Kansas City Station Deploys Utah-400

KMBC/KCWE, a Hearst-Argyle station pair in Kansas City, Mo., has deployed a Utah-400 routing switcher from Utah Scientific, the Salt Lake City router vendor.

The router is installed in the core of the operation’s new 51,000-square-foot facility “southeast of the city proper,” Utah Scientific said. KMBC is the city’s ABC affiliate; KCWE, it’s CW affiliate. The combined news operation represents the first to go HD in the Kansas City market, No. 31 among the nation’s 210 DMAs.

Jerry Agresti, director of engineering for the station pair, said KMBC had been using a 17-year-old AVS-1 router from Utah Scientific, for which the company continued supply parts.

The stations broadcast a total of four channels, including three-and-a-half hours of KMBC’s locally produced news in HD each day and additional material for the Web. In addition to the Utah-400, three Utah MCP-400s master control panels were deployed, allowing a single button push to bypass master control automation.