How Key News Network Delivers Breaking News Coverage with Prism Mobile and Core

Zak Holman, Founder and CEO of KNN, leads a team of 35 freelance photojournalists who cover live, overnight, and breaking news stories in Los Angeles: ranging from house fires and physical rescues, to homicide investigations and protests. For KNN, speed and reliability are crucial to their success. Zak needed an IP video solution that could quickly encode and deliver live and pre-recorded footage to the station in high-stakes situations – while facing issues like:

🚫 Internet Outages / Slow LTE Speeds
🚫 Slow Equipment Start-Up Time
🚫 Tough Terrain with Dust, Fire, Water, and Dirt
🚫 Run-And-Gun Camerawork
🚫 Confined Spaces

In the past, when the KNN team would film in a remote location like a brush fire in the mountains, they would have to drive back down to the foothills in order to upload their content with better internet connectivity, then drive back to the scene – wasting precious time and missing potential story elements.

Zak switched to Prism Mobile, a camera-back encoder that enables network bonding of up to 3 LTE modems and 4 cellphone hotspots – an essential feature for maintaining a fast upload speed while delivering files to news stations from the field. Using Core Cloud, Teradek’s cloud-based IP video management platform, he and his team could quickly take the encoded footage from Prism Mobile, and edit, organize, and broadcast clips to different news stations, entertainment clients, and their own channels – all from inside their vehicles.

Technical Requirements:
 ✅ HD-SDI 1080i60 Input and 1080p29.97 H.264 Output
 ✅ HD Encoding/Decoding/Transcoding
 ✅ Multistreaming 
 ✅ Network Bonding
 ✅ Remote Configuration
 ✅ File Storage/Distribution
 ✅ Local Recording 
 ✅ Cloud Archiving
 ✅ Editing

#1: Future-Proofing:

• “This thing works great today at 1080. But when the day comes that we get to 4K, I just flip a switch… and it’s now a 4K device. So from a business standpoint, this future-proofs it, and I didn’t spend any extra money.”
• “The capabilities that Prism Mobile has right now are incredible. It is at 95 and we need 50. That's really where it's at. So I'm beyond impressed with it.”

#2: Easy Setup:

• “I can set up a live shot. Hit go. Throw it on a tripod. The building’s burning down. I've got the shot. I go back to the car. Type out the story. I call the news director and talk to assignment editors. Having Prism Mobile frees up a massive amount of my mental resources.”
  
• “We have to be able to get in and get out as quickly as possible, and the last thing you want to do is have your gear get caught on a firefighter’s turnout [gear] as he's running out of a building. That's why I was so excited when we started talking about Prism Mobile with the Gold Mount system, because that literally is on my camera all the time. I don't even know it's there at this point. It's become a part of our rig.” 
  

#3: Adding Live Content to KNN’s Product Offering:

• “Prism Mobile is something that augments what we're already doing. It's a tool that allows us to produce live news, which makes it easier for us to expand our business.”
  
• “We can tell the news director, ‘We're at the triple homicide scene. Not only do we have transport footage. Not only do we have an interview with the detectives that are here. But we also have a static live shot for the breaking news at the top of the hour.’ That’s huge.”
  

#4: Faster Delivery Using Camera-to-Cloud (C2C) Integrations:

• “If I can send a guy to a big brush fire with Prism Mobile, and he's sending back that footage. I can literally sit there and take that content, cut it, and send it out. He never has to come back down. For us that's a huge deal. We're able to have somebody that's on assignment [and remain] where they need to be for the entire shift.”
  
• “Another option for us down the line might be to hire an editor to just take in all the video that comes in live through Prism Mobile, have them cut the footage and then send it in with the pre-recorded footage. There's a lot more options. We are playing catch-up to the capabilities of Prism Mobile at this point.”

#5: Low-SWaP (Size Weight and Power) Design

• “I've got one battery on the camera. That's all I have to worry about. If the news director wants a live shot? Great. I just flick a switch. As far as workflow is concerned, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

#6: Durability

• “I can carry Prism Mobile in the field to brush fires and crime scenes. You’ve got the weather and the elements. To not have to worry about it breaking is huge as far as ruggedized tech that’s going to last out in the field.”

#7: Reliability

• "If you turn your gear on, and it doesn't work…you're missing the shot that could have gotten you that Emmy. The thing that could be a huge story that changes everything. So it's crucial that these things work.”
• “I love the Prism Mobile for its functionality and its reliability. I can leave it on my camera and not think about it.”

#8: Core

• “It’s like a coin machine where you can drop all the coins in, and the quarters go here, the dimes go here. That’s what we do with our footage. We send our footage to specific clients that are interested in those types of stories.”
• “I log into Core and just have everything right there. You put a number in, and the device is synced. This is about as easy as it can get. Considering how advanced the ones and zeros behind it are – it’s shockingly simple.”

#9: Customer Support

• “Teradek is one of those few companies that responds to suggestions and feedback, and says, ‘That sounds great. This is something that we can see works for you that would also work for everyone in your space.’ And that relationship to me is more important than anything else. I can actually get something to make my job easier to allow my company to be more successful.”

Teradek works with organizations to help them improve their broadcast operations. To find a custom solution for you, get in touch with one of our workflow experts. Or, head over to our Prism page to learn more about our flagship encoder/decoder solution.