SOUTHWICK, Mass.—Hitachi Kokusai has announced it has completed one of the first deliveries of its new SK-UHD7000-S2 broadcast cameras to Maryland Public Television. The cameras were delivered through Digital Video Group, a longtime Hitachi Kokusai partner based in Ashland, Virginia and are part of the public broadcaster’s recent turnkey production studio upgrade at its Owings Mills headquarters northwest of Baltimore.

Introduced at the NAB 2023 Show in April, the SK-UHD7000-S2 leverages Hitachi Kokusai’s latest HD and 4K camera technology, with 12G 4K acquisition unlocked upon purchasing a 4K camera license upgrade. 

Maryland Public Television will use only the camera’s HD content acquisition capabilities until further notice, though its 4K performance and quality were among the customer’s key deciding factors, the company said. 

“The combination of technologies acquired for the new studio, including a larger green screen and modernized lighting grids, provide the customer with a genuine path to 4K production,” said Ed Jose, account manager for Digital Video Group. “The combination of SK-UHD7000-S2’s performance and price point stood apart from other HD/4K cameras evaluated, while its superior HD characteristics help the customer capitalize on producing higher quality content within their new, much larger studio space.”

Jose adds that the new space will also accommodate a larger studio audience, which along with the new technology will energize live and pre-recorded productions captured in the studio for broadcast purposes. He also explained that the SK-UHD7000-S2 camera’s seamless integration with Ross Dashboard for control and monitoring represents another important benefit for the customer.

The SK-UHD7000-S2 delivers spectacular depth of modulation, lifelike images, exceptional visual quality, and superior price/performance for live performance applications while providing signal to noise ratio surpassing -62dB on every output, Hitachi said. 

Its quiet streamlined one-piece camera body design has a low center of gravity for ease of use on the shoulder, and high efficiency cooling system for comfortable operation, the company said. 

The SK-UHD7000-S2 camera’s upgrade license will also integrate new 4K technologies that Hitachi Kokusai develops moving forward, ensuring that customers like Maryland Public Television always receive the latest benefits and features upon upgrading. 

“Along with a lower initial price point for future 4K users, the SK-UHD7000-S2 will provide customers like Maryland Public Television with greater creative freedom with lighting, exposure, color control and more inside modern studio spaces,” said Kenneth Cyr, national sales manager, Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. “The SK-UHD7000-S2 offers the advanced controls and dual workflow capacity to take control of challenging shooting situations and venue conditions.”

NORTHRIDGE, CA.--Maryland Public Television recently installed a large-scale DNF Controls Tally Manager system as part of a major facility upgrade orchestrated by system integrator Digital Video Group.

DVG upgraded MPT’s main production control room with a 4 M/E Grass Valley Karerra switcher and Kaleido multiviewer system, plus a Utah Scientific 528x528 hybrid router, according to Joe Davenport, Digital Video Group’s vice president of engineering.

“Maryland Public Television generates hours of live and recorded local content each week, plus programming for PBS, so the entire project – from installation and testing to commissioning and training – was on a tight, two-week schedule, with DNF’s Tally Manager system a key interface between the Grass and Utah elements. Adding to the challenge, the room transitioned from CRTs with under-monitor displays to state-of-the-art multi-viewers, so the new tally control had to display multiple levels of four ME switcher status and exceed their old system’s functionality.”

DNF’s Tally Manager Control System is easy to set up, use and maintain, according to the company. Its modular architecture and web-based configuration tools optimize efficiency and permit individual device changes without impacting the whole operation. It can send tallies to a remote truck, between rooms within a facility, across town, or anywhere in the world with IP connectivity.

SOUTHWICK, MA.—Maryland Public Television has ordered a Comark 75kW Parallax UHF transmitter for its WMPT site serving central Maryland, Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark said last week.

“Comark worked with the management of Maryland Public Television to provide a complete solution for their repack requirements,” said company President and CEO Dick Fiore.

The transmitter consistS of three rack cabinets. Each has 16 UHF Asymmetric Broadband Doherty power amps providing up to 75kW TPO. The liquid-cooled transmitter will be equipped with dual Exact-V2 exciters in a main-standby configuration and an RF mask filter system inclusive of Magic Tees combining each cabinet, the company said.

[Read: Meredith Preps For Repack With Comark Parallax Transmitters]

Comark will manage shipment, offloading and placement of the new transmitter as well as remove the station’s existing DTV transmitter.

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.

SALT LAKE CITY—As Maryland Public Television has begun its transition to IP operations with a facility upgrade, one of the products it chose to help make up its new infrastructure is the Utah Scientific UTAH-400 Series 2 hybrid router.

The UTAH-400 system replaces the broadcaster’s two legacy routers that it utilized. With the UTAH-400, Maryland Public Television can continue to operate in its existing SDI environments while gradually transitioning to IP operations. The router is also expected to assist with a future transition to 4K and possibly 8K resolution.

Digital Video Group handled the design and integration of the new router. 

Maryland Public Television is a PBS affiliate that serves Maryland, D.C., and parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.