KEYE-TV is a CBS affiliate in Austin committed to keeping its audience up-to-date with the big news stories that affect Central Texas. It broadcasts on channels 42.1 and 42.2, and operates an award-winning website at keyetv.com.

R.David Ruiz, media manager and editor, recently equipped four news trucks with Matrox MXO2 Rack I/O devices to support field editing with Final Cut Pro running on MacBook Pros.

“Until recently, we shot on Betacam SX and had to do linear tape-to-tape editing in the field, playback from the deck via microwave video transmitter, and ingest the edited pieces into Final Cut Pro edit systems back at the studio for playback to air. We really needed to streamline our workflow to meet tight news deadlines,” said Ruiz. “Our wish list was extensive. We wanted to edit on-site with Final Cut Pro running on MacBook Pros in our trucks then output directly to our microwave video encoder to get the finished pieces back to the station for playback to air. We wanted a device that could support multiple input formats such as shots from our new HDV camcorders that shoot on CompactFlash cards, file footage shot on Betacam SX, or video in legacy SDI and analog formats that we receive from other stations and various sources. At the same time we had to plan for our transition to a tapeless future. We also needed to accommodate our current SD production but be ready to go to HD seamlessly. To top it all off, we wanted a robust, reliable unit that could be securely mounted in the racks on our trucks.” read more...