6000 Serves an Ace for Turner Sports At Wimbledon
Making it a double debut, Turner Sports' presence at the world's most prestigious tennis event also marks the Abekas 6000's first use live-to-air at a major European sporting event.
Lenny Daniels, Vice-President of Turner Sports, Inc. and Production Director at Wimbledon, declared: "After our very positive experiences with the Abekas 6000 earlier this year at the Goodwill Games, we've based more of our operation around it here for our first time at Wimbledon, including running live graphics to air direct from the server. As the director, it's given me the ultimate flexibility I need, and we're all thoroughly impressed."
Turner Sports based its Wimbledon operation around the Abekas 6000, using the system simultaneously to serve on-air graphics to Turner's live Wimbledon studio, provide instant feed of the tennis action to the edit suite while recording, and supply material to the graphics artists. With eight concurrent channels, and dedicated control panels for each operator, the Abekas 6000 provides a multifunctional resource at the heart of Turner's operation.
Tom Sahara, Turner Sports Senior Technical Manager praised the Abekas 6000 for the streamlining effect it has on an operation like the Wimbledon broadcast. "It's simplified things by an order of magnitude: we can create complex on-air transitions without shot boxes and intermediate equipment, have instant access to material without shuttling tapes, and we're saving a huge amount of time. It's a road-friendly system, and it's performed at one hundred percent for us."
For the duration of the tournament, Turner Sports' Wimbledon studio broadcast live to Turner's TNT network between 5pm and midnight GMT every day. Commentary, analysis, and interviews with the players were supplemented with graphics played live to air over two Abekas 6000 channels. Nancy McGeever, Senior Graphics Coordinator for Turner Studios, operated the Abekas 6000 for the live broadcasts from a dedicated Abekas 6000 control panel in the gallery. McGeever played intros and outros, transitions between cameras, over-the-shoulder boxes, moving backgrounds and the show's opening sequence direct to air from the server. "While I'm working live, the edit suite is using another set of channels, and we still have six available for things like rolling bugs and for the graphics people to work with."
McGeever recalls selections instantly from a library of over fifty clips, each incorporating moving video and key and assigns a unique clip ID. In addition, McGeever is able to assemble late-breaking items while on-air, recording items from the Production Graphics Room via the router to the Abekas 6000 and then playing video and key to air. Entering a two-digit ID via her dedicated control panel to recall each clip, McGeever finds the VTR-like interface of the Abekas 6000 easy to learn, reassuring and familiar in a pressurized live situation. "This setup with the Abekas 6000 is so much more versatile for us. In the past, with a conventional operation, we've had to work out a way around many limitations, but now the limitations are gone, and my job is so much easier!"
While play progresses on the courts outside, in the edit suite, editors Rob Blake and Richard Snape use two Abekas 6000 channels for instant access to recorded match footage, graphics and transitions to assemble the highlight packages for the evening's broadcasts. "The Abekas 6000 has worked flawlessly," said Peter Fredlund, Technical Director for Turner Sports. "It's always been there when we needed it, and it's always a pleasure to use. It's a tremendous help to our editors to have instant access to material as we're recording it, with no more than a 10-frame delay."
With two Abekas Dveous systems providing world-class effects capabilities in the edit suite and control room, Turner Sports' close working relationship with Accom continues to develop. Wimbledon 2000 is the first of a three-year deal for Turner at Wimbledon, and for next year Daniels is planning to use up to four Abekas 6000s to make the entire operation tape-free. Turner Studios is also exploring the possibility of equipping its Atlanta control room with another two Abekas 6000 systems.