FOR-A Corporation of America will showcase its live production workflow at this year’s Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB) show, August 3-4 at the JW Marriott Downtown Austin. The company will showcase some of its latest gear used for studio production and live events, including some of the world’s most high-profile sporting events.

FOR-A Corporation of America today announced that industry veteran Satoshi Kanemura has been appointed president of the company, effective April 1. Mr. Kanemura joins FOR-A America from Sony Electronics where he was Vice President of Professional Products and Solutions. Former FOR-A America President, Ken Truong, has become Chief Technology Officer of FOR-A America.

FOR-A Corporation of America today announced Mobile TV Group, which maintains a fleet of more than two dozen mobile production units across major U.S. cities, added four new FVW-700 telestrators to its live production trucks this year, including two last month. Based in Englewood, Colo., Mobile TV Group provides live production services extensively for NBA, NHL, and MLB coverage, among other projects.

Camping World usually hosts its annual Ultimate RV Show in Hershey, Penn., but COVID-19 restrictions required the company to pursue a virtual option in 2020. Over the five-day event in mid-September, Custom Media Solutions, a live event video production company based in Cumming, Ga., produced 49 hours of programming that was streamed to multiple sites. During the event, CMS anchored its production efforts with its HVS-2000 video switcher from FOR-A Corporation of America.

InSync Technology and FOR-A today announced the latest in its range of motion compensated UHD frame rate converters, the MCC-4K-A, developed by InSync Technology Ltd. and exclusively distributed by FOR-A.

For live events produced and delivered in UHD, uncompromising quality standards conversion is critical to international audience satisfaction. Meeting the needs of today's live UHD workflow demands, MCC-4K-A is a highly advanced motion compensated frame rate converter that also provides essential workflow tools such as HDR/SDR management, closed caption handling, and multi-channel audio.

FOR-A Company Limited, the parent company of FOR-A Corporation of America, is celebrating its 50th year in business this month. Through its new slogan, FOR-A is inviting broadcast and video professionals to “Find Your Next Innovation” during its yearlong celebration. The company has also updated the for-a.com website to highlight the milestone and provide easier navigation for visitors.

A host of FOR-A equipment was essential to coverage of the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission when the Mars-bound Hope Probe launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on July 19^th. The probe successfully established

two-way communication and is expected to reach Mars by February 2021. It marks the first time the UAE has orbited Mars, and the probe will stay in orbit for a Martian year -- equivalent to 687 days on Earth -- to gather data about Mars' atmosphere. Eager to communicate such a critical part of the UAE’s growing space sector, live video signals from the launch were sent to control rooms in Japan and the UAE.

KitchenFish LLC, the video production company responsible for the nightly broadcast coverage of the South Carolina Education Lottery, is using a new FOR-A HVS-390HS video switcher for its productions. Located a few blocks from the state capitol, the KitchenFish studio hosts the nightly lottery drawings, and also supports live shots of state and local officials for national news outlets. The switcher was installed on April 14 and used for that evening’s production.

“We need to show all these graphics and video inserts simultaneously, and the new FORA switcher gives us a lot of flexibility,” said Jim Simmons, chief engineer for KitchenFish. “Price made a difference, but reliability is the one thing that has to be foremost, because we don’t have a second chance.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Orange Conference 2020, an annual event in Atlanta for Christian family ministry teams, to convert from a live, arena-sized event to a three-day streaming program, Custom Media Solutions relied heavily on its FOR-A HVS-2000 video switcher. The coverage required 16 inputs, 10 keyers, 11 DVEs, and at least four AUX buses.

Due to social distancing requirements, CMS had to produce the event using less than half of its usual crew in its production trailer. “We automated as much as possible using the features from the switcher,” said Marc Shroyer, president of CMS. “We had a couple of still stores with user flags and a lot of lower-thirds from the ProPresenter presentation system. We used DVEs for picture-in-picture looks that we could display on the multi-view at all times, so we could decide when to use them on the fly.”

First Baptist Church of Jackson in downtown Jackson, Miss., began broadcasting its Sunday services on a local TV station in the 1950s, but had not significantly upgraded its production facilities since the 1980s. Last summer, the church made the jump to HD production and anchored its redesigned control room with a HVS490 production switcher and MFR-3000 routing switcher from FOR-A Corporation of America.

Today, First Baptist Jackson streams live 1080p video to Facebook Live, YouTube, and its own website, with local 720p replays the following Sunday on WDBD (FOX) and WLOO (MyNetworkTV) in Jackson (DMA #92). According to Michael Bowen, minister of media and communications, any new switcher had to be “super volunteer-friendly,” because the church relies on more than 50 volunteers (as well as paid staff) to run its weekly production and other projects. The new HD system went live in late August, and he said it has created renewed excitement in their volunteers.