Broadcast cameras.” This workflow is a way to prepare Moore and his students for the future at East Hamilton. As the IT infrastructure grows, Moore and his students will be able to tap into the network to use the Dante and NDI workflow for remote productions at their athletic facilities. In the meantime, a baseband workflow will still allow the students to create amazing productions.
Moore and his students do not have to limit their production quality based on IP availability. Greene's remote workflow allows the team to produce content in any remote scenario, which was important to Moore: "Students will gain a working knowledge of the principles and can seek these opportunities by having the experience already gained in a high school setting."
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The Finished Product
At the completion of the project Scott Moore and the students of East Hamilton High School have a state of the art workflow that allows for studio productions and remote productions with a central control room workflow, as well as remote baseband broadcasts.
In the control room, there are a total of 8 camera inputs between the studio and remote workflows. There are also two channels of instant replay from the 3P1 and two graphics sources with the NewBlue FX Captivate and ProPresenter softwares.
Audio inputs include 8 studio feeds, four remote Dante feeds, a graphics feed via Dante, playback via Dante, three Dante auxiliary feeds, and two replay channels via SDI in the control room.
The control room is the hub for intercom, IFB, and tally. The studio will feature intercoms at the four studio cameras, a channel for the floor manager, four channels in the control room (director, producer, graphics 1, graphics 2), one channel for the audio booth, and four remote feeds. Intercom will work for the remote IP productions using Dante.
For IFB, there are two groups to allow for flexibility in the future. Each channel will have an individual auxiliary program feed from Dante.
Tally for the cameras will be carried via SDI for the cameras.
For remote productions with no IP connection to the house network, Moore will have standard baseband connections:
Four SDI broadcast cameras
One playback channel
One key/fill graphic channel
One instant replay channel
For remote productions with IP connectivity, Magewell converters will allow for a centralized production workflow where the NDI camera feeds will use the house network to send up to four remote camera feeds back to the master control room for switching, streaming, and recording purposes. This will allow for increased compatibility and production value.
As Moore and his team build their skill set through the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year, they will gain the skills needed to make 2024-2025 a year to remember for the students and stakeholders at East Hamilton. The production capabilities of this workflow will allow East Hamilton to be the standard for high school news and sports production for years to come. Moore's thoughts on the opportunities ahead are simple: "It’s not simply an upgrade. It’s a new structure to the program that has untapped potential. We are excited to get our program to the level that so many other high schools, not only in our area but around the country, have with live productions…. We can now bring that to our students at East Hamilton High School."
