Bits & Bytes

When invited to appear on national television programs, Yale University professors once had to travel for hours to major cities like New York and Boston. Now, they simply walk across campus to a state-of-the-art broadcast facility centered on Sony’s industry-leading DVCAM™ digital acquisition and production tools.

The new studio, which features DVCAM cameras and videotape recorders, has enabled the professors to link directly with television networks, conduct interviews on short notice, and participate in a broader range of issues of national debate.

“Yale is a repository of great intellectual talent and content, but prior to building this studio we had few means to get that content to the national news media,” says John Schilke, a manager at Yale Media Services. “We weren’t wellpositioned to participate in significant television interviews because of our geographic location. We’re just too far from major media markets like Boston or New York.”

An array of Sony digital acquisition and production equipment is used in the studio, including DXC-D30 DVCAMcameras for studio configuration; DSR-1800 DVCAM studio editing recorders, which offer excellent playback compatibility with DV formats, a highly responsive jog-shuttle dial and variable-speed playback function; a DSR-11 compact video recorder for recording and playing back either DVCAM or consumer DV formats; PVM-14M4U professional monitors, featuring high resolution and accurate color matching; WRR-840 wireless microphones; and a PCM-R300 digital audio tape recorder.
In addition, Yale has DSR-200 and DSR-500WSL DVCAM field cameras for use in documenting university events.

A fiber link connects the studio to the outside world, Schilke says, allowing the university to conduct interviews with national and international news organizations.

“Sony’s DVCAM equipment embraces open standards and is the only professional format to incorporate i.LINK” natively,” says Craig Yanagi, senior manager for corporate marketing at Sony Electronics’ Business Solutions & Systems Company. “As a result, our customers can use DVCAM products to create innovative and efficient workflow systems, such as the one used at Yale.”

DVCAM’s ability to integrate with i.LINK-compatible equipment enables exceptionally high-speed transfer of digital video, says Schilke.

Built in late 2000 by the university’s public affairs department, the studio has enabled experts from Yale’s schools of medicine, management, and law to appear on national and international news programs. For instance, shortly after the studio was commissioned, Yale constitutional experts appeared on television to help shape the national debate swirling around the contentious 2000 presidential election. More than 140 interviews were conducted in the studio the following year, many of them related to homeland security and defense issues, says Schilke.

Schilke expects Yale professors and administrators to be involved with at least as many interviews this year on a wide range of topics. “Our professors who are recognized experts in their areas of specialty can quickly and easily participate in the national debate,” he says. “In fact, we now have faculty that come in between classes and do interviews.”

HB Communications of North Haven, CT, specified, designed, and installed the direct broadcast system.

For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional.