StudioTech Live!: 34 – Behind the scenes with Leo and TWiT

StudioTech Live!: 34 – Behind the scenes with Leo and TWiT

Vance and Mark talk about (and play extracts from) the video shot of the TWiT booth at the NAB Show and of Vance’s trip to the TWiT brick house in Petaluma.

April 22, 2012

TWiT Brickhouse Visit & NAB 2012 Roundup

I have long admired Leo Laporte and his passion for technology. I have followed his work for many years and really enjoy the programming that his empire brings to the masses. Within the last year, I watched as he took a small company from a small rental house called the TWiT Cottage to a 5,000+ fully equipped studio that rivals mass broadcast stations offerings. Last year just prior to the largest trade convention for broadcasters, NAB, I had the opportunity to visit the TWiT Cottage on a Sunday. I met John Slanina(@jammerb), Brian Brushwood (@shwood), and of course, Leo. Everyone was very polite and accommodating during the visit and I got the feeling that nothing was “off limits” as far as questions for Leo. He has been traditionally very open about contract signings and explaining how he runs his company along with CEO, Lisa Kintzell. I found this to be the exact case during our face to face meeting him as well. We asked questions about the new studio and how things would work. Leo was very enthusiastic about explaining how he was going to invest his money in his vision of the “CNN of Tech” studio. I got the opportunity to walk just up the street from the Cottage to visit the Brickhouse, even though at this point, Dick DiBartolo (The Giz Wiz) hadn’t officially named it yet, “The TWiT Brickhouse”. Demo work was going on to change from the last tenant to the new Studio.

Months went by and I watched as the TWiT crew built the new studio. The dropcam time lapse that John did is especially neat. It shows a great beginning to end story from the tear down of the old fit up to the completion of the studio (and party soon thereafter).

Just last week I attended NAB again in Las Vegas where Mark Johnson and I shot video, streamed and interviewed all week long. We were joined by Ray Cronise (@raycronise) and Colin Sandy (@dctricaster) who both helped greatly with the production. Our StudioTech Live video podcast has been well received and we made a ton of contacts. From Large manufacturers to the mom and pop organizations at NAB, we enjoyed interviewing all of them. We are watching companies that only last year had just a table setup to massive booths with multiple employees. This is so great to watch! The landscape is changing in the broadcast industry and some “get it” while others can’t see the forest for the trees.

On Tuesday evening, NewTek (maker of the very popular Tricaster), held an invitation only event called “Broadcast Minds”. Yearly, it is a who’s who of panelists that are changing the way content is being delivered to the public. I attended last year and I thought it was great. Leo was one of the panelists at that point but this year he was the moderator. Mark and I were invited this year to the VIP section by NewTek. The panel offered incredible incite into the direction of content delivery by MTV, ESPN, Kevin Pollack and others. Mark and I got to see Leo again and speak to him for a bit. It was well worth the time and very educational.

On the last day of NAB, Mark decided that a behind the scenes of the TWiT sky booth would be a great addition to our StudioTech Series to show our viewers exactly how the TWiT group gets their content to the 100’s of thousands of loyal viewers that TWiT has weekly. I found Leo after one of his shows and he said he would be glad to give us an on camera look at the behind the scenes operation. I must say that we appreciated this very much. He could’ve said no very easily or not made the time for us. The exact opposite happened and he acted as we were no bother at all and graciously invited us up onto the sky booth for a recorded look around. He agreed to do an on camera interview as we walked and talked. The interview turned out well and I must say publicly, Thanks to Leo as he is a class act!

After 5 days in Vegas, I flew to San Francisco to vacation a few days with my wife. So the deal was, I show her the city (as I have been there a few times before), take her to wine country, and she hangs out with me in the tech mecca of the new Brickhouse. Deal! I said and off we went. Day 1 doing the touristy things with beautiful weather in San Francisco. 85 degrees in April? Locals say this never happens and is like summer to them. I wasn’t complaining at all as I love warm temps. Day 2 and we were off to Sonoma for Vineyard tours on another nice 82 degree day. Excellent food and views from what is called Heaven by the music group Train. I would tend to agree.

Day 3 leads to us heading to Hallies in Petaluma for a great breakfast. Hallies is a small diner that I have eaten at once before and the line that forms daily pretty much tells you how good the food is going to be. I have not been disappointed yet and I recommend it to anyone visiting the Petaluma area. After breakfast we met John at the door to the Brickhouse and he let us in very early to take a look around. We had contacted Leo’s sister, Eva and asked for reservations for Leo’s Sunday afternoon nationally syndicated radio show “The Tech Guy” which runs 3 hours. We also were approved for the #1 show on the TWiT network just after this one called “TWiT” which stands for “This Week in Tech”.

Leo arrived just on time and greeted both of us saying he was glad that we could make it. He welcomed us into his “office” which is a replication of the room at the Cottage that was home to all of the shows that everyone grew to love. The bookcase looks the same (but is a built in version to look like the old one) and the furnishing are almost exactly like the room in the cottage. He has more seating room for visitors than the cottage but other than that, it’s a good replication. This room is now used for just a few shows, Security Now with Steve Gibson, both weekend shows including the Giz Wiz, and also Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott and Mary Joe Foley.

Cameras are everywhere in the studio and sets. There are something like 45 Canon Vixia HF-G10 HD cameras hanging from every corner and in between. The main room of the studio houses the “Command Center” that controls how the studio works. There is no special audio control room full of folks behind a glass looking out. The digital audio board, video control surface for the Tricaster 850 (the Streaming appliance that makes it possible), various computers for Skype call ins, and lighting controls are located here. It spins around on casters 270 degrees so the operator can see whatever set that is being used. It’s very open and free feeling in comparison to a normal studio. You can watch as the Technical Director (TD) switches the shows which reminds me of a wizard behind the curtain. I watched Eileen Rivera (@eileentv) switch the TWiT show and I will say that she is GOOD at doing it. I’ve known this for some time as I pay close attention to the shows and how things get “covered up” when things are going wrong. Skype calls drop and must be reconnected. Audio issues pop up and levels have to be adjusted on the fly. The person sitting here is like a pilot in a cockpit and this is no joke. She was DM’ing a guest via Twitter while switching the guys live in the studio and doing it all as if she was riding a bike and it came natural. I am impressed by this as I know what it takes mentally to pull this off having the Tricaster, Tricaster control surface, multiple computers and audio all within an arm’s reach but needing to react on a split second to what is thrown at you. Understand that what you are watching goes through a number of channels before it gets to “program out” or what you see on the stream. Hats off to the TD’s that do this for each show.

I mentioned various sets in the Brick house. I think I counted 4 distinct sets other than Leo’s office/set. One is a living room set that is used for programs like iPad today, TWiP (This week in Photo), ION (In Other News), etc. It is a comfortable set where I chatted with Chad Johnson (@omgchad) about NAB from the previous week. They have a large screen (I’m assuming rear projector is used for display) that you can see if you are a guest on this set. Moving on to the Tom Merritt (@acedtech) set or otherwise known as the “TNT” set. TNT stands for Tech News Today and is a daily tech roundup show with hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane (@sarahlanerocks),Jason Howell (@raygun01), and Iaz Akhtar (@iyaz). These guys peruse tech sites all day like techmeme.com and the like to find out the latest up to date news and bring it to the world at 3:00pm PST (roughly), 6:00pm EST. While I did not get a chance to watch these guys live in action as this is a weekly show, I have watched it for years and the flow and hand off of stories is top notch. It’s almost like they have tally lights thrown to them so each jumps in perfectly in time (they may do this but I think it’s just a natural flow). The TNT set is very well lit and the items in the set make it look very dimensional and attractive. The set to the right was originally used as the Ham Shack setup for Leo’s newly acquired Ham license. The show Ham Nation airs live on Tuesdays but is mostly done off site via Skype and a local TD switches from the control center. This set is also used for BYB or Before you Buy, a newer show that reviews tech gadgets that are new and cutting edge. Each host (from all shows) gets a chance to review a product and record a segment that gets stitched together for the final show. The final set that is the “main” set in the large room of the studio was designed primarily for TWiT, the Sunday show “This Week in Tech”. I did have the opportunity to see this one live and it is the highest rated and downloaded TWiT show to date. Live viewers seem to always be in the thousands and the weekly downloads are much higher in the 10’s of thousands. It is also where the popular Mac Break Weekly is shot. All in all, the new studio on the main floor is top notch and in my opinion, done very well!

There are private offices for some of the TWiT “brass” such as CEO Lisa Kintzell, Eileen Rivera, and others. Studio Engineers like Burke McQuinn…… and John have desks in a center corridor between Leo’s and Lisa’s office. If you watch closely when she’s not co-hosting ION, you will see Liz Romero (@lizard77), the constant bouncer. Liz sits on an exercise ball in this center area just left of center. Well, I take that back, Liz bounces on an exercise ball. Like all day! Sitting on these things are said to strengthen your core muscles and improve posture and based on the way Liz uses hers, I don’t want to compete in a sit up competition against her! The Kitchen and the stock receiving room is in the rear of the studio area, both ample in size.

Under the main floor is the TWiT basement. This is where the some real magic happens. I had the opportunity to meet an intern named Eli Rosen-Duran. Eli is amazing! High school guy that just blew me away with his knowledge. Eli took me around and we asked for Leo to do a walking tour. I wanted Leo to explain what various areas in the basement are used for. Most of it is for storage. I kinda felt at home with the tech stuff from corner to corner in a room that exceeds 4,000 SF. The ceiling is a bit low but it is perfect for what they use it for! The cool thing is that all of the wiring can be done on channels that are attached to the ceiling. Ladders are unneeded to run these cables as an average person can reach the ceiling just fine. Once the location of the above area is found, they just drill a hole, install the conduit and fish the wires directly up to it’s new home. Brilliant! There are a ton of CAT5/6 cables, RF(BNC) 75 ohm cables for carrying the video signals long distances, and even some super high speed fiber cabling that allows the studio to transfer files from stations to stations as needed. Time is of the essence and this fiber setup makes things get from point a to point b quickly. Off to the left side of the basement is a Network room. This is where all CAT 5/6 cables terminate and where the connections to the world are made. There is a main 100 mbit synchronous connection along with (2) 35 mbit synchronous connections to the internet. This is smokin’ internet speeds. All of the shows are either streamed live during production to multiple CDN’s (Content Delivery Networks) and then uploaded to sites later such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Blip. This branch out method seems to work great in getting the content to as many viewers as possible including mobile devices and Set top boxes. If you have something that connects to the internet, there is a good chance that you can catch TWiT on that device. As a sidenote, I listen to TWiT when I can’t watch it via a SONOS whole house audio system and the TWiT.am audio stream is easily found. This is also great for listening via a headset while doing other things via the TWiT mobile app. They seem to have all bases covered for you.

A short walk across the basement take you to the “brain center” of the studio. The control center that rotates is located just above this newly air conditioned room. There are racks of equipment here that are used for getting the content in or out from the studio. To the right rack is the digital audio processing rack where the above mentioned TWiT.am stream is captured from the digital audio board and sent out to the internet as an .mp3 and now also a .aac file. Other IP audio workhorses are in this rack controlling the digital audio routing for the studio. Just to the left located in the center is an 8 port KVM for controlling the multiple computers from upstairs. Next under is the Black Magic videohub. This is a 72 SDI input, 144 SDI output split second matrix patch hub that can be controlled by computers upstairs or by an iPad. This gives the studio the option of sending any video to any location. So think about that…1 input can go to 144 places or 72 inputs can go to the 144 locations. These locations can be monitors, Tricaster inputs, or even teleprompters if needed. It’s a very powerful box and though expensive, is one of my favorites in our studio. Ours is not quite as large but it is in the same family and operates by the exact same methods as the large unit.

Under this is the locomotive of the studio that is the Tricaster 850 extreme. This all in one switcher was until last week’s NAB, the latest and greatest all in one switcher from NewTek. Via the upstairs 850CS control surface, the Tricaster handles 8 physical inputs along with 8 virtual inputs, (2) DDR’s for video playback, (2) computer network connections via IP, and many other features. It is what makes what you see on the stream possible. Physical inputs from the videohub are routed into inputs 1-8 and mixed with things like overlay down stream keyers for lower third graphics and bugs. These are used to identify guests, the show titles, and also for commercials to give info about the product on the screen. What once took a full room of engineers and a satellite truck is now condensed into a 4U rack mount super fast computer that is loaded with high end video cards and special software to make it all possible. It is really an incredible box. I mentioned that it was the latest and greatest from NewTek. At NAB 2012, NewTek surprised everyone by coming out with a big brother to the 850 extreme named the Tricaster 8000. It gets bundled with a larger control surface and many more features that will surely take any studio to the next level. I have heard rumors that TWiT is on a very short list to get one of these soon (even before release) to give it a run pre-production. I had hoped to have serial number 00001 of the Tricaster 8000 in our studio to replace our Tricaster 850, but it appears that I will have to bow to the TWiT group and take the second or maybe 100th one. Enough about the Tricasters, but just know, this is the “Main Brain” and without it, it would be tough to pull off some of the great productions that they do.

Below the Tricaster is what turned out to be an experiment gone wrong. It is hardware from a company called Vidyo. There are (4) Vidyocast server computers that were tried as a replacement for Skype. It is well known of the challenges that Skype has offered TWiT and other studios over the years. Audio sync delays, video pixelization, dropped calls, you name it, they have experienced it with Skype. Sometimes guest like Andy Ihnatko (@ihnatko) have publicly voiced negative (sometimes kiddingly) about Skype. The Vidyo computers were hoped to solve this but as it turned out they didn’t work as planned and TWiT resorted back to Skype. The server rack to the left houses the Skype machines which are Dell servers with SDI capture cards. The videohub feeds return video from the program out of the Tricaster into each of these (4) Skype machines. This is how the guests see the show in real time. It is not recommended to have the guests watch the stream from any of the CDN’s as this can be delayed by as much as 20 secs at times. This would not allow them to comment on things that are on the screen in real time such if something is held up to a camera for discussion. This is standard def 480i video returning to the guests and they do see themselves when the Tricaster switches to them but as we have found out, this is not a big deal at all. It is much better than some shows that ask their guest to watch the stream. We have solved getting HD quality video back to our guests in widescreen and we will gladly share some of these solutions with the TWiT crew in coming months. To the left of these Skype machines are various computers like a dedicated MacMini computer used just to run the chat room. The video out of this mini goes into the videohub and can be sent anywhere needed in the studio and /or to the tricaster. Other MacMini’s are used to distribute program out video to CDN’s via Wirecast. Another computer runs Vidblaster to handle the reruns of the shows. There are a few tower type computers that are used for endpoints for the mobile LiveU backpack units to get real time video back into the studio. Wow, what a setup! I have to say, they did it right!

I also had the opportunity to speak with Alex Lindsay (@alexlinsay) from the PixelCorps. Alex’s studio and office is just next door in the same building and Alex was nice enough to give us an on camera view of his “Sword and Laser” set, some really cool PTX cameras, and his huge green screen setup. Alex Lindsay and Andy Ihnatko join Leo on Tuesdays for one of my favorite shows, Mac Break Weekly that they shoot from the main set.

I think that about wraps up the technobabble in regards to the TWiT Brickhouse. I would like to make a very strong comment about Leo and his crew: They went over and above to make us feel at home and answer any questions that the StudioTech viewers may have! I have always liked Leo as a personality way back to the TechTV days. I’ve watched him have to make tough decisions on employees and equally tough decisions on hanging himself out with things like the investment in the new studio. I will say that Leo and crew was much more gracious than I ever expected. My opinion was raised even higher this weekend. I still think the chat room mods are a little heavy handed (which Leo explains is run outside of TWiT by others). I think that if the TWiT name is on the chat room, Leo has a say in how folks are treated there. There have been many comments of people getting kicked for seemingly only having strong opinions on things. I have never been kicked BTW but I think 2 and 3 times before posting as to not get kicked. I know there is a fine line between trolls and opinions so I am always cautious when I’m posting in chat.
B
ottom line is this, if you are interested in technology and want to be fed daily doses of Tech, rest assured that TWiT will give you what you are looking for in a completely transparent way!

Way to go TWiT Crew!

Vance Willis

vancewillis@ttfn.tv
@vancewillis
www.studiotech.tv