TWiT Brick House Equipment

Jammerb (John Slanina) at the controls.

The TWiT Equipment below the control desk. Jammerb's baby.

Switching at the new Brick House studios is managed from a central turret in the studio. There a single engineer (dubbed the Technical Director) who controls lights, graphics, camera switching, audio mixing, recording and playback, screen shots, video calls, and all other elements of the live production. The turret can be rotated to face the active set and is equipped with its own lights, cameras, and mic so that the TD can participate in the show. Leo continues to switch his own shows in his office with a satellite keyboard and mouse and Axia Radius console.

Internet Connections

• EFM: Sonic.net Flexlink Ethernet in the First Mile (also known as IEEE 802.3ah). This connection is 35Mbit/s symmetrical. Dedicated for most of the Skype calls during the netcasts and to stream out the BitGravity, Ustream and Justin.tv video. The Studio has 2 EFM connections, one for the streams, and video calls and the other as the studio LAN.

• ISDN Line: AT&T ISDN. Used to stream studio audio to and from the Premiere Radio Network studios for The Tech Guy show.

• Cable: Comcast Fiber Optic connection is coming soon and will provide a 100Mbit symmetrical connection in conjunction with the EFM.

Audio

Leo in the TWiT studio with Axia console under his right hand

The Axia console early in the install process

• Audio Console (mixer):

• • Telos Axia Element control console and accompanying Powerstation processing unit. This equipment is on loan to Leo from Axia. Cost of the Axia Element console and PowerStation is about $22,000. The backup power supply and extra audio I/O ports add about $6,000. New Telos Xstream and two Omnia audio processors are worth about $13,000. Additional IP-Audio software including drivers, logging, and management software sell for about $3,000. Axia IP-audio consoles typically cost $12,000 up to about $24,000, according to Axia representative Kirk Harnack.
  • On August 18 2009 (prior to the installation) Leo interviewed Kirk Harnack of Axia Audio, who provided a good description of the new digital audio system's features and advantages; the interview is available here (100 MB download).
  • Kirk Harnack posted a collection of photos taken during installation at the cottage to PicasaWeb.
  • Kirk Harnack posted a video of installation highlights to YouTube. Shot and edited by Erik Lanigan of TWiT.
  • The Axia is the console originally installed in the TWiT Cottage. Before moving to the new studio, it was removed and taken to the new studio. For that interim time, Leo used the old Mackie analog mixer that was used before the Telos. After poor audio quality, the current Telos Axia Radius consolewas put into Leo's office set.

• Audio Equipment in the Rack (from top to bottom in image):
  • Telos Zephyr Xstream Used with ISDN line to stream Leo's audio to Premiere for the Tech Guy radio show
  • Axia Router Selector Node
  • (6) Axia Analog Line Nodes/Microphone Nodes These units allow the analog signal from a microphone to but used as an input on the digital Axia. console.
  • (2) Axia PowerStation Units One unit is the main PowerStation and the other allows for additional I/O and redundancy.
  • Omnia ONE Studio Pro Processor

• Microphones:
  • Heil Sound PR40 dynamic table mics with BSW RE27POP Filter
  • Countryman headset mics

• Microphone Stands:
  • Heil Sound PL2T Boom Mount

• Headphones:
  • AKG K240 Studio
  • UltimateEars 4 Pro in-ear-monitors

• TWiT.am Audio Stream:
  • Barix Instreamer 100

Video

• Cameras:
  • Canon VIXIA HF G10 Full HD Camcorder with Blackmagic Design HDMI to SDI Mini converters
• Televisions:
  • During some early broadcasts from the TWiT Brickhouse, it was mentioned that most of the TVs used for displaying Skype hosts were VIZIO models. They have since had their logos covered up, to prevent from showing a brand preference.
  • Many of the areas, including the Switching station and Leo's desk are equipped with Blackmagic Design's SmartView Duo SDI displays

• Switcher:
  • Tricaster 850 Extreme with the 850CS control surface

• Router:
  • Blackmagic Design Broadcast Videohub 72x144

Computers and monitors

• Many of the TWiT hosts use various size/models of MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but with exceptions like Brian Brushwood (often seen with a 17" Windows-based notebook PC).
• The computer on Leo's desk is a 27 inch iMac.

Lights

The studio uses 140 different lighting fixtures purchased, installed, and configured by Brent Bye of Ocean Studio, Santa Monica including:

• • Kinoflo ParaBeams
  • Lite Panels 1x1, Minis, and Micros

and numerous LED fixtures for color.

Remote Calls

When TWiT moved to the new studio, they hoped to use Vidyo as a replacement to Skype but it had many issues. For this reason, most remote guests are brought in using Skype. TWiT utilizes four Dell machines that reside in the basement and can be routed to any place in the studio and used to bring in a guest on Skype.

Live Remote Events

Getting it back to the studio

• LiveU for streaming the "walk and talk" segments back to the brick house.
• Slingbox for streaming the remote TriCaster mix back to the brick house.