Midtown Video Specifies DYVI switcher at University of Miami Athletics

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The University of Miami (UM) – the home of Hurricanes Athletics – is set to become the first university in the US to deploy the software-defined DYVI switcher to produce live sports. The switcher from EVS, the leading provider of live production technology, is used by multiple professional sports teams and will be implemented into the athletics department’s campus production control room as it prepares to undertake its new production role for ESPN’s upcoming ACC Network. Midtown Video played an important role in bringing EVS solutions to the attention of the University so it could prepare for the launch of the ACC Network.

Installed as part of a wider broadcast facility upgrade, DYVI will be instrumental in the creation of both digital and linear programming by the university production team as it begins outputting broadcast TV feeds for the first time. This comes as each of the 14 schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference assume responsibility for producing their home-events for the ACC Network which is set to begin broadcasting next year.

To meet the expectation of the highest-quality output for ESPN, the University of Miami knew it would need a switcher that featured at least three MEs and could be reconfigured quickly because it would be used for more than ten sports with overlapping schedules. The built-in flexibility and configurable nature of DYVI means it’s perfectly suited to this kind of production setup and doesn’t need reconfiguration for each sport requirements.

“When the EVS team demonstrated the DYVI switcher to us, I was immediately blown away,” said Drew Thomas, the director of production services for the University. “DYVI could effectively let us put in place 99 MEs if we needed them, so we can jump from a basketball setup to a baseball configuration at the touch of a button.”

With a young team of production operators, the intuitive interface is another feature of DYVI that played a key role in the university’s decision to go with the switcher. “The interface quickly makes sense and provides an excellent user experience,” added Drew. “It easily does what I’ve always wanted other more traditional switchers to do.”

As part of the same control room upgrade, the production team also needed to implement a robust replay solution that would consistently deliver for over 100 sporting events a year. To meet this demand, UM also put in place two XT3 live production servers and four LSM remote controllers. The EVS systems will be used to ingest live feeds from events taking place across the campus into the control room, where operators will create replays of the action, which will be cut into the live output by DYVI.

“The introduction of the ACC Network is a great opportunity to showcase the on-campus sports that the Hurricanes excel at, so we wanted to maximize this opportunity with this facility upgrade,” commented Drew. “The reliable and intuitive nature of EVS technology is going to play such a key part of the creation of our first linear TV broadcast and I’m really excited to get it up and running.”

The University of Miami will complete all aspects of its facility upgrade and begin running full productions by the end of the year. ESPN’s ACC network will begin broadcasting on its dedicated TV channel in 2019, while continuing to also deliver output to its accompanying ACC Network Extra mobile platform.

Live Streaming Iconic artist, Judy Chicago in Miami Design District

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February 23, 2019

Iconic artist, author, and advocating feminist, Judy Chicago presented a new site-specific performance exhibition in the Miami Design District Jungle Plaza on February 23, 2019. Entitled A Purple Poem for Miami, Chicago’s smoke performance was an event that took her a full year of preparation. Doors opened to the public at 5:30pm for the ticketed event and Miami was filled with colored smoke and fireworks at 6:15pm on behalf of the Institute of Contemporary Art, The New Tropic, Salon 94, and the Miami Design District.

Midtown Video had the pleasure of live streaming this unique experience for Judy Chicago on ICA’s YouTube page with the help of LiveU and Sony equipment. The technology provided by Midtown included but was not limited to a LiveU 300 encoder, a LiveU 2000 decoder, a Panasonic AWHS-50 Switcher, and a Sony PMW300 camera. Even with limited access to internet in the area, the LiveU 300 encoder, (with attached dual cellular modems from both Verizon and AT&T) was enough to successfully stream a clear performance. For productions that are limited in crew, this combination of compact equipment yields a low cost and yet results in a powerful HD image production system.

Midtown Video Brings New TV Studio to Life for Technology Leader Citrix

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Provides concierge-level service, including design, installation, systems integration, and training, on-time and on-budget

Midtown Video worked hand-in-hand with Citrix Technology Specialist Fabien Bourdon to design and build a new 4K-capable TV studio and control room for Citrix Corporation, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

With its innovative mission of empowerment, Citrix powers a better way to work by delivering the experience, security, and choices that people and organizations need to unlock innovation, engage customers, and be productive-anytime, anywhere. The company’s vision is that work is no longer a place, it’s an increasingly dynamic activity that people expect to be as adaptable as they are. Citrix powers digital workspaces that combine freedom and security, whether people are working on-site, on the road, or in the cloud.

The new Citrix Studio is now producing a wide range of e-learning programs, training videos, and other corporate communications. Bourdon anticipates that the studio will produce hundreds of videos annually.

The Right Vendor at the Right Time

“The biggest challenge of this ambitious undertaking was to select the best studio equipment and configuration possible from thousands of options, and interface the systems to operate as a single, seamless workflow,” said Bourdon. “From day one, the Midtown team fully understood how we wanted the studio to work and guided us to those solutions that achieved our goals on-time and on-budget. Their specialized knowledge and technical expertise were invaluable.”

Unlike the previous studio that Citrix used, which was a makeshift facility in a small, converted conference room, the new Citrix Studio and its adjacent control room are dedicated spaces on the second floor of one of the five buildings on the Citrix “Cypress Creek” corporate center campus.

Since this location is only a quarter mile from the Ft. Lauderdale airport, acoustics engineering design played a key role in isolating the studio from the noise and vibrations of this busy hub. During studio construction, which was part of a broader renovation of the entire floor, Midtown Video engineers—including Design Engineer/VP of Operations Fernando Iglesias, Video Systems Engineer Hernan Polo, and Lead Installer Robert Chirino—provided a wide range

of services ranging from design, installation, systems integration, and training. They also worked with the architects at Global Architecture Projects, Inc., and building contractors, such as BluFin Construction, on matters involving air conditioning, in-wall conduits, flooring, soundproofing, outlets and other infrastructure to ensure a highly ergonomic studio environment.

Creative and Operational Flexibility

“To keep our productions visually fresh and dynamic, we wanted the ability to transform the look, color schemes, branding, visual displays and other set design elements on a regular basis,” said Bourdon. “Instead of physical sets, our studio features virtual sets keyed into an 18 x 18-foot green cyclorama, as well as an on-set videowall that can display any 4K imagery.” Midtown Video supervised the design and construction of the cyc, which was brought up via elevator to the second-floor studio in four pieces and then assembled in place.

One corner of the studio also features a small talk show set with three 65-inch 4K LCD monitors mounted vertically on the wall. A Digi-Bird DB-VR C4H video processor helps configure the composition of the imagery across the multi-screen displays.

In the middle of the studio, camera operators can freely move a Sony HXC FB 80 studio camera around the studio on pedestal. The color temperatures, hues and brightness of spotlights, key and fill lights on the overhead grid can be adjusted remotely from the adjacent control room using a DMX-compliant lighting controller.

The control room is separated from the studio by a window consisting of two panes of glass 8-inches apart to dampen noise from that workspace. Inside the control room, an 18-foot custom console (by Whitlock Furniture) supports a NewTek TriCaster TC-1 4K/HD-SDI production switcher, and an Allen & Heath audio mixer.

Midtown Video configured the Citrix Studio from August 2018 through early December 2018, culminating with personalized, hands-on equipment training of key Citrix staff. Throughout the planning stage, which actually began in 2016, Bourdon said that Midtown Video had remained flexible, patient, and involved as the company’s plans changed several times, including the site and layout of the studio.

“While this technology is rapidly changing,” Bourdon said, “We’re enabling virtual training and improving the experience to our students. We’re excited to see where technology is going to take Citrix Education. I feel confident that this studio will serve our needs for years to come due to the hard work, diligence, and painstaking attention to detail that Midtown Video provided.”

About Citrix

Citrix is powering a better way to work with unified workspace, networking, and analytics solutions that help organizations unlock innovation, engage customers, and boost productivity, without sacrificing security. With Citrix, users get a seamless work experience, and IT has a unified platform to secure, manage, and monitor diverse technologies in complex cloud environments. Citrix solutions are in use by more than 400,000 organizations, including 99 percent of the Fortune 100 and 98 percent of the Fortune 500. Learn more at www.citrix.com.

 

Video Wall for Sales Center

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Urbana Real Estate Sales Center in Doral, FL recently upgraded their video wall. Midtown Video removed the existing system and replaced it with a completely up-to-date, thin bezel, connected experience.

The technology update provided by Midtown Video includes a 3×3 Video Wall, using Samsung’s extremely thin (1.7mm) Bezel 55” Monitors.  The system is controlled wirelessly using Crestron and the Client’s iPad.  Video is distributed over IP using Crestron’s highly flexible NVX AV-over-IP solution.  This combination allows the user to select between connected PC’s and wirelessly streamed sources to impress their clientele.

 

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BuzzFeed Selects Midtown Video for CAMP

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Buzzfeed’s Chief Commerce Officer and CEO of CAMP, Ben Kaufman selected Midtown Video to collaborate on the technology that brings a summer camp experience to life in the middle of New York City. Many innovative retail stores are using sophisticated video and audio systems to delight their customers while shopping, and CAMP is on the front of this wave. A number of cutting edge sound, video, and special effects were used to create a unique and magical experience in this brand new toy store in the Big Apple. The results? See for yourself in this video clip:

Barco ClickShare

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There are many ways to connect a mobile device or pc to a central meeting display. Here’s a simple and reliable solution:  Barco’s ClickShare. Call us to help design, build, install, train and maintain your interactive teleconferencing system in your boardroom or huddle space.

No technical hiccups, no messy cables, and no software to update. Reinvent how you host meetings with ClickShare.

CAMP in NYC

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How would you like to go back to summer camp and take your kids for a fun adventure? That’s the premise for this forward-thinking retailer. Midtown Video helped make everything magical about going to camp come to life with AV systems that will alter your world. See it on the evening news:

Buzzfeed, the NYC based internet media and news company, is crashing into the brick and mortar retail business. The company has opened a store at 5th Avenue and 16th Street in New York’s Flatiron district, announced Ben Kaufman, head of BuzzFeed Commerce. The store, Camp, will partner with others to open an experiential store, targeting millennial parents and their children. The launch is timed to coincide with the end of the holiday shopping rush season. Toys, apparel and in store experiences will change out every eight to 12 weeks. Camp is modeled after the concept of Story, founded in 2011 by Rachel Shechtman, an investor and board member of Camp.

Happy Holidays!

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Season’s greetings from the Midtown Video family! We are grateful for your support and look forward to working together in 2019. Please enjoy our video holiday card!

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Octopus Newsroom Computer System Goes Live at ILTV, Nassau

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Octopus announces the completion of a multi-seat newsroom computer system at the headquarters of ILTV Studios in Nassau. Supplied by Octopus Newsroom partner Midtown Video in Miami, the new system is designed for simultaneous operation by up to 12 concurrent users working on a mix of computer platforms.

“ILTV was looking to implement a fully featured NRCS as part of a major refurbishment of its production facilities,” says Gene Sudduth, Octopus Newsroom’s National Sales Director for North America. “Key requirements were a solution that could be used easily by staff in the newsroom and which could be purchased on a no-nonsense permanent license model. Octopus scored strongly on both points. We also supplied 10 Octopus iOS/Android Mobile client licenses extending functionality to users away from their desks. Midtown Video did a great job liaising with the ILTV during pre-sales discussions and progressing right through to completion.”

“Octopus provides all the facilities needed in a modern newsroom,” adds Fernando Iglesias, VP or Operations/Sales at Midtown Video. “It is software-based, the core system being housed on user-supplied server hardware. Being modular, Octopus is easy to match to individual users, so they only have to invest in the elements actually critical to their current business model. Future expansion is very easily accommodated.”

“The system we have provided to ILTV includes a PostgreSQL database, a full-text search engine for searching within and outside the Octopus system, plus a built-in Assignment Desk with integrated calendar. Additionally integrated are topic bins, user-to-user messaging, an address book, guest management and versatile script archiving tools.”

“We were also commissioned to provide Social Media Integration including YouTube sourcing and scheduled publishing. Newsroom staff can also follow Twitter users, track trending topics on Twitter, search for Twitter keywords or publish text and images to Twitter. They can also ingest and publish text, still images and video to Facebook.”

The Octopus 8 newsroom computer system at ILTV employs MOS integration with ChyronHego CAMIO powered graphics, Autocue QMaster teleprompting and NewTek Tricaster/NewsMaker. 24/7 premium support for one year forms an important part of the contract, including telephone hotline and online support, updates and upgrades to the latest Octopus versions.

ILTV Studios (http://iltvstudios.com) is a state-of-the-art production studio located in Nassau, The Bahamas. ILTV curates entertaining, informative and engaging TV shows for viewers to enjoy. Viewers can this year look forward to ‘The Stew’ which is a daytime talk TV show, ‘Chef if Up’, where they can take their taste buds on a journey with talented chefs, and The Bahamas’ first game show – called the ‘The Big Bang’.

Midtown Video helps companies implement AV and broadcast solutions by providing custom design, installation, training and maintenance for the life of the system. From TV stations to corporate headquarters, college campuses to sports arenas, Midtown Video has successfully integrated computer-controlled boardroom video teleconferencing, video walls, complete production studios and other professional systems. Long time connections with clients and relationships with world class manufacturers remain MV’s strongest testimonial.

Founded in 1998, Octopus Newsroom is today the world’s leading producer of newsroom computer systems. With more than 50 MOS partners, Octopus advocates an open ecosystem using the MOS protocol which enables operators to choose freely among high-quality providers of graphics, playout, MAM, prompters, traffic-handing and advertising solutions. Octopus Newsroom has successfully installed systems into more than 300 channels around the world. Based on Unicode, Octopus Newsroom products support all major character sets including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese.

Midtown Video’s Jesse Miller Selected as CI 40 Under 40 Rising Star

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We congratulate our own GM, Jesse Miller, a rising star in the video/audio integration industry. Jesse is featured in Commercial Intergator Magazine’s 5th annual CI 40 Influencers Under 40 featuring AV technicians, bosses, consultants, programmers and more that make the AV industry a brighter place.