SportsNetNY Upgrades with Plura Monitors

Some of the 40 Plura monitors installed at SportsNet New York

NEW YORK SportsNet New York known to national and regional viewers as SNY is the official television home of the New York Mets, Jets and, in general, all things New York sports. Earlier this year, we decided to upgrade our control room and post-production monitors, as our legacy CRT units were approaching the end of their useful life. After evaluating several options, we went with Plura monitors and so far have installed some 40 new monitors with screen sizes ranging from 17- to 55-inches. We use a variety of Plura monitors for specific applications. We opted for larger format Plura DBM and PBM-3G series units for our main control room and installed seven 46- and 55-inch monitors arranged in a monitor wall configuration. These models provide a very rich feature set at a fair price point and have proven to be extremely reliable. Also, the closed-captioning and on-screen waveform and vectorscope features are useful in the control room installation. In addition, the monitors provide in-depth 16-channel audio metering capability, which we depend on to ensure that our viewers are receiving consistent and pleasant audio tracks.

Our most recent purchases fall into the small to medium screen format category. We recently integrated several of Plura's LCM-119 monitors in our Manhattan and Citi Field facilities. The LCM-119 has a very thin bezel which saves space, providing more useful picture area than many competitors.

The high image quality of the Pluras cannot be understated. Game analysts receive a bright, sharp full-resolution 1920 x 1080 image as compared to the 1280 x 720 displays from many competitors' monitors in this size and price range. We're counting on receiving top images for a long time too, with the monitor's useful life expected to exceed 35,000 hours.

We use Plura's LCM-3G series in applications where an advanced feature set isn't really needed. These units deliver a quality image and also include dynamic and static tally capability that's very useful at our Citi Field location where we use four robotic cameras to deliver New York Mets coverage. The LCM-3 also includes a center marker and safe area indication that helps camera operators more effectively frame shots.

PLUG AND PLAY' OPERATION

Operationally, the user-friendly nature of the Pluras is evident right out of the box with no special configuration required. You simply plug it in, turn it on and connect a video source. If adjustments are desired, setup menus provide configuration versatility. Additionally, Plura's monitoring function lets us keep tabs on everything from fan operation to the number of operating hours on a specific monitor.

What we appreciate most about Plura is its excellent customer service and specialized approach in meeting user requirements. Unlike other vendors with monitors comprising only a small portion of their business, Plura's main focus is on monitors. We look forward to working with them for a long time and exploring the advanced capabilities offered by other Plura lines, including such features as networked monitoring, fiber connectivity, built-in LKFS audio loudness and IP-based control.

Alex Blanding is vice president of engineering at SportsNet New York. He may be contacted at ablanding@sny.tv.

For additional information, contact Plura at 602-944-1044 or visit www.plurabroadcast.com.

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