Studio

STUDIO LAYOUT AND EQUIPMENT

1. The Studio Floor

The studio floor is the area where the cameras face the performers.

2. The Control Room

The main control room is where the director is during a production, and where the vision mixer (VM) sits a t the switcher (or vision mixing console) electronically selecting the chosen camera shots and executing the visual special effect which needed.

3. Vision Control

Vision control may be in the main control room, or nearby.

4. Audio Control

Audio control may be in the main control room, but it’s it’s separate from the general frenzy and noise so the operator can hear the program sound well and pick up on signal problems, like buzzes or crackling cables.

5. Studio Cameras

Studio cameras are usually the best quality cameras the institution can muster. Most places try to limit the use of these cameras to just the studio, plus maybe the OB van.

6. Camera Mounts

Studio cameras are mounted on camera pedestals or on tripods with dolly wheels.

The Camera is mounted on a pan/tilt head, which controlled by four knobs :

· Tilt Lock : This knobs locks or loosens the tripod head’s tilting action (which allows the upward and downward swing of camera lens). The tilt should always be locked before the camera operator walks away from the camera.

· Tilt Friction (Tilt Drag) : This knobs allows the camera operator to adjust the tension control on the tilt action.

· Pan Lock : This knobs locks or loosens the tripod head’s panning action (the swiveling of the camera to the left or right). The pan should be locked before the camera operator walks away from the camera.

· Pan Friction : This knobs allows the camera operator to adjust the tension control on the pan action

7. The Vision Mixer

The vision mixer or SEG (special effect generator) is a panel which allows the operator to electronically preview and select program video from the array of camera shots and other video sources which are patched in to it, and to set-up and execute visual effects and transitions.

8. Live Video vs. Pre-Recorded Video

Video which is being generated at the moment from a camera or other video generating devices called live. Video which has been recorded on tape and is being played back on a VCR is called pre-recorded.

9. Genlock

Video cameras have to be able to generate their own timing pulse (or sync) so they can function independently and record a stable signal on their own.

10. Sync Pulse Generator

The sync pulse generator is used in a multicamera studio or OB van to gunlock the equipment by generating stable timing pulse (sync pulse) and sending them to all equipment which will be providing video signals to the vision mixer.

11. Time Bass Corrector ( TBC )

The TBC receives the video output from the playback VCR’s, strips the signal of its unstable sync (time base) and then attaches that signal to a ‘rock solid’ time base and outputs it to the vision mixer, where it can then be successfully combined with other signals.

12. Frame Store

A frame store can do the timing correction that a TBC does, but it’s also able to hold in memory a full frame of video information.

This increased memory capacity makes it possible for it to do an array of

wondrous signal manipulations, including :

· Freeze frame : which grabs one whole frame of video and continuously repeats it,

giving the effect of a still photograph on the screen.

· Freeze Field : which reproduces just one field of information, again with a

appearance of still photograph on the screen.

· Strobe : which is an effect caused by the video signal going in and out of

freeze frame mode at regular rate.

· Mosaic : which gives the image the appearance of being made of tiny tiles. This

effect can be increased to the point that the image is unrecognizable till the effect is barely noticeable, by controlling the size of the tiles both vertically and horizontally.

· Paint (or Posterisation) : which gives the image the appearance of a paint –by-number

project. This effect can also be increased till the picture looks like a flat-toned poster made up of wide swathes of monotone colours, or decreased till the effect is hardly evident.

· Mirror image : where the image from one half on the screen is reproduced in a mirror

image on the other half on the screen.

· Negatives image : where the light are dark, the darks are light, and the colours are

replaced by their opposites (red is cyan, blue is yellow and so forth).

· Compression : which digities the signal and then allows it to be squashed or stretched

either vertically or horizontally.

· Multiple images : which allows the same picture to be repeated in miniature several

times in different positions on the screen, with one little section active, (displaying moving video) and the other positions showing freeze frames.

13. Black Generator

The black generator comes either as a device o its own, or it can reside the vision mixer.

14. Video Distribution Amplifier (VDA)

A VDA is a simple device which takes a video signal in at one port and outputs the same signal, at full strength, to four or six ports.

Thus the VDA allows the same signal to be sent at once to several studio devices, without its signal being attenuated. A typical distribution of a video signal would be that the camera signal is taken out of the CCU and sent simultaneously to :

1. The patch bay connected to the waveform monitor and vector scope.

2. The camera monitor..

3. The vision mixer.

4. The patch bay for the frame store.

15. Routing Switcher

The routing switcher works in the reverse of the VDA. It takes in many video signal but

has only one or two outputs.

16. Patch Bay

Patch bays are the ultimate for allowing the user choice in connections. They can be used for both video and audio signals and also for assigning lights to the lighting mixer.

17. Character Generator (CG)

The CG or video typewriter has a keyboard which allows the operator to type in titles for the opening and closing credits and for super-imposed titles within the show.

18. Graphics Computer

For more collaborate credits and for computer generated graphics, there are computers with good graphics programs and composite video outputs, which can be connected into the vision mixer and used as a flexible source for imaginative program content.

19. The Audio Mixer

A simple audio mixer allows a number of sound sources to be input into it (like the studio mics, the playback VCRs, and the tape, cassette and disc machines) and all these sources can be mixed down into one or two audio outputs, which can then be inserted into the production, either for recording or for broadcast.

20. The Lighting Mixer

The lighting mixer follows much the same principles at and sound mixer.

20. Waveform Monitor

The waveform monitor is a signal testing device which has several different displays, selected by a knob.

21. Vectorscope

The vectorscope is another signal testing devices, used for analyzing the properties of the colour portion of the vide