As I had hoped to do, I’m sharing a few more pictures of some of the work which was being done in the studio in order for us to be ready for our first high definition news broadcast. This, as I mentioned in a previous blog, included lighting, installing railings to add more depth to the set, and extending and adding a monitor to the anchor desk.

Finally, I want to thank you very much for reading my blog during the last several months. I hope that you’ve enjoyed it and feel that you’ve received the information that you had hoped to receive from it. Take care, and thank you for your interest in WRTV and for your viewer loyalty. We really do appreciate it!   Happy viewing!!!!

Of course, after the decision of WHAT to air has been determined, we need to promote these shows to inform viewers like you of what WRTV has to offer!  For example, each day the syndicated shows send the same set of promos to every station in the country which will be airing their show for that particular day.  Each station will then air some of these promos but not before “tagging” them with their own announcer and graphics; but in the case of newscasts and specials that we air, no outside source supplies us with any promos so we have to completely produce them ourselves, and it’s the responsibility of our promotion photographer/editors to accomplish this.

With our transition from analog to digital, nothing I’ve discussed so far will change, but because beginning this fall all of our newscasts will be in high definition, all of our news opens will need to be reproduced. Because we have so many shows and so many anchors, this will be a rather large undertaking by the promotion department. It’s not only the promotion department that will be busy shooting and editing these opens for the next several weeks, but our graphics department will be busy as well creating new graphics for these opens. Not only will the opens require new graphics, but ALL of our graphics will need to be reproduced for high definition and to fit the new 16×9 format. If you’re at all familiar with any of our newscasts, you’re aware that there are a lot of new graphics to be made!!!!

Below are pictures of the recent shoot in the studio by our promotion department for what will become our news opens this fall. These opens took over a week to shoot and are now in the process of being edited.  You’ll witness the results of this work in October so please stay tuned…

Before 2001, a MINIMUM of thirteen people working simultaneously was needed to get a newscast on the air, and after 2001, a MAXIMUM of five people was needed. (This number excludes news editors/photographers and on-air talent.) Back then, to do a live newscast required a prompter operator, a floor director, three studio camera operators, two tape operators, one technical director, one audio technician, one director, one producer, one graphics artist, and an ENG coordinator.

In 2001 WRTV purchased a computerized system called Parkervision. Parkervision was able to eliminate several positions and still enable us to put a quality show on the air.  We now only needed a prompter operator, a director, a producer, one camera operator, and an ENG coordinator working simultaneously to do a newscast. More and more stations throughout the country are moving or have moved in this direction.

The purpose for giving you a little of this history is because we will be replacing our Parkervision system with a new system called Ignite. Ignite is our digital replacement for Parkervision. While our Ignite system is being installed, we will still be on the air with Parkervision in our current control room. Since the room in which the directors program and prepare for their shows (the Parkervision Prep room) will become the new Ignite control room, they had to be relocated to another area of the building. As you can imagine, it will be a busy time here at WRTV between now and February 2009!!

You’ve seen in the media center how the racks appear once they’re complete with equipment, but we still have MANY more racks and equipment to install for our upcoming projects. Below are a couple of pictures and descriptions of the latest rack/equipment installation process.

I’ll be on vacation next week so hopefully, upon my return, I’ll have several new pictures to take to share with you.

Our next step was to install all new equipment in what we call our “Media Center”. (This room was formerly referred to as the “Tape Room”, but due to computers and the near obsolescence of tape machines, we’ve changed the name of that room!)

Once the transmitter and media center equipment was installed, we were then able to broadcast what limited high definition programming was available from ABC. By February of 2009 not only will network programming be received in high definition, but so will local programming.

This conversion from analog to digital is an enormous undertaking by all stations in both manpower and expense. It’s difficult to put into words and pictures the magnitude of this transition, but during the next several months, we will do our best to keep you informed of this changeover as we engage in this process. Below are a few pictures of some of the work done so far.