CRYSTAL VISION'S 24 HOUR DELIVERY KEEPS MILLBANK STUDIOS ON AIR (May 2004)

London-based Millbank Studios was able to continue broadcasting after Crystal Vision supplied a Safire digital chroma keyer within 24 hours to replace its broken analogue chroma keyer. Millbank Studios’ single camera studio is used several times a day by ITV clients and it was therefore absolutely vital that they were able to replace the equipment quickly to avoid causing problems at newsrooms around the country.

Ray Davis, UK Sales Manager at Crystal Vision, co-ordinated the order and delivery of Safire and ensured that the despatch of the chroma keyer took priority. Nick Hattingh, Technical Operations Manager at Millbank Studios commented: “Ray said he'd pull out all the stops to help us, but I couldn't quite believe it when the equipment was delivered the next day, less than 24 hours after I had first approached him."

The chroma keyer is installed in a single camera studio which is used by all of the ITV regions to conduct ‘down the line’ interviews with guests in London for their daily news programmes. Clients who utilise the studio can supply their own backgrounds so that the chroma keyed section of the programme co-ordinates with the rest of their show. Alternatively, Millbank Studios can provide backgrounds showing a range of London settings – ‘Big Ben’ for example. Without a chroma keyer in the single camera studio, Millbank Studios would be forced to use the main studio, which has chroma keyers in a vision mixer but which requires more staff and is less convenient.

Safire is a 10 bit digital chroma keyer which also offers linear keying, mixing and wipes. It is part of a modular system which means the compact 100mm x 266mm board will fit into any of the company’s standard frames and can be used with any of Crystal Vision’s interface products. The order included an ADC104F to convert the RGB signal from the camera to SDI, and an ENC116 encoder to provide an analogue PAL output for distribution and feeding analogue BT circuits. These were housed with the Safire, in an Indigo 1U frame.

Millbank Studios will be controlling Safire with the 2U Safire Controller, although the chroma keyer can also be controlled through Crystal Vision’s Statesman PC software.

Nick Hattingh said “Installation was incredibly easy, we just pulled out the old analogue keyer and slotted in the new digital one. We could even re-use the existing cables. The quality of the keying is excellent, the controls are easy to use and compared to the previous chroma keyer, Safire has several extra features.”

Millbank Studios has been established for more than ten years. The company provides services to broadcasters from electronic news gathering crews right through to transmission and has a very wide range of equipment including DVCAM, SP, SX and Digibeta. There are Avid suites for long form programmes and a digital studio that is used for both live and recorded programmes. Several large UK broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Sky, as well as foreign broadcasters and corporate clients use these facilities.

As well as a diverse range of projects, Millbank Studios’ location in Westminster means it is perfectly placed for covering political news and the company recently helped Sky News to recreate “The Hutton Enquiry”. Weekly discussion programmes produced at the studios include “Around the House” for Tyne Tees and “Sunday Soapbox” for YTV.

Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK, Crystal Vision provides digital keyers and a full range of digital and analogue interface equipment including converters, decoders, encoders, aspect ratio converters and audio embedders to the professional broadcasting industry worldwide.