TBN Nashville Rebuilds HD Studio Around Grass Valley Kayenne

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the largest religious network in the world, has installed a Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center, as the centerpiece of a completely rebuilt HD production studio in Nashville, TN that went live in February.

The new Nashville studio—one of eight major production centers that TBN (based in Los Angeles, CA) maintains throughout the country—now serves as a model for the network’s continuing migration to HD at its other production facilities.

To date, the network’s facilities in Costa Mesa, CA, Irving, TX, and New York City all have Grass Valley Kalypso HD switchers installed. Going forward, all new and upgraded TBN studios will feature Kayenne switchers, including the network’s new Nashville facility as well as its new Orlando site, which is scheduled for completion in December 2010.

“We were in the process of completing our fourth HD installation [Nashville] and were previously using Grass Valley Kalypso HD switchers because we like the way they operate, but we waited to finish Nashville until we received our new Kayenne,” says Russell Hall, GM of the TBN Nashville facility. “We liked the Kayenne so much that it will now be the switcher of choice for all of our facilities going forward. This includes Los Angeles and Miami, where we will deploy Kayenne switchers in 2011/2012.”

TBN Nashville uses the Kayenne for a number of different types of programming, including live concerts and events, as well as sitcoms, award shows, and talk shows. In Nashville, the shows are produced in the network’s 1,500-seat theater, as well as a 100×100 box studio. The Kayenne is being used to handle sources for both rooms–often times simultaneously.

“The Kayenne continues to impress customers and is following in the historic footsteps of our other notable Grass Valley switchers that have become proven workhorses in a variety of applications,” says Jeff Rosica, SVP of Grass Valley. “TBN serves a large community across the country that requires the best production values possible to convey their message. The Kayenne gives them that and a whole lot more.”

At TBN Nashville, the HD upgrade (from analog equipment) started in May of 2009 and finished in February of this year. The facility is now completely HD-compatible, which includes a 4 M/E Kayenne, and also includes the addition of a new Grass Valley Trinix NXT 256×256 router.

“Some of our technical directors come from high-end sports and entertainment backgrounds and what they enjoy about the Kayenne is that they now have the ultimate platform in terms of flexibility to do any type of production, any way that they want,” continues Hall. “There’s not a single limitation that we have come across. Our crews can’t say enough good things about it. I have personally been using video production switchers for many years [since 1986]. I have done extensive work on every major switcher ever manufactured and Kayenne is the best switcher in the history of the broadcast industry.”

In the past month TBN Nashville has enhanced its Kayenne with an optional ClipStore, which is based on Grass Valley’s K2 Summit™ and K2 Solo video servers and works in tandem with the Kayenne’s current internal ImageStore. Once installed, the ClipStore will allow TBN operators to store and recall still images and video clips from within the Kayenne’s ImageStore menu panel and E-MEM/Cue systems.

The 4-channel, 2 RU ClipStore integrated server system allows Kayenne users to access a huge library of SD or HD video for animations, replays, or any other type of video. The existing six optional ImageStore Channels (for stills) are not tied up when using the new K2-based ClipStore system for video. The ability to create folders and clip names has also been incorporated within the ImageStore menu to make it easier to manage the large amount of content now available.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters

;
SVGLogoHR_NOTAG-200

The Latest in Sports Video Production & Technology
in Your Inbox for FREE

Daily Email Newsletters Monday - Friday