Situation

UMTV is not only one of the largest university television stations, but it is at the core of the University of Miami School of Communication, which teaches broadcasting to thousands of students. The station serves the campus and its surrounding community with original news and feature shows, along with the MTV-U, the MTV university cable network.

University faculty wanted its station capabilities to be on a technological level with today�s television networks and their outlets. This included a pathway to HD. Two virtually identical control rooms were needed to facilitate teaching and production, each with its own studio.

Solution

Professional Communications Systems (PCS) was chosen to integrate the total rebuild on a challenging schedule. The integration was begun in a staging area at the company�s Tampa headquarters. Cable was placed and racks were populated while classes still were in session. Over Thanksgiving weekend, the University staff removed all existing equipment. The next day, PCS moved in the new racks of Grass Valley, Miranda, Clear-Com and other components, and completed the installation.

Results

In seven weeks, PCS got the station and teaching facilities back on-line. The inevitable construction issues had been resolved �on the spot.� The new Grass Valley master control replicates what graduates will find in the industry as they enter the field of broadcasting. The new systems also provide cost savings in security, power, A/C, and maintenance. Large HD plasma monitors driven by Miranda multi-input display processors also lessen the amount of equipment required in the studio control rooms.

Students and staff are now creating and cable-casting original programming to the UM campus and 600,000 homes in the Coral Gables area.