CBS uses JVC solutions in local news production

CBS's Cleveland-Akron partner, WOIO, uses the Streamstar

The live streaming news broadcast for the online audience is nothing new for the affiliated stations of the CBS North American. Its affiliate in Cleveland-Akron (Ohio), WOW, from the Raycom Media group, has been the first to use the production solution JVC Streamstar ProHD Studio 4000 (X4 model in Europe) to broadcast your news live.

This system is a small-scale, affordable and highly efficient comprehensive production room, which replaces a traditional news production control room such as the one the station had been using for broadcasting on its OTT platforms.

The station's technology director Bob Maupin, acknowledges that "we immediately saw this JVC Streamstar solution as something that made it easier to manage and produce OTT content with a different type of control room, which in reality did not require working with an entire traditional production system like those used until now. We have planned the investment so that all our digital platforms work with this solution."

The station began working with JVC Streamstar The production was broadcast through the station's web portal, with its mobile application and on Facebook Live. It included the insertion of double video windows, graphics, telephone comments from another reporter and other production elements typical of a news broadcast.

"And we can do all this with a single person simply acting on a couple of touch screens. We have even developed some of our own workflows to make it more complete," adds Maupin.

The JVC Streamstar X4 system is installed in the station's newsroom. With a robotic camera PTZ KY-PZ100 from JVC mounted on the ceiling in front of the production space, the system operator himself can even work as a presenter. A large 70-inch screen behind the operator serves as a video backdrop, and simple partitions on each side of the production space prevent anyone from sneaking into the image during a live broadcast.

Two of the four inputs of the JVC Streamstar During a broadcast, the system operator can add graphics, logos, stock images, live images from Skype, web pages, and also adjust audio levels.

In the opinion of the editor Brian Sinclair, the training that the staff needed with the new system was very easy, since it is very intuitive, and the operators quickly got used to the touch screen control interface. The system does not have traditional control panels, and the keyboard and mouse are only used to enter texts from the graphic generator or to search for content in the station's ENPS system.

Additionally, a second touch screen was added so that operators could conveniently access the station's virtual router control panel and ENPS content, using a separate computer. The new news production system also provides more flexibility to the workflow, as Sinclair comments, on the same day the system is launched, since the main studio and the production control room are linked with a recorded spot of the next news, while still broadcasting on-air. To do this in the past, the station would have had to cut off its live broadcast to be able to produce the two segments.

WOIO plans to implement the JVC Streamstar X4 solution in all its stations. "We intend for our digital platforms to have as much immediate live content as possible. We are convinced that the JVC Streamstar solution will make a difference in the market when it comes to addressing this type of news production more quickly, efficiently and affordably. And with the consequent benefit for viewers. We are very satisfied with the new system," concludes Sinclair.