WJBF-TV Ignites Newscasts with Automated Production System

When Media General was tasked with converting the facilities of 14 stations from analog to digital, the challenge was finding cost-effective technology that provided the most bang for the buck. With many of the company’s stations serving small to mid-sized markets, budgets were limited. To stay competitive, they needed to implement multiformat technology and systems that allow its stations, all located in the eastern part of the country, to work and look like their large-market counterparts; those with a lot more capital to spend.

Following a successful experiment at a station with an automated production system made by Parkervision, Media General revisited the technology last year, two years after it had been acquired by Thomson’s Grass Valley™ business. Reasonably impressed with the improvements that Grass Valley had made to the system, Ardell Hill, senior vice president of Broadcast Operations for Media General, gave WJBF-TV, the company’s ABC affiliate in Augusta, Ga., the go-ahead to install a new Grass Valley Ignite™ integrated production solutions (IPS) system.

In fact, they installed two of them, one to run the station’s six daily newscasts and a second one as a back-up. The second system is also used for other local shows and pre-taped news segments appearing on the station.

Scott Elledge, production manager at WJBF, oversaw the installation and put the Ignite into operation. The station got the Ignite system in January of this year. It did a test show in April--to work out any IT-centric kinks--and went live on-air in late June. It soon became clear that the system was the best and most affordable way for the station’s newscasts to go digital.

“We understand the realities of the broadcast industry and the need for an integrated system that automates many of the manual processes associated with putting together a newscast,� said Elledge.

As for the cost savings, reducing headcount alone has had a significant impact. When he started at WJBF in 1996, Elledge led a technical staff of 12 people. That grew to 25 by 2001. Today, with the Ignite system in place, he oversees a staff of 14 technical personnel, who perform their duties better. Elledge figures that since the Ignite system was online in June, the station has saved about $500,000 in operations costs. By 2008, the station will save more than $1 million each year.

“Management gave us a great tool to work with,� Elledge said. “It was up to us to implement it in the right way and make our news department more productive. The Ignite system has done that and a while lot more.�

The Grass Valley Ignite is a “station-in-a-box� production system that includes a digital video switcher, audio board, router, digital video cameras, and automation control software.

WJBF has installed five Grass Valley remotely controlled cameras; four are located in the studio and a fifth is used to shoot reporters in the newsroom. The way the WJBF news set is designed, the crew only has to move one camera, for weather, during a typical newscast. A plasma screen is also used on set to display various animations and live video when necessary.

“We realized that we could buy this system for about the same price as a legacy system,� said Elledge, “but we were getting so much more functionality for the money. This was a value proposition we couldn’t pass up. It gives us the benefit of cost saving, which is something everyone in our industry is wrestling with. It also improved our on-air look significantly.�

He said it took the staff about two months to learn and start producing a live newscast, “the way we like to do it� and really make it sing. Grass Valley personnel initially helped train the staff, but soon Elledge and his team were devising new ways to use the Ignite system as well.

“As far as learning the technology, it was very easy and straight forward,� said Elledge. “We all like the layout of the system and how intuitive it is to operate. I believe anyone, even those without much previous production experience, can learn to run it.�

News footage for WJBF’s news department is shot in the field with a dozen Panasonic P2 camcorders and recorded on solid-state memory--which is fully compatible with the five Grass Valley Aurora™ Edit nonlinear editing systems at the station. Once ingested into the Aurora Edit workstations, via Grass Valley Aurora Playout automated news playback system, editors can immediately begin to cut segments. Finished stories are then loaded into the show’s rundown using the Ignite system’s graphical user interface.

According to Elledge, the biggest hurdle was the “culture change� among the staff that was necessary to get their “analog video minds� used to an integrated, computer-based system. This included working with the News department staff and getting them to integrate their stories into the system in the right way.

“Once they saw what we could accomplish with the system, they were soon embracing it,� he said.

Basically, producers now have more control over what’s going on in the newscast. It’s also made them meet deadlines better than they ever did before, and a host of other little things that Elledge said they should have been doing for years. With more than six months under their belt, the Ignite system has made the station run more efficiently.

2006 Election Coverage

During the station’s November 2006 election coverage, most of the titles and other statistics relating to the state and regional races were loaded into pre-designed templates stored on the Ignite system. This was done to enable voter results to be easily displayed. Blocking assignments for the day’s multiple live newscasts were pre-produced, camera angles pre-programmed, and all of the results were reported as they came into the station. In some cases, election results were reported on WJBF sooner than their local competition.

“Last year was the best technically executed elections coverage that I have ever seen in the ten years that I have been at the station,� said Elledge. That included live shots from campaign headquarters, satellite feeds, live graphics, studio anchors, and up-to-the-minute stats coming in from the station’s ENPS newsroom computer system that were updated live on-air.

The best part was that three people--a program director, floor director, and associate director--ran the entire show. That’s all it took to do a 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, and 6:30 PM newscast, and then a 10:00 and 11:00 PM back-to-back, without interruption. “A single operator could have done it as well, and usually does on a normal day,� said Elledge. In total, the station now produces about 60 hours of live news each week with the Ignite system, in addition to various podcasts and original content for its Web site.

Streamlining The Workflow

Among the production staff, the station’s program and technical directors have had to adjust their way of working as well. Using the Ignite system they now “direct’ the show about 30 minutes before they actually go to air, adjusting rundowns and developing an even flow or overall theme from among the various news segments. That never happened before Ignite. This pre-planning has led to fewer technical errors and, according to Elledge, “really makes the broadcast sing.�

It also affords the news department the ability to make last-minute changes when a late-breaking story unfolds or when new information becomes available. This was never attempted in the station’s analog days.

With Ignite now firmly in place, everyone involved with the news production and broadcast process at WJBF is held accountable for what they do. Elledge pointed out that the Ignite system provides a history and report log of what occurred during a newscast, so he can see where mistakes were made and can work to resolve them quickly. It also gives him a report of what’s being imported into the system during pre-production, and provides system alerts if a conflict occurs. This helps cut down on errors as program event cues are always acknowledged by the system.

“When everything is prepared and loaded [into the system] correctly, there are no errors in our newscast,� said Elledge. “We couldn’t say that before. We’ve gotten to the point where we’re not making those aggravating mistakes that often occur in broadcasting a nightly newscast. That has come with learning the system and what it can do.�

Programming a Second Channel

As part of a corporate agreement, the Ignite system is also used to produce newscasts at 10:30 PM for WFXG, the local Fox affiliate in Augusta (which is also owned by Media General). This requires a different news set, different anchors, graphics, and different news stories. However, all production activities are handled by the second Ignite system at WJBF. Promos and other interstitial elements for both stations, as well as a daily sports program broadcast at 11:30 PM, are also done with the integrated system.

“The Ignite performs flawlessly, no matter what we throw at it,� said Elledge. “We’re doing about the same amount of news content as before, but we’re doing it better. Although people were apprehensive at first, no one lost their job due to Ignite. Most were reassigned to other positions at the station.�