This picture depicts the GrassValley Ignite automated production control room, equipped with Vinten Vega robotic cameras, and ENPS-enabled rundowns.
In the summer of 2024 I accepted a ten-week fellowship with Hearst Television, and was sent to NBC affiliate WGAL-8 in Lancaster PA. As their Marty Faubell Technology Fellow, I shared my time week by week in the engineering, IT, master control, and production departments. In addition, the station experienced Beck's integration from manual production operation to automated production using Vinten automated cameras and GrassValley Ignite automation software.
It's been a smorgasbord of roles and duties, but being able to spend weeks at a time with each position has helped further my understanding of the expanded duties a local television news station introduces to a broadcast operation. It has also brought a large amount of perspective, getting to interview the staff at the station, learning the steps they took throughout their career to wind up at market 43. I've also gotten to understand the many perspectives and how these roles all overlap and depend on one another to keep the station operational and professional.
As the tenth and final week at WGAL-8 in Lancaster, PA concludes, my time at the station is just getting started. My contemporaries are experiencing new horizons and entering new roles as I fill in the vacancy at the station as their newest Operations Technician. I'm eager to learn the latest in Grass Valley Ignite automation software as the studio welcomes new automation technologies that will soon launch as we enter September. Getting to see the breadth of a local broadcasting powerhouse and the supplementary transmitter sites, neighboring bureau studios, and even getting some practice terminating BNC cable (finally!) has been an absolute pleasure. Learning the stories of my coworkers and their means of navigating to such impressive positions through sheer investment and engagement alone inspires me to offer my assistance in their endeavors, striving for a coveted broadcast engineering title in the future.
The responsibilities and demands of each crewed position changed through the actuation of the station's Grass Valley Ignite Automation integration. Automation brought with it a brand new method of preparing for newscasts. We began learning Hearst's proprietary "coding" language for the automation software to translate into functions on our cameras, graphics sequencer, media object server, and precis video server.
To the left is a deconstruction of a live two-minute commercial break cut in to help clarify my understanding of the behavior of each "command" and the ways they update and change the previous commands. This extra effort on my behalf allows me to AD newscasts and slowly increase my comfortability in the director's chair at the station.
