The only Interactive TV company enhancing programming at AT&T's National state of the art Digital Center.
New Television Breeding Ground
By Robin Berger
(March 5, 1999) Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) laid out the welcome mat for digital production in Los Angeles, CA, attracting some big names in the process.
Debuting Dec. 1, the National Digital Television Center (NDTC), located in West L.A., already originates MTV's The Blame Game and Fox Family Channel's Show Me the Funny. Other broadcast clients, said general manager Rosemary Danon, include Comedy Central, Disney, Fox Kids, Telemundo, and the International Channel.
Heading the A-list of full-time tenants is Lee Masters, former president and CEO of E! Entertainment Television.
On January 1, Masters became CEO of Liberty Interactive Media, TCI's new interactive television network. According to reports, his mandate is to create content for digital set-top receivers and other convergence appliances. That could translate into 12-15 new channel categories.
Masters moved into NDTC on January 4, about a month after the 100,000 square foot facility opened.
Another high-profile tenant is ACTV, a 10-year-old corporation based in New York City, that moved into the center last month. Its patented state-of-the-art software enables the "individualized" viewing of live and recorded programming on both digital television and the Internet.
["Individualized Television" is described by the company as "a multi-path telecast of several elements of programming material, such as instant replay on demand, isolation cameras, statistical data, and/or additional features."]
ACTV claims there's no limit to the number of viewers who can interact simultaneously with these offerings--and all they need is a standard digital set-top box and remote control to enjoy the show. Targeted niche markets include virtual learning and sports.
ACTV has already teamed up with Fox Sports Net, a group of regional sports networks across the country controlled by a 50/50 partnership between News Corp. and TCI's Liberty Media Corp. (see TVB TK).
The fledgling ACTV set up a $1 million control room in Dallas last Fall. Its task is to create, digitize and multiplex the extra feeds needed to better enhance cable fare that FOX Sports Southwest distributes to more than 5 million households in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
"Our NDTC-Los Angeles office gives us greater access to the major players in the entertainment and advertising communities, and provides the perfect environment to fully explore the capabilities of our digital technology," noted David Reese, president of ACTV Entertainment. "We expect our presence in Los Angeles to enable us to more aggressively expand beyond regional sports and into music, pay-per-view, and advertising."
Brent Imai, ACTV's vice president of programming and the company's point man at the Santa Monica location, appreciates the building's five TV studios, eight editing suites, fully digital remote truck and cutting-edge infrastructure.
"The building was designed to house channel origination for new cable networks," Imai elaborated. (A total of 80 origination channels are made possible by four playback channels in each of NDTC's 20 control rooms).
As a result, Imai explained, ACTV can easily piggyback and tailor its master control set-up to its own specifications.
In addition, one of the center's 6.1 meter Ku dishes backhauls into TCI's HITS--Headend In The Sky digital programming lineup--in Denver. Although ACTV is not currently part of this line-up, said Imai, ACTV's positioning could only facilitate a future deal with the national distributor.
In order to distribute its clients programming, NDTC operates one 9.2 meter C-band digital uplink, two 6.1 meter Ku uplink dishes, six 4.5 meter C-Ku band downlink dishes, and one 5.5 meter C-Ku band downlink, as well as fiber connectivity.
Its five production studios, said chief engineer Glenn McJennett, include two digital facilities (one 4,000 square feet, the other 2500). Together they house two Grass Valley 4000 switchers, two Sony audio mixers, a Grass Valley Krystal digital video effects system, a Grass Valley DPM 700 video effects system, two Chryron iNFiNiT!s, three Sony BVP375 cameras, a Sony BVP90 camera, and four Ikegami H388 cameras.
There's also an 1800 square foot analog control room, a news production studio, and an insert stage.
Post-production facilities include five Avid nonlinear rooms (with three 9000s, an 8000 and a 1000 system) and two on-line bays. The digital on-line bay has a Sony BVE 9100 editor, 8000 switcher (with two channels of effects) and Betacam VTRs; two character generators (a Chyron Infinit! and Pinnacle Systems' TypeDeko); a Pinnacle Flasfile still store; and a Graham-Patten audio board.
The analog edit bay holds a 341 editor, 200 switcher, and DPM 700 digital video effects generator from Grass Valley; Sony Beta SP VTRs, and a Graham-Patten audio board.
And, of course, there are architectural creature |
