For decades, “Page Six” of the New York Post has been a must read for entertainment news fans. Now, the tabloid tradition is a must "read/watch/share” destination, following a multi-phase studio and control room upgrade and expansion project led by Brooklyn, NY-based KMH Integration.
In addition to being the third largest U.S. daily newspaper, the Post also ranks among the top 10 news and information providers across the internet, with millions following its social media channels. The newspaper has steadily increased its digital presence, expanding its media operations from print journalism to online and social media content. Its operations are continuing to evolve, from the print newspaper to the website to an increased focus on video.
“The vernacular now for all types of social platforms and communication is video, and so we had a key market imperative to translate what we do journalistically into video,” explained Warren Cohen, VP/head of video and audio, New York Post. “That was the basis for developing the new studios. We wanted to keep everything that Page Six is known for but also offer new formats, live production, basically everything we can do to reach the consumer with immediacy.”
Through its parent company, News Corp, the Post engaged KMH Integration in Fall 2022, at the earliest phase of project planning and design, to consult on the most effective way to upgrade its studio operations and build new digital production facilities. The main goal was to give the iconic print page a “digital face” with enough flexibility to grow with the Post’s constantly changing production requirements.
Unified Production Platform
The Page Six project combined emerging IP and cloud services for archiving, media management and accessibility. Editors can work anywhere in the world, with the same on-prem workflow and access as their on-site colleagues.
“We developed an entirely new look with new capabilities to match their future vision,” said Kevin Henneman, president of KMH Integration. “We collaborated with their management and technical teams to gather all the requirements needed to build out these spaces and achieve a higher quality output from these rooms.”
The Post previously had an existing studio that was only used for static recording and had no live video capabilities. KMH gutted the studio and rebuilt it into the new Studio 1, a virtual production space with both a green and a white cyclorama, as well as a position for recording standups. The result is a multi-purpose recording space with a supporting control room.
The new Studio 2, which is the home for Page Six, has the key elements of a traditional production-type space with hard sets, monitors, and camera positions. Studio 2 gives the Post the ability to record podcasts, as well as acquire and distribute video content to social media and streaming platforms.
KMH designed a unified production platform that connects the video production capabilities of the Post with other News Corp media properties, allowing for greater flexibility and content sharing to expand the reach of News Corp's creative output. Turnkey, cloud-capable production workflows to give the Post creative teams the choice of working on prem, remotely, or a hybrid combination.
The design and planning process also included building in connectivity and production feature sets that supported integrating the Post’s media workflow with other business units at the News Corp Building in Manhattan, so different media groups can easily access and share content. KMH provided network design and consulting to be able to specify the correct switch fabric, install it, and work with it and security teams within the NewsCorp environment to get the networks up and running.
“This project is a perfect example of embracing cloud services for archiving, media management, and accessibility, and integrating them with an on-premise production system,” Henneman said. “New York Post editors can work anywhere in the world with the correct credentials and security clearance to access content in the same way as on-premise editors.”
Reinventing Workflows
The Post reinvented its entire production workflow, working with the KMH team to evaluate and identify the right systems necessary for getting content acquired, ingested, edited, and delivered to a growing number of platforms. “We want to be equipped for speed, flexibility, and presence on as many output channels as possible,” Cohen said. “Our audiences rely on us for trusted and timely information. We needed to make sure we had a flexible production environment based on a seamless system that worked instantaneously and was easy to use. We have enough work to do uncovering our scoops. We didn't want the production process to be burdensome, too.”
Keeping the Post’s workflow burden-free is largely due to the KAIROS live production platform from Panasonic Connect, which Cohen described as the “infrastructure helping to bring our journalism to life.” The KAIROS system provides added flexibility to do secure, reliable video streaming—taking advantage of advancements in software-defined networks and software-controllable systems, plus IP protocols like ST 2110 and NDI. “With our small but growing team, it's important that we spend as much time as we can on the creative aspects and not on the technical aspects,” Cohen added.
KMH chose the KAIROS production platform for several reasons, including its support of multiple formats such as NDI, Dante, ST 2110, and SDI. It also supports resource sharing, allowing multiple control points to use inputs, outputs, and on-board graphics, and allows video files to be integrated into simultaneous independent productions.
"In the case of the New York Post, we were able to support their continued production growth by building a separate studio—two studios now in total—with each sharing the single KAIROS through a licensing model," Henneman said. "We were able to build out a second control position easily to support virtual production on a green and white cyclorama and take advantage of the KAIROS internal virtual set library. Custom sets can also be built and loaded into the switcher as needed. These concepts are not necessarily new to the industry, but the way that Panasonic integrated them into the KAIROS makes it easy to implement from an integration standpoint and allows the most creative flexibility to support the Post's production needs.”
The KAIROS system is complemented by three Panasonic AW-UE160 PTZ robotic cameras, which are ST 2110-ready to support future production requirements, but also flexible enough to function within the Post's new hybrid SDI/baseband plant. Other control room gear includes Samsung studio displays, Allen & Heath Avantis audio mixer, Shure Axient Digital wireless mics, RTS Odin intercom, Cinedeck video servers, Ross Ultrix 12G router, Evertz master sync generator, and NETGEAR AV line network switches. KMH led the overall Page Six project, developing technology budgets and managing specialized technology providers.
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Completed in January 2024, the Page Six studio has been in use ever since. Cohen said the space is being used for headline and news coverage, celebrity interviews, reporter interviews about their scoops, and premium franchises such as "Virtual Reali-Tea."
“Our success is measured in seconds,” Cohen said. “We want to be the first out there with news and we want to make sure that we're developing new products for different types of platforms. We have so many plans to get our news and formats and journalists out to the world, and now we have the right platform and a base of operations to do it.”
