Becomes integral part of all live press events held at NASA's largest research center
March 12, 2007
GREENBELT, MD, March12, 2007 - NASA's largest research center, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), has become the first of ten NASA centers with full live HD capability since the addition of its FOR-A HANABI HVS-3800HS switcher. The HANABI's functionality, feature set, and price point made it the obvious choice when the center upgraded to HD.
The installation of the , switcher came at an auspicious time, according to Patrick Kennedy, Goddard Space Flight Center's TV Production Manager. Scientists at the GSFC manage the Hubble Space telescope. Hubble has, since its launch in 1990, recorded more than 700,000 images in its quest to explore the solar system. In October, when NASA announced plans for a fifth servicing mission to the Hubble, the FOR-A HANABI switcher was used in a live press conference to produce and record the news in HD, then down converted it to SDI for distribution to the public via NASA-TV . "Given that the Hubble is so important, we wanted to be able to announce this in HD for historical purposes," said Kennedy. GSFC plans to hold additional press conferences in the spring using the HVS-3800HS.
The HVS-3800HS can configure up to five main units or control panels, making it easy for users to set up productions from multiple locations. And it has 16 standard inputs and 16 standard outputs. Given that GSFC has several locations that host live press conferences, this provides considerable value. Before acquiring the HVS-3800HS, a mobile production truck was used to produce the live press conferences. Now the HVS-3800HS is installed in a control room, and all adjacent press centers and auditoriums are interconnected through GSFC's existing fiber optic network. The compact nature of the HVS-3800HS appealed to users at GSFC. "It saves us tremendously in size in both the control panel and the rack panel," Kennedy explained.
The HVS-3800HS is a multi-bit-rate combination of FOR-A's well-known HANABI HVS-3000S standard definition and HVS-3000HS high definition two M/E switchers. The HVS-3800HS features the first polygon-based HD DVE available in the U.S. and supports all major standard and high definition formats, including 1080i, 24p, 23.98PsF, and 720p, among others.
Future plans at GSFC were a consideration in the selection of the HVS-3800HS. According to Kennedy, they needed equipment that could adapt to working with virtual studios if GSFC decided to implement them down the road: "We looked at other switchers and how they integrate with virtual studios. Many of them require additional cabling and create timing issues, but with FOR-A's switchers it's simply a matter of opening up the unit and sliding in more boards."
Virtual sets will become important as GSFC continues its work with scientific visualization and data-driven pictures that help scientists understand a particular weather phenomena, sea surface temperatures or hurricane tracks. "It allows us to one day have a scientist take data that's been given a visual form and interact with it to better educate the public," added Kennedy.
FOR-A is a major manufacturer and distributor of video and audio systems to the broadcast, postproduction and professional video markets. For more information about FOR-A's product line, call (714) 894-3311 or visit our web site at www.for-a.com.
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