FIRST RULE SHOWCASES ITS MEDIA AND BROADCAST SERVICES WITH EXTERITY’S VIDEO STREAMING SOLUTIONS - A Case Study
Introduction
With a panoramic view of the St. Louis, MO skyline, an ultra-modern look and state-of-the-art video and audio equipment, First Rule Film & Broadcast (a division of Pelopidas LLC) is the city’s one-stop shop for high-definition film and broadcast services, including commercial advertising production, feature-film development and documentary and web content, and post-production and editing services. Occupying two floors of a high-rise building in the St. Louis area, First Rule’s four main facilities include Studio 17, a network caliber broadcast studio; Studio 16, a sleek, 30-by-30-foot curved wall broadcast space; Vue 17, a broadcast-ready event space that can accommodate 200 people; and a radio studio, along with offices and edit suites.
The filmmaking and broadcast community, locally and internationally, has taken notice. Just a few days after First Rule cut the ribbon on its Studio 17 space in late 2014, the events in Ferguson, MO, unfolded, and an influx of media descended on the suburb of St. Louis. Many outlets, including FOX News, the BBC, MSNBC and CNN, chose First Rule’s Studio 17 as their base of operations for reporting during the crisis. Later, ABC-affiliate KDNL-TV signed on as Studio 17’s first renter. In January 2015, KDNL-TV began using Studio 17 to produce a 30-minute broadcast called “The Allman Report” that airs five days a week. The show is an informative, debate-style news program focusing on important topics with guest commentators and a social media presence.
Along similar lines, and to continue to gain further traction as a major player in the broadcast and film market in St. Louis, First Rule wanted to showcase video clips demonstrating its comprehensive range of services to potential clients visiting its facility. For this, the company decided to deploy an Exterity IP video distribution system throughout its facility to showcase its comprehensive range of services to clients and visitors, as well as use the solution internally to stream video and TV to staff.
The Challenge
“We’re a media company, so when a client walks in our door, we want to be able to give them clear examples of the types of media we produce — whether that’s a news segment or a documentary. We have four display screens at the front of our facility, and we wanted to be able to run a different channel on each screen to clearly demonstrate our portfolio,” said Christine Du Vall, Production and post-production engineer at First Rule.
To do this, the company needed a scalable, unified IPTV system that could easily distribute high quality video and TV throughout its premises. The system also needed to be flexible, robust, easy to monitor via a centralized interface and low maintenance. The Exterity enterprise IP video system met all of First Rule’s criteria and was deployed to distribute live news feeds, entertainment and promotional content produced by the company to help its current and prospective customers to get a first hand demonstration of the quality of its productions and varied content it creates.
The Solution
Working closely with First Rule engineers, Exterity put together an end-to-end IP video system that distributes TV and video over the media company’s IP network without disrupting corporate communications. At the heart of the solution is the Exterity AvediaServer for centralized management, which works in tandem with three AvediaStream encoders that stream video over First Rule’s existing IP network. Additionally, 30 AvediaPlayer set-top boxes connect TV sets throughout the facility to the network.
BROADCAST BEAT MAGAZINE
IBC Issue September 2015
62