Five Viacom Miami Area Stations Integrate with Pesa Router

Analog and digital A/V equipment provider Pesa announced that WFOR-TV (CBS) in Miami has installed the company's Cheetah digital routing switcher to facilitate SD-HD broadcasting and to integrate production and playout workflows for WFOR and four other South Florida Viacom channels--WBFS, WTVX, WTCN and WWHB--from a single facility.

Viacom's Miami duopoly (WFOR and WBFS) was formed in 2001 and has been operating from the WFOR facility for four years. Operations for WTVX were brought into the facility four years ago, as well, allowing station engineers to consolidate production and playout duties in a digital broadcast environment with HD capability.

A digital routing switcher that can accommodate both SDI and HD (and non-standard DTV) in the same frame, the Cheetah is a hybrid SD/HD system in a 512 x 512 frame, featuring 256 x 192 SD and 128 x 128 HD/SD multi-rate modules. It is controlled by Pesa's 3500PRO series system controller, which provides a Windows-based user interface to the company's routing switcher control products.