Testimonials - Synergy 4
KOSA-TV Looks to Ross for Digital Switcher, Signal Distribution, Conversion and Master Control
Jim McKinnon
Director of Engineering
CBS 7 KOSA-TV
Odessa, TX
When I came to CBS 7 in November of '98, I was informed that planning had begun for a possible move from our studio location, which the station had occupied from it's first broadcast day in January 1956 to Music City Mall located about five miles away. The feasibility study, which was done, indicated it was possible, but costly, so it was put on hold temporarily.
The owner of the mall approached the station owners about purchasing the station, which was agreed upon, and the move was back on track.
We had a working facility, that had been upgraded in master control and live production control in the early 80's, however about 70 percent of the equipment was from suppliers which had left the broadcast business or was no longer currently supported. We investigated possibilities of new analog equipment and found most equipment costly, given that digital was on the horizon and supply and demand seemed to be a governing factor. We also looked into recently replaced equipment from other stations, which had begun to upgrade, and again this was found to have cost and support considerations for the long term.
It was decided to go ahead with a futuristic plan for a complete digital 601 facility from the ground up, which would support digital expansion and provide future reliability.
First consideration was given to equipment from manufacturers which had a strong record of stability in products over a long term, at the same time, also showed initiative for improved, functional, easily upgraded, and operated equipment.
I was familiar with Ross Video, as years earlier; I wished to purchase an RVS 630 switcher, to replace a Vital switcher, and that wish wasn't granted.
The Ross Synergy 3 was my pick for first choice, given the flexibility, ease of learning, and it was similar to operate as our Grass 1600 switcher, which had been in use since 1977. We looked at Grass Valley, but determined the Kalypso did not fit our needs for live news production on a daily basis. We also looked at Pinnacle's digital switcher, but product delivery was a potential problem. We considered other suppliers, but reliability, service and expandability were problems. Ross had a demo scheduled for us to see their switcher. They demonstrated a Synergy 4 and everyone fell in love with it. We ordered one! The switcher was setup with two "Squeeze and Tease" DVE's, we had used a single channel external before, three Ultimatte insiders, server control, and overlay options. At the time, we installed our switcher; nothing in this market came close to it.
Our studio control room is different. The switcher panel is made into a special desk and the director's monitors are plasma displays. We have learned that our facility is unique in many respects, even when compared to much larger markets.
All news clips are played from servers, through the customs controls, running GPI trigger salvos, which can start, stop, recue or jump ahead. Since we have dual channel CGs, DVEs, and still stores, one extra input card was ordered after installation for the alpha channels because the thirty-two switcher inputs were full. Our Ikegami studio cameras have dual input presets to the viewfinders, the twelve aux bus availability makes viewing different shot setup easy for the camera operators, feeding the two channel graphics and external DVE, and switching for our virtual studio system, as well as monitoring other sources.
About ease of operation, the studio was constructed first, six months before master control and studio control. The Synergy panel was set on a large table, with program and preset monitors on boxes, in the back of the studio, in the area, which would eventually become the newsroom. We cabled the studio cameras and a rental weather graphics system to the card frame of the switcher, mounted in a portable rack, with Ross converters, next to an audio console. We broadcasted local news from October 12th, 2000 until April 12th 2001, via microwave through our old studios, while construction progressed around us, on ladders, and scaffolds until the main control rooms were completed and all other equipment was installed. It was interesting to produce live news with painters and drywall installers working around, sometimes while we were on air. The Synergy proved itself a great switcher, when you consider we installed it on a Saturday and news production went live on Monday, after a practice show test on Sunday, without operator training. I know any other switcher would have been left in the dust competing against our Synergy. We finally got some great training after everything was finished, and the station went on line from our new home.
Let's move over to master control and terminal, where much more RossGear is in use. Our design required that most switching to air be accomplished through a new Leitch router, but we needed downstream keying, in addition, to our existing analog Codi/EAS unit. I wanted to be able to dissolve or mix from router to router or source to source.
Rick Penland, of Ross Video, recommended a DVM 8900 digital mixer, and since we had proposed analog audio throughout the facility, we added an AM 7900 mixer for audio control. The specs matched exactly what I was looking for; an inexpensive master control switcher, which could be controlled by automation for future expansion. The DVM 8900 / AM 7900 has four dedicated inputs video and audio, key inputs and audio over inputs, and being fed from two dedicated router outputs, we have access to all sixty-four router sources, unlike our old master twenty-one limited to sixteen. The best part is the price, about one-sixth the price of a new master control switcher.
Our audio system is fed through four rack frames of RossGear ADA-7555 audio DAs running in stereo mode. I liked the option of stereo or mono mode and variable output levels for each output.
We purchased twenty Ross ADC-8032 analog to digital frame syncs for satellite feed conversion. Ross frames have an advantage over Leitch frames, in that; only one black reference is needed to lock all cards in a frame. We purchased one rack of ADC-8033 converters and one rack of DAC-8013 converters to feed our analog Betacam decks from the digital router. We use a Ross DAC-8016 digital to analog converter to feed outgoing microwave and fiber feeds from the plant and five or six Ross CMA-8011 monitoring converters.
To be fair, we have had two problems. Our DAC-8016 went bad and we used a CMA-8011 for one day during our construction phase, Ross had a new one in our hands the next morning. And, the ADC-8032 frame syncs had a freeze frame problem, which was corrected with an updated version.
In conclusion, the switchers and terminal gear has performed well above expectations. I would recommend anyone looking for equipment to seriously consider Ross as a major source for those purchases.