Fox selects NewTek's live production system for "Back to You"

[Brian Damage]

The producers of Fox Television's new show "Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, have purchased NewTek Inc.'s TriCaster Studio for use in the sitcom.

"Back to You," which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Central Standard Time, is a show about a faux television news program set in the Pittsburgh area.


In the show, Grammer and Heaton star as TV news co-anchors. "Back to You" is using the TriCaster Studio to produce the news-show-within-the-show.

The TriCaster Studio is a portable live production studio that allows broadcasters to create virtual sets. The system can switch up to six cameras and produce visual effects.

San Antonio-based NewTek is a visual effects and television-production equipment manufacturing company.


http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...24/daily3.html

[Janice]

FOX Acquires New Live Production System for 'Back to You'




FOX is bringing in new technology for one of its freshest series, Back to You. The network has just acquired a live production system to help re-create the news show setting required for certain segments of the program.

In Back to You, former Frasier star, Kelsey Grammer and Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton are television news anchors for a Pittsburgh station. The recently purchased new live production system will provide the various elements needed for their news program sequences.

NewTek Inc's TriCaster Studio is a portable live production studio that allows broadcasters to create virtual sets. The system can switch up to six cameras and produce visual effects. It will be responsible for generating the news program within the actual Back to You show.

According to the NewTek TriCaster website, the TriCaster “combines everything found in a television live truck into a box small and light enough to fit into a backpack. TriCaster offers simplified live switching and audio mixing, with real-time output to video, projector and the Internet. TriCaster's ease and portability assures rapid set-up and enjoyable live production.”

NewTek is a visual effects and television-production equipment manufacturing company which traces its roots back to 1985. Founder Tim Jenison is responsible for numerous ground-breaking products that enable the company to develop and produce affordable yet innovative tools and devices for use in computer-generated animation, video, film and television special effects. NewTek spent more than a decade located in Topeka, Kansas. In 1997, the company migrated to its new corporate offices in San Antonio Texas.

In other news, Back to You's leading man, Kelsey Grammer has admitted to once shooting a co-star. The Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor accidentally shot his fellow actor on a production of Wild Oats in New Mexico. Grammer aimed his gun at co-star David Brooks and inadvertently pulled the trigger.

"I rehearsed every night at home with a six-shooter and I bought five alarm clocks and I set them at different times during the evening and when one would go off, I'd come out of the leather,” Grammer stated. "So I got this reflex down pretty well and the very first night when we had an audience, I was supposed to pull the pistols out and do a couple of gun tricks. But I had gotten so used to this move... you pull the hammers back as you come out of the leather and you just let 'em go, so that's what I did."

Fortunately, the gun wasn't loaded and Brooks soon recovered from the shock of the incident.


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: San Antonio Business Journal, NewTek, Digital Spy