ARLINGTON, Va.—WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia community. In addition to offering free on-demand PBS programming and live channels, WETA+ showcases films and series acquired specifically for local audiences and highlights programming that celebrates the neighborhoods and culture of the region.

WETA+ was developed as part of the Local Public initiative, a collaboration with public media stations across the country. Local Public, spearheaded by Cascade PBS, is a new initiative aimed at developing affordable and locally focused streaming apps for PBS licensees.

“Throughout our history, WETA has been a pioneer in public broadcasting, with a strong commitment to educating and inspiring our community,” said Miguel Monteverde, senior vice president and general manager, WETA Greater Washington. “WETA+ is an ambitious new step in the contemporary age of broadcasting and television, expanding access to high-quality public media programs in a user-friendly streaming experience that is built with our local audience in mind.”

How to Get WETA+
On televisions, WETA+ is available on Roku devices and TVs, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Google TV, Samsung and LG TVs.

On mobile devices, WETA+ is available through the Apple/iOS store and the Google Play/Android store.

WETA+ users can access an extensive library of noteworthy WETA and PBS programming entirely on-demand. This includes popular selections such as “All Creatures Great and Small,” “Nature,” “NOVA” and “Antiques Roadshow”; history documentaries by Ken Burns and series from Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr; and premier news and public affairs offerings including “PBS NewsHour” and “Washington Week With The Atlantic.”

The service features access to films and series produced and acquired specifically for the D.C.-area market, including popular, locally produced favorites “Signature Dish,” “If You Lived Here,” “WETA Arts” and “Get Out of Town,” along with films such as the Emmy-winning documentary “Feast Your Ears: The Story of WHFS 102.3 FM,” short films curated by the renowned DC/DOX film festival, and special programming from NASA and The Atlantic.

WETA+ also offers more than 50 locally curated “collections,” through which viewers can browse hand-picked programs by genre, highlighting everything from drama and mystery to D.C. goings-on and must-watch documentaries. Collections are created by WETA programming staff and reflect the viewing preferences of D.C.-area viewers. Examples include “Classic Movies,” “Trending in the DMV,” and “12 Series That Will Make You Smarter.”

Free Live TV
Using the “Live” option in WETA+, residents of the D.C. metro area can watch — free, anytime, anywhere — live TV versions of WETA channels:

• WETA PBS, the flagship channel that features the best of PBS programs, along with Local Mondays, Thriller Thursdays, and American History Nights on Saturdays.
• WETA UK., devoted to 24/7 British programming including BBC News and Masterpiece, with weekly Foreign Favorites.
• WETA Metro, offering PBS programs with a focus on documentaries and current and local affairs for D.C.-area residents.
• WETA World, showcasing an extensive lineup of nonfiction programs celebrating an array of voices and cultures.
• WETA PBS Kids, offering 24/7 access to acclaimed educational television programs for young people, including “Sesame Street,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Molly of Denali” and new series “Carl the Collector.”

Two Levels of Access
WETA+ is free to download and install on most televisions, streaming, and mobile devices. In addition to the five channels available to live stream, for free, in the D.C. area, hundreds of free programs are available on-demand. WETA+ with PBS Passport expands viewers’ options. With a contribution of $5 per month or $60 per year, WETA+ donors/members have access to an expanded list of benefits:

• Early and binge access to popular series like “Masterpiece.”
• Live streaming of WETA channels anywhere in the United States.
• A huge library of additional programs.

AUSTIN, Texas—Systems integrator BeckTV has completed technical design, facility planning, and integration for the "PBS News Hour" studios and production facility at WETA, the flagship public media station for Washington DC. The goal of the project, the company said, was “to create a modern, flexible, and scalable production facility” that could support the needs of "PBS News Hour," "Washington Week with The Atlantic," and other shows. The new control rooms and studio launched on June 10.

"PBS News Hour," public television's marquee news program, is a national nightly news show that has been broadcasting for nearly 50 years. The show moved from its old studios in an aging production building to a newly expanded part of the WETA headquarters and technical facilities a few blocks away.

"WETA started working with BeckTV six years ago to build a budget plan and a high-level review of technology options," said Vince Forcier, Senior Director of Engineering at WETA. "Their proposal stood out because, in every element of their response, we could tell they were listening and understood what we were trying to achieve. They continued to work with us through the design and construction process, ensuring that the facility met our technical and operational needs. From equipment evaluation and selection to facility design and final launch, working with BeckTV has been a great experience. This is our first full facility refresh in 17 years, and BeckTV was instrumental in making it such a success."

WETA hired BeckTV to build two control rooms, two audio control rooms, a comms position, a transmission room, a shading and robo room, four tape playback rooms, and 15 edit rooms, among other spaces—all on a SMPTE ST 2110 backbone to enable IP networking. BeckTV planned for all technical aspects of the space, including technical furniture, power, cooling, circuitry, cabling, wiring and RF for all the studio sets, and more.

The two control rooms are identically loaded with redundant resources for resiliency. WETA operations typically uses one control room to run the weekly show out of Studio A, the main studio for "PBS News Hour." The second control room is typically used to produce another nationally televised show, "Washington Week," as well as the weekend "PBS News Hour" and other miscellaneous productions. BeckTV designed the control rooms to be redundant and interchangeable for any production at any moment. In the event of equipment failure, all or parts of the operations can move to the other room immediately and leverage its resources to continue seamlessly, even in the middle of a live show. BeckTV also made sure that the fiber infrastructure was designed for a redundant SMPTE ST 2022-7 blue/red network switch if WETA decides to implement it.

At the core of the facility is Grass Valley's GV Orbit orchestration system. Grass Valley also provided multiple cameras, two production switchers, multiviewers, gateways, and an audio router. Other major components include Lawo audio mixers, RTS intercoms, G&D KVM systems, EVS tape playback systems, Jetwave Wireless RF distribution equipment, Cisco network switches for management and Nexus 9504 media fabric, Vinten robotic camera shading, and Providius network monitoring.

Because everything is network-connected and interoperable, all audio, video, and metadata are available on the network switches, ready to be sent to tens of thousands of multicast addresses in an endless combination of video workflows. Working with such a robust system requires a good strategy so that things don't become disorganized and overwhelming, especially for broadcast engineers who aren't familiar with SMPTE ST 2110 networks, BeckTV said, adding that it planned every flow before it got to the configuration stage and then trained the WETA production staff so they could support the system after BeckTV's involvement ended.

"An ST 2110 system is scalable in ways that an SDI system would not be. As the productions change and grow, WETA technicians have the flexibility to take audio and video from any source and send it anywhere very easily. This beautiful and robust technical facility will serve the popular 'PBS News Hour' show well for many years to come," said Brendan Cline, Managing Partner and Vice President of Engineering at BeckTV. "Special credit goes to BeckTV VP and senior engineer Paul Kast, who was the on-site project engineer throughout the whole build."

ARLINGTON, Va.—PBS News Hour will rebrand as PBS News across its digital and social platforms, while retaining the PBS News Hour name for its Monday through Friday nightly broadcast.

The move coincides with the opening of its new studios in Arlington on on Monday, June 10. WETA, the flagship public media station in the nation’s capital, recently completed a $58 million expansion project of its Arlington headquarters, including the creation of new studios and editorial offices for PBS News. 

The rebrand is a continuation of efforts first launched in 2023 when the Saturday and Sunday broadcast moved production from WNET in New York to News Hour Productions (NHP), a WETA subsidiary, and rebranded as PBS News Weekend, now anchored by John Yang.

Senior executive producer of PBS News Hour and WETA senior vice president Sara Just said that the digital and social rebrand will occur on Monday, June 17. 

“The PBS News Hour, our nightly broadcast co-anchored by Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett, remains the flagship of our newsroom as we approach nearly 50 years on the air,” said Just. “Today, all of us consume news across multiple platforms. Audiences encounter our journalism on social media feeds, in news feeds, in live streaming, in primetime specials and breaking news events. Our adjustments to our branding makes it clear that you can rely on PBS News journalism for reliable, trustworthy insight into the events and stories that shape our world and our lives, wherever they encounter it.”

PBS News Hour continues to reach more people and expand its offerings across a variety of platforms. The rebrand is designed to better position the legacy media organization for audiences outside of the traditional one hour broadcast and to create greater visual alignment across broadcast, digital, and social, the news operation said. 

The brand’s owned and operated digital and social platforms will implement new PBS News branding starting June 17 with additional updates to social handles and URLs in the coming weeks. Since 2019, average website users are up 44%, at nearly 7.5 million, while average monthly YouTube video views are up 27% at 33 million.

Since its inception in 1975 (then as The Robert MacNeil Report), PBS News Hour has been produced out of a large studio in WETA’s aging production center, located a few blocks away from its Arlington headquarters. The new studio, designed by Eric Siegel and George Allison with lighting design by Dennis Size, will also be used by PBS News Weekend and Washington Week with The Atlantic, and will allow for PBS News special programming to be more easily incorporated into the same space. 

The graphic redesign was led by PBS News creative director for broadcast Kojo Boateng including the logo redesign in partnership with Lippincott and the broadcast opening titles designed in partnership with Adolescent, Inc.

ARLINGTON, VA.—Public broadcaster WETA recently moved production of its “PBS NewsHour” program into a new studio. To manage the studio’s RF equipment, with the help of JetWave Wireless, WETA selected Wisycom devices to help create a wireless audio setup.

MAT288

Wisycom’s MAT288 Programmable RF Combiner and LBN1-LNN1 Wideband UHF Antennas were installed to meet this goal. According to Tom Satterfield, WETA’s audio supervisor, the MAT288 can turn zones on and off on all of the show’s mics and IFBS.

Wisycom develops RF technology for broadcast, film and live production. The company is located in Italy.