Donald Engelhardt
SALINAS, CALIF.
For more than 60 years, NBC affiliate KSBW has served the Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Cruz viewing areas. Our call letters, which stand for “Salad Bowl of the World,” are a nod to the rich agricultural heritage of the Salinas Valley, and we’re proud of the role our station has played in news and entertainment television for the region.
COVERS ALL THE BASES
As one of the first steps in our station-wide upgrade to digital operations, we recently launched a project to broadcast in Dolby 5.1 surround sound audio and to add embedded audio to our master control stream. A key component in this initiative is Wohler’s new AMP2-E16V modular audio/video processing monitor. It not only allows us to monitor and troubleshoot our surround sound component, but will also be part of the groundwork for a new digital routing infrastructure we’ll be implementing.
We chose the AMP2-E16V after a head-to-head comparison with another product at this year’s NAB Show. In addition to the Wohler’s robust metering and monitoring functionality (which includes support for Dolby-E and Dolby-D signals), we were impressed with the unit’s dual 4.3-inch OLED displays that will also give us important video monitoring capabilities down the road. The system’s integrated loudness metering and control will also be extremely important in our efforts to comply with the new CALM Act, as its loudness control module applies digital audio dynamics processing to normalize volume differences between program and commercial content.
With the ability to monitor up to 16 channels of embedded 3 Gbps HD/SD-SDI and AES audio, the AMP2-E16V clearly offers much more than an audio monitor with video—it’s a complete audio management system that will help us move forward with our plant conversion. Now we have a straightforward audio and video device that’s ideal for surround sound monitoring. However, we’re going to be relying on the system’s modular flexibility as we install a new routing system and rebuild for HD-SDI broadcasting. The AMP2-E16V will provide the main QC system for monitoring all audio that comes off the router as well as video monitoring capabilities, and its ability to display metadata in the stream will be a big plus.
The AMP2-E16V is the latest of many Wohler digital and analog monitors in use throughout our plant, and each of these has given us reliable and high-quality results.
LONG TIME USER
My experience with Wohler dates back to my time as chief engineer for the Orange County News Channel, where a Wohler audio monitor in that facility provided us with rock-solid service during the 11 years that I managed that facility. The service we’ve received from Wohler has always been first-rate, although I don’t recall a failure in any one of the systems I’ve used.
The new AMP2-E16V is exactly what we need to help ensure that our surround sound viewers receive the highest-possible audio reception, and the system’s modular design will help us take KSBW into the future as we evolve to embrace the latest digital, HD, and 3G standards.
Donald Engelhardt is director of engineering for KSBW, an NBC affiliate based in Salinas, Calif. and a member of the Hearst Television group. His career in television spans 30 years. He may be contacted atdengelhardt@hearst.com.
For additional information, contact Wohler at 510-870-0810 or visitwww.wohler.com.
