Company
News
Tektronix Video Products In the Line Up as CBS Sports Broadcasts the
National Football League
Profile Digital Video Server Keeps Track of the Action
BEAVERTON, Ore., Nov. 30, 1998 -- Tektronix, Inc. (NYSE:TEK), the global video
server market leader, today announced that the company's video products are helping outfit
CBS Sports' live coverage of the National Football League this season. Tektronix equipment
is being used for the recording and editing of game highlights for NFL on CBS, and
collegiate football games.
Tektronix, a worldwide technology provider for sports broadcast applications, supplies
equipment for all major sports events, from the Olympics to the NFL to World Cup Soccer.
CBS Sports broadcasts use the Emmy® award-winning
Profile® video server, the LVS Event Management System,
Grass Valley Series 4000 switchers, and various test and measurement instruments.
"This season viewers will be able to watch instant replay faster than ever
before," said Tim Thorsteinson, president, Video and Networking Division, Tektronix.
"We are proud to have our products used by CBS Sports to make this year's NFL season
the best ever."
Profile servers equipped with the Tektronix LVS Event Management System provide the
backbone infrastructure of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City for the production of
the NFL coverage. Nine servers, connected by Fibre Channel are used for playout of
original programming for commercials. Two channels per server are used for on-air and
back-up, one channel is used for cueing and one channel is used for previewing of
material.
CBS Sports is also using the new MPEG-2 Profile PDR300 servers extensively in the
field. Profile servers with LVS software also provide highlight packages and instant
replays for highlight coverage for WCBS-TV, New York. The LVS Event Management System,
renowned worldwide as the leading production system for capturing, organizing and
presenting the fast paced action of live event coverage, captures shots that are routed to
the Profile servers for highlight packaging. Up to 27 Profile servers are currently being
used for as many as seven games in each weekend's coverage.
CBS Sports' Studio 43, a fully digital studio committed to NFL coverage, has a Profile
server that acts as a central server, feeding material to eight individual network
coordination release control rooms. These rooms use a total of eight Profile servers
running Crispin software to control the movement of programs and commercial material
throughout the CBS facility over a Fibre Channel network. This system plays to air all the
commercials and pre-recorded material that is integrated with the live NFL game.
Demonstrating additional flexibility within the system design, the Profile system used for
commercials integrates into CBS Studio 43's Profile server providing the ability to
pre-record NFL TODAY show segments prior to air.
The Emmy® award-winning Profile server, with over
13,000 digital channels shipped, is a key element in the Tektronix Digital Media
Foundation(TM) (DMF) initiative for the transition to
digital broadcasting. The DMF initiative provides broadcasters with a server-based
foundation for applications ranging from post and live production to on-air replay.
Tektronix is a portfolio of measurement, color printing and video and networking
businesses dedicated to applying technology excellence to customer challenges. Tektronix
is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon and has operations in 26 countries outside the
United States. Founded in 1946, the company had revenues of $2.1 billion in fiscal 1998.
For more information, please visit the Tektronix World Wide Web at http://www.tektronix.com/VND.
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