Kentucky Farm Bureau Studios received 10 Emmys Nominations last year for its show Bluegrass & Backroads, a show which highlights the culture and charm of Kentucky. Along with Bluegrass & Backroads, the Kentucky Farm Bureau Studio produces additional content which continues to deliver stories of farmers and the people of Kentucky. Behind the production is Director of KFB Studios, Matt Hilton.
The Kentucky Farm Bureau Studios began video production 15 years ago recording local meeting and events. As the voice of agriculture for Kentucky Farmers, KFB needed a way to expand their communications- leveraging video. They initially sent a DVD to all members and supporters in the community but realized a web strategy would be required to connect with a larger audience.
“In the early days our entire live event production setup was a single lock-off camera with a basic microphone and audio. There was onsite failure all the time in our live recording- sound issues, lacking backups and redundancy,” expressed Matt, “when we received a budget to build a new studio I knew the main issues that needed to be addressed.” The problem was finding the right broadcast solution and vendor.
A BRAND NEW STUDIO WORKFLOW
Matt brought on Key Code Media to help consult and design the best workflow.
“One of the key issues is that we started ramping up all this content for the new Kentucky Farm Bureau YouTube channel. We had hard drives everywhere and it getting tough to manage. I know for a fact our team lost crucial footage because of a missing drive.” – Matt Hilton, Director of KFB Studios
Working with the Key Code Media team, KFB was able to evaluate different shared storage platforms and asset management solutions. Jon Rutherford and Brian Johnson (Key Code) walked Matt through best practices and various ideas that could leverage automation and resolve media issues.
Kentucky Farm Bureau studios ended up installing a Scale Logic Genesis UX (96TBs) and Qualstar LTO-7 tape library with Archiware P5 for all media storage and archive. A CatDV Enterprise with CatDV Pro client software provides asset management capability so teams could instantly search and access files from any production.
MOBILE PRODUCTION FLYPACK
The backbone of the new Kentucky Farm Bureau Studio is a mobile broadcast flypack with a NewTek TriCaster TC-1, purposely built to speed up the production process.
“We needed more content quicker. Recording live in a studio setting was the only way we could pull it off,” mentioned Matt.
KFB is creating new online programming using the NewTek TriCaster for episodic content. The program will include a range of live discussions on a simple set with a real country comfortable feel.
With the mobile cart and multiple PTZ cameras, KFB studios can now take their production on the road. Recording all Kentucky Farm Bureau events at a much higher quality- this is especially important as KFB is gaining high profile guests speakers. The media and bloggers are eager to repurpose the online YouTube content which is instrumental to their viewer growth.
WORKING WITH KEY CODE MEDIA
“I can’t thank Lisa, John, and Brian from Key Code Media enough. They have the knowledge of what we do, bringing substantive conversation, and show us how we can leverage technology to improve the quality and efficiencies of our production. I know I can call anyone from the Key Code team to answer any little question. We have hundreds more questions to ask and they’ll always be there for me. I won’t work with anyone else,” commented Matt.
Key Code Media deployed all equipment, training and system integration services for the Kentucky Farm Bureau mobile system. The Kentucky Farm Bureau invested in a brand new mobile production system with multiple PTZ cameras (NDI). This is a completely flexible production system that can be used both in their new Studio as well as out in the field.
The New Live Mobile Flypack w/ Upgrade Archive and Media Management
Kentucky Farm Bureau Live Mobile Flypack with Upgraded Archive and Media Management Hardware includes:
- NewTek Tricaster TC-1 with three NewTek PTZ (NDI) cameras.
- Bigfoot Mobile Systems Road case
- Mackie audio board with mics
- Cisco PoE+ network switch
- Bigfoot Mobile Systems, Inc.
- Scale Logic Genesis UX (96TBs)
- Qualstar LTO-7 tape library with Archiware P5
- XRackPro2 Sound deadening enclosure
- CatDV Enterprise with CatDV Pro client software
- ikan studio lighting kit includes 27 grid mounted fixtures
