TECH TALK

Canadian broadcaster CHUM is moving to nonlinear news acquisition and editing with a major investment in Ikegami Editcam tapeless camcorders. CHUM is deploying 34 Ikegami DNS-33W Editcam3 tapeless camcorders for Citytv Toronto, and an additional 13 DNS-33Ws are going to sister station Citytv Vancouver. Two more Editcam units are slated for CHUM's Alberta stations. In conjunction with the Editcam purchase, Citytv Toronto has also switched from tape-based editing systems to Avid NewsCutter nonlinear systems. “Broadcasting is headed to a tapeless world,” says Bruce Cowan, director, Broadcast Technology, CHUM Television. “The ease with which these nonlinear-acquisition cameras allow us to shoot and edit is what is going to drive the Citytv newscasts and our 24-hour news channel.”

Grass Valley has struck a marketing relationship with automation supplier Sundance Digital. Grass Valley will bundle its K2 Media Server with Sundance's FastBreak NXT XPress automation software for a low-cost playout system. A subsidiary of Avid, Sundance is offering its FastBreak NXT XPress solution, the fourth generation of its popular control package for basic commercial insertion and program play-to-air, at a starting price of under $30,000. By combining FastBreak NXT with an entry-level four- channel standard-def K2 video server, says Grass Valley, a powerful automation solution is now available for less than $70,000.

Japanese direct-to-home broadcaster Sky Perfect Communications Inc. is using an Omneon Spectrum media server and Harris H-Class automation software for an HDTV channel it launched for the World Cup. The channel is running off a mirrored, multichannel SD/HD Omneon Spectrum media-server system that is controlled by Harris H-Class D-Series automation and links to the Harris H-Class Media Ingest application. The combined Omneon and Harris high-def playback system, which was installed with the help of systems integrator Itochu Cable Systems, can be expanded incrementally to meet SkyPerfect's future HD playout requirements.