An in-house production studio allows this supermarket giant to streamline its communications to staff and customers.

With 1,739 grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, Safeway is one of North America’s largest food retailers. In fact, Safeway ranks 50th on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations; ahead of PepsiCo, Lockheed Martin, and Best Buy.

Safeway’s VP of corporate communications Dan Pryor demonstrates one of their production studio camera rigs.

To ensure smooth operations across this farflung corporation, Safeway has a 35-person Corporate Communications department at its Pleasanton, CA headquarters. In order to create effective training, in-store promotional, and corporate messaging videos for both staff and customers, the company operates a sophisticated video production facility in Pleasanton. It includes two fully equipped production studios, a Master Control room, 10 remote studios connected by HD videoconferencing, four non-linear editing (NLE) suites, and a combined terrestrial (web) and satellite (TV) uplink distribution system that runs 24/7 on the Galaxy 28 satellite.

“We produce about 60 hours of live programming a week,” says Dan Pryor, Safeway’s VP of corporate communications. “We also have about 1,400 programs available on demand over the web and via our Helius satellite receiver box.”

THE PROCESS
Safeway’s out-of-studio video content is shot by freelancers, using Sony XDCAM camcorders owned by the corporation. “We are currently working in SD, but will be moving to HD later this year when we buy two new Sony HD XDCAMs,” Pryor says.

The video used to be ingested into a variety of storage platforms such as Avid’s Unity, for editing on Safeway’s four Avid NLE systems (three Adrenaline and one Media Express). However, in a move to simplify production access, storage, and playout, Safeway has recently consolidated its video onto the Omneon MediaGrid active storage system. The Omneon system serves as a centralized storage hub for Digital Rapids transcoding, Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS), Helius IPTV distribution, Qumu video webcasting, and Microsoft Windows Media Server applications. It is also the central location for ingesting, editing, playing, and storing all of Safeway’s video.

Pryor is also president of the Communications Media Management Association (CMMA; www.cmma.org). The CMMA is a professional organization for people who manage the creation, distribution, and utilization of communications media for corporations, non-profits, government agencies, and educational institutions.

“Omneon is one of CMMA’s President Circle partners,” says Pryor. “As a result of their support, CMMA members are always happy to take a look at Omneon’s products. This is how I learned about MediaGrid, and saw just how much it could simplify our production process.”

In the control room, engineers edit some of the 60 hours of weekly programming on one of Safeway’s four Avid NLE systems, which accesses content on their Omneon MediaGrid active storage system.

“We selected MediaGrid because it allows us to centralize media storage while allowing us to add Final Cut Pro systems to our Avid environment,” says Pryor. “Since our projects can range in budget from $2,000 up to $100,000, it makes no sense to tie up our high-end Avid stations doing low-end work. MediaGrid allows us to plug lower-cost Final Cut Pro suites into our WAN. More importantly, it supports a true endto- end workflow, with content remaining on the system from ingest through post-production to distribution.” Safeway chose MediaGrid because of its compatibility with the company’s existing transcoding, IPTV, and streaming applications.

“Safeway’s business model demands that it invest in flexible, scalable, and cost-effective systems to support this file-based workflow,” says Geoff Stedman, Omneon senior vice president for products and markets. “With support for multiple edit platforms and straightforward interoperability with other applications, the MediaGrid system is a great fit for corporate clients such as Safeway that are seeking to create and distribute quality content affordably and efficiently.” Of course, MediaGrid plays a central role with Safeway’s in-studio productions. “One of our studios works as a news set, while the other larger room is used for more elaborate productions,” explains Pryor.

“These can be everything from in-store videos and demonstrations to health and safety courses for our employees.” Both studios are equipped with three Vinten-controlled robotic cameras, which are handled remotely from within the company’s single Master Control Room. Currently equipped with SD equipment, the cameras here will soon be replaced with Sony’s new HSC-100 HD studio cameras. “The HSC-100s provide 1080p/720p video at a lower price than older studio cameras, and allows us to use our existing triax cable,” he notes.

Although Safeway currently edits its videos using four Avid NLEs, these will soon be supplemented by an undefined number of Final Cut Pro workstations. The video is produced in SD (eventually HD), then converted to different formats, depending on the delivery system. “Video going over the satellite is formatted in MPEG 4 AVC, which is fed live to directly wired in-store monitors and onto PVR-like storage devices at the receiving end,” says Pryor. “We use Qumu’s webcasting software to manage the distribution of our Windows Media- and Flashformatted feeds across Safeway’s terrestrial WAN. These are viewed at the desktop by staff, and made available online on a password-protected basis.”

LOOKING AHEAD
Safeway’s video system is poised to move into the HD world; both at its Pleasanton facility and the 1,739 stores scattered across North America. However, the move to HD displays inside its stores does not mean that the company is about to deploy digital signage — far from it.

“We have been experimenting with digital signage for the past 12 years, but so far have not liked the economics of this model,” says Dan Pryor. “The problem is the need for content. Digital signage networks would require about $4 to $5 million a year for content production, based on our research. That cost can be borne if you use an advertising-supported model, but that’s not what Safeway wants to do. If we have digital signage, we want all of the programming to be under our control, promoting products and messages that we want to get across.”

As a result, Safeway is holding off from digital signage for now. This said, customers in all of its stores will soon be served by professionally produced HD content as they shop, fed directly from the company’s Pleasanton facility.

“Right now, we are focused on improving the efficiency of our production process and moving into high definition,” Pryor says. “Implementing the Omneon MediaGrid system has gone a long way to achieving the first goal. Acquiring HD XDCAMs and HSC-100HD studio cams will work towards realizing the other.”

James Careless is a freelance writer who specializes in communications-related stories. His writing credits include TV Technology, TV Broadcast, and Radio World magazines.