This week Snell & Wilcox said New Delhi TV, a privately owned Indian news and current affairs channel, has agreed to purchase six 4-M/E Kahuna SD/HD multi-format production switchers to support the broadcaster’s new Metro Nation and others news channels serving five metropolitan regions in the world’s second-most populous nation.

NDTV has already been using some Snell & Wilcox switchers, image processing, and infrastructure (IQ Modular) gear at its New Delhi studios facilities, according to NDTV. The six new Kahuna switchers will begin their deployment in SD-only mode. Each switcher’s enables multi-format SD/HD use will afford NDTV some future flexibility in gradually combining the two formats, while eventually lean more heavily towards HD output down the road.

Snell & Wilcox said the Kahuna switcher is the first to integrate SD-HD inputs on the same control panel and within the same mainframe—in effect, making all SD and HD sources interchangeable, said the Havant, England-based firm.