CBS elects Scopus for inauguration

SAN DIEGO -- CBS Newspath will use a combination of Scopus CODICO platforms to broadcast its U.S. Presidential Inauguration coverage on Jan. 20, 2001 in Washington, D.C. from CBS headquarters in New York City.

Normally, a director controls coverage from an on-site remote production truck, having to bring with them production and support crews as well as an enormous amount of equipment.

With Scopus encoders, statistical multiplexers, integrated receiver decoders and a network management system, directors at CBS News headquarters in New York City will be able to direct and deliver the 15 source channels in the same manner as the CBS Evening News.

CBS Newspath executive director of affiliate services, Mel Olinsky says, "As during our U.S. National Political Conventions and Election Night 2000 coverage, CBS has once again turned to the high quality, reliable platforms from Scopus to provide flexible, expansive coverage of a major event.

"Doing the actual production switching in New York will give us access to all of the most sophisticated production tools and allow us to use the same team that works together daily on the production of CBS Evening News. We won't have to send production people to Washington, D.C. for a week and incur travel and housing costs, plus the cost of a production truck in D.C."

"CBS News' continued selection of Scopus proves that our platforms enhance coverage of some of the major events of our time," Scopus Inc. vice president Jay Gedanken said. "Scopus' years of digital encoding experience have resulted in a full service product line that is flexible and adaptable to the needs of a wide variety of customers and their exacting applications."

During the inauguration, the director's instructions to 10 camera crew positions will come from CBS News headquarters in New York.

Each camera position's signal and an additional five pooled camera feeds will be individually routed to the CBS News Washington Bureau where they will be sent via Scopus MPEG-2 CODICO E-1100 Encoders to a satellite truck where the signals will be statistically multiplexed using a Scopus CODICO RTM-3600 Statistical Multiplexer, a CODICO Network Management System (NMS-4011) and uplinked on a full-transponder satellite circuit from Washington, D.C. to CBS News Headquarters.

There, Scopus CODICO IRD-2600s will receive and decode the signals which will be routed to the network control room where the production team will have access to all of the mix effects, graphics and other special production capabilities that would not have been found in a remote truck control room in Washington, D. C.