Here Comes The Gear For My Studio

The only real difference is I’m running everything. No director. No cameraperson. No audio operator.

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I start in Palm Springs Thursday. My home studio goes live in a few weeks. Right now it’s still a garage! Lots of work to be done.

Boxes are starting to arrive. Think of this as a giant jigsaw puzzle. I know what the finished project needs to do. Now I pray the pieces are the right ones in both fit and function.

IMAG2014-w1920-h1400The garage will be a real TV studio, 21st Century style. There will be a control room, though it won’t be bigger than a breadbox. It’s actually a Tricaster Mini, a special purpose PC designed to process video. The show gets ‘stacked’ beforehand, then I sequence it while on-the-air.

Weather maps will still be produced at the TV station, sent to me via FTP, stored in a server and played back live. Phew!

behr sparkling apple green for chroma keyThe wall separating the garage and kitchen will be painted Behr Sparkling Apple. That’s the Internet consensus for chroma key green.

Chroma key is a process in which one color (Sparkling Apple) is removed and replaced digitally by weather maps and graphics. When I’m on TV I stand in front of a green wall and point at maps that aren’t there. I see them in a few off-camera monitors.

It will be exactly the same process in my studio. The only real difference is I’m running everything. No director. No cameraperson. No audio operator.

The video gets back to the station via a Dejero VSET encoder. Stations use similar methods for ‘backpack’ liveshots. While testing, my video made the trip to Palm Springs in under a second.

Those are the major pieces. There’s also the peripheral stuff–microphones, lights, tripods, monitors, converters and on and on and on.

The station is letting me take a surplus cubicle off their hands, allowing me to isolate any noise from all the gear and providing me with an office.

This is all the more interesting because it allows me to send this live, high quality video anywhere at virtually no additional cost. To other TV stations? Maybe a news website? Who knows?

I’m the general contractor. I’d better not forget anything.

5 thoughts on “Here Comes The Gear For My Studio”

  1. sounds interesting and exciting Geoff. Just curious as to the type of cameras you will use for this. What about the Internet connection,I’m guessing it’s not a standard home connection, power supply, a/c, backup power ( facilities manager part of me). Like I said it all sounds interesting. Thanks for the update. Chuck

  2. Geoff,
    Don’t go cheap on the UPS–you probably want one that will keep you running through a full broadcast session if power fails. Maybe a separate one for the lights, too.

    This could be so much fun–do keep us posted as it comes together

  3. WOW! Sounds very complicated to the “average” viewer! But, so glad to hear you are back on air!!!!! I sure wish we were in the viewing area to watch your weather forecasts. I know you will be very successful. And, you may be sure you are greatly missed here in CT.

    The very best to you and your family in the new year. And by the way, please keep us posted regarding your Dad. He is definitely a very special person!

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