Posted by Bob McAlpine
I'd like to welcome
Mike Edelman as the new sales manager for Telecast’s South-Central U.S. region. He will be responsible for driving sales growth and strengthening reseller relationships in an eight-state area from Texas to Nebraska.
I'm thrilled that Mike has chosen to join our team at such a watershed time in our company’s growth, as momentum continues to build industry-wide for fiber optic video solutions. With more than 30 years of technical sales experience in the video industry, Mike has the technology know-how, industry relationships, and geographical knowledge to take our sales to the next level in this vital region.
Prior to joining Telecast, Mike served as Midwest regional sales manager for NVision and then moved into the South-Central sales manager role for Miranda Technologies when Miranda acquired NVision. There, he managed all aspects of selling for the entire Miranda product line in a five-state territory. Earlier in his career, Mike was with PESA Switching Systems, Inc. for 16 years, serving in multiple sales management and senior marketing roles. Prior to that he had various technical and sales positions in several different divisions of 3M, including the Broadcasting and Related Products Division, Audio Visual Division, and Office Products Division.
Mike's take on the opportunity is that Telecast’s superior technology and market leadership positions the company to take advantage of the enormous opportunities for fiber optic video interconnectivity solutions — especially as more and more mobile producers and broadcasters adopt fiber as their primary means of transporting video. If you are in his region give him a call. He would love to help solve your broadcasting challenge.
Posted by Ed Miley
Recently one of the major television news networks that is a client of Telecast Fiber has stationed a SNG truck in the metro Boston area that will service all of New England and where ever else the network chooses to send it as it all depends on the news.
For those who may not know Telecast Fiber Systems is located in Worcester, MA that is roughly forty miles due west of Boston. The news operation in question made good use of the proximity of our head quarters to their locally stationed truck.
On a recent phone call with the operator of that SNG truck he 
relayed that he was having a difficult time with getting his issued fiber equipment to work properly. It just so happens that this vehicle in addition to all of the normal equipment usually found in a SNG truck is also carrying close to 3000' of Telecast Fiber Tactical cable along with a Mussel shell and a Viper 442 frame. So when the call came from the local truck operator describing the problems he was having he was encouraged to bring the Telecast equipment out the headquarters where we could take a look and see what, if any problems with out equipment he was having. In the course of the phone call the truck operator described what sounded like problems related to either bad connectors or dirty optics, and that he has had no previous experience with fiber optics prior his new position. Obviously we asked him to take a ride out to see us.
Our friend arrived at the appointed time at our facility and we had him set up a fiber reel, the Mussel Shell and the Viper 442 unit, and route some audio and video signal into the either end so we could see what was happening. Right off the bat we noticed a few problems and decided to look at the optical connections first. We did a quick check by applying what would appear to be a flash light equipped with a bright red LED and a narrow tip so that you can aim the light right into the connector and fiber strand. Quickly we determined that our friend in deed was carrying around some bad fiber reels and also some connectors that require a little TLC.
During this time our friend, the truck engineer asked plenty of questions about how the system he has works, what are the do's and don'ts, what is the best way to handle the fiber, how to troubleshoot, etc. With the assembled group that was helping out he got some very sound and sage advice.
In the course of our time together, about two hours, our friend relayed to me on a few occasions his desire to get the equipment back from repair quickly because of the flexibility it allows him coupled with the fact that he has a large remote coming up and really needs the operational flexibility the fiber system offers over copper. Going along with him he explained that because the truck is smaller that it's not equipped to carry many copper reels typically found on a news truck. In all, including the two fiber reels there appear to be six reels on this truck, made up of AC power reels, Audio/Video mults
and the fiber. That is not a lot of cable l. Minus the fiber reels he would be carrying about 750' of copper cable. Those that work in the ENG/SNG part of the business can identify with the thoughts of this operator and how he now will change his approach in the short term.
On arrival at our facility our friend may not have had the experience working with fiber that others may have but he knew these few things:
- With the reels and equipment out for repair he now has to approach his live shot set up differently in terms of signal count and parking.
- HD signals do not travel far over copper cables.
- It's "way easier" to run 1500' of fiber then 1500' of copper".
- Last but not least he got a first hand tutorial on how to utilize and troubleshoot his system.
No pun intended but by the end of the day our friend had seen the light.
Posted by Rich Cerny
In AVI-SPL's corporate blog, Jim Stokes, author of Pride of the 
Yankees, mentions the $5.7 million dollar contract for the Bronx Bomber AV project. Download Jim's complete article from Sound & Communications Magazine to see how Telecast is central to the new stadium's HD-broadcast fiber optic video and audio production.
Excerpt: "...transporting HDTV (SDI) signals over the significant distances of a sporting venue required implementation of fiberoptic transport systems
to maintain full signal integrity. Telecast Systems (Worcester MA) products provided much of the fiber transport (audio and video) used to achieve the many requirements associated with transporting video and audio signals to and from the broadcasters.
Audio and video are evident throughout the fan areas.
Benefits Of Fiber
Looking at the fundamental attributes of fiber, McConnell said, “It starts to become difficult to push video around on such long cable runs of 1200, 1500, 1800 feet to maintain HD integrity. It’s really better to transport it over fiber and keep that signal kind of pristine and revert it back to copper for somebody to use at the opposite end.”
Here’s more in-depth information regarding spfx. According to McConnell, each in-Stadium radio booth, along with the television production truck parking areas, is provided with house feeds and effects, including crowd and the aforementioned field effects and crowd noise: up to 48 various discrete feeds over a single fiber, through implementation of the Telecast Systems Fiber Transport.
In addition, the broadcaster is served analog audio in the familiar analog XLR configuration. Input into the Telecast system itself is achieved with A/D converters located throughout the Stadium near the sources, which include dugouts for effects and the PA booth for house feeds, among other source areas. The system provides the benefit of a robust distribution system for effects without the need for analog distribution amplifiers and the lengthy multiple cable counts to all locations.
Summing up, McConnell noted, “The successful outcome of a project is truly the culmination of many things visible, such as the excellent craftsmanship of those performing the work, and invisible, like those who design, engineer and plan the work well away from the jobsite itself. Although hundreds of personnel were involved over several years, it yielded to a single day when the networks arrived and interconnected their equipment for a broadcast, and the word is spread: ‘The cameras have fired and we have audio.’ Speakers are mounted behind the frieze. Play ball!”
Posted by Rich Cerny
Thanks to Matthew Brown from the Worcester Business Journal for stopping by for a visit recently. We liked his lead in:
Deep inside one of my favorite buildings in Worcester is a companythat is making HD television possible and helped find the Titanic.
TelecastFibre Systems Inc. is tucked into one of the lower floors at 102 GroveSt., which is part of a the massive, brick mill building complex thathouses dozens of businesses between Grove and Prescott Street.
The full article is a short but interesting read on why Telecast is the leader in portable fiber optic systems for television broadcast. Be sure to watch our Tim McCarthy in the video at the end of the article!
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Posted by Rich Cerny
We were sent this picture by Jon Sharron. Apparently one of our reels of fiber got run over by a dump truck. The interesting thing is that the fiber still worked!
While not designed for that type of abuse it is good to know that our cable reels are rugged.
Posted by Rich Cerny
On the SpectSoft web site there is a very nice photo and diagram story of this hands-on open house at StereoScope. Several manufacturers helped bring together a technology demonstration of workflow in standard and 3D production. Our Sales Engineer, Aaron Latham-James, helped with the Telecast (Viper and CopperHead) fiber optic video interconnections that were central to this event.
Posted by Rich Cerny
Save a million on your athletic facilities, how? A really easy way is to share one control room among big screens in your stadium and arenas, rather than building individual ones in each venue. All it takes is a powerful fiber infrastructure, at a fraction of the cost.
Let's meet to discuss how we helped big and small schools alike; schools like Nebraska, Michigan State, Stanford, Texas A&M, Florida State, Central Florida, Alabama and dozens of others.
On June 9th and 10th college and university video professionals, along with their
conference, television, and online partners, will come together for the
first-annual College Sports Video Summit (CSVS), 
held June 9-10 at the
Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel in downtown Atlanta. You will hear presentations and meet professionals from colleges, universities and sports networks.
We'll have a tabletop display there to show you how this gear works and how simple it is to install and operate. Please come and see us at this event that addresses College Sports Video like no other.
Posted by Joe Commare
Telecast FiberSystems will show its CopperHead INF camera-mounted fiber-optic transceiver for the Thomson Grass Valley Infinity camcorder at NAB. It enables use of the Infinity as both a camcorder and an HD-SDI production camera.
The compact CopperHead INF, which we previewed at IBC, fits between the Grass Valley Infinity camcorder and its battery, delivering bi-directional HD-SDI, composite video, audio, intercom, genlock and camera control between the Infinity camera head and the remote basestation over a single lightweight, battlefield-rated fiber optic cable. Optionally, remote powering of the camera is possible using SMPTE hybrid fiber cable. The 1 RU base station integrates easily into anystudio, mobile truck or portable flypack and plugs directly into the facility’s switcher, router, intercom and house sync systems.
For more on what we will show at NAB in Las Vegas see the full article.
Posted by Jim Hurwitz
I thought you might like to see pictures of Monday & Tuesday at SF City Hall when the media turned out to cover the first Same-Sex marriage licenses and ceremonies. Of course, we lag years behind you forward thinkers in Massachusetts…
San Francisco City Hall is fibered throughout, and multiple strands from every room (“inside access points” photo) go down to the basement, where they can be patched outside to the “Fiber Hydrant,” a weather-proof monument on the corner of the block where the Live Trucks park.
KPIX has their own CopperHead, and KGO uses two pairs of 5122s.
KUTV (Fox) and KNTV (NBC O&O) used CopperHeads. This was a temporary solution. Soon, no hardware should be in the Fiber Hydrant, just MX connectors to connect to CopperHead Base Stations in the truck.
Thanks to Eric Olsson, who honchoed the gear in and out and provided training and support to the fiber-newbies.
Posted by Jim Hurwitz
Telecast is proud to have figured heavily in this 3D concert hit. Our CopperHead JTs, POVs, and various Viper II gear was used for a variety of applications, including the program video. Gene
Baker was on site to assist the production in Buenos Aires.
http://digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/depth/u2_3d_0122/