Grass Valley Infinity Helps WFYI Produce Local HD Programming

PBS member station WFYI in Indianapolis recently acquired the Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorder (DMC), which it uses to produce several local programs (“Good As Gold” and “Natural Heritage of Indiana”) that it broadcasts on its HD channel along with the national PBS HD program feed.

Grass Valley Infinity DMC

Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Broadcasting Inc, licensee for WFYI, has been passing through national HD programming for the past five years, but was not doing any local HD origination until it purchased the Infinity DMC this year.

The Infinity DMC is used primarily in the field capturing both SD and HD images to produce several programs, such as one of the station’s most popular shows—“Across Indiana”—which highlights various towns in the state. Footage is acquired on Grass Valley REV PRO media, and then ingested into a Grass Valley EDIUS nonlinear editing system for HD editing.

“Our camera operators really enjoy the Infinity because it’s easy to use and produces fantastic pictures in both SD and HD,” said Nate Pass, chief engineer at WFYI. “I like it because it’s a very robust camera and stands up to daily production very well. I have not had a single maintenance issue with the Infinity since we began using it.”

WFYI moved into its new, all-digital headquarters in downtown Indianapolis in the fall of 2008 and is now broadcasting four digital channels—with one in the 1080i HD format.