CP Communications, a leader in innovative solutions and services for live events and broadcast productions, has appointed Karl Prentiss as Director of Production for Red House Streaming (RHS), effective immediately. Reporting to Vice President of Red House Streaming Lowell Beckner, Prentiss will manage the RHS studios’ in-house broadcast and A/V productions from CP’s St. Petersburg production complex and network operations center.
Prentiss said, “This new position at Red House Streaming is an incredible career opportunity for me. As the Director of Production, I am excited to work alongside a creative team of proven innovators, and I am looking forward to trailblazing the future of our industry with them.”
Prentiss comes to CP with more than four decades of broadcast engineering, video, and photography experience, including master control and studio management. He began his career in1979 as a Master Control Operator for WBAK-TV in Terre Haute, Indiana. From there, he made his way to Florida, working in master control at West Palm Beach-based stations WPTV-TV and WPEC-TV, before moving to the Tampa Bay area in 1994.
At WFTS-TV in Tampa, Prentiss worked as the Master Control Supervisor for a decade. It was at this position that he met Beckner, who served as the station’s Director of Engineering, and Prentiss’ work ethic made a lasting impression.
Beckner said, “When I thought about the kind of manager we needed at Red House Streaming, I thought of Karl. His engineering expertise and understanding of studio operations are strengthened by his creative eye and hands-on work producing high-quality content. From photography to graphic design, to video, Karl knows what it takes to create high-quality content and to push forward the boundaries of our industry.”
Prentiss has spent the past several years honing those creative skills. In 2014, he left WFTS-TV to pursue his own photography business, Prentiss Photography, where he specialized as a portrait, wedding, and commercial photographer. Then, a move back to Indiana in 2017 allowed Prentiss to broaden his creative skillset even more.
As the Creative Projects Manager for The Skinny Productions and Fatheadz Eyewear in Indianapolis, Prentiss handled all photography, art direction, and production management for a variety of brands and projects. He designed and built all aspects of the in-house video studio for “The Skinny with Rico and Ken” racing podcast, fully incorporating vMix 4K Production software, which Prentiss directed, switched, edited, and delivered.
Back in Tampa Bay, Prentiss will put this experience to work for RHS, as the CP subsidiary continues to build the line-up of productions being taped and streaming from its 5,600-square-foot St. Petersburg facility. With a culture of innovation, Prentiss will lead the local production team in providing custom glass-to-glass IP production and streaming solutions for every type of live event or recorded programming.
RHS studios offer everything a content creator needs to produce broadcast-quality programming for post-production editing or to immediately begin broadcasting or streaming to any website, social media platform, or URL. The RHS production complex features two 600-square-foot studio spaces and an adjacent control room with vMix 64 4K production switchers, and a Yamaha TF1 64-channel audio console with Dante interface.
Studio A houses a professional anchor desk with several monitors for custom branding, and Studio B offers a dynamic chromakey space for virtual packages. Both studio spaces include Panasonic AW-UE100KP 4K PTZ cameras, Sennheiser wireless talent microphones, and DMX lighting with Dracast studio lights.
In addition to studio operations, Prentiss will also manage field projects, utilizing RHS’ CamSTREAM system for remote/REMI productions and other cutting-edge mobile technology. Learn more at www.RedHouseStreaming.com.
